Glyn Severns Schooldays | Page 9

look at that belt, but I won't show it about; but I say, Glyn, I shall be glad when we get older and have both begun learning to be--no, what do you call it?--not learning--I mean, being taught to be soldiers."
"Training," said Glyn.
"Yes, training--that's it; and we shall go together to that place where your father was, not far from London. You know--the place he used to talk to us about, where he was trained before he came out to India."
"Addiscombe," said Glyn quietly, as he stood watching his companion thrust the case back into the bottom of the portmanteau and rearrange the garments he had moved, while his hand lingered for a few moments about a soft white robe, which he covered over with a sigh before closing the lid and turning the key of the great leather case.
"Yes," he said, "Addiscombe. What stories he used to tell us about the young officers there! What did he call them? I forget."
"Cadets," said Glyn thoughtfully.
"That's it. I wish I didn't forget so many of those English words; but," continued the boy, "I liked it best when he told us about the battles out at home, when all the chiefs around were fighting against my father the Maharajah, so as to slay him and divide his possessions. You know, my father has talked about it to me as well--how he was so nearly beaten and weakened, and so many of his bravest officers killed, that it made him apply to the great Company for help, and they sent your father. Oh, what a brave man he was!"
"Who said that?" cried Glyn, flushing up.
"My father the Maharajah. He said so to me many times, and that he was his best and truest friend. Oh yes, I used to like to hear about it all, and he used to tell me that the Colonel would always be my truest friend as well, and that I was to love him and obey him, and always believe that what he told me to do was right. And I always do."
"Of course you do," said Glyn flushing. "Yes, Singh, he is some one to be proud of, isn't he? But I am like you; I don't much like coming to this school, though the Doctor is very nice and kind to us both."
"Yes, I like him better than the masters," said Singh; "but I don't like the boys, and I don't think they like me."
"Oh, wait a bit," said Glyn. "It's because everything seems so different to being in India; but, as father says, there is such a lot one ought to learn, and we shall get used to it by-and-by; only, I say, you know what the dad said?"
"You mean about trying to be an English gentle man and leaving the maharajah till I get back home?"
"Yes, that's it," cried Glyn eagerly.
"Yes; but it's hard work, for everything is so different here, and the boys are not like you."
"Oh yes, they are," cried Glyn merrily; "just the same. Here, come on; let's go down and see whether Wrench has put up those forms by the wall. We want to see the show."
"Yes," cried Singh. "It puts one in mind of Dour again, and I have been thinking that we don't get on with the other boys through me."
"What do you mean with your `through me'?" said Glyn.
"Well, I don't quite know. It's because I am an Indian, I suppose; and when they talk to me as they do, and bully me, as you call it, it makes my heart feel hot and as if I should like to do something strange. But I am going to try. And look here, Glyn," said the lad very seriously, "I shall begin at once."
"Begin what?"
"Trying to make them like me. I shall make friends with that big fellow Slegge, and bear it all, and if he goes on again like he did this morning I have quite made up my mind I won't fight."
"Oh," said Glyn drily. "Well, come on down the grounds now. We shall see."
CHAPTER FOUR.
THE ELEPHANT CRIES "PHOOMP!"
Plymborough was out in street and road excepting those who lived on the line of route and had windows that looked down upon the coming procession, which was to be timed to reach the town, after a long march from Duncombe, at noon precisely.
Small things please country people, and there was not much work being done that day. It was an excuse for a holiday, as eagerly seized upon by the townsfolk, old and young, as by the young gentlemen of Dr Bewley's establishment.
But that was not all. The villages near Plymborough were many, and the people for miles round flocked into the place to see the procession and stop afterwards about the market-place to visit the exhibition