Johnny Ludlow, Second Series

cousin of the Sankers of Wales, and a twenty-seventh of Mrs. Todhetley. The captain and his wife and family, six children, had lived in Ireland and the Channel Islands, and other cheap loc

Mrs. Sanker, they dropped into quite a for

country; and of the great advantage the college school would be to the young Sankers, in giving them a free education if they could be got into it. The prospect of a free education for his boys took with the captain,

uch of, for the boys were taught little but the classics, so entrance was easy: Latin, Greek, bad writing, and the first rule in arithmetic: there it ended. Captain Sanker th

was a short, stout man, with grey hair, and merry bright blue eyes all alight with smiles. The college school would be breaking up for its long holidays in a week or so, and it would have been better for us to have gone then; but the captain

ut a hundred times a day. There seemed to be no fixed hour for meals, and sometimes no meals to eat: Mrs. Sanker would forget to order them. She was a little lady, who went about as if she were dreaming, in a white petticoat and loose buff jacket; or else she'd be sitting aloft in the turret, darning stockings and saying poetry. She was the least excitable person I ever

the work indiscriminately. Breakfast over, the boys went out again, Tod and I with them. At ten they must be in school. At one they came home to dinner; it might be ready, or it might not: if not, they'd go in and polish off anything cold that might be in the larder. It didn't seem to spoil their dinners. Afternoon school again until four o'clock; and then at liberty for good. Tea was at any time; a scrambling sort of meal that stayed on the table for hours, and was taken

I thought it delightful; as did Tod. It was like a perpetual picnic. But it was from one of these dinnerless

On this day, Thursday, Tod and I had been into the Town Hall in the morning, listening to a trial before the magistrates-some fellow who had stolen his neighbour's clothes-props and cut them up for firewood. We reached home just

r ducks?" asked Dan. "Any pudding?

ner," replied Biddy. "I've been in the turret with t

ws, nobody had thought of dinner, and the ducks were hanging in the larder, uncooked. Before speechless tongues could find words, Captain Sanker came in, bringing his friend Dr.

n to his wife, as she was shaking hands with the doctor,

he ducks were not cooked: dinne

otchman, who walked with his nose in the air and his spectacles turned to the skies, as if always looki

Nora, the other servant-both girls had come with them from Ireland, and were as thoughtless as their mistress-came in with a dish of some hastily concocted pudding: a

cheese, Nora, and do some eggs. Here's a corner seat for you, Johnny; can you squeeze in? The captain will have his din

go into passions of absolute madness for a minute or two, when he was younger; but that he had by much self-restraint chiefly if not quite subdued it. It was true; and the temper never need be feared now unless he took anything to excite him. Dan had the same temper; but without the good-nature.

y parish clerk. Now there was wont to spring up from time to time a tide of animosity between these boys and the boys of the college school. Captain Sanker said it was the fault of the college boys: had they let the St. Peter's boys alone, St. Peter's boys would never have presumed to interfere with them: but the college boys could be downright contemptuous and overbearing when they pleased. They scornfully called the St. Peter's boys the Frogs, "charity boys;" and the Frogs retorted by calling them the College Caws-after the rooks that had their homes in the old trees of the college

? You daren't come on fair, and fight it out with us, you Caws. Caw, caw, caw!" Sometimes the college boys would pass on, only calling back their contemptuous retorts; sometimes they'd halt, and a fierce storm of abuse would be interchanged, to the edification of Edgar Street in general and the clerks in Mr. Clifton's Registry Office. "You beggarly Frogs! We don't care to soil our hands with you! Had you been gentlemen, we'd have polished you off long ago, and sent you into next week. Croak, Frogs! Croak!" No

him to keep "out of the ruck" in the skirmishes with the Frogs, and he generally did. If it came to a fight, you see, King might have been hurt; he had no fighting in him, was frightened at it, and he could not run much. King was just like his mother in ideas: he would tell us his dreams as she did, and recite pieces of p

ways trying to find out ways of making folk happy, had devised a day of pleasure for the last day of our stay, Tuesday. We were to go to Malvern; a whole lot of

s and bacon and pancakes, we looked at the skies for a bit, and then (all but Fred and Hetta) went up to the turret-room. Dan said the rain had come to spite us; for the whole school had meant to race to Berwick's Bridge after afternoon service and hold a mock review in the fields there. It was coming do

oud to us, mam

"-holding out the work, all rags and tatters. "If I don'

nd about tha

you could go without a shirt

that you know, mamma," returned

that and work too.

he beam on either side her. Dan, who did not care for poetry, got so

s Grey." But what with gazing up at the sky through the rain to give it due emphasis, and

re, lady, w

row is

lucked, the s

r make gr

o tears. But as Mrs. Sanker took no no

, when the poem was finished.

