Boys -- Fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Schools -- Fiction
Well, one day in came the Doctor to the school-room of the Fourth. I’m
in the Sixth myself, and a personal chum of Slade’s, the head of the
school; but I happened to have gone to the Fourth with a message, so I
saw what happened. A very big man who puffed out his chest like a pigeon
followed the Doctor. He had a blue tie on with a jolly bright diamond in
it, and there were small purple veins in a regular network over his
cheeks, and his mustache was yellowish-gray and waxed out as sharp as
pins. A lady followed him with red rims to her little eyes and gold
things hanging about her chest. The Doctor, being all arched up and
rolled round from the small of the back like a wood-louse, seemed to
show they were parents of perhaps more fellows than one. The big chap
wore an eye-glass and spoke very loud, and was jolly pleasant.
“Ah!” he said, “and this is where the little boys work, eh? I expect,
now, my youngster will be drafted in among these small men, Doctor
Dunston?”
“It is very possible--nay, probable in the highest degree, my lord,”
said the Doctor. “We are now,” he continued, “in the presence of the
Fourth and Lower Fourth. The class-room is spacious, as you see, and
new. A commanding panorama of the surrounding country and our
playing-fields may be enjoyed from the French windows. If two of you
lads will move that black-board from there, Lord Golightly may be able
to see something of the prospect.”
Two of the kids promptly knocked down the black-board nearly onto the
purple-veined lord’s head. Then suddenly the lady called out and
attracted his attention. Looking round, we found she had got awfully
excited, and stood pointing straight at young Tomlin. He was a mere kid,
at the extreme bottom of the Lower Fourth; but he happened to be my fag,
so I was interested. She pointed at him, in the most frantic way, with a
hand in a browny-yellow glove, and a gold bracelet outside the glove and
a little watch let into the bracelet.
“Good gracious!” she said, “do look Ralph! What an astounding
resemblance! Whoever is that boy?”
Tomlin turned rather red in the gills, which was natural.
“Do you know the lad?” asked the Doctor.
“Never saw him before in my life; but I hope he’ll forgive me for being
so rude as to point at him in that way,” she said. “He’s exactly like
our dear Carlo; they might be twins.”
Tomlin thought she meant a pet dog, and got rather rum to look at.
“Carlo is our son, you know,” explained the lord.
“Singular coincidence,” answered Doctor Dunston, not looking very keen
about it. In fact, he wasn’t too fond of Tomlin at any time, and seemed
sorry he should be dragged in now. But the kid was a very tidy sort,
really--Captain of the Third Footer Eleven and a good runner. He
happened to be the son of a big London hatter who had a shop of enormous
dimensions in Bond Street; and the Doctor was said to get his own hats
there; yet he didn’t like Tomlin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account