The Doctor was very fond of lecturing the boys on the beneficial
qualities of water.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I pass no stern edicts or objections to the use
of beer, and for those who like to drink it there is the ale of my
table, which is of a nature that will do harm to no one"--which was
perfectly true--"but I maintain that water--good, pure, clear, bright,
sparkling spring water--is the natural drink of man. And being the
natural drink of man, ergo--or, as our great national poet Shakespeare
puts the word in the mouth of one of his clowns, _argal_--it is the
natural drink of boys."
As he spoke, the Doctor poured out from a ground-glass decanter-like
bottle a tumblerful of clear cold water, which he treated as if it were
beer, making it bubble and foam for a moment before it subsided in the
glass.
The Doctor said good, pure, sparkling water, and the supply of the
school possessed these qualities, for it came from a deep draw-well that
went right down, cased in brick, for about forty feet, while for sixty
feet more it was cut through the solid stone.
The Doctor was very particular about this well, which was furnished with
a mechanical arrangement of winch and barrel, which sent down one big,
heavy bucket as the winder worked and brought up another full; and it
was Wrench's special task to draw the drinking-water from this well for
the whole of the school, that used for domestic purposes coming from two
different sources--one an ordinary well, and the other a gigantic
soft-water tank.
One morning early, after Singh and Glyn descended from their dormitory,
and were strolling down towards the Doctor's neatly-kept garden by a way
which led them past the well-house, they stopped to listen to a clear
musical pipe that was accompanied by the creaking of a wheel and the
splash of water.
The pipe proved to be only Wrench the footman's whistle, and its effect
was that of a well-played piccolo flute, as it kept on giving the boys
the benefit of a popular air with variations, which stopped suddenly as
the big full bucket reached the surface and was drawn sideways on to a
ledge by the man, while a hollow musical dripping and tinkling went on
as a portion of the superfluous water fell splashing back into the
depths.
As Wrench uttered a grunt and proceeded to fill the water-can he had
brought and a couple of jugs, he turned slightly and saw that the shadow
cast into the cool, moist-smelling interior was that of the two boys.
"Morning, gentlemen," he said. "What do you think of this for weather?"
"Lovely," cried Glyn. "Why, Wrench, you beat the blackbirds."
"Oh, nonsense, sir! I have often tried; but I can't get their nice
soft, sweet notes."
"No; but your whistle is of a different kind.--It's beautiful; isn't it,
Singh?"
"Yes; it's just like those minas that we have got at home.--Give me a
glass of water."
"Haven't got a glass, sir, only a mug. Here, I'll run and fetch you
one."
"No, no," cried Singh, and taking up the mug he held it to be filled and
then drank heartily, Glyn following his example.
"Beautiful clear water, young gentlemen, isn't it?" said the man. "The
Doctor says it will make you strong, and there's iron enough in it to do
any man good. I should like to have a well like that in my place when I
start for myself. I should put out bills about it and call it mineral
water, same as the Doctor says this is."
"How deep is the well really?"
"Just a hundred foot, sir."
"How do you know? You haven't measured it."
"Well, I measured the rope, sir. When the Doctor bought a new one for
it, just a year ago, he let me fit it on instead of getting the
workpeople in. That cost nothing, and the men would have made a regular
job of it."
"But I meant the water. How deep is the water itself?"
"Oh, the water, sir. That gets to be about twenty or thirty feet in the
winter-time; but in the summer it gets very low--in the dry time, you
know. I don't suppose there's above six or eight feet in now."
"But I say," cried Glyn, "set up for yourself? Why, you're not going to
start a school?"
"School, sir?" said the man, laughing. "'Tain't likely! No, sir; me
and somebody--never you mind who--is going to be married one of these
days, when we have saved up enough, and we are going to take a house at
the seaside and let lodgings to visitors who come down for their health.
Why, a well of water like that would be the making of us."
"Oh!" cried Glyn, with his eyes twinkling. "You with your somebody and
your never mind who! Why, I have found you out, Wrenchy. I know who
the lady is."
"Lady she is, sir," said the man sharply, "and right you are, though
she's only poor and belongs to my station of life. But, begging your
pardon, with all your Latin and Greek and study, you haven't found that
out."
"That I have," cried Glyn. "It's the cook."
The man turned scarlet and stood gazing at the boy with his mouth a
little way open.
"Why, who telled you, sir?" he stammered at last.
"She did," said Glyn quietly.
"What! My Emily told you that?" cried the man. "In them same words?"
"No; she never spoke to me in my life," replied Glyn. "Singh and I were
going down the garden one day, down one path, and she'd been to get some
parsley, while you were carrying in one of the garden chairs, and she
looked at you. That was enough, and we two laughed about it afterwards.
So you see we know."
"Well, I always did say as you was two sharp uns, sir," said the man.
And then confidentially, "Yes, sir, that's right. We have been thinking
about it for the last five years, and we'd like it to come off at any
time. For, you see, it's just the same with us, sir, as it is with rich
people--I mean, well-to-do people. It don't do to get married until you
see your way."