isper it over sometimes to myself in bed. Mamma, won't you say th

id haunted her family, and another of a murder that was discovered by a dream. Some of the young Sankers were the oddest mixtures of timidity and bravery-p

tfully. "But I do dream very strange dreams sometimes. When I awake, I lie and wond

lways been dreamers,"

lking, the afternoon wore on unconscious

Jo

ticed it. It was shining as brightly as could be on

Jupiter, that's the college bell! Make a rush, you fellows,

ing by the holiday. They had to do it, however. The three went flying out towards the cathedral, and I gave King my arm to help him after them. Tod and I-intending to

sky. Not a single fellow was absent: even King limped along. We took the way by the Severn, past the boat-house at the end of the

reviews. A regular review of the Worcestershire militia took place once a year on Kempsey Ham, and some of the boys' heads got a trifle turned with i

of his money!-and his horses!-and see how good-looking he is! If Lord Ward hasn't a rig

ks and hoots and groans from either side rose at once on the air. Which army commenced hostilities, I couldn't tell; the

meddle in this. Stay and look on, if you please; but keep at a sufficient distance where it may

took to keep himself from going in to pummel some of the Frogs

g the first of these interludes, just as the sides were preparing to charge, a big Frog, with broad awkward shoulders, a red, rugged face, and a bleeding nose, came dashing forward alone into the ranks of the college boys, caught up poor lame helpless King Sanker, bore him bravely right through, and put him down in safety beyond, in spite of th

of that big Frog, was

brave soldier. I me

was frightened, you see; and there was no way out

rce and real for abuse of tongue. We could hear the blows dealt on the upturned faces. King, who had a natural horror of fighting, trembled inwardly from he

hem were so old as some of the college boys. When the fight was at the thickest, we heard a sudden shout from a bass, gruff, authoritative voice: "Now

Frog of them all but dropped his blows and his rage. The college boys had to drop the

ever they molested his boys again, or another quarrel was got up, he would appeal publicly to the dean and chapter. If one of the college boys made a move in future to so much as cast an insulting look towards a boy in St. Peter's School, that boy should go before the dean; and it would not be his fault (the clerk's) if he was not expelled the cathedral. He would take care, and precious good care, that his boys

s, swollen noses, and torn clothes. Dan Sanker's nose was as big as a beer barrel, and his shirt-front hung in r

nd bespattered with mud. Farmers going back from market drew up their gigs to the roadside, to stare at us while we passed. One little girl, in a pony-chaise, wedged between a fat old lady in a red shawl and a gentleman in top-boots, was frightened nearly into fits. She shriek

s were visible on many of them; and their white surplices only helped to show the faces off the more. The chorister who too

y came to us in the afternoon, as had been agreed upon; dinner being ordered by Captain Sanker for five o'clock. It was rather a profu

dhetley could not help asking me, in a whisper

crammed themselves into a post-carriage from the Star, and a big waggonette was lent by some friend of Dr. Teal for the rest. The boys were losing the signs of their damages; nothing being very conspicuous now bu

mber that a hearse and three mourning-coaches stood before the Lion, the men refreshing themselves with drink; and we wondered who was being buried that day. Down that steep and awkward hill next, where so many accidents occurred before it was altered, and so on to the Link; the glorious hills always before us from the turning where they had first burst into view; their clumps of gorse and broom, their paths and their sheep-tracks growing gradually plainer to the sight the nearer we drew. The lig

and the room behind the well was in readiness for us. Once the baskets were deposited there, we were at liberty till dinner-time, and went on up the hill. Turning a corner

e me, those curse

nd so brought ourselves into a wide expanse of upper prospect. Sure enough! About a hundred of the Frogs in their Sunda

a horrid lot they are! Look at their sneaking t

e size of the boys, did not improve the appearance of the Frogs. But as to pitching-in, D

and bid us halt. "Those poor boys are here, I see; but they will not, I am sure, molest you, neit

their impudence, to come

e yours, to come, Dan: they were here first

ring to meet us any more than we cared to meet them-most of them broke off on a detour down the steep of the hill, and so avoided us. About half-a-dozen came on. One of them was a big-shouldered, awkward, red-faced boy, taller than the rest of them and not unlike a real frog; he walked wit

and didn't mind the blows he got in doing it. I should ha

boy's. He did it heartily. As to the Frog,

'd wring it off. "You do honour to yourself, whoever you may be. There was not one of his own com

m to get some Malvern cakes. The boy stood back for us

y, Maste

his freckled face, it seemed quite familiar.

