That Scholarship Boy Part 8

They had reached the crowd of boys near the gate now, and two or three pressed eagerly forward, to know when and where the fight was to come off.

'We've settled it now,' answered Warren.

'Bos.h.!.+ Don't believe it, boys. They are just going off to have it out by themselves.'

'You're not going to let Warren off, are you, Taylor?' shouted another lad, as Taylor appeared.

'Shut up and mind your own business, and leave Warren and me to settle our own affairs in our own way!' And having said this, he pushed his way through the crowd and marched straight into school.

CHAPTER VI.

FOR THE HONOUR OF THE SCHOOL.

'How is your friend Warren to-day, Len?' asked Mr. Morrison, on the day when the boys thought the adjourned fight ought to have come off.

'Warren's no friend of mine now, he's an awful sneak!' said Leonard, angrily. He was greatly mystified over the fight not taking place, for he intended to support Taylor, and at least do part of the cheering on his side; and the collapse of the whole affair annoyed him, and he chose to consider it was Warren's fault. 'He just funked it you know, dad,' he said, when he explained the matter to his father.

'I don't know so much about that,' said Mr. Morrison; 'I met his father yesterday, and he told me he had forbidden his son to engage in a fight, either now or at any future time, and I asked him if he thought his son would obey him.'

'"Yes, I do!" he said, and seemed quite confident that his boy would respect his wishes, and I wondered whether he was right. So Warren junior refused to fight, did he?' said Mr. Morrison. 'It was a plucky thing to do, and I like a boy who can say "No," and stick to it.'

'The fellows are saying it was beastly mean of him, and he funked it because Taylor is a bigger fellow.'

'Ah! boys often jump to wrong conclusions. It isn't the only plucky thing Warren has done. Have you joined the swatting club yet, my boy?'

'What did you say, father?' asked Leonard, with widely opened eyes.

'The formation of a swatting club is the last new move, I hear, at Torrington's. To swat is to study, I understand--is that right?'

'Oh yes, the word is right enough; but who told you about it?'

'Is it a secret, then? Didn't you know about it--haven't you been asked to join it?'

'No! they wouldn't ask me; it isn't likely; for all the school know that I am trying to keep up the honour of Torrington's--keep it from going to the dogs, in fact,' said the boy, loftily, but with an angry tone in his voice.

'I am glad to hear it, Len. I was a Torrington boy in my time, and I love the old school still.'

'Then, father, what did you send that beastly scholars.h.i.+p boy there for?' burst out Leonard, scarcely knowing what he said in his anger.

'Leonard! Leonard!' chided his mother.

'I beg your pardon, mother, but it is what the fellows are always saying, and I forgot.'

'But why should the boys be vexed that the County Council chose to send one of the most promising of their scholars to that school? Has he done anything to offend you?'

'We don't give him the chance, and we want you, father, to take him away at once. Don't you see the honour of the school is at stake, and the fellows like Curtis and Taylor----'

The doctor held up his hand to stop the boy's angry flow of words. 'We won't discuss those gentlemen, if you please,' he said.

'But they are always discussing it,' exclaimed Leonard.

'Very foolish of them,' interrupted Mr. Morrison. 'But now tell me what you mean by the honour of the school, and why this lad has endangered it.'

'He comes from a board school, which, of course, is intended for poor, common people,' answered the boy.

'But "poor, common people" must be taught, you know; and now, if they possess the brains, they have the right to learn to use them as well as those who are better off. From Dr. Mason's report to the Council, this lad has given every satisfaction while he has been at the school, and I had hoped that you would have made his acquaintance by this time, and that I might have learned a little more about him from your point of view.'

Leonard shook his head. 'You must go to Warren for that; he has chosen to take him up in defiance of the whole school, and--and----' he stopped, dimly conscious that in his anger he had already said too much. Mr. Morrison was called away from the table at this point, and Leonard felt relieved that no further questions could be asked.

Later he went to the little room where lessons were learned, and found his sister sitting in her usual place. 'Mother wished me to come, Len,' she said, in explanation of her presence.

'All right, Duffy--not that you are such a duffer,' he added, 'and I shall try to find another name for you.'

'Oh, Duffy will do. Don't waste your time thinking about another name for me. What's in a name after all? It's what you are, not what name you are called by. I say, what is this swatting club father has heard about? You never told me about it.'

'Never heard of it myself before. Won't Taylor be mad when I tell him, for if there is one thing he hates it is swat! He says it's low and vulgar, and not fit for a school like Torrington's.'

'But you know father doesn't think that, and I am sure you ought to know that father is wiser than Taylor, if he is the biggest boy in the school.'

'As if that made any difference! You're just as much of a duffer as ever, to think such a thing,' he added.

'Well, what is it about Taylor that makes you call him the "c.o.c.k of the walk?" I met him at a party last week, and I did not think much of him, I can tell you.'

'Ah! that's because you are a girl, and don't know anything. Taylor is a jolly fellow.'

'Well, I'm glad he's not my brother, for he is not very kind to his sister, and he was quite rude to his mother. He is no gentleman, and so he has no right to find fault with father because he sent a board school boy to sit with him at Torrington's.'

Leonard only laughed at his sister's denunciation of his hero; but he was curious to learn what had been said about this swatting club--whether she had heard it spoken of before to-day. 'I should like to know how long they have been at it, and who are in it,' he said.

'Father said Warren and the scholars.h.i.+p boy; he was telling mother about it when you came in.'

'Oh, that scholars.h.i.+p boy is at the bottom of the whole mischief, of course,' said Leonard; 'but I should like to know how many more are in it; it's no good going to Taylor with half a tale. Won't he be mad, when he hears of this last move! Warren is forbidden to fight, too! I wonder why that is? Something wrong with his head, I shouldn't wonder,' added Leonard, after a minute's thought.

'Why, what makes you think that?' asked Florence.

'Because when Taylor knocked him down the other day he lay still as though he were dead for a minute or two, and never turned up at school all the next day. What larks if he can't fight! I'll put Taylor on to that, and see what he can make of it.'

'Len, how can you like to do such mean things? I wish father had not told you about it; but, of course, he never thought you were going to peach to the rest of the school about it, and especially to that vulgar thing Taylor.'

'Now, Duffy, that "vulgar thing" is your brother's chosen friend, so of course you don't like him, for I've noticed lately that if I like anything or anybody, you take a dislike to them directly.'

'Yes, because the things and the people you like are never nice.

Mother was saying the other day she hoped you would not grow up like somebody she knew. I did not hear his name, but she sighed as she said it, and father did not smile or say anything when he heard her say it.'