Boycotted | Page 4

almost
amusement, I knew it was a mistake, and that I had done nothing to
merit the sentence which had been passed upon me. Draven's had put
itself in the wrong, and I had pride enough to determine that I of all
people was not going out of my way to put it right.

So I took my cousin's announcement coolly, and refrained from
demanding any further explanations.
"Oh!" I said, with something like a sneer, and walked off; leaving him,
so I flattered myself, rather snubbed.
I was boycotted!
There was something a trifle flattering in the situation. Brave men
before my time had been boycotted. I had read their stories, and
sympathised with them, and hated (as I hate still) the miscreants who,
in the name of "patriotism" had acted the sneak's and coward's part to
ruin them. Now I was going to taste something of their hardships at the
hands of my "patriotic" schoolfellows; and my spirit rose as I resolved
to hold up my head with the bravest of them.
Forewarned is forearmed; and when I went into school that afternoon I
gave no one a chance of avoiding me. I spread myself out as
comfortably as possible at my place, and shifted some of the papers and
books which crowded my own desk into the vacant desks on either side
of me, first ejecting rather ostentatiously a few papers and notebooks
which had been left in them by their late owners.
I was conscious of one or two glances directed my way across the room;
but these only added to my pleasure as I emptied Sadgrove's inkpot into
my own, and proceeded cheerfully to cut my initials on Williams's desk.
When I was put up to construe, I managed to get through my passage
without any sign of trepidation; and when at last the class was
dismissed, I took the wind out of the sails of my boycotters by
remaining some minutes later than any one else, completing the
decoration of my new quarters.
It was easy enough in the playground that afternoon to keep clear of my
fellow human beings; and I had, as I persuaded myself, a jolly hour in
the gymnasium all by myself. Fellows looked in at the door now and
then, but did not disturb my peace; and it was rather gratifying than
otherwise to feel that as long as I chose to occupy the place every one
else would have to wait outside.

"After all," thought I, as I went to bed that night, "boycotting isn't as
bad as people make it out. I've had all I wanted to-day. No one has
annoyed me or injured me. I can do pretty much as I like; in fact, I do
more than I ever used to be able to do. If any one is loser by it all, it's
the other fellows, and not me. I rather enjoy it.
"Still," I could not help reflecting; as I turned over and went to sleep, "I
think Harrison might have stuck by me."
When I woke next morning it was with a sense of something on my
mind. I tried hard to persuade myself it was amusement, and went
down to breakfast wondering how Draven's would keep it up. I found
myself "top- hammer" again--or I should say "top-muttoner," for ham
was a luxury reserved only for one day in the week--and the two chairs
below me were again vacant.
I helped myself to a slice from the uninviting joint, and then artlessly
pushed the dish along one place, opposite the first of the empty chairs,
and proceeded to regale myself.
It was interesting to see the perplexity which my simple manoeuvre
caused. The next fellow below me, out of reach three chairs away, had
nothing for it but either to speak to me, which I calculated his vows
would not allow him to do, or else ignominiously to walk up to the seat
next mine and possess himself of the dish. He did the latter, and I
scored one--the only "one" I scored for some time to come.
For Draven's, seeing I was defiant, felt hurt in its pride, and drew the
blockade closer around me. It had expected at least that I should make
some effort to win my way back into popularity, and it did not at all
like, when it chose to boycott me, that I should boycott it. So gradually
we forgot what the quarrel was about, and set ourselves to see who
could hold out longest.
A manly, sensible, Christian occupation for fifty fellow-creatures
during a dull winter month!
I never got the gymnasium to myself now, for whenever I went it was

always full, and remained full till I was tired of waiting for a vacant bar
or