The Human Boy

e ordinary course of events, he would have had to begin fagging for an exam., something happened to his right lung, and he had to go on an awful fine trip t

solid muscle all through, and harder than stone, and he had a brother in London who was runner-up in the amateur "light-weight" championship two years following. Bray fancied himself a bit, naturally, and was always roam

n Browne, the under mathematical master, told Corkey minimus that he was "the least of all the Corkeys, and not worthy to be called a Corkey," because he couldn't do rule-of-thre

bsolutely engaged to Morris, for he told his sister so in the holidays, and his sister told Morris minor, and he told me the next term. Morris was the head of the school, and he had her photograph fixed into a foreign nut which he wore on his watch-chain. But when he left, and she found out he was gone

a different necktie every day for a month. The month being June, that meant thirty different neckties each, and the chap who wore the best neckties would win. A fellow called Fowle was judge, being the son of an artist; and neither Bray nor Corkey was allowed to buy a single new tie or add to the stock he had in his box. At the end of a fortnight they stood about equal, though Corkey's ties were rather more artistic than Bray's, which were chiefly yellow and spotted. But then came an awful falling away, and some of the affairs they wore were simply weird. The test for these was if the tie passed in class. Then the terms of the match were altered, 73and they decided to go on wearing diffe

nd your neck, boy

tie,

Brigg

order about your neck arrangements for a week past. You insult me an

sir," said Bray, trying to

aid old Briggs. "Bring me t

examined it as if it was a b

ed boy--a fragment of the new carpet laid down yesterday in the Doctor's study. You will kindly t

match, lost, and Corkey minim

ly after Bray said that he could only pay hi

moment for young Corkey, she told him he had eyes like an eagle's, and it simply turned his head. As an eagle's eyes are yellow, I couldn't see myself what there was to be so jolly pleased about; but he was, and, to show you what a

ed to harpies, though he would have run if a mouse had squeaked at him, was yet responsible for more fights than any fellow in the school. He sneaked about, asking chaps if they gave one another "best," and when at last he found two who didn't funk each other, though they might be perfectly good friends, he never rested until there was a fight. He got kicked sometimes, but not enough. That was owing to the fact that his hampers from home were most extraordinary. They came on Roman feast days, because he was a Roman Catholic by religion; and some fellows eve

lips and showing great excitement. So I knew he'd probably worke

ey minimus? B

I may mention that

something, and he says, though he

ly mouth as if he'd got

orkey don

ery from Browne's house to the chapel yesterday, and I went by the summer-house, which is out of bounds, and couldn't help overhearing Milly and Corkey minimus, who

aked off and

chum I

ll Corkey what you h

. He says he's stood all that flesh and blood can stand. Those were his very words. In fact, I

lick

cked his

ught it o

he message. You can go back

" said Fowle, regretfully, as th

k with the worm of a chap by that 79time. "You go b

, leaving this tremendous respo

or was no good. If I'd told him he would have blinked through his goggles and have said some bosh--very likely in Latin. And Corkey minor, being thousands of m

m look about him, I thought for a moment he'd had the licki

've got to

ap, you could

l alive since Corkey minor went. So I said, 'Quite right; I shouldn't look at them.' Then she turned round rather suddenly and said I was included. So I said, 'I should be only too glad to fight 81him if there was a ghost of a chance, but there isn't. It's no good pretending. He's four inches taller, and miles more round the chest and round the arms, and ages older. In fact, he could lick me with one hand tied behind him.' Then she said, 'The days of chivalry are dead,' which she'd got out of a book, of course; and she added that she was tired of all boys, and that a chap with eyes like mine ought to have more 'devil' in him. Yes, she used that word. I said, 'What do you want me to do?' And she said, 'Oh, nothing. I wouldn't have a hair of your head singed for the world; only I thought that it might interest you more than other people to know I'd been insulted. Of course, if it'

e asked you to fight Blanchard or Sims. Look at your arms,

be rather rotten for her if he kills me. But the thing

Bray's message, and told

lenge him to fight in a regular way, ca

3we went up to the "gym," where Bray was t

ot keep me waiting another time when I send for you

?" Corkey m

say I was as fi

he hears a l

ay it or d

y it again; and you'r

face so near that their noses were almost touching, l

if it isn't troubling y

's, "and I'll say another thing too, which is, that before you talk so big about m

ray, grinning lik

ht you properly with secon

going in it was settled the fight should come off next Wednesday, that being a half-holiday. Part of Merivale Woods skirted the cricket-field, and as the second eleven, to which Bray belonged, wasn't playing a match, everything suited very comfortably. Blanchard, the cock of the school, agreed to umpire, and he and another

I

blubbed and prayed him if ever he had any liking for her to give Bray "best." She said she kept dreaming of him brought back stark and stiff; and then, when he began to think she meant it, she called him her "knight" and her "hero" and her "King Arthur" and other

feel quite the same to he

y girl," I said. Then he burst out as red in the face as an apple,

his pudding at dinner in exchange for the meat of the chaps who sat next to him. But you

nd Blanchard said they were right. They marked out a ring and ran a string round 87and arranged corners for the seconds; and I saw that the obscene Fowle had towels and bottles of water and a basin--all, of course, for Bray between the rounds. Corkey minimus was rather waxy with me for not bringing the same for him; but I'd brought a sponge, which I know is a thing a second chucks up in the air when his man

y peel rathe

key minimus seemed to be all ribs somehow, with arms about as lean as rulers. I to

face, so as to black an eye or something, and show

ite calm, and just his usual color; and when Bray tossed him for corners Corkey won; and Blanc

it! Bray began fiddling about jolly scientifically with his hands, and I fancy he just squinted down to see if his feet were scientific too. At the same moment Corkey

d for Corke

ly quick that he didn't get more than about four smacks on it in the first round, though his body, which was white by nature, was pretty soon covered with red marks. He said they didn't hurt, and I cleaned him up and blew water over him at the end of the round. His lip was bleeding like mad, but luckily inside, where his tooth had cut it; and he swallowed all the blood, so nobody knew; besides which the

three rounds with luck. So Bray began hitting him like hammers, and though I was about as sorry for Corkey minimus as a chap could be, nobody would have been able to help ad

ould think, and she tore right into the ring straight at Bray, and not trusting to words at a time like that, and not remembering her father was a clergyman, or anything, slapped his face both sides, and jolly hard too. Bray swor

rder a boy half your age and size! I wish I could kill you,

she cried over Corkey, and said she would rather have been torn to pieces by unchained monsters than have let him be mangled like

ul about it. She kept her swear all right, but came herself. And when Bray got to hear how it was she came--of course, thinking Corkey had told her, which he would rather have died than do--then Bray tried a lot of Chinese tortures on

rapes, and some muck for his eye, and little baskets of strawberries, and jolly books and rosebuds. She told the Doctor about slapping Bray's face, and wrote

told me abou

she's said several times that there's only one c

ld change her mind after a

ey minim

m things with him from Australia. And you needn't repeat it, but to you, McI

sense in Corkey minimus than you