Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling (young adult books to read .txt) đ
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But there were no words. Sefton gazed at the lop-sided wreck in horror and despair. Two fat tears rolled down his cheek.
âOh, I forgot! I say, Sefton, what did you bully Clewer for?â
âLeave me alone! Oh, you infernal bullies, leave me alone! Havenât I had enough?â
âHe says we must leave him alone,â said McTurk.
âHe says we are bullies, anâ we havenât even begun yet,â said Beetle. âYouâre ungrateful, Seffy. Golly! You do look an atrocity and a half!â
âHe says he has had enough,â said Stalky. âHe errs!â
âWell, to work, to work!â chanted McTurk, waving a stump. âCome on, my giddy Narcissus. Donât fall in love with your own reflection!â
âOh, let him off,â said Campbell from his corner; âheâs blubbing, too.â
Sefton cried like a twelve-year-old with pain, shame, wounded vanity, and utter helplessness.
âYouâll make it pax, Sefton, wonât you? You canât stand up to those young devilsââ
âDonât be rude, Campbell, de-ah,â said McTurk, âor youâll catch it again!â
âYou are devils, you know,â said Campbell.
âWhat? for a little bullyinââsame as youâve been givinâ Clewer! How long have you been jestinâ with him?â said Stalky. âAll this term?â
âWe didnât always knock him about, though!â
âYou did when you could catch him,â said Beetle, cross-legged on the floor, dropping a stump from time to time across Seftonâs instep. âDonât I know it!â
âIâperhaps we did.â
âAnd you went out of your way to catch him? Donât I know it! Because he was an awful little beast, eh? Donât I know it! Now, you see, youâre awful beasts, and youâre gettinâ what he gotâfor beinâ a beast. Just because we choose.â
âWe never really bullied himâlike youâve done us.â
âYah!â said Beetle. âThey never really bullyââMollyâ Fairburn didnât. Only knock âem about a little bit. Thatâs what they say. Only kick their souls out of âem, and they go and blub in the box-rooms. Shove their heads into the ulsters anâ blub. Write home three times a dayâyes, you brute, Iâve done thatâaskinâ to be taken away. Youâve never been bullied properly, Campbell Iâm sorry you made pax.â
âIâm not!â said Campbell, who was a humorist in a way. âLook out, youâre slaying Sefton!â
In his excitement Beetle had used the stump unreflectingly, and Sefton was now shouting for mercy.
âAnâ you!â he cried, wheeling where he sat. âYouâve never been bullied, either. Where were you before you came here?â
âIâI had a tutor.â
âYah! You would. You never blubbed in your life. But youâre blubbinâ now, by gum. Arenât you blubbinâ?â
âCanât you see, you blind beast?â Sefton fell over sideways, tear-tracks furrowing the dried lather. Crack came the cricket-stump on the curved latter-end of him.
âBlind, am I,â said Beetle, âand a beast? Shut up, Stalky. Iâm goinâ to jape a bit with our friend, _aâla âMollyâ Fairburn. I think I can see. Canât I see, Sefton?â
âThe point is well taken,â said McTurk, watching the strap at work. âYouâd better say that he sees, Seffy.â
âYou doâyou can! I swear you do!â yelled Sefton, for strong arguments were coercing him.
âArenât my eyes lovely?â The stump rose and fell steadily throughout this catechism.
âYes.â
âA gentle hazel, arenât they?â
âYesâoh, yes!â
âWhat a liar you are! Theyâre sky-blue. Ainât they sky-blue?â
âYesâoh, yes!â
âYou donât know your mind from one minute to another. You must learnâyou must learn.â
âWhat a bait youâre in!â said Stalky. âKeep your hair on, Beetle.â
âIâve had it done to me,â said Beetle. âNowâabout my being a beast.â
âPaxâoh, pax!â cried Sefton; âmake it pax. Iâll give up! Let me off! Iâm broke! I canât stand it!â
âUgh! Just when we were gettinâ our hand in!â grunted McTurk.
âThey didnât let Clewer off, Iâll swear.â
âConfessâapologizeâquick!â said Stalky.
From the floor Sefton made unconditional surrender, more abjectly even than Campbell He would never touch any one again. He would go softly all the days of his life.
âWeâve got to take it, I suppose?â said Stalky. âAll right, Sefton. Youâre broke? Very good. Shut up, Beetle! But before we let you up, you anâ Campbell will kindly oblige us with âKitty of Coleraineââ_aâla Clewer.â
âThatâs not fair,â said Campbell; âweâve surrendered.â
ââCourse you have. Now youâre goinâ to do what we tell youâsame as Clewer would. If you hadnât surrendered youâd haâ been really bullied. Havinâ surrenderedâdo you follow, Seffy?âyou sing odes in honor of the conquerors. Hurry up!â
They dropped into chairs luxuriously. Campbell and Sefton looked at each other, and, neither taking comfort from that view, struck up âKitty of Coleraine.â
âVile bad,â said Stalky, as the miserable wailing ended. âIf you hadnât surrendered it would have been our painful duty to buzz books at you for singinâ out oâ tune. Now then.â
He freed them from their bonds, but for several minutes they could not rise. Campbell was first on his feet, smiling uneasily. Sefton staggered to the table, buried his head in his arms, and shook with sobs. There was no shadow of fight in eitherâonly amazement, distress, and shame.
âCaâcanât he shave clean before tea, please?â said Campbell. âItâs ten minutes to bell.â
Stalky shook his head. He meant to escort the half-shaved one to the meal.
McTurk yawned in his chair and Beetle mopped his face. They were all dripping with excitement and exertion.
