although it must have been printed on the board in the vestibule of the
school, which had a list of masters and of classes, no one can now hint
at Moossy's baptismal name, nor even suggest his surname. The name of
the Count had been sunk in the nobility which we conferred upon him, and
which was the tribute of our respectful admiration, but "Moossy" was a
term of good-humoured contempt. We were only Scots lads of a provincial
town, and knew nothing of the outside world; but yet, with the instincts
of a race of Chieftains and Clansmen, we distinguished in our minds
between our two foreigners and placed them far apart. No doubt the Count
was womanish in his dress, and had fantastic manners, but we knew he was
a gallant gentleman, who was afraid of nobody and was always ready to
serve his friends; he was _débonnaire_, and counted himself the equal of
anyone in Muirtown, but Moossy was little better than an abject. He was
a little man, to begin with, and had made himself small by stooping till
his head had sunk upon his chest and his shoulders had risen to his
ears; his hair fell over the collar of his coat behind, and his
ill-dressed beard hid any shirt he wore; his hands and face showed only
the slightest acquaintance with soap and water, and although Speug was
not always careful in his own personal ablutions, and more than once had
been sent down to the lade by Bulldog to wash himself, yet Speug had a
healthy contempt for a dirty master. Moossy's clothes, it was believed,
had not been renewed since he came to the Seminary, and the cloak which
he wore on a winter day was a scandal to the town. His feet were large
and flat, and his knees touched as the one passed the other, and the
Seminary was honestly ashamed at the sight of him shambling across the
North Meadow. He looked so mean, so ill put together, so shabby, so
dirty, that the very "Pennies" hooted at him and flung him in our faces.
The Rector was also careless of his dress, and mooned along the road,
but then everybody knew that he was a mighty scholar, and that if you
woke him from his meditation he would answer you in Greek; but even
Speug understood that Moossy was not a scholar. The story drifted about
through Muirtown, and filtered down to the boys, that he was a bankrupt
tradesman who had fled from some little German town and landed in
Muirtown, and that because he could speak a little English, and a little
French, as German tradesmen can, he had been appointed by an
undiscriminating Town Council to teach foreign tongues at the Seminary.
It is certain he had very little education and no confidence in himself,
and so he was ever cringing to the bailies, which did him no injury,
for these great men regarded themselves as beings bordering on the
supernatural; and he was ever deferring and giving in to the boys, which
was the maddest thing that any master could do, and only confirmed every
boy in his judgment that Moossy was one of the most miserable of God's
creatures.
His classes met in the afternoon, and were regarded as a pleasant
relaxation after the labours of the day, and to escape from the
government of Bulldog to the genial freedom of Moossy's room proved, as
we felt in a vague way, that Providence had a tender heart towards the
wants and enjoyments of boys. It goes without saying that no work was
done, for there were only half a dozen who had any desire to work, and
they were not allowed, in justice to themselves and to their fellows, to
waste the mercies which had been provided. Upon Bulldog's suggestion,
Moossy once provided himself with a cane, but it failed in his hands the
first time he tried to use it, which was not at all wonderful, as Jock
Howieson, who did not approve of canes, and regarded them as an
invention of the Evil One, had doctored Moossy's cane with a horse-hair,
so that it split into two at a stroke, and one piece flying back struck
Moossy on the face.
"That'll learn him to be meddling with canes. It's plenty that Bulldog
has a cane, without yon meeserable wretch"; and that was the last effort
which Moossy made to exercise discipline.
