It was quite a relief to me to have this conversation with Mr Hostler, for I felt that I could learn after a time, though at first I experienced all the difficulties of novelty in everything I attempted.
Chapter Four
Experiences at School – My First Fight
On entering the playground I saw about forty boys amusing themselves in various ways. Some were jumping with a pole, others were leaping over a tape, whilst several were talking in groups. As I approached the ground, I heard several boys call out, “Here he is!”
“Now where’s Fraser?” whilst eight or ten boys came round me, and seemed looking at me as a curiosity.
“You’re going to be an engineer, aren’t you?” said one boy.
“Yes,” I replied.
A shout of laughter was the result of this remark of mine, the reason for which I could not comprehend.
“You’re very clever, I suppose,” said the same boy; “an awful hand at Swat.”
“I can do rule-of-three,” I replied.
“Lor! what a clever fellow!” replied the boy. “I say,” he shouted, “Ansell, James, come here! We have a Sir Isaac Newton here!”
As he called, four or five boys came up and joined the others near me.
“He’s going to be an engineer,” said the same boy; “and he knows rule-of-three! Isn’t he likely to get them?”
“Where have you come from?” asked another boy.
“From the New Forest, Hampshire,” I replied.
“Then you’d better go back to the New Forest, Hampshire, and feed the pigs there.”
“You are very rude,” I said, “to speak like that.”
A shout of laughter greeted this speech, whilst the same boy intimated that I was “a confounded young prig!”
“Oh, here you are!” said Fraser, who suddenly appeared on the scene. “I’ve been looking for you. What do you mean by shying a book at me?”
“Why, you kicked me for no reason at all,” I replied. “It is I who have cause to complain of you.”
“Oh, you have, have you? then take that?”
Before I knew what was going to be done, Fraser suddenly struck me full in the face. The blow was so severe that for a second or two I scarcely knew what had happened. Then, however, I realised the fact, and, rushing at Fraser, I struck wildly at him. Without seeming to disturb himself much, Fraser either guarded off my blows or quickly dodged so as to avoid them; and when he saw an opportunity, as he soon did, he punished me severely.
Fraser was smaller than I was, but was certainly stouter, and he possessed what I did not, viz, skill in the use of his fists. This was the first fight I had ever been in, whilst he was an old hand at pugilistic encounters. The result, consequently, was what might be expected, viz, in ten minutes I was entirely beaten, all my strength seemed gone, and I was unable to raise a hand in my defence.
“Don’t you shy a book at me again,” said Fraser as he left me leaning against the wall, trying to recover myself.
“Bravo, Fraser! well done!” said one or two boys who had formed a ring round us as we fought. Not a boy seemed to pity me, or to be disposed to help me, and I felt as utterly miserable as a boy could feel.
As I leant against the wall, with my handkerchief to my nose, a boy named Strong came up and said, —
“You’d better wash the blood off your face, Shepard, or there’ll be a row.”
“I don’t care,” I replied, “whether there’s a row or not.”
“Come along,” said Strong; “don’t be downhearted. Fraser is an awful mill and a great bully, and always bullies a new boy just to show off his fighting. Come and wash your face.”
I went with Strong, and removed as much as possible the evidence of my late combat – Strong all the time trying his best to cheer me up.
“You’ve never been at a boarding-school before?” said Strong inquiringly.
“No; and I don’t think I shall stop here long,” I replied.
“Oh, there will be another new boy soon, and then you’ll lead an easy life.”
“But is every new boy treated as I am?”
“Well, very nearly the same. Then they are down upon you because you boasted you were going to get the Engineers’.”
“Boasted? I didn’t mean to boast. I came here to prepare for the Engineers.”
“But don’t you know that it’s only about one in twenty who go to the Academy who are clever enough for the Engineers? and when you say you are going to be an engineer it looks like boasting. You may be very clever, and a first-rate hand at Euclid and Swat; but it doesn’t do to boast.”
This speech opened my eyes at once. In my ignorance I knew no difference between being an engineer or anything else; but I now saw why it was that all the boys seemed to make such game of me when I said I was intended for the Engineers, as it was like asserting that I was very clever, and claiming to have it in my power to beat nineteen out of twenty boys who might compete with me. I now began to realise it as a fact that I was utterly ignorant on nearly every subject that was likely to be of use to me at Mr Hostler’s. I knew nothing either of schoolboys or school-life. To me it seemed most ungenerous that I should be laughed at because I made a mistake, not knowing that schoolboys as a rule are disposed to make butts of those who are not as well acquainted as themselves with the few facts on which they pride themselves.
In the afternoon of this my first day at Mr Hostler’s, my pride again received a severe blow. The subject studied in the afternoon was arithmetic and algebra; and on coming into the schoolroom Mr Monk asked me where I had left off in arithmetic.
In order not to make any mistake, I replied that rule-of-three was what I had last done.
I remember well that Aunt Emma, who used to teach me arithmetic, had a book out of which she used to copy a sum of a very simple nature, but which she as well as I thought at the time rather difficult. She then used to show me an example to point out how it was done; and, when I had finished it, used to compare my answer with that given in the book. She was rather hazy about the problem as a rule, and never ventured to give me any explanation as to where I was wrong in case my answer did not correspond with that in the book; but still I was supposed to have learnt rule-of-three, though I soon found out my mistake. The style of questions that I used to solve at home were such as the following: —
“If a bushel of coals costs two shillings and sixpence, what would be the price of fifty bushels?”
These I could fairly accomplish without much probability of making a mistake; and so I hoped I might succeed in passing Mr Monk’s examination of my rule-of-three.
“Just write down this question,” said Mr Monk; “we shall soon see if you know anything about rule-of-three.”
The following question was then dictated to me: —
“If 10 men and 6 boys dig a trench 100 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 5 feet deep, in 12 days, how many boys ought to be employed to dig a trench 200 feet long, 3 feet deep, and 6 feet wide, in 8 days, if only 5 men were employed, 2 boys being supposed equal to 1 man?”
As I read over this question I felt my heart sink within me. I knew I could not do it properly, and that I should again expose myself to ridicule in having said I could accomplish rule-of-three, when, if this were rule-of-three, I knew nothing of it. I sat for several minutes looking at the question, and trying to discover some means