care, as his fathers did, that he would not be cheated in his change nor
be put upon by any "Frenchy." Foreign graduates may do their best with
Seminary lads--and their kind elsewhere--but they will not find it easy
to shape their unruly tongues; for the Briton is fully persuaded in the
background of his mind that he belongs to an imperial race and is born
to be a ruler, that every man will sooner or later have to speak his
language, and that it is undignified to condescend to French. The Briton
is pleased to know that foreign nations have some means of communication
between themselves--as, indeed, the lower animals have, if you go into
the matter; but since the Almighty has put an English (or Scots) tongue
in his mouth, it would be flying in the face of Providence not to use
it. It is, however, an excellent thing to have the graduates, and the
trim class-room, and the tables of the foreign verbs upon the wall, and
the conversation classes--Speug at a conversation class!--and all the
rest of it; but, oh! the days of long ago--and Moossy!
Like our only other foreigner, the Count, Moossy was a nameless man, for
although it must have been printed on the board in the vestibule of the
school, which had a list of masters and of classes, no one can now hint
at Moossy's baptismal name, nor even suggest his surname. The name of
the Count had been sunk in the nobility which we conferred upon him, and
which was the tribute of our respectful admiration, but "Moossy" was a
term of good-humoured contempt. We were only Scots lads of a provincial
town, and knew nothing of the outside world; but yet, with the instincts
of a race of Chieftains and Clansmen, we distinguished in our minds
between our two foreigners and placed them far apart. No doubt the Count
was womanish in his dress, and had fantastic manners, but we knew he was
a gallant gentleman, who was afraid of nobody and was always ready to
serve his friends; he was _débonnaire_, and counted himself the equal of
anyone in Muirtown, but Moossy was little better than an abject. He was
a little man, to begin with, and had made himself small by stooping till
his head had sunk upon his chest and his shoulders had risen to his
ears; his hair fell over the collar of his coat behind, and his
ill-dressed beard hid any shirt he wore; his hands and face showed only
the slightest acquaintance with soap and water, and although Speug was
not always careful in his own personal ablutions, and more than once had
been sent down to the lade by Bulldog to wash himself, yet Speug had a
healthy contempt for a dirty master. Moossy's clothes, it was believed,
had not been renewed since he came to the Seminary, and the cloak which
he wore on a winter day was a scandal to the town. His feet were large
and flat, and his knees touched as the one passed the other, and the
Seminary was honestly ashamed at the sight of him shambling across the
North Meadow. He looked so mean, so ill put together, so shabby, so
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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