Ande Trembath: A Tale of Old Cornwall EnglandKemp, Matthew Stanley
General
Ande Trembath: A Tale of Old Cornwall England
Kemp, Matthew Stanley
Cornwall (England : County) -- Fiction
For four centuries the school had been the centre of education for the
west of Cornwall. Gentlemen can point to it with pride this day, as they
could then, as the birthplace of their early efforts and the inspiration
of their ambitions. At the time of Ande's entrance it had emerged from
the obscurity of the past into the foremost school of Cornwall. This
result was due much to the energetic labours and talents of the head
master, Rev. Mr. Trewan, M. A., a scholar of Oxford. Stern, yet kind and
affectionate to the youths under his charge, he was universally beloved
by his pupils. In his dealings with his pupils of whatever age, he was
of the same opinion as Quintilian that "a child too disingenuous to be
corrected by reproof, like a slave, will only be hardened by continuous
blows."
Though the scholars loved and revered the head, yet the under-master, a
certain Mr. Sherwood, received little or no affection from them. He was
sharp-featured as a weasel, sarcastic in speech, a scholarly egotist,
with the garment of dignity and a predilection to the use of euphonious
words.
The new scholar, entering in the midst of the year, found himself sadly
handicapped. In age and size, he should have been enrolled among the
fifth form. His withdrawal from the parish school after the lamentable
affair of the stocks placed him in no higher position than near the head
of the fourth.
The head of the sixth, a certain William Jordan, a great scholar--almost
a demigod--in the estimation of the lesser forms, and one of the school
monitors, took Ande in charge after his examination, and courteously
showed him around the school. The schoolroom with its row of desks and
forms, the cloakroom, the dining hall, the library, the dormitory, all
were successively inspected.
"This will be your sleeping apartment," said Jordan, as he opened a
green baize door on the second floor. Within were several beds and other
bedroom furniture. A few windows that opened toward the playground gave
abundance of light.
The new scholar soon became accustomed with his new surroundings and set
in to study with a zeal that surprised masters and pupils. He won the
hearts of his fellows of the fourth by setting out a feast for them that
first night in the fourth form dormitory. Mrs. Trembath had not
forgotten a hamper of good things, among them several bottles of mild
herby beer. These she had sent in with his luggage. The feast was spread
on one of the beds, and his fellows, after it was terminated, promptly
voted him a trump and proclaimed him, then and there, "King of the
Fourth Form."
The king accepted his title by giving an entertainment that night in a
noiseless manner. With the aid of a little phosphorus he caused many
uncouth and laughable figures to appear upon the wall, to the great
wonder of the smaller fourth form boys.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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