Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling (young adult books to read .txt) đ
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âYes, itâs all very fine,â he said to his guests after dinner, âbut the boys are getting a little out of hand. There will be trouble and sorrow later, Iâm afraid. Youâd better turn in early, Crandall. The dormitory will be sitting up for you. I donât know to what dizzy heights you may climb in your profession, but I do know youâll never get such absolute adoration as youâre getting now.â
âConfound the adoration. I want to finish my cigar, sir.â
âItâs all pure gold. Go where glory waits, Crandallâminor.â
The setting of that apotheosis was a ten-bed attic dormitory, communicating through doorless openings with three others. The gas flickered over the raw pine washstands. There was an incessant whistling of drafts, and outside the naked windows the sea beat on the Pebbleridge.
âSame old bedâsame old mattress, I believe,â said Crandall, yawning. âSame old everything. Oh, but Iâm lame! Iâd no notion you chaps could play like this.â He caressed a battered shin. âYouâve given us all something to remember you by.â
It needed a few minutes to put them at their ease; and, in some way they could not understand, they were more easy when Crandall turned round and said his prayersâa ceremony he had neglected for some years.
âOh, I am sorry. Iâve forgotten to put out the gas.â
âPlease donât bother,â said the prefect of the dormitory. âWorthington does that.â
A nightgowned twelve-year-old, who had been waiting to show off, leaped from his bed to the bracket and back again, by way of a washstand.
âHow dâyou manage when heâs asleep?â said Crandall, chuckling.
âShove a cold cleek down his neck.â
âIt was a wet sponge when I was junior in the dormitory⊠Hullo! Whatâs happening?â
The darkness had filled with whispers, the sound of trailing rugs, bare feet on bare boards, protests, giggles, and threats such as:
âBe quiet, you ass!⊠Squattez-vous on the floor, then!⊠I swear you arenât going to sit on my bed!⊠Mind the tooth-glass,â etc.
StaâCorkran said,â the prefect began, his tone showing his sense of Stalkyâs insolence, âthat perhaps youâd tell us about that business with Duncanâs body.â
âYesâyesâyes,â ran the keen whispers. âTell usâ
âThereâs nothing to tell. What on earth are you chaps hoppinâ about in the cold for?â
âNever mind us,â said the voices. âTell about Fat-Sow.â
So Crandall turned on his pillow and spoke to the generation he could not see.
âWell, about three months ago he was commanding a treasure-guardâa cart full of rupees to pay troops withâfive thousand rupees in silver. He was cominâ to a place called Fort Pearson, near Kalabagh.â
âI was born there,â squeaked a small fag. âIt was called after my uncle.â
âShut upâyou and your uncle! Never mind him, Crandall.â
âWell, neâer mind. The Afridis found out that this treasure was on the move, and they ambushed the whole show a couple of miles before he got to the fort, and cut up the escort. Duncan was wounded, and the escort hooked it. There werenât more than twenty Sepoys all told, and there were any amount of Afridis. As things turned out, I was in charge at Fort Pearson. Fact was, Iâd heard the firing and was just going to see about it, when Duncanâs men came up. So we all turned back together. They told me something about an officer, but I couldnât get the hang of things till I saw a chap under the wheels of the cart out in the open, propped up on one arm, blazing away with a revolver. You see, the escort had abandoned the cart, and the Afridisâtheyâre an awfully suspicious gang âthought the retreat was a trapâsort of draw, you knowâand the cart was the bait. So they had left poor old Duncan alone. âMinute they spotted how few we were, it was a race across the flat who should reach old Duncan first. We ran, and they ran, and we won, and after a little hackinâ about they pulled off. I never knew it was one of us till I was right on top of him. There are heaps of Duncans in the service, and of course the name didnât remind me. He wasnât changed at all hardly. Heâd been shot through the lungs, poor old man, and he was pretty thirsty. I gave him a drink and sat down beside him, andâfunny thing, tooâhe said, âHullo, Toffee!â and I said, âHullo, Fat-Sow! hope you arenât hurt,â or something of the kind. But he died in a minute or twoânever lifted his head off my knees⊠I say, you chaps out there will get your death of cold. Better go to bed.â
âAll right. In a minute. But your cutsâyour cuts. How did you get wounded?â
âThat was when we were taking the body back to the Fort. They came on again, and there was a bit of a scrimmage.â
âDid you kill any one?â
âYes. Shouldnât wonder. Good-night.â
âGood-night. Thank you, Crandall. Thanks awfâly, Crandall. Good-night.â
The unseen crowds withdrew. His own dormitory rustled into bed and lay silent for a while.
âI say, CrandallââStalkyâs voice was tuned to a wholly foreign reverence.
