Lorna Doone | Page 6

is the custom and the law that when the
invading waters, either fluxing along the wall from below the
road-bridge, or pouring sharply across the meadows from a cut called
Owen's Ditch--and I myself have seen it come both ways--upon the

very instant when the waxing element lips though it be but a single
pebble of the founder's letters, it is in the license of any boy, soever
small and undoctrined, to rush into the great school-rooms, where a
score of masters sit heavily, and scream at the top of his voice, "P.B."
Then, with a yell, the boys leap up, or break away from their standing;
they toss their caps to the black-beamed roof, and haply the very books
after them; and the great boys vex no more the small ones, and the
small boys stick up to the great ones. One with another, hard they go, to
see the gain of the waters, and the tribulation of Cop, and are prone to
kick the day-boys out, with words of scanty compliment. Then the
masters look at one another, having no class to look to, and (boys being
no more left to watch) in a manner they put their mouths up. With a
spirited bang they close their books, and make invitation the one to the
other for pipes and foreign cordials, recommending the chance of the
time, and the comfort away from cold water.
But, lo! I am dwelling on little things and the pigeons' eggs of the
infancy, forgetting the bitter and heavy life gone over me since then. If
I am neither a hard man nor a very close one, God knows I have had no
lack of rubbing and pounding to make stone of me. Yet can I not
somehow believe that we ought to hate one another, to live far asunder,
and block the mouth each of his little den; as do the wild beasts of the
wood, and the hairy outrangs now brought over, each with a chain upon
him. Let that matter be as it will. It is beyond me to unfold, and mayhap
of my grandson's grandson. All I know is that wheat is better than when
I began to sow it.

CHAPTER II
AN IMPORTANT ITEM
[Illustration: 005.jpg The School Room]
Now the cause of my leaving Tiverton school, and the way of it, were
as follows. On the 29th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1673,

the very day when I was twelve years old, and had spent all my
substance in sweetmeats, with which I made treat to the little boys, till
the large boys ran in and took them, we came out of school at five
o'clock, as the rule is upon Tuesdays. According to custom we drove
the day-boys in brave rout down the causeway from the school-porch
even to the gate where Cop has his dwelling and duty. Little it recked
us and helped them less, that they were our founder's citizens, and
haply his own grand-nephews (for he left no direct descendants),
neither did we much inquire what their lineage was. For it had long
been fixed among us, who were of the house and chambers, that these
same day-boys were all "caddes," as we had discovered to call it,
because they paid no groat for their schooling, and brought their own
commons with them. In consumption of these we would help them, for
our fare in hall fed appetite; and while we ate their victuals, we allowed
them freely to talk to us. Nevertheless, we could not feel, when all the
victuals were gone, but that these boys required kicking from the
premises of Blundell. And some of them were shopkeepers' sons,
young grocers, fellmongers, and poulterers, and these to their credit
seemed to know how righteous it was to kick them. But others were of
high family, as any need be, in Devon--Carews, and Bouchiers, and
Bastards, and some of these would turn sometimes, and strike the boy
that kicked them. But to do them justice, even these knew that they
must be kicked for not paying.
After these "charity-boys" were gone, as in contumely we called
them--"If you break my bag on my head," said one, "how will feed
thence to-morrow?"--and after old Cop with clang of iron had jammed
the double gates in under the scruff-stone archway, whereupon are
Latin verses, done in brass of small quality, some of us who were not
hungry, and cared not for the supper-bell, having sucked much
parliament and dumps at my only charges--not that I ever bore much
wealth, but because I had been thrifting it for this time of my birth--we
were leaning quite at dusk against the iron bars of the gate some six, or
it may be seven