"I say," said Dexter, a few days later, as he followed Helen into the
drawing-room. "What have I been doing now!"
"I hope nothing fresh, Dexter. Have you been in mischief!"
"I don't know," he said; "only I've been in the study, and there's a
tall gent."
"Say gentleman, Dexter."
"Tall gentleman with a white handkerchief round his neck, and he has
been asking me questions, and every time I answered him he sighed, and
said, `Dear me!'"
"Indeed!" said Helen, smiling. "What did he ask you?"
"If I knew Euclid; and when I said I didn't know him, he said, `Oh dear
me!' Then he asked me if I knew Algebra, and I said I didn't, and he
shook his head at me and said, `Dear me! dear me!' and that he would
have to pull me up. I say, what have I done to be pulled up!"
"Don't you know that Euclid wrote a work on Geometry, and that Algebra
is a study by which calculations are made!"
"No," said Dexter eagerly. "I thought they were two people. Then why
did he say he would have to pull me up?"
"He meant that you were very much behind with, your studies, and that he
would have to teach you and bring you forward."
"Oh, I see! And is he going to teach me?"
"Yes, Mr Limpney is your private tutor now; and he is coming every day,
so I hope you will be very industrious, and try hard to learn."
"Oh yes, I'll try. Mr Limpney; I don't think he much liked me,
though."
"Nonsense, Dexter; you should not think such things."
"All right. I won't then. It will be like going to school again, won't
it?"
"Much pleasanter, I hope."
Time glided rapidly on after its usual fashion, and Dexter grew fast.
There was a long range of old stabling at the doctor's house, with
extensive lofts. The first part was partitioned off for a coachman's
room, but this had not been in use for half a century, and the whole
place was ruinous and decayed. Once upon a time some one with a love of
horses must have lived there, for there were stalls for eight, and a
coach-house as well, but the doctor only kept two horses, and they
occupied a new stable built in front of the old.
The back part was one of Dexter's favourite hunting-grounds. Here he
could be quite alone, and do pretty well as he liked. Peter the groom
never noticed his goings-out and comings-in, and there was no one to
find fault with him for being untidy.
Here then he had quite a little menagerie of his own. His pocket-money,
as supplied by the doctor, afforded him means for buying any little
thing he fancied, and hence he had in one of the lofts a couple of very
ancient pigeons, which the man of whom he bought them declared to be
extremely young; a thrush in a cage; two hedge-sparrows, which were
supposed to be linnets, in another; two mice in an old cigar-box lined
with tin; and a very attenuated rat, which had been caught by Peter in a
trap, and which was allowed to live _minus_ one foreleg that had been
cut short off close to the shoulder, but over which the skin had grown.
No one interfered with Dexter's pets, and in fact the old range of
stabling was rarely visited, even by the gardeners, so that the place
became not only the boy's favourite resort in his loneliness, but, so to
speak, his little kingdom where he reigned over his pets.
There was plenty of room, especially in the lofts with their cross-beams
and ties; and here, with his pets, as the only spectators, Dexter used
to go daily to get rid of the vitality which often battled for exit in
the confinement of the house. Half an hour here of the performance of
so many natural gymnastic tricks seemed to tame him down--these tricks
being much of a kind popular amongst caged monkeys, who often, for no
apparent object, spring about and hang by hands or feet, often by their
tail.
But he had one piece of enjoyment that would have driven a monkey mad
with envy. He had discovered among the lumber a very large
old-fashioned bottle-jack, and after hanging this from a hook and
winding it up, one of his greatest pleasures was to hang from that jack,
and roast till he grew giddy, when he varied the enjoyment by buckling
on a strap, attaching himself with a hook from the waist, and then going
through either a flying or swimming movement as he spun slowly round.
Then he had a rope-trick or two contrived by means of a long piece of
knotted together clothes-line, doubled, and hung from the rafters to
form a swing or trapeze.
Dexter had paid his customary morning visit to his pets, and carefully
fed them according to his wont; his plan, a very regular one among boys,
being to give them twice as much as was good for them one day, and a
starving the next--a mode said to be good with pigs, and productive of
streaky bacon, but bad for domestic pets. Then he had returned to the
house to go through his lessons, and sent long-suffering Mr Limpney,
BA, almost into despair by the little progress he had made, after which
he had gone down the garden with the expectation of meeting Dan'l at
some corner, but instead had come upon Peter, busy as usual with his
broom.
"Yer needn't look," said the latter worthy; "he's gone out."
"What! Dan'l has?"
"Yes; gone to see a friend who's a gardener over at Champney Ryle, to
buy some seeds."
It was like the announcement of a holiday, and leaving the groom making
the usual long stretches with his broom, Dexter went on aimlessly to the
river-side, where, for the first time for many months, he found Bob
Dimsted fishing.
