It was the last day but one of the Summer term, and the Philosophers
were in a ferment. The lists were to be out in the afternoon, and a
score of events were to be decided by them. Was I to get on to the top
form of my division, and if so, was it Langrish or Purkis who was to be
displaced? Or was I, after all my grind, to yield a place to the
truculent Coxhead?
More than that, was Warminster to be beaten after all by a day boy
called Dicky Brown, who, amid all the changes and distractions of the
term, had stuck doggedly to his work, and was reported a hot man for the
head place in the junior division?
All this was exciting enough, but it was as nothing to the tussle at the
head of the school.
Pridgin's alarming burst of work in the Easter term had, contrary to all
expectation, not died out. Every one prophesied he would sicken of it.
Wales laughed at him. Crofter smiled sweetly. Tempest inquired
frequently after his health, and even Redwood knocked off some of his
extra cricket to keep pace with it.
"What are you trying to do?" asked Tempest one day, as his friend looked
in.
"Nothing, my dear fellow, only amusing myself, I assure you."
"You have a queer idea of fun. Do you know, I've hardly been out on the
river all the term, owing to you."
"Don't let me prevent you, old chap. The exercise will do you good."
Tempest laughed.
"I hope yours will do you good. But two can play at your game."
"Two! Half a dozen.--I've not got my knife into _you_, though."
"Who? Crofter?"
"Rather. I see no other way of taking it out of him. He shirks sports,
and takes his pound of flesh out of the captaincy, although he knows
he's no right to it, and no one, not even the rowdies in the faggery,
respects him."
"That's why we're going steady," said I, "just to rile him."
"The only way to take it out of him is to make him sit up, and harry
him," said the amiable Pridgin. "I only hope, though, it won't land me
head of the house. I'm depending on you to beat me. But I'm not going
to play second fiddle to Crofter."
"It will serve you right if it does land you head," responded Tempest.
"If it does, we'll have to keep you up to the mark and see you don't
shirk."
"Don't say that, old chap, or I shall jack it up," said Pridgin, putting
his feet upon the window-ledge. "Besides, does it occur to you that
Redwood's leaving, and that the second man up, if he's one of us, is
left not only captain of Sharpe's but captain of Low Heath?"
"I know," said Tempest quietly, "but they say Leslie of Selkirk's is in
the running for that."
"Stuff and nonsense!" retorted Pridgin. "Tempest of Sharpe's is the man
for my money."
Tempest laughed again; but it was a sort of laugh which did not bode
well for Leslie of Selkirk's.
This talk had been a fortnight ago. Since then the examinations had
come and gone. The Philosophers, sobered and perspiring, had been
spread out at two-desk intervals on three fatal days in the large hall,
with day boys to right of them and Selkirkers to left, writing for their
lives, and groaning over questions which only a fiend could have
devised, and only a double-first could have answered. How I had got on,
I could no more tell than the man in the moon. My comrades, when we
compared notes afterwards, cheerfully assured me that, out of some fifty
questions on the three days, I had possibly got half a question right,
but that that was doubtful, and depended on the particular crib the
examiner swore by. Redwood, to whom I confided some of my answers,
thought rather more hopefully of my case, and told me to keep my spirits
up. Tempest said that if he were to cuff me for every discreditable
blunder I had made, I should have ear-ache for a month. Dicky, on the
other hand, confessed that he wished he could believe he had done as
well as I.
As for the other Philosophers, general discouragement was the order of
the day. It was moved and seconded that Coxhead be kicked for having
made "amnis" feminine, and having translated the French "impasse" as
"instep." And Trimble was temporarily suspended from the service of the
Conversation Club because he had put a decimal dot in the wrong place.
Public feeling ran so high that any departure from the rules of syntax
or algebra was regarded as treason against the house, and dealt with
accordingly.
On the whole, therefore, we were glad when the time of suspense came to
an end.
How matters had gone with the seniors it was even more difficult to
surmise than it had been in our case. The day after the end of their
exams., Redwood and Tempest, with Pridgin to cox, rowed twelve miles
down stream and back, and returned cheerful and serene, and even
jocular. Leslie of Selkirk's also spent a pleasant afternoon in the
school laboratory, whistling to himself as he mixed up his acids.
Crofter and Wales mooned about under the trees in the field somewhat
limply, but showed no outward signs of distress. Altogether,
speculation was baffled, and it was almost irritating to find the chief
actors in the drama refusing to take the momentous question seriously.
"How did you get on?" I asked Tempest.
"You'll hear to-morrow," said he; "so shall I."
"Do you think you'll beat Leslie?"
"Either that, or he'll beat me, or it'll be a dead heat," said he.
There was no dealing with frivolity of this kind; and Tempest, ever
since his recovery last term, had been rapidly regaining all his old
frivolity and lightheartedness.
It was a trying ordeal on "Result" day, sitting patiently in hall till
the doctor made up his mind to appear. All the school was there. There
was an unusual spirit of orderliness afoot. The few irresponsible ones,
who, with nothing to lose, tried to get up a disturbance, were promptly
squashed by the grim, anxious competitors to whom the coming results
meant so much. We Philosophers huddled together for comfort, but not a
joke travelled down the line. We sat and drummed our fingers on the
desk before us, and wondered why on earth the doctor, on a day like
this, should take such an unearthly time to put on his cap and gown.
At last he appeared, paper in hand, and glasses on nose. I could see
Dicky just in front of me catch a quick breath, and Tempest up in the
front brush his hair back with his fingers; and there arose before my
mind in horrible review all the palpable blunders of my own examination
papers.
"Lower school," began the doctor in a hard, dry, unemotional voice.
"Aggregate form order--out of a possible 1000 marks, Brown iii., day
boy, and Jones iv., Mr Sharpe's, bracketed first with 853 marks."