rar! I didn't know

cap on. "Eighty of the biggest of us; the rest are to come to-morrow. Some

glad you thought of Ki

iel Ferrar, the Squire's bailiff, of whom you have heard before, poor fellow, and also t

to come; on the other side rose the more diversified landscape that has been so much told and talked of. Over the green meadows and the ripening corn-fields lay Worcester itself: the cathedral showing out well, and the summit of the high church-spire of St. Andrew's catching a glint of the sunlight. Hills caught the eye wherever it turned: Bredon Hill, Abberleigh Hills, the Old Hills; homesteads lay upon their lands, half hidden by their rick-yards and

d passed, and we were as hot as fire and more hungry than hunters, we bethought ourselves of dinner. King got on his donkey again, and the rest

ld meats, and salad, and pastry, and all sorts of good things. Dan was next to me;

don't you think you had better drink some water in

said Dan. "I'll go

t where we could not be overlooked, and should be quite out of the way of the hill-climbers. The bank rose perpendicularly above us, banks descende

, but Captain Sanker told him not to be silly: and after going white and red for a bit, he began. Perhaps the reader would like to hear it. I never repeat it to myself, no, nor even a verse of it, but poor K

an was a n

ord of hi

himself on

n country h

east, he s

came un

taken, and

life was q

son there g

very stout

chained b

life was a

e had one o

creature eye

keys of her fa

'd set Lord

houses?-have

humberland b

you give to t

rison would

houses, and

thumberland

t all to the f

prison would

him to her f

him the be

alth that sh

Lord Bateman,

ong years I'

g years I'll

l wed no o

ed no ot

him to her fat

o him a sh

rewell to you

er shall see

ng years were

days, well

her gay gold

d Bateman sh

to Lord Bate

here she ra

there?" cried the

who's there,

Lord's Bate

lordship he

," cried the yo

ow taken his y

send me a s

e of the be

orget the fa

se him when cl

nt this young

ay, away

ame unto L

bended kne

hat news, my

news have you

he fairest of a

my two eye

t rings on

f them she h

s much gold r

Northumberl

to send her a

e of the be

orget the fa

se you when cl

an in a pa

sword in sp

my father's w

ia has cross

his young br

s heard to s

forget my o

hia has cros

ade a bride o

e better nor

me on a hors

back in a carri

r marriage

ir hearts so

o more to for

hia has cros

ed him; and the Squire told us that the first time he had ever heard "Lor

rcourt's Tower again. A few Frogs were about the hills, but they did not come

'm as thirsty as a fish. I've been asleep out there all th

spoke up Mrs. Teal, who seemed to like or

red Sanker with them. We sat down to tea; and it was half

yet, but we had to spend the last hour or two hunting some of them up. Well,

only been about the hills, h

" said Hetta Sanker, just then thinking of it. "He stayed b

f the women at the well said that when she went out for th

said the captain. And we went o

first: the same party with him as in the morning, except that Mrs. Teal took her hus

ere singing to himsel

. Up as far as St. Ann's, and along the hill underneath, and in

impudent Frogs have made off

of anything, min

saw and heard all our consternation at the dilemma we were in. Mrs. Todhetley, who did not understand the st

. "We think he must have fallen asleep somewher

n and women, carrying their empty provision-baskets, came running downwards, saying that they had heard groaning under a part of the hill-and describ

ve fallen down from the place where we had sat at dessert.

asleep, and fallen d

Dr. Teal thought that there was not much the matter, and that he might be conveyed to Worcester. Ferrar helped to carry

Captain Sanker found what had happened, he grew excited, and went knocking at half the doctors' doors in Worcester. Mr. Woodward was the

ear what the doctors made of it. He was sensible, and talked a little. When asked h

e was to the Squire and Mrs. Todhetley at

his plain face all concern, "how did

not. Why do

boys are lame they are more cautio

re. And his sister says she thinks he went to slee

ontortions, and the freckles shone in the

im last, Master Johnny. Least

? How wa

and began telling me he had been saying 'Lord Bateman' to them all. I didn't know what 'Lord Bateman' meant, Master Johnny-and he said he would tell it me; he should no

hat?" I in

lse the college boys. Anyway, he seemed to want me gone,

en asleep, and som

ity he was left in

first floor, that belonged in general to the two girls. When I said Mark Ferrar was outside, King asked me to

ful Dan, as he heard me. "It's like his impudence to sto

. "The boy shall go up, whether he's a Frog, o

ed face and his great wide mouth-but, as I have said, it was a face to be trusted.

'll get wel

g," said King, in his faint voice. And he did not call him Frog in any contempt, but a

a big lump the size of an egg. "Yes," he answered, "it was got in the figh

zing up at the lump wi

other day, and they shall give it you to keep. I didn't finish telling it to you. He owned half N

s though he could not make top or tail of the story.

: they wouldn't have so many doctors if t

ybody push you?" went on

he door. "If papa heard you say

r were you pushed ov

re, and see me with a beautiful strong body and straight limbs, you won't know me again at first. Good-

t, as he put out his hand to meet poor King's

anted to be home early. The carriage was waiting before the gateway, the ostler hold

y poor King's gone. He died a

re ordered the horses to be put up again, and we went

e than I had sometimes seen it look in life. On the cheeks there lingered a

rough her tears. "He has been talking about it at intervals al

those solemn words has rarely been brought home to hearts a