CHAPTER XXIX
TOMMY THE SCHOLAR
So Miss Ailie could be brave, but what a poltroon she was also! Threecalls did she make on dear friends, ostensibly to ask how a cold was orto instruct them in a new device in Shetland wool, but really toannounce that she did not propose keeping school after the end of theterm--because--in short, Mr. Ivie McLean and she--that is he--and so on.But though she had planned it all out so carefully, with at least threecapital ways of leading up to it, and knew precisely what they wouldsay, and pined to hear them say it, on each occasion shyness conqueredand she came away with the words unspoken. How she despised herself, andhow Mr. McLean laughed! He wanted to take the job off her hands bytelling the news to Dr. McQueen, who could be depended on to spread itthrough the town, and Miss Ailie discovered with horror that his simpleplan was to say, "How are you, doctor? I just looked in to tell you thatMiss Ailie and I are to be married. Good afternoon." The audacity ofthis captivated Miss Ailie even while it outraged her sense of decency.To Redlintie went Mr. McLean, and returning next day drew from hispocket something which he put on Miss Ailie's finger, and then she hadthe idea of taking off her left glove in church, which would haveannounced her engagement as loudly as though Mr. Dishart had included itin his pulpit intimations. Religion, however, stopped her when she hadgot the little finger out, and the Misses Finlayson, who sat behind andknew she had an itchy something inside her glove, concluded that it washer threepenny for the plate. As for Gavinia, like others of her classin those days, she had never heard of engagement rings, and so it reallyseemed as if Mr. McLean must call on the doctor after all. But "No,"said he, "I hit upon a better notion to-day in the Den," and to explainthis notion he produced from his pocket a large, vulgar bottle, whichshocked Miss Ailie, and indeed that bottle had not passed through thestreets uncommented on.
Mr. McLean having observed this bottle afloat on the Silent Pool, hadfished it out with his stick, and its contents set him chuckling. Theyconsisted of a sheet of paper which stated that the bottle was beingflung into the sea in lat. 20, long. 40, by T. Sandys, Commander of theAilie, then among the breakers. Sandys had little hope of weathering thegale, but he was indifferent to his own fate so long as his enemy didnot escape, and he called upon whatsoever loyal subjects of the Queenshould find this document to sail at once to lat. 20, long. 40, andthere cruise till they had captured the Pretender, _alias_ Stroke, anddestroyed his Lair. A somewhat unfavorable personal description ofStroke was appended, with a map of the coast, and a stern warning to allloyal subjects not to delay as one Ailie was in the villain's hands andhe might kill her any day. Victoria Regina would give five hundredpounds for his head. The letter ended in manly style with the writer'ssending an affecting farewell message to his wife and little children.
"And so while we are playing ourselves," said Mr. McLean to Miss Ailie,"your favorite is seeking my blood."
"Our favorite," interposed the school-mistress, and he accepted thecorrection, for neither of them could forget that their presentrelations might have been very different had it not been for Tommy'sfaith in the pass-book. The boy had shown a knowledge of the humanheart, in Miss Ailie's opinion, that was simply wonderful; inspirationshe called it, and though Ivie thought it a happy accident, he did notcall it so to her. Tommy's father had been the instrument in bringingthese two together originally, and now Tommy had brought them togetheragain; there was fate in it, and if the boy was of the right stuffMcLean meant to reward him.
"I see now," he said to Miss Ailie, "a way of getting rid of ourfearsome secret and making my peace with Sandys at one fell blow." Hedeclined to tell her more, but presently he sought Gavinia, who dreadedhim nowadays because of his disconcerting way of looking at herinquiringly and saying "I do!"
"You don't happen to know, Gavinia," he asked, "whether the good shipAilie weathered the gale of the 15th instant? If it did," he went on,"Commander Sandys will learn something to his advantage from a bottlethat is to be cast into the ocean this evening."
Gavinia thought she heard the chink of another five shillings, and hermouth opened so wide that a chaffinch could have built therein. "Is heto look for a bottle in the pond?" she asked, eagerly.
"I do," replied McLean with such solemnity that she again retired to thecoal-cellar.
That evening Mr. McLean cast a bottle into the Silent Pool, andsubsequently called on Mr. Cathro, to whom he introduced himself as oneinterested in Master Thomas Sandys. He was heartily received, but at thename of Tommy, Cathro heaved a sigh that could not pass unnoticed. "Isee you don't find him an angel," said Mr. McLean, politely.
"'Deed, sir, there are times when I wish he was an angel," the dominiereplied so viciously that McLean laughed. "And I grudge you that laugh,"continued Cathro, "for your Tommy Sandys has taken from me the mostprecious possession a teacher can have--my sense of humor."
"He strikes me as having a considerable sense of humor himself."
"Well he may, Mr. McLean, for he has gone off with all mine. But bide awee till I get in the tumblers, and. I'll tell you the latest abouthim--if what you want to hear is just the plain exasperating truth.
