_ CHAPTER THREE. HOW MY MASTER AND I REACH RANDLEBURY IN STATE, AND OF A GREAT CALAMITY
My master and I had nearly an hour to wait on the platform at Gunborough before the Randlebury train came up. Part of this interval Charlie, for fear he might forget to do it at night, devoted to winding me up; an experiment which nearly closed my career for ever, for he first began to turn the key the wrong way; then, when he had discovered his mistake, he started in the other direction with a sudden dash, and finally overwound me to such an extent that I expected every second to hear my heart break with the strain.
Then he sat on his boxes, whistling to himself and drumming his heels on the platform. The train came up at last, and in he jumped, finding himself and a grave elderly gentleman in joint possession of the carriage.
Charlie was too busy staring out of the window, whistling, and brushing the dust off his new hat, to take much notice of his companion until the train was fairly started; then, observing the gentleman look at his watch, the boy at once recognised a bond of sympathy and pulled out me.
"I wonder if I'm the same as you?" he said eagerly.
"I hope you are not," said the gentleman, "for I'm a quarter of an hour fast."
"Are you though?" said the boy, in astonishment.
"Why don't you put it right? I would."
"It's a bad thing to put a watch back, my boy; besides, I rather like keeping mine a little fast."
"Do you? I say, do you think my watch is a good one?" said Charlie, thrusting me into the hands of his astonished travelling companion.
"I can't say, my boy. I know nothing about watches. It looks a nice one."
"Yes, father gave it me. I say, are you going to Randlebury?"
"Yes."
"Do you know the school? I'm going there."
"Oh, yes; I know the school. And you are going there, are you?" inquired the gentleman, with interest.
"Yes, I'm a new boy, you know."
"And how do you like going to school?"
"Oh, all right; only I don't know what it'll be like. Eat I say, I don't suppose there's many of the boys my age have got watches, do you?"
The gentleman laughed. "I dare say not," he said. Charlie was silent for a time, and then asked,--
"I say, what sort of fellow's the head master; do you know?"
"I've seen him now and then," said the gentleman.
"Is he awfully stuck-up and strict?" asked the boy anxiously.
"I really don't know," said the gentleman, biting his lips; "I hope not."
"So do I. I wish my father was the head master," said Charlie, the tears for a moment starting to his eyes at the bare thought of such happiness.
The gentleman looked at him very kindly, and said,--
"Cheer up, my little man; perhaps it won't be so bad after all."
Charlie smiled again as he said,--
"Oh, yes, I've got to be brave, you know, because I promised father. But I say, if you ever come to the school, ask for me--my name's Charlie Newcome--will you? because I don't know any of the fellows; and besides," added he, brightening at the idea, "we can see if our watches are going the same, you know."
The gentleman promised, and soon after this the train arrived at Randlebury. The boy bid his companion farewell, and went off as before to look after his belongings.
As he was standing surrounded by his baggage, a man in the dress of a coachman came up to him and said,--
"Are you the young party from London for the school?"
"Yes," replied the boy.
"It's all right," said the man; "give us hold of these things, and jump inside my trap."
"How far is it?" he asked of the man.
"Better of three miles."
"Is it, though? I say, can't you put the things inside, and then I can ride on the box?"
"All square," said the man; "hop up, my young bantam."
The young bantam did hop up, and they were soon on their way to the school.
I need hardly say it was not long before Charlie and the driver were on confidential terms. The boy duly produced first me and then his six- bladed knife to the admiring eyes of his new companion, insisting on his taking both into his hands, and demanding his candid opinion on their merits.
Presently a wholly new idea seemed to strike him.
"I say, driver, what's your name?"
"Jim, if you want to know," replied that public servant.
"Well, Jim, I wish you'd just get inside and look after the luggage, and let me drive; will you?"
The man opened his eyes and his mouth at the proposition, and then bursting out laughing.
"Hark at him!" he exclaimed; "did you ever hear the like? Me get inside and let a young shaver like him drive me--ho! ho!"
"Come along, Jim; I know the way; and it _would_ be a lark. Come on, _dear_ Jim."
And the boy got quite affectionate in his eagerness.
"Dear Jim," who was one of those easy-going men who don't take much persuading when they're approached the right way, at length consented to hand over the reins to Charlie; and after waiting some time to see for himself that the boy could really manage, after a fashion, to drive the horse, he further gratified him by descending from the box, and leaving him in sole possession of the coveted position.
"Get inside, Jim," cried the boy, with beaming face.
