A Bayard From Bengal: Being some account of the Magnificent and Spanking Career of Chunder Bindabun Bhosh,...Anstey, F.
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A Bayard From Bengal: Being some account of the Magnificent and Spanking Career of Chunder Bindabun Bhosh,...
Anstey, F.
East Indians -- England -- Fiction; Humorous stories
Having received this assurance, Mr Bhosh's natural courage revived, and,
coming up on deck, he braved the tempest with the cool composure of a
cucumber, admonishing all his fellow-passengers that they were not to
give way to panic, seeing that Death was the common lot of all, and,
though everyone must die once, it was an experience that could not be
repeated, with much philosophy of a similar kind which astonished many
who had falsely supposed him to be a pusillanimous.
The remainder of the voyage was uneventful, and, soon after setting his
feet on British territory, Mr Bhosh became an alumnus and undergraduate
of the _Alma Mater_ of Cambridge.
I shall not attempt to relate at any great length the history of his
collegiate career, because, being myself a graduate of Calcutta
University, I am not, of course, proficient in the customs and
etiquettes of any rival seminaries, and should probably make one or two
trivial slips which would instantly be pounced upon and held up for
derision by carping critics.
So I shall content myself with mentioning a few leading facts and
incidents. Mr Bhosh very soon wormed himself into the good graces of his
fellow college boys, and his principal friend and _fidus Achates_ was a
young high-spirited aristocrat entitled Lord Jack Jolly, the only son of
an earl who had lately been promoted to the dignity of a baronetcy.
Lord Jolly and Mr Bhosh were soon as inseparable as a Dæmon and
Pythoness, and, though no nabob to wallow in filthy lucre, Mr Bhosh gave
frequent entertainments to his friends, who were hugely delighted by
the elegance of his hospitality and the garrulity of his conversation.
Unfortunately the fame of these Barmecide feasts soon penetrated the
ears of the College _gurus_, and Mr Bhosh's _Moolovee_ sent for him and
severely reprimanded him for neglecting to study for his Little-go
degree, and squandering his immense abilities and talents on mere
guzzling.
Whereupon Mr Bhosh shed tears of contrition, embracing the feet of his
senile tutor, and promising that, if only he was restored to favour he
would become more diligent in future.
And honourably did he fulfil this _nudum pactum_, for he became a most
exemplary bookworm, burning his midnight candle at both ends in the
endeavour to cram his mind with _belles lettres_.
But he was assailed by a temptation which I cannot forbear to chronicle.
One evening as he was poring over his learned tomes, who should arrive
but a deputation of prominent Cambridge boatmen and athletics, to
entreat him to accept a stroke oar of the University eight in the
forthcoming race with Oxford College!
This, as all aquatics will agree, was no small compliment--particularly
to one who was so totally unversed in wielding the flashing oar. But the
authorities had beheld him propelling a punt boat with marvellous
dexterity by dint of a paddle, and, taking the length of his foot on
that occasion, they had divined a Hercules and ardently desired him as a
confederate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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