"Till you can see your way?" said Singh, frowning. "What does he mean
by that?"
"Oh, I'll soon tell you, sir. Money enough to make a fair start.
There's plenty of hard work to do here with the Doctor and such a large
family of you young gentlemen as he's got; but he's a very good master,
kind-hearted and just, and if any of us is unwell there's everything he
could want, and plenty of rest. And one don't like to give up a
comfortable home and start one that's worse. It's money that's in the
way, sir. We have both been saving ever since we were engaged; but it
takes a long time to make your saving much when you can only put away a
few pounds apiece every year."
"Oh, well, look here," cried Glyn; "if you'll promise not to get married
while we are here at the school, I'll give you--let's see, what shall I
say?--five pounds. I dare say father will give it to me.--Now, Singh,
what will you do?"
"Just the same," replied Singh.
"Thank you, gentlemen," cried Wrench. "Come, I call that handsome; but
you know," he added laughingly, "I shouldn't like to make any promises,
for I don't know what a certain lady would say. Thank you all the same,
both of you. You've both been very pleasant gentlemen and very nice
ever since you have been here. You neither of you ever called me a lazy
beast and shied your boots at me because they wasn't black enough, or
called me a fool for not making your water hotter so as you could
shave."
"Why, who did then?" cried Glyn.
"Oh, I am not going to tell tales, gentlemen. Some young gents are born
with tempers and some ain't, while there are some again that come here
as nice and amiable as can be, after a year or two get old and sour and
ready to quarrel with everything. I don't know; but I think sometimes
it's them Greek classics, as they call them. You see, it's such
unchristian-like looking stuff. I have looked at them sometimes in the
Doctor's study. Such heathen-looking letters; not a bit like a decent
alphabet. But there, I must be off, gentlemen. I have all my work
waiting, and I am going away--only think of it!--ten pounds richer than
when I first began to turn that there handle this morning, if--if I stop
here--I mean, if we stop here till you young gents have done schooling."
Wrench finished filling his cans of water and stooped to pick them up,
but set them down again, to look at them both thoughtfully.
"My word, gentlemen, you would both begin to wonder at the times and
times I have laid awake of a night trying to hit a bright--I mean, think
of some idea by which I could make a lot of money all at once: find some
buried in a garden, or bring up a bag of gold in the bottom of one of
those two water-buckets, or have somebody leave me a lot, or pick it up
in the street and find afterwards it belonged to nobody. I wouldn't
care how I got it."
"So long as it was honest, Wrenchy?" said Glyn, laughing.
"Oh, of course, sir--of course. You see, a man's got a character to
lose, and when a man loses his character I suppose it's very hard to
find it again; so I have been told. But I never lost mine. But I do
want to get hold of a nice handy lump of money somehow, and when I do,
and if I do--"
"Well, what would you do then?" cried Singh.
"Well, sir, I shouldn't stop here till you two gents had done
schooling."
Then, picking up his two water-cans once more, the Doctor's footman
trudged off towards the house.
"That must have been old Slegge who threw his boots at him," said Singh
thoughtfully. "What a disagreeable fellow he is!"
"Yes," said Glyn. "I wish I had been there to stop it. He's been
knocking some of the little fellows about shamefully because he says
that they have hidden his bat."
"You wish you had been there?" said Singh. "Why, I thought you said
that you wouldn't fight any more."
"To be sure; so I did. Well, then, I don't wish I had been there. But
I say," continued Glyn, laughing merrily, "what a lot of Greek he must
know!"
"But he doesn't," cried Singh. "He doesn't know much more than I do,
for he came to me to help him with something the other day."
"Well, then, as Wrenchy says, how what he does know must have disagreed
with him!"
"Yes," said Singh thoughtfully, as he laid his hand on his companion's
shoulder and they strolled down the garden together, waiting for the
breakfast-bell to ring. "Poor old fellow! Poor old fellow! Poor old
fellow!"
"Well, you are a queer chap, Singh! You say you want to be thoroughly
English, and you talk like that."
"Well, I do want to be English," cried Singh, "and I try very hard to do
as you do, because I know what guardian says is right."
"Well, you never heard me pity Slegge and call him poor old fellow."
"I didn't. I meant poor Wrenchy, who wants money so badly. It must be
very queer to want money very badly and not be able to get it."
"I suppose so," replied Glyn. "I seem to have always had enough, while
as for you, you're as rich as rich; quite a king you'll be some day,
with servants and a little army, and everything you want. I say, what
do you mean to do with all your money?"
"I don't know," said Singh, laughing, and then knitting his brows, "but
I should like to give Wrench some. He's such a good, hard-working
fellow, and always does everything you tell him with such a pleasant
smile. I wonder how he will get all he wants. Do you think he will
find it some day in a garden or in the street?"
"Or have a big lump of it tumble out of the moon, or find that it's been
raining gold all over the Doctor's lawn some morning when he gets up?
No, I don't--not a bit; and there goes the breakfast-bell, so come
along."