"His humor that you spoke of," resumed the school-master presently,addressing his words to the visitor, and his mind to a toddy ladle ofhorn, "is ill to endure in a school where the understanding is that thedominie makes all the jokes (except on examination-day, when theministers get their yearly fling), but I think I like your young friendworst when he is deadly serious. He is constantly playing some newpart--playing is hardly the word though, for into each part he puts anearnestness that cheats even himself, until he takes to another. Isuppose you want me to give you some idea of his character, and I couldtell you what it is at any particular moment; but it changes, sir, I doassure you, almost as quickly as the circus-rider flings off his layersof waistcoats. A single puff of wind blows him from one character toanother, and he may be noble and vicious, and a tyrant and a slave, andhard as granite and melting as butter in the sun, all in one forenoon.All you can be sure of is that whatever he is he will be it in excess."
"But I understood," said McLean, "that at present he is solely engagedon a war of extermination in the Den."
"Ah, those exploits, I fancy, are confined to Saturday nights, andunfortunately his Saturday debauch does not keep him sober for the restof the week, which we demand of respectable characters in these parts.For the last day or two, for instance, he has been in mourning."
"I had not heard of that."
"No, I daresay not, and I'll give you the facts, if you'll fill yourglass first. But perhaps--" here the dominie's eyes twinkled as if agleam of humor had been left him after all--"perhaps you have been moreused of late to ginger wine?"
The visitor received the shock impassively as if he did not know he hadbeen hit, and Cathro proceeded with his narrative. "Well, for a day ortwo Tommy Sandys has been coming to the school in a black jacket withcrape on the cuffs, and not only so, he has sat quiet and forlorn-likeat his desk as if he had lost some near and dear relative. Now I knewthat he had not, for his only relative is a sister whom you may haveseen at the Hanky School, and both she and Aaron Latta are hearty. Yet,sir (and this shows the effect he has on me), though I was puzzled andcurious I dared not ask for an explanation."
"But why not?" was the visitor's natural question.
"Because, sir, he is such a mysterious little sacket," replied Cathro,testily, "and so clever at leading you into a hole, that it's notchancey to meddle with him, and I could see through the corner of my eyethat, for all this woeful face, he was proud of it, and hoped I wastaking note. For though sometimes his emotion masters him completely, atother times he can step aside as it were, and take an approving look atit. That is a characteristic of him, and not the least maddening one."
"But you solved the mystery somehow, I suppose?"
"I got at the truth to-day by an accident, or rather my wife discoveredit for me. She happened to call in at the school on a domestic matter Ineed not trouble you with (s
al, she needna have troubled me with iteither!), and on her way up the yard she noticed a laddie called LewisDoig playing with other ungodly youths at the game of kickbonnety.Lewis's father, a gentleman farmer, was buried jimply a fortnight since,and such want of respect for his memory made my wife give the loon adunt on the head with a pound of sugar, which she had just bought at the'Sosh. He turned on her, ready to scart or spit or run, as seemedwisest, and in a klink her woman's eye saw what mine had overlooked,that he was not even wearing a black jacket. Well, she told him what theslap was for, and his little countenance cleared at once. 'Oh' says he,'that's all right, Tommy and me has arranged it,' and he pointedblithely to a corner of the yard where Tommy was hunkering by himself inLewis's jacket, and wiping his mournful eyes with Lewis's hanky. Idaresay you can jalouse the rest, but I kept Lewis behind after theschool skailed, and got a full confession out of him. He had tried hard,he gave me to understand, to mourn fittingly for his father, but thekickbonnety season being on, it was up-hill work, and he was relievedwhen Tommy volunteered to take it off his hands. Tommy's offer was toswop jackets every morning for a week or two, and thus properly attiredto do the mourning for him."
The dominie paused, and regarded his guest quizzically. "Sir," he saidat length, "laddies are a queer growth; I assure you there was nopersuading Lewis that it was not a right and honorable compact."
"And what payment," asked McLean, laughing, "did Tommy demand from Lewisfor this service?"
"Not a farthing, sir--which gives another uncanny glint into hischaracter. When he wants money there's none so crafty at getting it, buthe did this for the pleasure of the thing, or, as he said to Lewis, 'tofeel what it would be like.' That, I tell you, is the nature of thesacket, he has a devouring desire to try on other folk's feelings, as ifthey were so many suits of clothes."
"And from your account he makes them fit him too."
"My certie, he does, and a lippie in the bonnet more than that."
So far the school-master had spoken frankly, even with an occasional grinat his own expense, but his words came reluctantly when he had to speakof Tommy's prospects at the bursary examinations. "I would rather saynothing on that head," he said, almost coaxingly, "for the laddie has ayear to reform in yet, and it's never safe to prophesy."
"Still I should have thought that you could guess pretty accurately howthe boys you mean to send up in a year's time are likely to do? You havehad a long experience, and, I am told, a glorious one."
"'Deed, there's no denying it," answered the dominie, with a pride hehad won the right to wear. "If all the ministers, for instance, I haveturned out in this bit school were to come back together, they couldhold the General Assembly in the square."
