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Glyn Severn's Schooldays, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 10. "English Gentlemen Don't Fight Like That" |
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_ CHAPTER TEN. "ENGLISH GENTLEMEN DON'T FIGHT LIKE THAT" The next morning the men sent by Ramball, the proprietor of the world-famed menagerie, were busy at work first thing repairing hedge and fence; and everything was so well done, and such prompt payment made for the estimated damages to the neighbouring orchard, that when a petition-like appeal for patronage was made by Ramball, the owner of the orchard attended with wife, family, and friends; and the Doctor gave permission to the whole school to be present, being moved also, as he told the lads in a brief address, to go himself with the masters and support a very worthy enterprise for the diffusion of natural history throughout the country. The visits were paid to the great yellow-walled prison, and Ramball, in his best blue coat, the one with the basket-work treble-gilt buttons, attended on the Doctor himself to explain the peculiarities of the beasts and give their history in his own fashion. This was peculiar, and did not in any way resemble a zoological lecture. Still, it was an improvement upon the wild-beast showman of the old-fashioned fairs, and he did not inform his listeners that the tiger was eight feet six inches long from the tip of his nose to the end of his tail, and exactly eight feet four inches long from the tip of his tail to the end of his nose. Neither did he impart knowledge, like another of his craft, and tell people that the boa-constrictor was so-called because he constructed such pleasing images with his serpentine form. But he did inform them that the monstrous reptile he possessed--one which, by the way, was only nine feet long--was always furnished in the cold weather with sawdust into which he could burrow, on account of the peculiarity always practised by creatures of its kind of swallowing its own blankets; and he did deliver an eulogy on his big black bear, and encourage the young gentlemen to furnish it with buns; but he did not confess to the fact that it was his most profitable animal, from the circumstance of his letting it out on hire for so many months in the year to a hairdresser in Bloomsbury, who used, according to his advertisements, to kill it regularly once a week and exhibit it in butcherly fashion hung up and spread open outside his shop, so that passers-by might see its tremendous state of fatness: "Another fat bear killed this morning." It was in the days when the British public were intense believers in bear's grease as the producer of hair, and no one troubled himself or herself to investigate the precise configuration of the exhibited animal and compare it when hung up, decapitated, and shorn of its feet, with the ordinary well-fatted domestic pig, albeit the illusion was kept up by its being possible to see through the gratings outside the shop-window Ramball's black bear still "all alive-o," parading and snuffling up and down in the area. Glyn and Singh were there, of course, and responded to Ramball's almost obsequious advances with good-humoured tolerance; but while he was with the Doctor the boys took notes together, laughing with a good deal of contempt at the poor miserable specimens--the tiger and two leopards-- compared with those they had seen in their native beauty and grace of outline in the forests of Dour. They met one friend there, though, chained by a leg to the massive iron peg, as he stood swinging his great head from side to side, and stretching out his enormous trunk for the contributions supplied by the boys. They were welcomed most effusively by the great beast, which recognised them at once, and it was only by its attention being taken up by its keeper, the man who had driven the bottomless van, that the boys got away without being followed by their new friend, which had manifested a disposition to drag the peg out of the ground and follow them like a dog. It was while the Doctor was delivering an impromptu disquisition upon the peculiarities of the one-horned rhinoceros and the slight resemblance given by the folds of its monstrous hide to the shell of a turtle, that Ramball followed the two boys and made signs to them to come to the other end of the great van-walled booth, when he asked them if they had considered his proposition. "I never made such an offer before in my life, young gents. It's a good 'un. Don't you let it slide." But the boys were saved the pain of telling the man that it was quite out of the question by the coming up of the guest at the Doctor's dinner, Professor Barclay, who was effusively civil to Glyn, and fastened himself upon Singh to talk of Indian matters and language till the visit came to an end. Just before leaving, Ramball came up to them again, but he had to speak in the presence of the Doctor. "I only wanted to ask the young gents, sir," he said, "if they had made their choice of the two little somethings to keep in remembrance of what they did over the elephant." "Two little somethings?" said the Doctor loftily. "I am quite sure, sir, that my pupils do not wish to take any two little somethings as a gift from you." "No, no, sir, not what you call gifts; but just a couple of little trifles as I asked them to pick out." "Oh, no, no," cried the Doctor. "It is not necessary, my man, and we have no room for such things in my establishment." "Ah, excuse me, sir," said the man eagerly; "you are thinking I mean something big and awkward; but a nice little monkey, sir, or a bird?" "Monkeys don't want monkeys," said Slegge, in a whisper to Burney, just loud enough for Glyn to hear, and making him turn sharply upon the speaker. "Have a baboon, Severn," said Slegge maliciously, for he met the boy's flashing eyes. "What for?" said Glyn coolly. "Oh, I don't know," continued Slegge, after a glance at the boys around, who burst into a low series of titters. "I would if I were you. There's a nice brotherly look about that one in the cage, and he hasn't got a tail." "Mr Severn," said the Doctor, "come here. I want you to tell Mr Ramball that you do not need any recompense for the services you have performed. Mr Singh has already spoken." "Yes, sir, I'll come," replied the boy quickly, and he did as requested, fully conscious the while that Slegge was saying something disparaging to the nearest boys, and that the Professor had moved up behind Singh and was talking to him again. "Do you like this Professor Barclay?" said Glyn as they were walking back towards the school side by side. "Oh, I don't know. He's very pleasant to talk to, of course, for he knows so much about Indian things." "Oh," said Glyn thoughtfully, for his companion's words sounded reasonable. "But what was that fellow saying to you?" asked Singh. "He was grinning at you about something. Oh, I should like to do something to him. That nasty look of his always makes me feel hot." "He wants to get up a quarrel," replied Glyn. "Well, let him, and the sooner the better. He's always insulting me." "Then let's insult him," said Glyn. "Yes," cried Singh eagerly. "What shall we do? Tell him we won't accept a baboon because one's enough in the school?" "No; treat him with contempt," said Glyn coldly. "We are not going to be dragged into a fight so as to give him a chance to play the bully and knock us about." "But let's knock him about," cried Singh, "and show him that we can bully too." "Won't do," said Glyn slowly. "He's too big and strong." "Yes, he's big and strong; but we shall be two to one." "Ah, you have a lot to learn, Singhy. English gentlemen don't fight like that." _ |
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