Jim, his face all one grin, obeyed, saying, as he did so,--
"Well, if you ain't a queer one! That's the house there, on the top of that hill. Mind how you go, now."
"All right; you get inside. And I say, Jim," added the boy, leaning down from his perch, "make yourself comfortable, you know, and don't bother about me. I want to drive all by myself, and you aren't to help me a bit, mind."
So the driver got inside, and seating himself among the luggage, proceeded to make himself "comfortable," as instructed.
Meanwhile my master, as proud as an emperor, lashed his steed into a canter, and rattled off in the direction of the school.
"That'll astonish some of them caps and gowns, I reckon," I heard cabby say to himself. "You see, if he don't drive us right up to the front door, as comfortable as if we was the sheriff of the county."
You may imagine what was the astonishment of the grave and reverend authorities at Randlebury School when they perceived, coming up the carriage drive, a cab with a boy of thirteen perched on the box, tugging at the reins, hallooing to the horse, and making his whip crack like so many fireworks; while inside, comfortably lounging amid a pile of luggage, reclined cabby at his ease, grinning from ear to ear.
The young Jehu, perfectly innocent of the sensation he was making, pursued his triumphant career at full speed up to the very hall door, pulling up his steed with such a sudden jerk as almost to bring him into a sitting position, while the piled-up luggage inside fell all about the cab with the shock, to the imminent risk of cabby's life.
"Well, if that ain't one way of doing it, I don't know what is!" exclaimed that astonished charioteer, emerging from his precarious quarters. "Down you jump, young un."
Charlie descended, all jubilant with triumph, and pulling out me, exclaimed, "We did that three miles in half an hour--not bad, was it?"
In his excitement he had not observed that the door of the house had opened, and that these words, instead of being addressed to the cabby, had been spoken to a stately female who stood in the portal before him.
Now however he caught sight of her, and not knowing exactly what was the proper thing to do under the circumstances, stared at her.
"What do you say, young man?" inquired she, in a solemn voice.
"Oh," said the boy, "I didn't know it was you. I was telling Jim we had come from the station in half an hour. You know we started at 6.2 by my watch, and it's just 6.33 now. Would you like to see for yourself, marm?" added he, preparing to unfasten the chain.
"I know what the time is, young man," replied she sternly; "and pray, who is Jim?" she asked, looking down in solemn perplexity at this queer boy.
"Oh, he's the driver is Jim, and he got inside, you know, and I've driven nearly all the way up by myself; haven't I, Jim?"
"Come inside, sir," said the matron hurriedly, "and don't stand talking to vulgar cabmen and calling them by their Christian names. Your name is Charles Newcome, I suppose? Come this way."
Charlie followed her in, his enthusiasm rather damped at this somewhat frigid greeting, and sorry in his heart he had not been allowed an opportunity of bidding farewell to his friend the driver.
And now I could hear the little fellow's heart begin to beat quicker as he found himself at length for the first time in his life inside a public school. The rows of caps in the corridors, the distant hum of voices through half-opened doors, the occasional shout from the playground, and the fleeting vision of a master in cap and gown, all had for him the deepest and most mysterious interest. As he sat waiting in the matron's room while that worthy lady went to superintend the bringing in of his luggage, his mind became full of wonderings and misgivings. I who lay so near the seat of his emotions could tell what was going on in his breast. He wondered if the pair of socks lying on the table with a hole in each heel, which appeared to be waiting their turn for mending, belonged to the son of the old lady he had met in the train. He wondered if the footsteps in the passage belonged to the head master, and whether that awful being was being fetched to punish him for his crime of driving the cab. He wondered who the boy was who put his head in at the door and drew it back again. With what reverential eyes he followed that hero's retreating form, and how he hung on his whistling.
When would _he_, he wondered, be sufficiently hardy to whistle within those awful walls? Then he wondered if he was the only new boy, and if so, whether every one would stare at him and laugh at his new coat. He wished he'd got his old one on, then he wouldn't have felt so brand-new. And then--and then...
But here, tired-out with his long journey and the excitement of the day, a drowsy fit came over him, and without another thought he dropped off to sleep, where he sat. In this attitude the housekeeper found him when she returned.
She could not help feeling rather more than a common interest in this curly-haired, tired-out little fellow, as he sat there in his new clothes, huddled up, with his little hat slipping from his head, and his hand clasping his precious six-bladed knife. Accustomed as she was to boys and their rude ways, this matron had a good deal of softness left in her heart, and I dare say she thought as she watched Charlie that afternoon that if she had ever had a son of her own she would have liked a boy something like the little fellow before her. She went softly up to him, took his hat from its perilous situation, and, lifting him in her strong arms so gently as not to wake him, laid him on her own sofa, and left him there to enjoy his well-merited sleep, while she busied herself about making tea.
