At Aboukir and Acre | Page 4

in the streets. He was returning home with his cousins,
when a pert young clerk thought it a good joke to twitch off his cap and
throw it into a shop, and was astounded when, before the cap had
reached the floor, he himself was prostrate on the pavement.
He was no coward, however, and leapt up, furious, to punish this boy
of fourteen, but in spite of his superior strength and weight, he was no
match for Edgar, whose quickness on his legs enabled him to avoid his
rushes, while he planted his blows so quickly and heavily that in ten
minutes the clerk was unable to see out of his eyes, and had to be led
away amid the jeers of the crowd. This success increased Edgar's
ardour to perfect himself in the art. If he could so easily defeat an
English lad of seventeen, he felt sure that after another year's teaching
he need not fear an attack by the greatest ruffian in Alexandria. His
uncle had taken advice on the subject, and, desirous of carrying out his
brother's instructions to the fullest, changed his master every six
months; so that during the two years and a half that he was in England
Edgar had learned all that the five most skilled light-weight pugilists in
England could teach him.

"Yes, he is going in for it thoroughly," his uncle would say to his
friends. "Of course, I shall have my own boys taught in another three or
four years, for I think that every gentleman should be able to defend
himself if assaulted by a street ruffian; but in his case he has to learn
when quite young or not at all, and I think that it will be very useful to
him, as all these foreign fellows draw their knives on the least
occasion."
When Edgar returned to Alexandria, nine months before the time when
he and Sidi were watching Nelson's fleet, his father was well pleased
with the change that had taken place in him. He had been tall for his
age before he left, now he had not only grown considerably, but had
widened out. He was still far from being what may be called a
squarely-built boy, but he was of a fair width across the shoulders, and
was a picture of health and activity. The muscles of his arms, shoulders,
and loins were as tough as steel, his complexion was fresh and clear,
and he had scarce an ounce of superfluous flesh upon him.
"Save for your complexion, Edgar, you might well pass as a young
Bedouin if you were to wrap yourself up in their garb. I see you have
profited well by your teachers' instructions. Your uncle wrote to me a
year ago that you had administered a sound thrashing to a fellow
seventeen years old who had meddled with you, and as, no doubt, you
have improved in skill and strength since that time, I should think that
you need have no fear of holding your own should you get into trouble
with any of these street ruffians."
"I should hope so, father; at any rate I should not mind trying. I know
that I could hold my own pretty fairly with young Jackson. They call
him the 'Bantam'. He is the champion light-weight now, though he does
not fight above nine stone, so there is not much difference between us
in weight."
"Good! and how about your school work?"
"Oh, I did pretty well, father! I was good in Latin, but I was nowhere in
figures."

"Not grown quarrelsome, I hope, on the strength of your fighting,
Edgar?"
"No, sir, I hope not. I never had a fight at school except the one I had
three months after I got there, and I only had that one row you speak of
with a clerk. I don't think it would be fair, you see, to get into rows with
fellows who have no idea how thoroughly I have been taught."
His father nodded.
"Quite right, Edgar. My ideas are that a man who can box well is much
less likely to get into quarrels than one who cannot. He knows what he
can do, and that, if forced to use his skill, he is able to render a good
account of himself, and therefore he can afford to put up with more,
than one who is doubtful as to whether he is likely to come well out of
a fight if he begins one."
Edgar found on his arrival at Alexandria that his mother and sisters
were about to leave for England. Mrs. Blagrove had become seriously
indisposed, the result, as she maintained, of the climate, but which was
far more due to her indolent habits, for she never took any