He lay back in his big chair, a complacent dominie again. "Guess thechances of my laddies!" he cried, forgetting what he had just said, andthat there was a Tommy to bother him. "I tell you, sir, that's a matteron which I'm never deceived, I can tell the results so accurately that awise Senatus would give my lot the bursaries I say they'll carry,without setting them down to examination-papers at all." And for thenext half-hour he was reciting cases in proof of his sagacity.
"Wonderful!" chimed in McLean. "I see it is evident you can tell me howTommy Sandys will do," but at that Cathro's rush of words again subsidedinto a dribble.
"He's the worst Latinist that ever had the impudence to think ofbursaries," he groaned.
"And his Greek--" asked McLean, helping on the conversation as far aspossible.
"His Greek, sir, could be packed in a pill-box."
"That does not sound promising. But the best mathematicians aresometimes the worst linguists."
"His Greek is better than his mathematics," said Cathro, and he fellinto lamentation. "I have had no luck lately," he sighed. "The laddies Ihave to prepare for college are second-raters, and the vexing thing is,that when a real scholar is reared in Thrums, instead of his beinghanded over to me for the finishing, they send him to Mr. Ogilvy inGlenquharity. Did Miss Ailie ever mention Gavin Dishart to you--theminister's son? I just craved to get the teaching of that laddie, he wasthe kind you can cram with learning till there's no room left foranother spoonful, and they bude send him to Mr. Ogilvy, and you'll seehe'll stand high above my loons in the bursary list. And then Ogilvywill put on sic airs that there will be no enduring him. Ogilvy and I,sir, we are engaged in an everlasting duel; when we send students to theexaminations, it is we two who are the real competitors, but what chancehave I, when he is represented by a Gavin Dishart and my man is TommySandys?"
McLean was greatly disappointed. "Why send Tommy up at all if he is sobackward?" he said. "You are sure you have not exaggerated hisdeficiencies?"
"Well, not much at any rate. But he baffles me; one day I think him aperfect numskull, and the next he makes such a show of the small dropof scholarship he has that I'm not sure but what he may be a genius."
"That sounds better. Does he study hard?"
"Study! He is the most careless whelp that ever--"
"But if I were to give him an inducement to study?"
"Such as?" asked Cathro, who could at times be as inquisitive as thedoctor.
"We need not go into that. But suppose it appealed to him?"
Cathro considered. "To be candid," he said, "I don't think he couldstudy, in the big meaning of the word. I daresay I'm wrong, but I have afeeling that whatever knowledge that boy acquires he will dig out ofhimself. There is something inside him, or so I think at times, that ishis master, and rebels against book-learning. No, I can't tell what itis; when we know that we shall know the real Tommy."
"And yet," said McLean, curiously, "you advise his being allowed tocompete for a bursary. That, if you will excuse my saying so, soundsfoolish to me."
"It can't seem so foolish to you," replied Cathro, scratching his head,"as it seems to me six days in seven."
"And you know that Aaron Latta has sworn to send him to the herding ifhe does not carry a bursary. Surely the wisest course would be toapprentice him now to some trade--"
"What trade would not be the worse of him? He would cut off his fingerswith a joiner's saw, and smash them with a mason's mell; put him in abrot behind a counter, and in some grand, magnanimous mood he would selloff his master's things for nothing; make a clerk of him, and he wouldonly ravel the figures; send him to the soldiering, and he would have asudden impulse to fight on the wrong side. No, no, Miss Ailie says hehas a gift for the ministry, and we must cling to that."
In thus sheltering himself behind Miss Ailie, where he had never skulkedbefore, the dominie showed how weak he thought his position, and headded, with a brazen laugh, "Then if he does distinguish himself at theexaminations I can take the credit for it, and if he comes back indisgrace I shall call you to witness that I only sent him to them at herinstigation."
"All which," maintained McLean, as he put on his top-coat, "means thatsomehow, against your better judgment, you think he may distinguishhimself after all."
"You've found me out," answered Cathro, half relieved, half sorry. "Ihad no intention of telling you so much, but as you have found me outI'll make a clean breast of it. Unless something unexpected happens tothe laddie--unless he take to playing at scholarship as if it were aJacobite rebellion, for instance--he shouldna have the ghost of a chanceof a bursary, and if he were any other boy as ill-prepared I should beashamed to send him up, but he is Tommy Sandys, you see, and--it is aterrible thing to say, but it's Gospel truth, it's Gospel truth--I'mtrusting to the possibility of his diddling the examiners!"
It was a startling confession for a conscientious dominie, and Cathroflung out his hands as if to withdraw the words, but his visitor wouldhave no tampering with them. "So that sums up Tommy, so far as you knowhim," he said as he bade his host good-night.
"It does," Cathro admitted, grimly, "but if what you wanted was awritten certificate of character I should like to add this, that neverdid any boy sit on my forms whom I had such a pleasure in thrashing."