"Hullo, old un!" was the latter's greeting, "how are you!"
Dexter gave the required information, and hesitated for a few moments,
something in the way of a collection of Helen's warnings coming vaguely
to his hand; but the volunteered information of the boy on the other
side of the river, that he had got some "glorious red wums," and that
the fish were well on the feed, drove everything else away, and in a few
minutes Dexter was sitting upon the crown of a willow pollard, ten feet
out over the river, that much nearer to the fisher, and in earnest
conversation with him as he watched his float.
Once more the memory of words that had been spoken to him came to
Dexter, but the bobbing of the float, and the excitement of capturing a
fish, drove the thoughts away--the fascination of the fishing, and the
pleasant excitement of meeting a companion of near his own age, cut off,
as he was, from the society of boys, being too much for him; and he was
soon eagerly listening, and replying to all that was said.
"Ever go fishing in a boat?" said Bob, after a time.
"No."
"Ah! you should go in a boat," said Bob. "You sit down comfortable,
with your feet all dry, and you can float over all the deep holes and
best places in the river, and catch all the big fish. It's lovely!"
"Did you ever fish out of a boat?" asked Dexter.
"Did I ever fish out of a boat? Ha! ha! ha! Lots of times. I'm going
to get a boat some day, and have a saucepan and kettle and plate and
spoon, and take my fishing-tackle, and then I shall get a gun or a
pistol, and go off down the river."
"What for!"
"What for? Why, to live like that, catching fish, and shooting wild
ducks and geese, and cooking 'em, and eating 'em. Then you have a
'paulin and spread it over the boat of a night, and sleep under it--and
there you are!"
Dexter looked at the adventurous being before him in wonder, while he
fished on and talked.
"I should make myself a sail, too, and then I shouldn't have to row so
much; and then I could go right on down to the end of the river, and
sail away to foreign countries, and shoot all kinds of wonderful things.
And then you could land sometimes and kill snakes, and make yourself a
hut to live in, and do just as you liked. Ah, that is a fine life!"
"Yes," said Dexter, whose eager young mind rapidly painted an
illustration to everything his companion described.
"A man I know has been to sea, and he says sometimes you come to places
where there's nothing but mackerel, and you can almost ladle 'em out
with your hands. I should boil 'em over a fire. They are good then."
Dexter's eyes grew more round.
"Then out at sea you have long lines, and you catch big cod-fish, and
soles almost as big as the boat."
"And are you going to have a boat?"
"To be sure I am. I get tired of always coming out to catch little
roach and dace and eels. I mean to go soon."
Dexter sighed.
"That man says when you go far enough away, you come to islands where
the cocoa-nuts grow; and then, all you've got to do is go ashore and
pull your boat up on the sands, and when you are hungry you climb a tree
and get a cocoa-nut; and every one has got enough meat and drink in it
for a meal."
"Do you?"
"Yerrrs! That you do. That's the sort of place to go and live at. I'm
tired o' Coleby."
"Why don't you go and live there, then!" said Dexter.
"I'm going to, some day. It's no use to be in too much of a hurry; I
want to save a little money first, and get some more tackle. You see,
you want big hooks for big fish, and some long lines. Then you must
have a boat."
The idea of the unknown countries made Dexter thrill, and he listened
eagerly as the boy went on prosing away while he fished, taking out his
line from time to time, and dropping the bait in likely places.
"Haven't made up my mind what boat I shall have yet, only it must be a
good one."
"Yes," said Dexter; "you'd want a good big boat."
"Not such a very big un," said Bob. "I should want a nice un with
cushions, because you'd have to sit in it so long."
"And sleep in it too?"
"Oh yes; you'd have to sleep in it."
"Should you light the fire, and cook in it!" said Dexter innocently.
"Yah! No, o' course not. You'd go ashore every time you wanted to
cook, and light a fire there with a burnin'-glass."
"But suppose the sun didn't shine!"
"Sun always shines out there," said Bob. "That sailor chap told me, and
the birds are all sorts of colours, and the fish too, like you see in
glass globes. I mean to go."
"When shall you go?"
"Oh, some day when I'm ready. I know of a jolly boat as would just do."
"Do you?"
"Yes; I dessay you've seen it. Belongs to Danby's, down the river.
Lives in a boat-house."
"Yes, I've seen it," said Dexter eagerly. "It is a beauty!"
"Well, that's the sort of boat I mean to have. P'r'aps I shall have
that."
"You couldn't have that," cried Dexter.
"Why not? They never use it, not more'n twice a year. Dessay they'd
lend it."
"That they wouldn't," cried Dexter.
"Well, then, I should borrow it, and bring it back when I'd done with
it. What games you could have with a boat like that!"
"Yes," sighed Dexter; "wish we had one!"
"Wouldn't be such a good one as that if you had. That's just the boat
I've made up my mind to have."