âIf I knew anything about it, I swear Iâd give you a moral lecture,â said Stalky severely.
âDonât jaw; theyâve surrendered,â said McTurk. âThis moral suasion biznai takes it out of a chap.â
âDonât you see how gentle weâve been? We might have called Clewer in to look at you,â said Stalky. ââThe bleatinâ of the tiger excites the kid.â But we didnât. Weâve only got to tell a few chaps in Coll. about this and youâd be hooted all over the shop. Your life wouldnât be worth havinâ. But we arenât goinâ to do that, either. Weâre strictly moral suasers, Campbell; so, unless you or Seffy split about this, no one will.â
âI swear youâre a brick,â said Campbell. âI suppose I was rather a brute to Clewer.â
âIt looked like it,â said Stalky. âBut I donât think Seffy need come into hall with cock-eye whiskers. Horrid bad for the fags if they saw him. He can shave. Ainât you grateful, Sefton?â
The head did not lift. Sefton was deeply asleep.
âThatâs rummy,â said McTurk, as a snore mixed with a sob. ââCheek, I think; or else heâs shamminâ.â
âNo, âtisnât,â said Beetle. ââWhen âMollyâ Fairburn had attended to me for an hour or so I used to go bung off to sleep on a form sometimes. Poor devil! But he called me a beastly poet, though.â
âWell, come on.â Stalky lowered his voice. âGood-by, Campbell. âMember, if you donât talk, nobody will.â
There should have been a wardance, but that all three were so utterly tired that they almost went to sleep above the tea-cups in their study, and slept till prep.
âA most extraordinary letter. Are all parents incurably mad? What do you make of it?â said the Head, handing a closely written eight pages to the Reverend John.
ââThe only son of his mother, and she a widow.â That is the least reasonable sort.â The chaplain read with pursed lips. âIf half those charges are true he should be in the sick-house; whereas he is disgustingly well. Certainly he has shaved. I noticed that.â
âUnder compulsion, as his mother points out. How delicious! How salutary!â
âYou havenât to answer her. It isnât often I donât know what has happened in the school; but this is beyond me.â
âIf you asked me I should say seek not to propitiate. When one is forced to take crammersâ pupsââ
âHe was perfectly well at extra-tuitionâwith meâthis morning,â said the Head, absently. âUnusually well behaved, too.â
ââthey either educate the school, or the school, as in this case, educates them. I prefer our own methods,â the chaplain concluded.
âYou think it was that?â A lift of the Headâs eyebrow.
âIâm sure of it! And nothing excuses his trying to give the College a bad name.â
âThatâs the line I mean to take with him,â the Head answered.
The Augurs winked.
A few days later the Reverend John called on Number Five. âWhy havenât we seen you before, Padre?â said they.
âIâve been watching times and seasons and events and menâand boys,â he replied. âI am pleased with my Tenth Legion. I make them my compliments. Clewer was throwing ink-balls in form this morning, instead of doing his work. He is now doing fifty lines forâunheard-of audacity.â
âYou canât blame us, sir,â said Beetle. âYou told us to remove theâerâpressure. Thatâs the worst of a fag.â
âIâve known boys five years his senior throw ink-balls, Beetle. To such an one have I given two hundred linesânot so long ago. And now I come to think of it, were those lines ever shown up?â
âWere they, Turkey?â said Beetle unblushingly.
âDonât you think Clewer looks a little cleaner, Padre?â Stalky interrupted.
âWeâre no end of moral reformers,â said McTurk.
âIt was all Stalky, but it was a lark,â said Beetle.
âI have noticed the moral reform in several quarters. Didnât I tell you you had more influence than any boys in the Coll. if you cared to use it?â
âItâs a trifle exhaustinâ to use frequentâour kind of moral suasion. Besides, you see, it only makes Clewer cheeky.â
âI wasnât thinking of Clewer; I was thinking ofâthe other people, Stalky.â
âOh, we didnât bother much about the other people,â said McTurk. âDid we?â
âBut I didâfrom the beginning.â
âThen you knew, sir?â
A downward puff of smoke. âBoys educate each other, they say, more than we can or dare. If I had used one half of the moral suasion you may or may not have employedââ
âWith the best motives in the world. Donât forget our pious motives, Padre,â said McTurk.
âI suppose I should be now languishing in Bideford jail, shouldnât I? Well, to quote the Head, in a little business which we have agreed to forget, that strikes me as flagrant injustice ⊠What are you laughing at, you young sinners? Isnât it true? I will not stay to be shouted at. What I looked into this den of iniquity for was to find out if any one cared to come down for a bathe off the Ridge. But I see you wonât.â
âWonât we, though! Half a shake, Padre Sahib, till we get our towels, and noussommes_avec_vous_!â
A LITTLE PREP.
Easter term was but a month old when Stettson major, a dayboy, contracted diphtheria, and the Head was very angry. He decreed a new and narrower set of boundsâthe infection had been traced to an outlying farmhouseâurged the prefects severely to lick all trespassers, and promised extra attentions from his own hand. There were no words bad enough for Stettson major, quarantined at his motherâs house, who had lowered the school-average of health. This he said in the gymnasium after prayers. Then he wrote some two hundred letters to as many anxious parents and guardians, and bade the school carry on. The trouble did not spread, but, one night, a dog-cart drove to the Headâs door, and in the morning the Head had gone, leaving all things in charge of Mr. King, senior housemaster. The Head often ran up to town, where the school devoutly believed he bribed officials for early proofs of the Army Examination papers; but this absence was unusually prolonged.
âDowny old bird!â said Stalky to the allies one wet afternoon in the study. âHe must have gone on a bend and been locked up under
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