Every afternoon he made a pitiable appeal that the boys would behave and
learn their verbs. For about ten minutes there was quietness, and then,
at the sight of Thomas John, sitting at the head of his form and working
diligently upon a French translation, which he could do better than
Moossy himself, Speug would make a signal to the form, and, leading off
from the foot himself, the form would give one quick, unanimous, and
masterful push, and Thomas John next instant was sitting on the floor;
while if, by any possibility, they could land all his books on him as he
lay, and baptise him out of his own ink-bottle, the form was happy and
called in their friends of other forms to rejoice with them. Moossy, at
the noise of Thomas John's falling, would hurry over and inquire the
cause, that a boy so exemplary and diligent should be sitting on the
floor with the remains of his work around him; and as Thomas John knew
that it would be worth his life to tell the reason, Moossy and he
pretended to regard it as one of the unavoidable accidents of life, and
after Thomas John had been restored to his place, and the ink wiped off
his clothes, Moossy exhorted the form to quietness and diligence. He
knew what had happened, and would have been fit for a lunatic asylum if
he had not; and we knew that he knew, and we all despised him for his
cowardice. Had there been enough spirit in Moossy to go for Speug (just
as Bulldog would have done), and thrash him there and then as he sat in
his seat, brazen and unashamed, we would all have respected Moossy, and
no one more than Speug, to whom all fresh exploits would have had a new
relish. But Moossy was a broken-spirited man, in whom there was no
fight, who held a post he was not fit for, and held it to get a poor
living for himself and one who was dearer to him than his own life. So
helpless was he, and so timid, that there were times when the boys grew
weary of their teasing and disorder, and condescended to repeat a verb
in order to pass the time.
When the spring was in their blood--for, like all young animals, they
felt its stirring--then there were wonderful scenes in Moossy's
class-room. He dared not stand in those days between two forms, with his
face to the one and his back to the other, because of the elastic
catapults and the sharp little paper bullets, which, in spite of his
long hair, would always find out his ears; and if he turned round to
face the battery, the other form promptly unmasked theirs, and between
the two he was driven to the end of the room; and then, in his very
presence, without a pretence of concealment, the two forms would settle
their differences, while, in guttural and uncultured German, Moossy
prayed for peace. Times there were, I am sorry to say, when at the sting
of the bullet Moossy said bad words, and although they were in German,
the boys knew that it was swearing, and Speug's voice would be loudest
in horror.
[Illustration: "THOMAS JOHN NEXT INSTANT WAS SITTING ON THE FLOOR."]
"Mercy on us, lads! this is awful language to hear in the Seminary! If
the Town Council gets word of this, there'll be a fine stramish. For
masel'," Speug would conclude piously, "I'm perfectly ashamed." And as
that accomplished young gentleman had acquired in the stables a wealth
of profanity which was the amazement of the school, his protest had all
the more weight. Poor Moossy would apologise for what he had said, and
beseech the school neither to say it themselves nor to tell what they
had heard; and for days afterwards Speug would be warning Thomas John
that if he, Speug--censor of morals--caught him cursing and swearing
like Moossy, he would duck him in the lake, and afterwards bring him
before the Lord Provost and magistrates.
There was no end to the devices of the Seminary for enjoying themselves
and tormenting Moossy; and had it not been for Nestie, who had some
reserves of taste, the fun would have been much more curious. As it was,
Moossy never knew when he might not light upon a frog, till it seemed as
if the class-room for modern languages were the chosen home for the
reptiles of the district. One morning, when he opened his desk, a lively
young Scots terrier puppy sprang up to welcome him, and nearly
frightened Moossy out of such wits as he possessed. He had learned to
open the door of his class-room cautiously, not knowing whether a German
Dictionary might not be ingeniously poised to fall upon his head. His
ink-bottle would be curiously attached to his French Grammar, so that
when he lifted the book the bottle followed it and sent the spray of ink
over his person, adding a new distinction of dirtiness to his coat. Boys
going up to write on the blackboard, where they never wrote anything but
nonsense, would work symbols with light and rapid touch upon the back of
Moossy's coat as they returned; and if one after the other, adding to
the work of art, could draw what was supposed to be a human face upon
Moossy, the class was satisfied it had not lost the hour. There were
times when Moossy felt the hand even on the looseness of that foolish
coat, and turned suddenly; but there was no shaking the brazen impudence
of Muirtown, and Moossy, looking into the stolid and unintelligent
expression of Howieson's face, thought that he had been mistaken. If one
boy was set up to do a verb, the form, reading from their books and
pronouncing on a principal of their own, would do the verb with him and
continue in a loud and sonorous song, till Moossy had to stop them one
by one, and then they were full of indignation at being hindered in
their studies of the German language.