"And shall you sail right away to a foreign country!" said Dexter, from
his nest up in the willow.
"Why, how can you sail away to another place without a mast and sail,
stoopid!" cried Bob.
"If you call me stupid," said Dexter sharply, "I'll come and punch your
head."
"Yah! Yer can't get at me."
"Can't I? I could swim across in a minute, and I would, if it wasn't
for wetting my clothes."
"Yah!" cried Bob scoffingly. "Why, I could fight yer one hand."
"No, you couldn't."
"Yes, I could."
"Well, you'd see, if I came across."
"But yer can't get across," laughed Bob. "I know of a capital mast."
Dexter looked sulky.
"It's part of an old boat-hook my father found floating in the river. I
shall smooth it down with my knife if I can't borrow a spokeshave."
"And what'll you do for a sail?" said Dexter, his interest in the
expedition chasing away his anger.
"Oh, I shall get a table-cloth or a sheet. Sheets make beautiful sails.
You just hoists 'em up, and puts an oar over the stern to steer with,
and then away you go, just where you like. Sailing along in a boat's
lovely!"
"Ever been in a boat sailing?" asked Dexter.
"No; but I know it is. That sailor told me. He says when you've got
all sail set, you just cruises along."
"Do you?"
"Yes. I know; and I mean to go some day; but it's no use to be in a
jolly hurry, and you ought to have a mate."
"Ought you?"
"Yes, so as he could steer while a chap went to sleep; because sometimes
you'd be a long way from the shore."
Dexter sat very thoughtful and still, dreaming of the wonders of far-off
places, such as could be reached by Bob Dimsted and his companion, the
impracticability of such a journey never once occurring to him. Bob had
been about all his life free to go and come, while he, Dexter, seemed to
have been always shut up, as it were, in a cage, which had narrowed his
mind.
"Some chaps would be glad of such a chance," said Bob. "It'll be a fine
time. My, what fishing I shall have!"
"Shall you be gone long!" said Dexter, after a time.
"Long? Why, of course I shall; years and years. I shan't come back
till I've made a fortune, and am a rich man, with heaps of money to
spend. Some chaps would be glad to go."
"Yes, of course," said Dexter dreamily.
"I want to get a mate who isn't afraid of anything. Dessay we should
meet lions sometimes, and big snakes."
"What! in England!"
"England! Yah! Who's going to stop in England? I'm going to sail away
to wonderful places all over the world."
"But would the boat be big enough to cross the great sea?"
"Who's going to cross the great sea?" cried Bob. "Of course I
shouldn't. I should only go out about six miles from shore, and keep
close in, so as to land every night to get grub, or anything else.
P'r'aps to go shooting. My father's got an old gun--a fine un. Think I
don't know what I'm about? Shoots hares with it, and fezzans.
"There's another!" he exclaimed, as he hooked and landed an unfortunate
little perch, which he threw into his basket with a look of disgust.
"I'm sick of ketching such miserable little things as these. I want to
get hold of big sea-fish of all kinds, so as to fill the boat. Some
chaps would be glad to go," he said again, as he threw his line in once
more.
"Yes," said Dexter thoughtfully; "I should like to go."
"You!" said Bob, with a mocking laugh. "You! Why, you'd be afraid. I
don't believe you dare go in a boat!"
"Oh yes, I dare," said Dexter stoutly.
"Not you. You're afraid of what the doctor would say. You daren't even
come fishing with me up the river."
"They said I was not to go with you," said Dexter quietly; "so I
couldn't."
"Then what's the use of your saying you'd like to go. You couldn't."
"But I should like to go," said Dexter excitedly.
"Not you. I want a mate as has got some pluck in him. You'd be afraid
to be out all night on the water."
"No, I shouldn't. I should like it."
"Well, I don't know," said Bob dubiously. "I might take you, and I
mightn't. You ain't quite the sort of a chap I should want; and,
besides, you've got to stay where you are and learn lessons. Ho! ho!
ho! what a game, to be obliged to stop indoors every day and learn
lessons! I wonder you ain't ashamed of it."
Dexter's cheeks flushed, and he looked angrily across the river with his
fists clenched, but he said nothing.
"You wouldn't do. You ain't strong enough," said Bob at last.
"I'm as strong as you are."
"But you daren't come."
"I should like to come, but I don't think they'd let me."
"Why, of course they wouldn't, stoopid. You'd have to come away some
night quietly, and get in the boat, and then we'd let her float down the
river, and row right away till morning, and then we could set the sail,
and go just wherever we liked, because we should be our own masters."
"Here's some one coming after you," said Bob, in a low voice; and he
shrank away, leaving Dexter perched up in the crown of the tree, where
he stopped without speaking, as he saw Helen come down the garden, and
she walked close by him without raising her eyes, and passed on.