Burr Junior | Page 3

such luck."
"Oh, but we must! I've written this out. You'll sign, won't you?"
My neighbour snatched a document consisting of about half a dozen lines, and pushed it back.
"He'll keep us in if we do."
"Not he. I know he wants to drive over to Hastings with the girls. Sign, there's a good chap."
"But you haven't signed."
"No. I shall put my name last."
"Yah! Can't catch old birds with chaff, Eely."
"If you call me Eely again, I'll punch your head."
"You sign first, and I'll put my name next."
"Shan't! and if you don't put your name at once, I'll tear up the paper. I don't want a holiday; it was all for you boys."
"Thank-ye," said my neighbour derisively.
"Just you wait till we're out in the field, Jalap, and I'll serve you out for this."
"Burr junior," said a rich, deep, unctuous voice, which seemed to roll through the school, and there was a dead silence.
"Here, you!--get up. Go on."
"Burr junior!" came in a louder, deeper voice.
"He means you," whispered my neighbour.
"Say Adsum," whispered the tall, thin boy, and, on the impulse given, I repeated the Latin word feebly.
"Go up to him," whispered my neighbour, and, pulling my legs out from between the form and the desk, I walked up through the centre opening between the two rows of desks, conscious of tittering and whispering, two or three words reaching my ears, such as "cane," "pickle," "catch it certain."
Then, feeling hot and confused, I found myself on the dais in front of the desk, where the Doctor was looking searchingly at me through his gold-rimmed spectacles. Then, turning himself round, he slowly and ponderously crossed one leg over the other, and waved his hand.
"Come to the side," he said, and feeling more conscious up there on the dais, I moved round, and he took my hand.
"I am glad to welcome you among us, Frank, to join in our curriculum of study, and I hope you will do us all credit. Er--rum! Let me see. Burr--Frank Burr. We have another Burr here, who has stuck among us for some years."
The Doctor paused and looked round with a very fat smile, in the midst of a peculiar silence, till Mr Rebble at the other end said loudly,--
"Ha! ha! Excellent!" and there was now a loud burst of laughter.
I thought that I should not like Mr Rebble, but I saw that the Doctor liked his appreciation of his joke, for he smiled pleasantly, and continued,--
"Let me see. I think we have a pleasant little custom here, not more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Eh, Mr Rebble?"
"Certainly, sir, certainly," said that gentleman, and the Doctor frowned at his leg, as he smoothed it down. But his face cleared directly.
"Er--rum!" he continued, clearing his voice. "Of having a brief cessation from our studies upon the advent of a new boy. Young gentlemen, you may close your books for to-day."
There was a hearty cheer at this, and the Doctor rose, thrust his hand into his breast beside his white shirt-frill, then, waving the other majestically, he turned to me as the cheering ceased.
"Burr junior," he said, "you can return to your seat."
I stepped back, forgetting all about the dais, and fell rather heavily, but sprang up again, scarlet with mortification.
"Not hurt? No? That's right," said the Doctor; and amid a chorus of "Thank you, sir! thank you, sir!" he marched slowly out of the great room, closely followed by Mr Rebble, while I stood, shaken by my fall, and half dazed by the uproar.
CHAPTER TWO.
How strange it all seemed! I had ridden down the previous day by the Hastings coach, which had left me with my big box at the old inn at Middlehurst. Here the fly had been ordered to take me the remaining ten miles on to the school, where I had arrived just at dusk, and, after a supper of bread and milk, I was shown my bed, one of six in a large room, and made the acquaintance of Mercer, who, after pretty well peppering me with questions, allowed me to go to sleep in peace, till the bell rang at six, when I sprang out of bed, confused and puzzled at finding myself there instead of at home. Then, as the reality forced itself upon me, and I was scowled at by five sleepy boys, all in the ill-humoured state caused by being obliged to get up before they pleased, I hurriedly dressed, thinking that I could never settle down to such a life as that, and wondering what my uncle and my mother would say if I started off, went straight back, and told them I did not mean to stop at school.
Everything looked cheerless and miserable, for there was a thick fog outside, one which had been wafted over from the sea,