That Boy Of Norcott's. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ little Latin, sir, and some French, and some German, and three books of Euclid, and the Greek grammar – ”

      “There, there, that’s more than enough. It will tax your tutor’s ingenuity to stub up all this rubbish, and prepare the soil for real acquirement. I was hoping I should see you a savage: a fresh, strong-natured impulsive savage! What I ‘m to do with you, with your little peddling knowledge of a score of things, I can’t imagine. I ‘d swear you can neither ride, row, nor fence, never handled a cricket-ball or a single-stick?”

      “Quite true, sir; but I ‘d like to do every one of them.”

      “Of course you have been taught music?”

      “Yes, sir; the piano, and a little singing.”

      “That completes it,” cried he, flinging his book from him. “They ‘ve been preparing you for a travelling circus, while I wanted to make you a gentleman. Mind me now, sir, and don’t expect that I ever repeat my orders to any one. What I say once I mean to be observed. Let your past life be entirely forgotten by you, – a thing that had no reality; begin from this day – from this very room – a new existence, which is to have neither link nor tie to what has gone before it. The persons you will see here, their ways, their manners, their tone, will be examples for your imitation; copy them, not servilely nor indiscriminately, but as you will find how their traits will blend with your own nature. Never tell an untruth, never accept an insult without redress, be slow about forming friendships, and where you hate, hate thoroughly. That’s enough for the present. Ask Mr. Eccles to have the kindness to take you to his tailor and order some clothes. You must dine alone till you are suitably dressed. After that you shall come to my table. One thing more and you may go: don’t ever approach me with tales or complaints of any one; right yourself where you can, and where you cannot, bear your grievance silently. You can change nothing, alter nothing, here; you are a guest, but a guest over whom I exercise full control. If you please me, it will be well for you; if not, you understand – it will cost me little to tell you so. Go. Go now.” He motioned me to leave him, and I went. Straight to my room I went, and sat down at once to write it all to mother. My heart swelled with indignation at the way I had been received, and a hundred times over did I say to myself that there was no poverty, no hardship I would not face rather than buy a life of splendor on such ignominious terms. Oh, if I could but get back again to the little home I had quitted, how I would bless the hour that restored me to peace of mind and self-respect! As I wrote, my indignation warmed with every line. I found that my passion was actually mastering my reason. Better to finish this, later on, – when I shall be cooler, thought I; and I walked to my window and opened it. There were voices of people speaking in the paddock below, and I leaned over the balcony and saw the two men I had seen at breakfast, seated on rustic chairs, watching a young horse being broken to the saddle. The well-worn ring in the grass showed that this spot was reserved for such purposes, nor was I displeased to know that such a source of interest lay so near to me.

      “Isn’t he one of your Mexicans, George?” asked Captain Hotham.

      “No, sir, he’s a Hungarian-bred ‘un. Master calls him a Jucker, whatever that is.”

      “Plenty of action, anyhow.”

      “A little too much, sir; that’s his fault. He’s a-comin’ now, and it’s all they can do to keep him going over the park paling. Take this one back,” said he to the groom, who was ringing a heavy-shouldered, ungainly colt in the ring.

      “You ‘ll not gain much credit by that animal, George,” said Cleremont, as he lighted a cigar.

      “He ain’t a beauty, sir; he ‘s low before, and he’s cow-hocked behind; but Sir Roger says he’s the best blood in Norfolk. Take care, take care, sir! the skittish devil never knows where he ‘ll send his hind-legs. Steady, Tom, don’t check him: why, he’s sweating as if he had been round the two-mile course.”

      The animal that called for this criticism was a dark chestnut, but so bathed in sweat as to appear almost black. He was one of those cross breeds between the Arab and the western blood, that gain all the beauty of head and crest and straightly formed croup, and yet have length of body and depth of rib denied to the pure Arab. To my thinking he was the most perfect creature I had ever seen, and as he bounded and plunged, there was a supple grace and pliancy about him indescribably beautiful.

      George now unloosened the long reins which were attached to the heavy surcingle, and after walking the animal two or three times round the circle, suffered him to go free. As if astonished at his liberty, the young creature stood still for a minute or two, and sniffed the air, and then gave one wild bound and headlong plunge, as though he were going straight into the earth; after which he looked timidly about him, and then walked slowly along in the track worn by the others.

      “He’s far quieter than the last time I saw him,” said Hotham.

      “He’s gettin’ more sense every day, sir,” replied George; “he don’t scratch his head with his hind-leg now, sir, and he don’t throw hisself down neither.”

      “He has n’t given up biting, I see,” said Cleremont.

      “No, sir; and they tell me them breed never does; but it’s only play, sir.”

      “I’ll give you six months before you can call him fit to ride, George.”

      “My name ain’t Spunner, sir, if the young gent as come yesterday don’t back him in six weeks’ time.”

      “And is it for the boy Norcott intends him?” asked Cleremont of Hotham.

      “So he told me yesterday; and though I warned him that he hadn’t another boy if that fellow should come to grief, he only said, ‘If he’s got my blood in him, he ‘ll keep his saddle; and if he has n’t, he had better make room for another.’”

      “Ain’t he a-going beautiful now?” cried George, as the animal swung slowly along at a gentle trot, every step of which was as measured as clockwork.

      “You ‘ll have to teach the youngster also, George,” said Hotham. “I ‘m sure he never backed a horse in his life.”

      “Nay, sir, he rode very pretty indeed when he was six years old. I didn’t put him on a Shelty, or one of the hard-mouthed ‘uns, but a nice little lively French mare, that reared up the moment he bore hard on her bit; so that he learned to sit on his beast without holdin’ on by the bridle.”

      “He’s a loutish boy,” said Cleremont to the Captain. “I ‘ll wager what you like they’ll not make a horseman of him.”

      “Ecoles says he’s a confounded pedant,” said the other; “that he wanted to cap Horace with him at breakfast.”

      “Poor Bob! that was n’t exactly his line; but he ‘d hold his own in Balzac or Fred Soulié.”

      “Oh, now I see what Norcott was driving at when he said, ‘I wanted the stuff to make a gentleman, and they ‘ve sent me the germ of a school-usher.’ I said, ‘Send him to sea with me. I shall be afloat in March, and I ‘ll take him.’”

      “Well, what answer did he make you?”

      “It was n’t a civil one,” said the other, gruffly. “He said, ‘You misapprehend me, Hotham. A sea-captain is only a boatswain in epaulettes. I mean the boy to be a gentleman.’”

      “And you bore that?”

      “Yes. Just as well as you bore his telling you at dinner on Sunday last that a СКАЧАТЬ