Moossy was afraid to complain to the Rector, lest his own incompetence
should be exposed and his bread be taken from him; and of this the
boys, with the unerring cunning of savages, were perfectly aware, and
the torture might have gone on for years had it not been for the
intervention of Bulldog and a certain incident. As the French class-room
was above the mathematical, any special disturbance could be heard in
the quietness below; and whatever else they did, the students of foreign
languages were careful not to invite the attention of Bulldog. Indeed,
the one check upon the freedom of Moossy's room was the danger of
Bulldog's arrival, who was engaged that hour with the little boys and
had ample leisure of mind to take note of any outrageous noise above,
and for want of occupation was itching to get at old friends like
Howieson. There are times, however, when even a savage forgets himself,
and one spring day the saturnalia in Moossy's room reached an historical
height. It had been discovered that any dislike which Moossy may have
had to a puppy in his desk, and a frog in his top-cloak pocket, was
nothing to the horror with which he regarded mice. As soon as it was
known that Moossy would as soon have had a tiger in the French
class-room as a mouse upon the loose, it was felt that the study of
foreign languages should take a new departure. One morning the boys came
in with such punctuality, and settled to their work with such demure
diligence, that even Moossy was suspicious and watched them anxiously.
For ten minutes there was nothing heard but the drone of the class
mangling German sentences, and then Howieson cried aloud in
consternation, "A mouse!"
"Vat ees that you say? Ah! mices! vere?" and Moossy was much shaken.
"Yonder," said Speug, pointing to where a mouse was just disappearing
under the desk; "and there's another at the fireplace. Dod, the place is
fair swarming, and, Moossy, there's one trying to run up your leg. Take
care, man, for ony sake."
"A mices," cried Moossy, "vill up my legs go; I vill the desk ascend,"
and with the aid of a chair Moossy scrambled on to his desk, where he
entrenched himself against attack, believing that at that height he
would be safe from "mices."
[Illustration: "THE SCHOOL FELL OVER BENCHES AND OVER ONE ANOTHER."]
Speug suggested that as this plague of mice had burst upon the French
class-room the scholars should meet the calamity like men, and asked
Moossy's permission to go out upon the chase. For once Moossy and his
pupils had one mind, and the school gave itself to its heart's content,
and without a thought of consequences, to a mouse hunt. Nothing is more
difficult than to catch a mouse, and the difficulty is doubled when no
one wishes to catch it; and so the school fell over benches, and over
one another, and jumped over the desks and scrambled under them, ever
pretending to have caught a mouse, and really succeeding once in
smothering an unfortunate animal beneath the weight of half a dozen
boys. Thomas John was early smeared with ink from top to bottom by an
accident in which Howieson took a leading part, and the German
Dictionary intended for a mouse happened to take Cosh on the way, which
led to an encounter between that indignant youth and Bauldie, in which
mice were forgotten. The blackboard was brought down with a crash, and a
form was securely planted on its ruins. High above the babel Moossy
could be heard crying encouragement, and demanding whether the "mices"
had been caught, but nothing would induce him to come down from his
fastness. When things were at their highest, and gay spirits like Speug
were beginning to conclude that even a big snow fight was nothing to a
mouse hunt, and Howieson had been so lifted that he had mounted a desk,
not to catch a mouse, but to give a cheer, and was standing there
without collar or tie, dishevelled, triumphant, and raised above all the
trials of life, the door opened and Bulldog entered. And it was a
beautiful tribute to the personality of that excellent man, that the
whole room crystallised in an instant, and everyone remained motionless,
frozen, as it were, in the act.
Bulldog looked round with that calm composure which sat so well upon
him, taking in Moossy perched upon his desk, Howieson on his form, Speug
sitting with easy dignity on the top of Thomas John, and half a dozen
worthies still tied together in a scrimmage, as if this were a sight to
which he was accustomed every day in Muirtown Seminary.
