Burr Junior Part 47

"No," I said quietly.

"And you never will. I say, boys, what an ugly beggar he grows! I know why he's learning riding."

"Do you? Why?" cried d.i.c.ksee.

"They're going to make a groom of him."

The blood flushed up in my face, and I began to feel as if the time must be getting ripe.

"Why, he was bragging about going to be a soldier!" cried another boy.

"Him! A soldier! Ha, ha, ha!" cried Burr major. "They wouldn't even have a big-eared-looking fellow like that for a parchment-whopper."

"He said a horse soldier."

"Horse sneak," said Burr major scornfully. "A soldier! Ho, ho, ho!

Ha, ha, ha! I say, boys--a soldier!"

He burst into a yell of laughter, all forced, of course, and his satellites roared too, some of them, to curry favour, beginning to dance about him, and look eagerly in his face, as if for orders.

Of course it was very absurd to mind, but I could not help it, and tingled all over.

"Oh, I wish Mercer was here!" I thought to myself.

"The time must be ripe;" and I suppose my face showed something of what I felt, for Burr major cried,--

"Look at the puppy, boys; he looks as if he wanted to bite. Did you ever see such an impudent beggar? I don't believe his name's Burr at all. It's only a bit of a show-off."

At that moment there was a hail from the paddock, and the school bell rang for the first lesson.

"There, groom, you're wanted," said Burr major sneeringly. "Go on and learn to ride, and mind you don't hurt yourself."

"Yah! Go on, ugly!" cried d.i.c.ksee, and the boys roared.

"Do you hear, sham sodger? Be off, and don't stand staring like that,"

cried Burr major again. "I told you to go."

"Go yourself," I retorted, now thoroughly roused, and feeling reckless.

"Go in to school and learn your lessons, and mind the Doctor don't cane you."

"What?" cried the tall, thin fellow, flus.h.i.+ng up, as he advanced upon me menacingly, while the bell was rapidly getting toward its last strokes,--"what's that you say?"

"Go in and get to your lessons, and take that fat-faced b.o.o.by with you."

"Well!" cried Burr, "of all!" and he looked astounded.

"That's it, is it? Cheeking me because you know I can't stop now. But all right, I shan't forget it. If I do, d.i.c.ksee, you remind me after lessons that I've got to warm Jollop and this groom boy. The Doctor's been spoiling them both lately, and they want taking down."

"All in, all in, to begin!" was shouted from the doors.

"Oh yes, we're coming soon," said Burr major, throwing up his head.

"Wait a bit, you, sir, and I'll teach you to insult your seniors."

"All in, all in!"

"Here, d.i.c.ksee, go and hit that fellow on the mouth for shouting."

"All in, all in!" came again, directed at our group.

"Coming," cried Burr major. Then to me: "After morning studies, you sir. I don't suppose I shall forget."

"If you do, I shan't, bully," I said, and he turned upon me more astonished than ever, and then burst into a fit of derisive laughter.

"He's mad," he cried. "Here, boys, Senna's been gammoning him into taking some of his physic, and he don't know what he's saying."

"d.i.c.ksee--Burr major. Come, boys."

Mr Rebble was standing in the schoolhouse doorway, and all but Burr major ran off. He took out his watch, and walked away importantly after the others, while I felt a peculiar nervous thrill run through me, and began wondering whether I had been too bold, as I went off hurriedly now to where Lomax was waiting with the horse.

"I don't care," I said; "he may thrash me, but I won't be bullied like that, and insulted, without a try."

"Come, young gentleman," cried the sergeant. "I began to think you were going to s.h.i.+rk it."

"Not I, Lom," I cried, and, feeling peculiarly excited, I went up to the horse's head and patted him, while the sergeant removed the stirrups.

Then he gave me a leg up, and I was hoisted into my seat, and went through my lesson--walk, trot, and gallop, with the saddle seeming less slippery, and without coming off once.

The sergeant, I noticed, was very severe, and barked and shouted at me and the horse, keeping us doing the same things over and over again, and growing more exacting as we went on. But I hardly noticed him, for my head was all in a whirl, and I was thinking about after lessons, and what would happen then. So occupied was I with my thoughts that I never once felt nervous, but as if all I had to do was to sit still and let the horse obey the orders.

Lomax finished me off with a canter round the paddock, which was taken at a pretty good pace, and very easy the horse's pace was, but I was thinking of Burr major's sneering face all the time, and his long arms and bony white hands. Then about Mercer, and what he would say--what he would do.

"Are we both to have a good thras.h.i.+ng?" I asked myself, as the horse cantered on, and, "Right wheel--left wheel--forward!" rang in my ears.

"Are we to be made more uncomfortable than ever?" I thought; "and shall we forget all about what old Lom taught us?"

My arms did not move, my left hand held the reins on a level with my imaginary waist-belt, about which the sergeant talked, and my right hand hung steadily down just by my leg, but all the time I was on guard, and keenly on the watch for blows from those white bony hands that seemed to be flourished before me. Then I fancied concussions and dizziness, and felt blows, and rolled over upon the gra.s.s, but not off the horse, for it was all fancy; and I was just seeing in my mind's eye poor Tom Mercer going down before a heavy blow from d.i.c.ksee's fat fist, when there rang out the word, "Halt!" and the horse stopped short.

Lomax strode up in his stiff military fas.h.i.+on, and patted the cob on the neck.

"Well?" he said sharply. "What am I to say to you now?"

"I--I don't know," I faltered. "Shall we go through it again."

"No, no let the trooper breathe a bit. He has been kept at it pretty tightly. Well, how do you feel--stiff?"

"No," I said, flus.h.i.+ng a little, full of a feeling of regret for my neglect in my lesson.

"Bit sore about the knees, eh?"

"Oh yes, my knees keep very sore," I faltered.