The Babe, B.A. : being the uneventful history of a young gentleman at Cambridge UniversityBenson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
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The Babe, B.A. : being the uneventful history of a young gentleman at Cambridge University
Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
Cambridge (England) -- Fiction; College stories; College students -- Fiction; University of Cambridge -- Fiction
“There was an old fellow of King’s” he was saying, “in me undergraduate
days, who must have been eighty, and never a night had he spent out of
Cambridge since he came up as an undergraduate. An infidel old lot he
was. Many a time I’ve seen him in the evening, when the worms were come
out on the grass plot, hobbling about and trying to kill them with the
point of his stick. He used to talk to them and make faces at them
and say, ‘Ah, damn you. You haven’t got me yet.’ A queer lot they all
were, not the worms I mean, heh, heh, but the old dons. There were two
others who had been great mathematicians in their time, and they used
to spend their evenings together doing, what do you think? Making paper
boats, sir, which they went and sailed on the Cam next day. They would
start them from the King’s bridge, and sail them down to the willow at
the other end of the lawn. And such quarrels as they had over which
had won! One of them one morning, his name was Jenkinson, if I’m not
mistaken, an old Yorkshireman, got so heated over it,--for he said the
other boat had fouled his, as if they were racing for a cup,--that he
went for the other man, by gad, sir, he went for him, and tried to push
him into the river. But the other--his name was Keggs--was too quick
for him, and stepped out of the way, and head over ears into the river
went Jenkinson himself, being unable to stop himself, sir, by reason of
the impetus he had got up. The river isn’t over deep, there, as you
know, perhaps two feet deep, and he stood up as soon as he could find
his feet and bawled out: ‘Ah misdoot ye’ve drooned me, Keggs.’”
The Babe was delighted.
“Do tell me some more,” he said, when Mr. Moffat had finished laughing
himself, which he did in a silent, internal manner.
“Ah, some of those old fellows did things not quite fit for boys to
hear about. _Maxima reverentia_, eh, Mr. Stewart? But there was an
Irishman, a fellow of Clare too, in my time. I might tell you about
him; he used to live in the rooms above the gate. He had a quarrel with
the Master, and as often as the Master went in and out of the gate,
egad, the old chap would try to spit on his head. If the Master was
out to dinner, he would wait up, sitting in his window till he came
back, be it eleven o’clock or twelve, or later than that. At last the
Master had to put up an umbrella when he walked under the gate of his
own college and then the old fellow would shout out, ‘Come, out o’
that, ye ould divil, and let me get at ye.’ A disreputable old crew
they were!--Ah well, it’s half-past ten. Eleven’s me bedtime, and I
must be going. Good-night to you Mr. Stewart, and many thanks for your
kind hospitality. And good-night to you, sir,” he said turning to the
Babe; “I heard them shout ‘Clytemnestra, good old Clytemnestra,’ after
you all down the street. And you deserved an ovation, sir, you richly
deserved an ovation, and I’m glad you got it.”
After Mr. Moffat’s departure, they settled down again, and Stewart
remarked:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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