"Foreign languages," he began, after a pause of ten seconds, "is
evidently a verra divertin' subject of study, and I wonder that any
pupil is left in the department of mathematics. I was not aware, Jock,
that ye needed to stand on a form before you could do your German, and I
suppose that is the French class in the corner. I'm sorry to intrude,
but I'm pleased to see a class in earnest about its work, I really am."
"Mices!" remarked Bulldog in icy tones, as poor Moossy came down from
his desk and began to explain. "My impression is that you are right, as
far as I can judge--and I have some acquaintance with the circumstances.
There are a considerable number of mices in this room, a good many more
mices than were brought in somebody's pocket this morning. The mices I
see were in my class-room this morning, and they were very quiet and
peaceable mices, and they'll be the same in this class-room after this,
or I'll know the reason why. If you'll excuse me," and Bulldog embraced
the whole scene in a comprehensive farewell, "I'll leave the foreign
class-room and go down and see what my laddies are doing with their
writing"; and when Bulldog closed the door Howieson realised that he
owed his escape to Bulldog's respect for another man's class-room, but
that the joyful day in modern languages had come to an end. There would
be no more "mices."
Next Saturday afternoon Speug and Nestie were out for a ramble in the
country, and turning into a lane where the hedgerows were breaking into
green, and the primroses nestling at the roots of the bushes, they came
upon a sight which made them pause so that they could only stand and
look. Down the lane a man was dragging an invalid-chair, a poor and
broken thing which had seen its best days thirty years ago. In the chair
a woman was sitting, or rather lying, very plainly but comfortably
dressed, and carefully wrapped up, whose face showed that she had
suffered much, but whose cheeks were responding to the breath of spring.
As they stood, the man stopped and went to the bank and plucked a
handful of primroses and gave them to the woman; and as he bent over
her, holding up the primroses before her eyes, and as they talked
together, even the boys saw the grateful pleasure in her eyes. He
adjusted the well-worn cloak and changed her position in the chair, and
then went back to drag it, a heavy weight down the soft and yielding
track; and the boys stood and stared and looked at one another, for the
man who was caring so gently for this invalid, and toiling so manfully
with the lumbering chair, was Moossy.
"C-cut away, Speug," said Nestie; "he wouldn't like us to see him. I
say, he ain't a bad sort--Moossy--after all. Bet you a bottle of
g-ginger-beer that's Moossy's wife, and that's why he's so poor."
They were leaving the lane when they heard an exclamation, and going
back they found that the miserable machine had slipped into the ditch
and there stuck fast beyond poor Moossy's power of recovery. With many
an "Ach!" and other words, too, he was bewailing the situation and
hanging over his invalid, while she seemed to be cheering him and trying
if she could so lie in the chair as to lessen the weight upon the lower
side, while every minute the wheel sank deeper in the soft earth.
"What are you st-staring at, you idle, worthless v-vagabond?" said
Nestie to Speug. "Come along and give a hand to Moossy," who was so
pleased to get some help in the lonely place that he forgot the
revealing of his little secret. With Speug in the shafts, who had the
strength of a man in his compact little body, and Moossy pulling on the
other side, the coach was soon upon the road again, amid a torrent of
gratitude from Moossy and his wife, partly in English, but mostly in
German, but all quite plain to the boys, for gratitude is always
understood in any language. They came bravely along the lane, Speug
pulling, Moossy hanging over his wife to make sure she had not been
hurt, and Nestie plucking flowers to make up a nosegay in memory of the
lane, while Moossy declared them to be "_Zwei herzliche Knaben_."
When they came to the main road, Speug would not give up his work, but
brought the carriage manfully to the little cottage, hidden in a garden,
where Moossy lodged. When she had been carried in--she was so light that
Moossy could lift her himself--she compelled the boys to come in, too,
and Moossy made fragrant coffee, and this they had with strange German
cakes, which were not half bad, and to which they both did ample
justice. Going home, Nestie looked at Speug, and Speug looked at Nestie,
and though no words passed it was understood that the days of the
troubles of Moossy in the Seminary of Muirtown were ended.