What! me? bracketed top with Dicky? Go along with you! But a huge
thump on the back from Warminster, followed by a huger from Langrish;
the vision of Dicky's consciously blushing cheeks, as Flitwick performed
the same office for him; and, above all, a nod across the room from
Redwood, and a grin from Tempest, convinced me that there was something
in it after all. Of course it was a mistake, and when the marks came to
be counted again it would be put right. But while it lasted it wasn't
bad. What was the doctor saying?
"A very good performance, both of you; and the result of honest hard
work."
It was true then? There was no humbug about it? Oh, I must write to my
mother this very afternoon.
"Warminster, Mr Sharpe's second, 836, good also; Corderoy, Mr
Selkirk's, third, 815; Langrish, Mr Sharpe's, fourth, 807; Trimble, Mr
Sharpe's, sixth, 796; Purkis, Mr Sharpe's, seventh, 771; Coxhead, Mr
Sharpe's, eighth, 734--(Mr Sharpe's boys have worked excellently this
term);--Quin, day boy, ninth, 699; Rackstraw, Mr Sharpe's, tenth, 678."
And so the list went on. I was too much lost in the wonder of my own
success to appreciate all at once the glorious significance of the whole
result. But as the Philosophers crowded in a little closer on one
another, and the friendly nudge went round, it began to dawn on me.
Every one of our men had given a good account of himself, even Coxhead
and the "pauper" Rackstraw! Not one of the old gang but was eligible
for the club; not one but had done something to "put the day boys and
Selkirk's and everybody else to bed," as Langrish said.
"Just like your side," said the latter to me, "trying to make out you'd
made a mess of it. You can only make a mess of it, young Sarah, when
you try not to; when you do try you can't do it." And with another
thump on the back our excellent secretary gave me to know he bore me no
malice, but on the contrary was pleased to favour me with his general
approbation.
But more was yet to come. Compared with the "aggregates," the details
of how we had passed each examination were more or less tame, and we
were impatient to get on to the senior results.
The middle school had to come first. As a rule we were not greatly
concerned in them, except as belonging to the division into which some
of us would probably be promoted next term. But such as they were, they
kept up the credit of Sharpe's. A Selkirker did indeed head the list,
but after him a string of four of our fellows followed; after them a day
boy, and then two more "Sharpers."
More back patting, crowding up, conscious blushes, and congratulations.
Then the doctor put down one paper and took up another; and every one
knew what was coming.
"Upper school," read the doctor in exactly the same voice, as if this
announcement were of no more importance than any other. "Aggregate form
order--out of a possible 1000 marks, Redwood, captain of the school, and
day boy, 902."
We were obliged to interrupt a little here. There would not be many
more chances of cheering old Redwood, and we couldn't afford to chuck
them away. So we cheered, and gave the doctor time to polish up his
glasses and take a sip of water.
"Your cheers," said he, when at last we had relieved ourselves, "are
well-deserved. In addition to this capital result, Redwood takes the
Low Heath scholarship to Trinity, where, I almost venture to prophesy,
we shall hear even greater things of him some day."
More cheers. But we were too impatient to hear what came next to
interpose too long a delay.
"Tempest, Mr Sharpe's, second, 888; all the more gratifying when we
remember the causes which interrupted his school work for a time last
term."
We fairly gave ourselves away now! Sharpe's had reached the top of the
tide with a vengeance. There was an end to all uncertainty as to who
would be its captain; and there was the glorious certainty that the
captain of Sharpe's would also be captain of Low Heath. Three cheers!
Rather.
But still we could not, till the rest of the list was read, give
ourselves up to cheering for as long as we should have liked. So we
allowed the doctor to proceed.
"Pridgin, Mr Sharpe's, third, 869--very close."
Good old Pridgin! All his discomfort had not been for nothing. He had
"taken it out of" Crofter, after all. By how much?
"Leslie, Mr Selkirk's, fourth, 832. Wales, Mr Sharpe's, fifth, 801.
Crofter, Mr Sharpe's, sixth, 769."
A cool hundred between them! We had the decency not to rub it in too
hard. It was clear by the disconcerted look in the face of our so-
called captain that he was more surprised than any one. He smiled, of
course, and leant across to pat Pridgin on the back. But that was just
his way--we knew well enough that it cloaked a bitter mortification, and
why worry the poor beggar with letting him see we noticed it?
So we waited till we got outside, and then let ourselves loose on
Tempest and Pridgin, and positively injured our voices with cheering.
That afternoon in the faggery our jubilant review of the situation was
combined with a wind-up meeting of the Conversation Club for the term.
"Jolly good show for us," said Langrish. "Crofter's pretty sick, but
it'll do him good. I move and third, and Sarah seconds and fourths,
that we send him a resolution of condolence."
"Better let him alone," suggested I.
"Shut up, or you'll get jolly well kicked out of the club," said the
secretary. "If you don't want to be civil, it's no reason why we
shouldn't." I had imagined I was on the whole more concerned for
Crofter's feelings than they, but, putting it in the way they did, I
could hardly resist. So the following resolution was solemnly drawn up
and ordered to be conveyed to "The late Mr Crofter."
"That this meeting of the Philosophical Conversation Club is hereby
jolly glad to see Tempest cock of the house again, with Pridgin second
man up. It hereby condoles with Crofter in the jolly back seat he has
got to take, and is sorry he shirked the Mile. It begs to inform him
that he is a hundred and eighteen marks behind Tempest, and trusts he
will in future obey the house captain, to whom all applications for
_exeats_ and extra leave are to be addressed. Crofter need not trouble
to reply, as the club only desires to have communication with the cock
of the house."
This done, I was ordered to take the chair as the new president, and
called upon the secretary to read the minutes.