It was at this moment that a calamity befell me, which, in my inexperience of the ways and natures of watches, I imagined to be nothing short of fatal. The excitement through which I had passed, and the rough-and-ready usage to which I had been subjected during the day, seemed all of a sudden to overpower me. In some unaccountable way I found my hands caught together in a manner I had never known them to be before; no effort of mine could disengage them, and the exertion thus required, added to the fatigues of the day, produced a sort of paralysis of my whole system without quite losing consciousness. I could feel my circulation become slower and finally stop; my nerves and energies became suspended, and my hands grew numb and powerless. Even my heart ceased to beat, and the little cry of alarm which I gave just before my powers left me failed to bring me any help. I was ill, very ill indeed; to me it seemed as if my last moment had come, and I could not bear the thought of thus early being taken from my young master, whom already I had learned to love as my best, though my roughest friend.
How long I lay thus, speechless and helpless, I cannot say. Once I was just conscious of a slight jerk from my chain as he peeped in and whispered,--
"What are you so quiet about down there?"
Of course I could not answer.
"Do you hear? What are you so quiet about?"
It only added to my misery to know that there was a fellow-being so close at hand, and yet that I was powerless to make him aware of my condition. My silence offended him, for he turned away, muttering to himself,--
"Sulky humbug! I declare some people haven't so much as the manners of a kitchen clock."
After that I was left to myself, in agony and suspense, to wait the moment of my dissolution.
A long time passed before my master stirred, and when he did the housekeeper's tea was cold. She bustled about to make him some more, and was so kind in buttering his toast and hunting for some jam, that the drooping spirits of the tired-out boy revived wonderfully. Indeed, as the meal proceeded he became on friendly and confidential terms even with so awful a personage as Mrs Packer.
"Would you like to see my knife, ma'am?" he asked.
"Bless me, what a knife it is," cried the lady. "You'll go doing yourself some harm with it."
"That's what the other old lady in the train said," replied Charlie, unconscious of wounding the feelings of his hostess, who fondly imagined she was not more than middle-aged; "but then, you know, she thought it was a fine knife, and I think so too, don't you? I say, marm, do you know Tom Drift?"
The change of subject was so sudden that Mrs Packer stared at the boy, half wondering whether he was not talking in his sleep.
"What about him?" she inquired.
"Oh, only the old lady was his mother, and I promised her--at least she said--do you know Tom Drift, ma'am?"
"To be sure; he's one of the boys here."
"Yes--I say, ma'am, might I see Tom Drift, do you think? I've got something to say to him."
Mrs Packer, wholly at a loss to understand her youthful guest, but at the same time disposed to be indulgent to his little whims, said Tom would be at lessons now, and she didn't think he would be able to come.
"Wouldn't it do in the morning?"
"Oh no," said Charlie, with the gravest face. "I must see him to-night, please, if you don't mind."
The housekeeper concluded that Charlie had some important message from the mother to her son, and therefore rang for a servant, whom she despatched with a message to Master Drift that some one wanted to see him.
In a very little time that hero made his appearance; and as he was the first Randlebury boy Charlie had set eyes on, he appeared for a moment a very awful and a very sublime personage in that little new boy's eyes. But Charlie was too intent on his mission to allow himself to be quite overawed.
"Here's a new boy, Master Drift, wants to speak to you."
"What do you want, young un--eh?"
"Oh, it's all right, Tom Drift; only I saw your mother, you know, in the train, and she said you were a nice boy, and she sent her love, and I told her I'd let you know the time whenever you wanted, because you ain't got a watch, you know, and I have. I say, would you like to know the time now, Tom Drift?"
All this was rattled out with such eager volubility, that Tom Drift, hero as he was, was fairly taken aback, and looked quite sheepish, as the beaming boy proceeded to pull me out of his pocket.
"Well, it's just--hullo!"
He saw in an instant something was wrong.
"Why, it says only half-past six--that must be wrong!"
"It's eight o'clock by the hall clock," said Mrs Packer; "it's just now struck."
Charlie looked at me, opened me, held me to his ear, and then exclaimed,--
"Oh! my watch has stopped! My watch has stopped! What shall I do?" and the poor boy, overwhelmed with his misfortune, held me out appealingly, and scarcely restrained the tears which started to his eyes. _