The Human Boy

k-about" in the playground before tea, being chums of Nubby's. Whenever he gets a cold on the chest he thinks he is going to die, and this ev

hall get bacilluses or microbes into 2some important part of me, and die. It's like those books the Doctor reads to the kids on Sundays, with choir-boys in them. The little brutes sing like angels, and their

all the solos in the chapel to himse

ney away to the poor, or help blind people across road

said Nubby; "I shou

athers, "cracked wh

re mustache than, at least, two of the under-masters, and once he let Nu

said Nubby, looking at Mathers a

er, and began pe

as certain as

; "but if your voice did go, Nubbs,

tle bunch of grapes by Jane, and a packet of black currant lozenges; but this t

she doesn

nd I doubled up and barked like a dog, and she never eve

he said afterwards to Browne that she never saw you 4play a bigger game. Then that little beast--Browne, I mean--sniggered, and made that noise in his thr

n even a Double-First would be nothing if he wore salmon-colored ties and elastic-sided boots; and Browne isn't a Doub

nary, and used to treat the Fifth's class-room as a sort of training-ground for preaching and doing good. He was called 5Fulcher, and the spirit was willing in him, but the flesh was flabby. We used to assegai him with stumps, and pretend to scalp him and boil him and eat him. He said he should glory in martyrdom reall

impression we might make was generally swept away in chapel by Nubby when Sunday came. He could sing, mind you. It was like cold water down your spine, and all from printed music. Besides, he could be 6ill, which gave him a pull over Mathers and me, who couldn't. To look at, Nubby was nothing. He had big limbs, but they were soft as sausages. If you punched him he didn't b

that afternoon. Hardly had the name passed my lips when the door opene

y the fire," said the Doctor. "Is th

" said Nub

g, as you do, almost upon the hob. A constitutional 7weakness is thereby increa

was nothing to indicate a new boy about him. He had red rims to his eyes and a spot or two on his

you?" said Nubby, who was an a

a

e you'll lik

yo

hen there's hay. Hate it wh

" asked Mathers i

aw," said

ha

vil

," said

teggles, evidently anxious to please, sat down, and did as

if such a power to draw devils wasn't a

an s

es? So ca

a p

did you l

Harr

g and put his hand over his mouth--too l

eave there because I didn't know enough, and couldn't get up higher in the school. I'm rather backward through not being pr

put me in mind of a ferret I've 9got at home. He

anything?" a

pia

red and Nubby

e'll do duet

ike," sai

e tea-b

ense deal about dogs and horses; and Nubbs, who was a judge, said his piano-playing surpassed his devil-drawing for sheer brilliance. Yet, with all these accomplishments, he only managed to get into the 10Fourth. As to his smoking, it was certainly wonderful. And he ate things afterwards to hide the smell. He had a genius for wriggling out of rows and for gettin

f us--which was unusual. Then, seeing how the cat had taken to jumping,

like Steggl

He's cleve

know something if he's ever going t

and so is Math

p with ferret-eyes!

re, th

ay," I said. "It's off with the old fr

. You might learn manners from him,

the piano,

ys beau

een him pla

N

y for

isn't ev

he came; I've

ng M., and her eyes jo

lf last Sunday in chapel; and all the time you were watchi

ourself in me any more," she said

ve," I said. "Does that remark apply equa

said. "He's as bad as

she

said something about only the brave deserving the fair, and Mathers made him sit down in a puddle for cheeking him in the playground. Steggles's eyes looked like one of his own devils while he sat there, but he took it jolly quietly at the time. That got Nubby's wool off though, because he supported Stegg

was dressed in his usual style, and Steggles, who used to get himself up tremendously on half-holidays, wore yellow spats over his boots, and a sort of white thing under hi

I

ride her bicycle over on the road by which we walked, that only the day before he had quarrelled with her, and that his position with regard to her was at that hour most

me a velveteen pouch with his

irl did that,

said Steggles, sm

to join him, explaining that he generally k

sn't for the matc

ld I,"

fing away. Then he tried Nubby with a little cherry-wood pipe, and Nubbs thought a whiff

e without tobacco would be hell," sa

's very soothi

ver since Steggles hinted that the contents o

re wrong," Mathers said. "I've smoked

gles, but in such a humble, inquiring

d if you've got anothe

n. Mathers's lead was a

out two more pipes. He see

t the start," he expl

we were at it like four chimneys, and Steggles prai

ny a time and oft, I

before a football match; and Nubbs said he thought so too; and he also thought that after a litt

he mind," sa

again. To our surprise his hopeful tone had changed, and we fou

ve got--I've got a bit of a sunstroke

oke any more,"

st dodge through that hole in the hedge and find s

and Nubbs 17crawled shakily through, like a wounded rabbit, into a place where a board was stuck up saying that people would be prosecuted according

the pi

said Steggles. "You know what Nubbs is. It's only an

rspiration on my forehead and a weird sort of fee

I said, hastily knocking out the remaining tobacco a

't gone the same color as Nubbs did!

teggles I didn't much like, but I har

anyway, aren't you,

. What the dick

y baccy. There's plenty o

id Mathers. "I very

n a few yar

and I knew how things were in a moment. For a moment my own sufferings were forgotten before the awful spectacle of the ruin o

out Nubbs. You push on,

exclaimed Steggles. "Whoever would

hoarsely. "It was the boi

words with an

feebly. "We never could

rog is what you want," sai

looked horrid now; "go! or I'll k

teggles. "You look as if you'd been buried and dug up

g! went a bicycle bell; and

l be late,

ot observe us too narrowly. Then t

match--these poor chaps are ill--just cast your eye at the colo

r this!" interrupted Mat

20atom about us, please ride on round th

I'm sorry. But you won't hur

on the road and shall be

f, with Steggles frisking be

hers. Then horrid things h

the other masters. We were fully twenty minutes late. "This is very unsportsmanlike, the days be

o played back, was worse. The roughs "guyed" him, and asked him what he'd been drinking. If 21they'd asked him what he'd been smoking there might have been some sense in it. He told me afterwards that he often saw three footballs at on

tron, knowing Nubbs had a tricky system, sent for

term, just before Easter, I had the pleasure of writing a fine letter to Mathers, who had left Merivale,

ed a bit, I fancy, when she heard it, but Nubbs says she smiled at him two mornings afterwards coming out of chapel. Nubbs expects to crack (his voice) any day, but he hopes to get a definite understanding with M. before it happens. It'll be too late after. Of course she never looks at me. She told Steggles, and he told me, that she could not possibly care for a person s