After the return from Connecticut, little Jimmie was at first much
afraid of the monster who lived in the room over the carriage-house.
He could not identify it in any way. Gradually, however, his fear
dwindled under the influence of a weird fascination. He sidled into
closer and closer relations with it.
One time the monster was seated on a box behind the stable basking in
the rays of the afternoon sun. A heavy crepe veil was swathed about
its head.
Little Jimmie and many companions came around the corner of the
stable. They were all in what was popularly known as the baby class,
and consequently escaped from school a half-hour before the other
children. They halted abruptly at sight of the figure on the box.
Jimmie waved his hand with the air of a proprietor.
"There he is," he said.
"O-o-o!" murmured all the little boys--"o-o-o!" They shrank back, and
grouped according to courage or experience, as at the sound the
monster slowly turned its head. Jimmie had remained in the van alone.
"Don't be afraid! I won't let him hurt you," he said, delighted.
"Huh!" they replied, contemptuously. "We ain't afraid."
Jimmie seemed to reap all the joys of the owner and exhibitor of one
of the world's marvels, while his audience remained at a
distance--awed and entranced, fearful and envious.
One of them addressed Jimmie gloomily. "Bet you dassent walk right up
to him." He was an older boy than Jimmie, and habitually oppressed him
to a small degree. This new social elevation of the smaller lad
probably seemed revolutionary to him.
"Huh!" said Jimmie, with deep scorn. "Dassent I? Dassent I, hey?
Dassent I?"
The group was immensely excited. It turned its eyes upon the boy that
Jimmie addressed. "No, you dassent," he said, stolidly, facing a moral
defeat. He could see that Jimmie was resolved. "No, you dassent," he
repeated, doggedly.
"Ho?" cried Jimmie. "You just watch!--you just watch!"
Amid a silence he turned and marched towards the monster. But possibly
the palpable wariness of his companions had an effect upon him that
weighed more than his previous experience, for suddenly, when near to
the monster, he halted dubiously. But his playmates immediately
uttered a derisive shout, and it seemed to force him forward. He went
to the monster and laid his hand delicately on its shoulder. "Hello,
Henry," he said, in a voice that trembled a trifle. The monster was
crooning a weird line of negro melody that was scarcely more than a
thread of sound, and it paid no heed to the boy.
Jimmie: strutted back to his companions. They acclaimed him and hooted
his opponent. Amid this clamor the larger boy with difficulty
preserved a dignified attitude.
"I dassent, dassent I?" said Jimmie to him.
"Now, you're so smart, let's see you do it!"
This challenge brought forth renewed taunts from the others. The
larger boy puffed out his checks. "Well, I ain't afraid," he
explained, sullenly. He had made a mistake in diplomacy, and now his
small enemies were tumbling his prestige all about his ears. They
crowed like roosters and bleated like lambs, and made many other
noises which were supposed to bury him in ridicule and dishonor.
"Well, I ain't afraid," he continued to explain through the din.
Jimmie, the hero of the mob, was pitiless. "You ain't afraid, hey?" he
sneered. "If you ain't afraid, go do it, then."
"Well, I would if I wanted to," the other retorted. His eyes wore an
expression of profound misery, but he preserved steadily other
portions of a pot-valiant air. He suddenly faced one of his
persecutors. "If you're so smart, why don't you go do it?" This
persecutor sank promptly through the group to the rear. The incident
gave the badgered one a breathing-spell, and for a moment even turned
the derision in another direction. He took advantage of his interval.
"I'll do it if anybody else will," he announced, swaggering to and
fro.
Candidates for the adventure did not come forward. To defend
themselves from this counter-charge, the other boys again set up their
crowing and bleating. For a while they would hear nothing from him.
Each time he opened his lips their chorus of noises made oratory
impossible. But at last he was able to repeat that he would volunteer
to dare as much in the affair as any other boy.
"Well, you go first," they shouted.
But Jimmie intervened to once more lead the populace against the large
boy. "You're mighty brave, ain't you?" he said to him. "You dared me
to do it, and I did--didn't I? Now who's afraid?" The others cheered
this view loudly, and they instantly resumed the baiting of the large
boy.
He shamefacedly scratched his left shin with his right foot. "Well, I
ain't afraid." He cast an eye at the monster. "Well, I ain't afraid."
With a glare of hatred at his squalling tormentors, he finally
announced a grim intention. "Well, I'll do it, then, since you're so
fresh. Now!"
The mob subsided as with a formidable countenance he turned towards
the impassive figure on the box. The advance was also a regular
progression from high daring to craven hesitation. At last, when some
yards from the monster, the lad came to a full halt, as if he had
encountered a stone wall. The observant little boys in the distance
promptly hooted. Stung again by these cries, the lad sneaked two yards
forward. He was crouched like a young cat ready for a backward spring.
The crowd at the rear, beginning to respect this display, uttered some
encouraging cries. Suddenly the lad gathered himself together, made a
white and desperate rush forward, touched the monster's shoulder with
a far-outstretched finger, and sped away, while his laughter rang out
wild, shrill, and exultant.
The crowd of boys reverenced him at once, and began to throng into his
camp, and look at him, and be his admirers. Jimmie was discomfited for
a moment, but he and the larger boy, without agreement or word of any
kind, seemed to recognize a truce, and they swiftly combined and began
to parade before the others.
"Why, it's just as easy as nothing," puffed the larger boy. "Ain't it,
Jim?"
"Course," blew Jimmie. "Why, it's as e-e-easy."
They were people of another class. If they had been decorated for
courage on twelve battle-fields, they could not have made the other
boys more ashamed of the situation.
Meanwhile they condescended to explain the emotions of the excursion,
expressing unqualified contempt for any one who could hang back. "Why,
it ain't nothin'. He won't do nothin' to you," they told the others,
in tones of exasperation.
One of the very smallest boys in the party showed signs of a wistful
desire to distinguish himself, and they turned their attention to him,
pushing at his shoulders while he swung away from them, and hesitated
dreamily. He was eventually induced to make furtive expedition, but it
was only for a few yards. Then he paused, motionless, gazing with open
mouth. The vociferous entreaties of Jimmie and the large boy had no
power over him.
Mrs. Hannigan had come out on her back porch with a pail of water.
From this coign she had a view of the secluded portion of the Trescott
grounds that was behind the stable. She perceived the group of boys,
and the monster on the box. She shaded her eyes with her hand to
benefit her vision. She screeched then as if she was being murdered.
"Eddie! Eddie! You come home this minute!"