THE DEFENDER
If Jack had not about this time undertaken the defence of the little boy
in the Fourth Reader, whose name was large enough to cover the principal
points in the history of the New World, he might have had peace, for
Jack was no longer one of the newest scholars, his courage was respected
by Pewee, and he kept poor Riley in continual fear of his
ridicule--making him smart every day. But, just when he might have had a
little peace and happiness, he became the defender of Christopher
Columbus George Washington Marquis de la Fayette Risdale--little
"Andsoforth," as Riley and the other boys had nicknamed him.
The strange, pinched little body of the boy, his eccentric ways, his
quickness in learning, and his infantile simplicity had all conspired to
win the affection of Jack, so that he would have protected him even
without the solicitation of Susan Lanham. But since Susan had been
Jack's own first and fast friend, he felt in honor bound to run all
risks in the care of her strange little cousin.
I think that Columbus's child-like ways might have protected him even
from Riley and his set, if it had not been that he was related to Susan
Lanham, and under her protection. It was the only chance for Riley to
revenge himself on Susan. She was more than a match for him in wit, and
she was not a proper subject for Pewee's fists. So with that
heartlessness which belongs to the school-boy bully, he resolved to
torment the helpless fellow in revenge for Susan's sarcasms.
One morning, smarting under some recent taunt of Susan's, Riley caught
little Columbus almost alone in the school-room. Here was a boy who
certainly would not be likely to strike back again. His bamboo legs, his
spindling arms, his pale face, his contracted chest, all gave the coward
a perfect assurance of safety. So, with a rude pretence at play,
laughing all the time, he caught the lad by the throat, and in spite of
his weird dignity and pleading gentleness, shoved him back against the
wall behind the master's empty chair. Holding him here a minute in
suspense, he began slapping him, first on this side of the face and then
on that. The pale cheeks burned red with pain and fright, but Columbus
did not cry out, though the constantly increasing sharpness of the
blows, and the sense of weakness, degradation, and terror, stung him
severely. Riley thought it funny. Like a cat playing with a condemned
mouse, the cruel fellow actually enjoyed finding one person weak enough
to be afraid of him.
Columbus twisted about in a vain endeavor to escape from Riley's
clutches, getting only a sharper cuff for his pains. Ben Berry, arriving
presently, enjoyed the sport, while some of the smaller boys and girls,
coming in, looked on the scene of torture in helpless pity. And ever, as
more and more of the scholars gathered, Columbus felt more and more
mortified; the tears were in his great sad eyes, but he made no sound of
crying or complaint.
Jack Dudley came in at last, and marched straight up to Riley, who let
go his hold and backed off. "You mean, cowardly, pitiful villain!" broke
out Jack, advancing on him.
"I didn't do anything to you," whined Riley, backing into a corner.
"No, but I mean to do something to you. If there's an inch of man in
you, come right on and fight with me. You daren't do it."
"I don't want any quarrel with you."
"No, you quarrel with babies."
Here all the boys and girls jeered.
"You're too hard on a fellow, Jack," whined the scared Riley, slipping
out of the corner and continuing to back down the school-room, while
Jack kept slowly following him.
"You're a great deal bigger than I am," said Jack. "Why don't you try to
corner me? Oh, I could just beat the breath out of you, you great, big,
good-for-nothing----"
Here Riley pulled the west door open, and Jack, at the same moment,
struck him. Riley half dropped, half fell, through the door-way, scared
so badly that he went sprawling on the ground.
The boys shouted "coward" and "baby" after him as he sneaked off, but
Jack went back to comfort Columbus and to get control of his temper. For
it is not wise, as Jack soon reflected, even in a good cause to lose
your self-control.
"It was good of you to interfere," said Susan, when she had come in and
learned all about it.
"I should have been a brute if I hadn't," said Jack, pleased none the
less with her praise. "But it doesn't take any courage to back Riley out
of a school-house. One could get more fight out of a yearling calf. I
suppose I've got to take a beating from Pewee, though."
"Go and see him about it, before Riley talks to him," suggested Susan.
And Jack saw the prudence of this course. As he left the school-house at
a rapid pace, Ben Berry told Riley, who was skulking behind a fence,
that Jack was afraid of Pewee.
"Pewee," said Jack, when he met him starting to school, after having
done his "chores," including the milking of his cow,--"Pewee, I want to
say something to you."
Jack's tone and manner flattered Pewee. One thing that keeps a rowdy a
rowdy is the thought that better people despise him. Pewee felt in his
heart that Jack had a contempt for him, and this it was that made him
hate Jack in turn. But now that the latter sought him in a friendly way,
he felt himself lifted up into a dignity hitherto unknown to him. "What
is it?"
"You are a kind of king among the boys," said Jack. Pewee grew an inch
taller.
"They are all afraid of you. Now, why don't you make us fellows behave?
You ought to protect the little boys from fellows that impose on them.
Then you'd be a king worth the having. All the boys and girls would
like you."
"I s'pose may be that's so," said the king.
"There's poor little Columbus Risdale----"
"I don't like him," said Pewee.
"You mean you don't like Susan. She _is_ a little sharp with her tongue.
But you wouldn't fight with a baby--it isn't like you."
"No, sir-ee," said Pewee.
"You'd rather take a big boy than a little one. Now, you ought to make
Riley let Lummy alone."
"I'll do that," said Pewee. "Riley's about a million times bigger than
Lum."
"I went to the school-house this morning," continued Jack, "and I found
Riley choking and beating him. And I thought I'd just speak to you, and
see if you can't make him stop it."
"I'll do that," said Pewee, walking along with great dignity.
When Ben Berry and Riley saw Pewee coming in company with Jack, they
were amazed and hung their heads, afraid to say anything even to each
other. Jack and Pewee walked straight up to the fence-corner in which
they stood.
"I thought I'd see what King Pewee would say about your fighting with
babies, Riley," said Jack.
"I want you fellows to understand," said Pewee, "that I'm not going to
have that little Lum Risdale hurt. If you want to fight, why don't you
fight somebody your own size? I don't fight babies myself," and here
Pewee drew his head up, "and I don't stand by any boy that does."
Poor Riley felt the last support drop from under him. Pewee had deserted
him, and he was now an orphan, unprotected in an unfriendly world!
Jack knew that the truce with so vain a fellow as Pewee could not last
long, but it served its purpose for the time. And when, after school,
Susan Lanham took pains to go and thank Pewee for standing up for
Columbus, Pewee felt himself every inch a king, and for the time he
was--if not a "reformed prize-fighter," such as one hears of sometimes,
at least an improved boy. The trouble with vain people like Pewee is,
that they have no stability. They bend the way the wind blows, and for
the most part the wind blows from the wrong quarter.