âWell, what?â
âSuppose a chap found another chap croaking with diphtheriaâall bunged up with itâand they stuck a tube in his throat and the chap sucked the stuff out, what would you say?â
âUm,â said Crandall, reflectively. âIâve only heard of one case, and that was a doctor. He did it for a woman.â
âOh, this wasnât a woman. It was just a boy.â
âMakes it all the finer, then. Itâs about the bravest thing a man can do. Why?â
âOh, I heard of a chap doinâ it. Thatâs all.â
âThen heâs a brave man.â
âWould you funk it?â
âRa-ather. Anybody would. Fancy dying of diphtheria in cold blood.â
âWellâah! Er! Look here!â The sentence ended in a grunt, for Stalky had leaped out of bed and with McTurk was sitting on the head of Beetle, who would have sprung the mine there and then.
Next day, which was the last of the term and given up to a few wholly unimportant examinations, began with wrath and war. Mr. King had discovered that nearly all his houseâit lay, as you know, next door but one to Proutâs in the long range of buildingsâhad unlocked the doors between the dormitories and had gone in to listen to a story told by Crandall. He went to the Head, clamorous, injured, appealing; for he never approved of allowing so-called young men of tile world to contaminate the morals of boyhood. Very good, said the Head, he would attend to it.
âWell, Iâm awfâly sorry,â said Crandall guiltily. âI donât think I told âem anything they oughtnât to hear. Donât let them get into trouble on my account.â
âTck!â the Head answered, with the ghost of a wink. âIt isnât the boys that make trouble; itâs the masters. However, Prout and King donât approve of dormitory gatherings on this scale, and one must back up the housemasters. Moreover, itâs hopeless to punish two houses only, so late in the term. We must be fair and include everybody. Letâs see. They have a holiday task for the Easters, which, of course, none of them will ever look at. We will give the whole school, except prefects and study-boys, regular prep. to-night; and the Common-room will have to supply a master to take it. We must be fair to all.â
âPrep. on the last night of the term. Whew!â said Crandall, thinking of his own wild youth. âI fancy there will be larks.â
The school, frolicking among packed trunks, whooping down the corridor, and âgloatingâ in form-rooms, received the news with amazement and rage. No school in the world did prep. on the last night of the term. This thing was monstrous, tyrannical, subversive of law, religion, and morality. They would go into the form-rooms, and they would take their degraded holiday task with them, butâhere they smiled and speculated what manner of man the Common-room would send up against them. The lot fell on Mason, credulous and enthusiastic, who loved youth. No other master was anxious to take that âprep.,â for the school lacked the steadying influence of tradition; and men accustomed to the ordered routine of ancient foundations found it occasionally insubordinate. The four long form-rooms, in which all below the rank of study-boys worked, received him with thunders of applause. Ere he had coughed twice they favored him with a metrical summary of the marriage laws of Great Britain, as recorded by the High Priest of the Israelites and commented on by the leader of the host. The lower forms reminded him that it was the last day, and that therefore he must âtake it all in play.â When he dashed off to rebuke them, the Lower Fourth and Upper Third began with one accord to be sick, loudly and realistically. Mr. Mason tried, of all vain things under heaven, to argue with them, and a bold soul at a back desk bade him âtake fifty lines for not âolding up âis âand before speaking.â As one who prided himself upon the perfection of his English this cut Mason to the quick, and while he was trying to discover the offender, the Upper and Lower Second, three form-rooms away, turned out the gas and threw inkpots. It was a pleasant and stimulating âprep.â The study-boys and prefects heard the echoes of it far off, and the Common-room at dessert smiled.
Stalky waited, watch in hand, till half-past eight. âIf it goes on much longer the Head will come up,â said he. âWeâll tell the studies first, and then the dorm-rooms. Look sharp!â
He allowed no time for Beetle to be dramatic or McTurk to drawl. They poured into study after study, told their tale, and went again so soon as they saw they were understood, waiting for no comment; while the noise of that unholy âprep.â grew and deepened. By the door of Flintâs study they met Mason flying towards the corridor.ââHeâs gone to fetch the Head. Hurry up! Come on!â They broke into Number Twelve form-room abreast and panting.
âThe Head! The Head! The Head!â That call stilled the tumult for a minute, and Stalky, leaping to a desk, shouted, âHe went and sucked the diphtheria stuff out of Stettson majorâs throat when we thought he was in town. Stop rotting, you asses! Stettson major would have croaked if the Head hadnât done it. The Head might have died himself. Crandall says itâs the bravest thing any livinâ man can do, and Iââhis voice crackedââthe Head donât know we know!â
McTurk and Beetle, jumping from desk to desk, drove the news home among the junior forms. There was a pause, and then, Mason behind him, the Head entered. It was in the established order of things that no boy should speak or move under his eye. He expected the hush of awe. He was received with cheersâsteady, ceaseless cheering. Being a wise man, he went away, and the forms were silent and a little frightened.
âItâs all right,â said Stalky. âHe canât do much. âTisnât as if youâd pulled the desks up like we did when old Carleton took prep. once. Keep it up! Hear âem cheering in the studies!â He rocketed out with a yell, to find Flint and the prefects lifting the roof off the corridor.
When the Head of a limited liability company, paying four per cent., is cheered on his saintly way to prayers, not only by four form-rooms of boys waiting punishment, but by his trusted prefects, he can either ask for an explanation or go his road with dignity, while the senior housemaster glares like an excited cat and points out to a white and trembling mathematical master that
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