Held Fast For England | Page 2

spite of the endless trouble he gives, and yet there is
scarcely a day passes that I am not obliged to cane him; and even that

does him no good, as far as I can see, for he seems to forget it, five
minutes after it is over. I wonder, sometimes, if he has really got
hardened, and doesn't feel it.
"He is sharp, and does his lessons well. I have no difficulty with him,
on that score; but he is a perfect imp of mischief."
With such characteristics, it need hardly be said that Bob Repton was
one of the most popular boys at Tulloch's school.
School life was, in those days--for it was in August, 1778, that Bob was
at Tulloch's--a very different thing to what it is, at present. Learning
was thrashed into boys. It was supposed that it could only be instilled in
this manner; and although some masters were, of course, more
tyrannical and brutal than others, the cane was everywhere in use, and
that frequently. Lads, then, had far less liberty and fewer sports than at
present; but as boys' spirits cannot be altogether suppressed, even by
the use of the cane, they found vent in other ways, and there was much
more mischief, and more breaking out of bounds, than now take place.
Boys were less trusted, and more harshly treated; in consequence of
which there was a kind of warfare between the masters and the boys, in
which the masters, in spite of their canes, did not always get the best of
it.
Bob Repton was nearly fifteen. He was short, rather than tall for his age,
but squarely built and strong. His hair could never be got to lie down,
but bristled aggressively over his head. His nose was inclined to turn up,
his gray eyes had a merry, mischievous expression, and his lips were
generally parted in a smile. A casual observer would have said that he
was a happy-go-lucky, merry, impudent-looking lad; but he was more
than this. He was shrewd, intelligent, and exceptionally plucky; always
ready to do a good turn to others, and to take more than his fair share of
blame, for every scrape he got into. He had fought many battles, and
that with boys older than himself, but he had never been beaten. The
opinion, generally, among the boys was that he did not feel pain and,
being caned so frequently, such punishment as he got in a fight was a
mere trifle to him.

He was a thorn in the side of Mr. Purfleet, the usher who was generally
in charge of the playground; who had learned by long experience that,
whenever Bob Repton was quiet, he was certain to be planning some
special piece of mischief. The usher was sitting now on a bench, with a
book in his hand; but his attention was, at present, directed to a group
of four boys who had drawn together in a corner of the playground.
"There is Repton, again," he said to himself. "I wonder what he is
plotting, now. That boy will be the death of me. I am quite sure it was
he who put that eel in my bed, last week; though of course, I could not
prove it."
Mr. Purfleet prided himself on his nerve. He had been telling the boys
some stories he had read of snakes, in India; among them, one of an
officer who, when seated at table, had felt a snake winding itself round
his leg, and who sat for several minutes without moving, until some
friends brought a saucer of milk and placed it near, when the snake
uncurled itself and went to drink.
"It must have required a lot of nerve, Mr. Purfleet," Bob Repton had
said, "to sit as quiet as that."
"Not at all, not at all," the usher replied, confidently. "It was the natural
thing to do. A man should always be calm, in case of sudden danger,
Bob. The first thought in his mind should be, 'What is this?' the second,
'What had best be done, under the circumstances?' and, these two things
being decided, a man of courage will deal coolly with the danger. I
should despise myself, if I were to act otherwise."
It was two nights later that the usher, having walked down between the
two rows of beds in the dormitory, and seeing that all the boys were
quiet, and apparently asleep, proceeded to his own bed, which was at
the end of the room, and partly screened off from the rest by a curtain.
No sooner did he disappear behind this than half a dozen heads were
raised. An oil lamp burned at the end of the room, affording light for
the usher to undress; and enabling