During the remaining year of Moossy's labours at the Seminary it would
not be true to say that he became a good or useful master, for he had
neither the knowledge nor the tact, or that the boys were always
respectful and did their work, for they were very far removed from being
angels; but Moossy did pluck up some spirit, and Speug saw that he
suffered no grievous wrong. He also took care that Moossy was not left
to be his own horse from day to day, but that the stronger varlets of
the Seminary should take some exercise in the shafts of Moossy's coach.
Howieson was a young gentleman far removed from sentiment, and he gave
it carefully to be understood that he only did the thing for a joke; but
there is no question that more than once Jock brought Moossy's
carriage, with Moossy's wife in it, successfully along that lane and
other lanes, and it is a fact that, on a certain Saturday, Speug came
out with one of his father's traps, and Mistress Moossy, as she was
called, was driven far and wide about the country around Muirtown.
"You are what the papers call a ph-philanthropist, Speug," said Nestie,
"and I expect to hear that you are opening an orphan asylum." And Speug
promptly replied that, if he did, the first person to be admitted would
be Nestie, and that he would teach him manners.
It was a fortunate thing for Moossy that some one died in Germany and
left him a little money, so that he could give up the hopeless drudgery
of the Seminary and go home to live in a little house upon the banks of
the Rhine. His wife, who had been improving under Dr. Manley's care,
began to brisk up at once, and was quite certain of recovery when one
afternoon they left Muirtown Station. Some dozen boys were there to see
them off, and it was Jock and Speug who helped Moossy to place
her comfortably in the carriage. The gang had pooled their
pocket-money--selling one or two treasures to swell the sum--that Moossy
and his wife might go away laden with such dainties as schoolboys love,
and Nestie had a bunch of flowers to place in her hands. They still
called him Moossy, as they had done before, and he looked, to tell the
truth, almost as shabby and his hair was as long as ever; but he was in
great spirits and much touched by the kindness of his tormentors. As the
English mail pulled out of Muirtown Station with quickening speed, the
boys ran along the platform beside the carriage shaking hands with
Moossy through the open window and passing in their gifts.
"Take care o' mices!" shouted Jock, with agreeable humour, but the last
sight Moossy had of Muirtown was Speug standing on a luggage-barrow and
waving farewell.
A LAST RESOURCE
X
That the Rector should be ill and absent from his classes from time to
time was quite in the order of things, because he was a scholar and
absent-minded to a degree--going to bed in the morning, and being got
out of bed in rather less than time for his work; eating when it
occurred to him, but preferring, on the whole, not to eat at all;
wearing very much the same clothes summer and winter, and if he added a
heavy top-coat, more likely putting it on in the height of summer and
going without it when there were ten degrees of frost. It was not for
his scholarship, but for his peculiarities, that the school loved him;
not because he edited a "Cæsar" and compiled a set of Latin exercises,
for which perfectly unnecessary and disgusting labours the school hated
him, but because he used to arrive at ten minutes past nine, and his
form was able to jeer at Bulldog's boys as they hastened into their
class-room with much discretion at one minute before the hour. Because
he used to be so much taken up with a happy phrase in Horace that he
would forget the presence of his class, and walk up and down before the
fireplace, chortling aloud; and because sometimes he was so hoarse that
he could only communicate with the class by signs, which they
unanimously misunderstood. Because he would sometimes be absent for a
whole week, and his form was thrown in with another, with the result of
much enjoyable friction, and an almost perfect neglect of work. He was
respected and never was annoyed, not even by ruffians like Howieson,
because everyone knew that the Rector was an honourable gentleman, with
all his eccentric ways, and the _Muirtown Advertiser_ had a leader every
spring on the achievements of his scholars. Edinburgh professors who
came to examine the school used to fill up their speeches on the
prize-day with graceful compliments to the Rector, supported by
classical quotations, during which the boys cheered rapturously and the
Rector looked as if he were going to be hung. He was one of the
recognised glories of Muirtown, and was freely referred to at municipal
banquets by bailies whose hearts had grown merry within them drinking
the Queen's health, and was associated in the peroration to the toast of
"the Fair City" with the North Meadow and the Fair Maid, and the River
Tay and the County Gaol.