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 I
 
 THE FIGHT 
 
 AT 
 
 DAME EUEOPA'S SCHOOL 
 
 SHEWING HOW 
 
 \ 
 
 THE GERMAN BOY THRASHED THE I 
 
 FRENCH BOY; 
 
 AND HOW THE 
 
 ENGLISH BOY LOOKED ON. 
 
 LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO. 
 SALISBURY : BROWN AND CO.
 
 SALISBURY : 
 SENNETT, PBINTEE, JOURNAL OFFICB.
 
 C^e Jfig^t nt §nmt ^urnpa's Sr^ool 
 
 Mrs. Europa kept a Dame's School, where Boys 
 were well instructed in modern languages, fortifica- 
 tion, and the use of the globes. Her connexion 
 and credit were good, for there was no other school 
 where so sound and liberal an education could be 
 obtained. Many of her old pupils held Master- 
 ships in other important establishments, two of 
 which may be mentioned as consisting chiefly of 
 dark swarthy youths, decidedly stupid and back- 
 ward for their years ; while a third was a large 
 modern Academy full of rather cocky fellows, who 
 talked big about the institutions of their school, 
 and talked, for the most part, through their nose. 
 
 The lads at Mrs. Europa's were of all sorts 
 and sizes — good Boys and bad Boys, sharp Boys 
 and slow Boys, industrious Boys and idle Boys, 
 peaceable Boys and pugnacious Boys, well behaved 
 Boys and vulgar Boys ; and of course the good old 
 dame could not possibly manage them all. So, as 
 she did not like the masters to be prying about the 
 playground out of school, she chose from among
 
 4 The Fight at 
 
 tlie biggest and most trustworthy 6f her pupils five 
 monitors, who had authority over the rest of the 
 Boys, and kept the unruly ones in order. These 
 five, at the time of which we are writing, were 
 Louis, William, Aleck, Joseph, and John. 
 
 If a dispute arose among any of the smaller 
 Boys, the monitors had to examine into its cause, 
 and if possible to settle it amicably. Should it be 
 necessary to fight the matter out, they were to 
 see fair play, stop the encounter when it had gone 
 far enough, and at all times to uphold justice, 
 and prevent tyranny and bullying. 
 
 The power thus placed in their hands was for 
 the most part exercised with discretion, and to the 
 manifest advantage of the school. Trumpery 
 little quarrels were patched up, which might other- 
 wise have led to the patching up of bruises and 
 black eyes ; and many a time, when two little 
 urchins had retired with their backers into a corner 
 of the playground to fight about nothing at all, did 
 the dreaded appearance of Master Louis or Master 
 John put them to flight, or force them to shake 
 hands. The worst of it was that some of the 
 monitors themselves occasionally took to bullying, 
 and then of course it became more than ever the 
 duty of the rest to interfere. There lingered a 
 tradition in the school of a terrific row in times 
 
 uiuc!
 
 Dame Europas School. 5 
 
 past, when a monitor named Nicholas made a 
 most unprovoked attack upon a quiet but very dirty- 
 little Boy called Constantino. John and Louis 
 stuck up for the child boldly, and gave Nicholas 
 such a thrashing that he never got over it, and 
 soon afterwards left the school. 
 
 Each of the upper Boys at Dame Europa's 
 had a little garden of his own, in a corner of the 
 playground. The Boys took great interest in their 
 gardens, and kept them very neatly. In some 
 were grown flowers and fruit, in others mustard 
 and cress or radishes, which the young cultivators 
 w^ould sell to one another and take into Hall, to 
 help down their bread and scrape at tea time. 
 Every garden had in the middle of it an arbour, 
 fitted up according to the taste and means of its 
 owner. Louis had the prettiest arbour of all, like 
 a grotto in fairy land, full of the most beautiful 
 flowers and ferns, with a vine creeping over the 
 roof, and a little fountain playing inside. John's 
 garden was pretty enough, and more productive 
 than any'; owing its chief beauty, however, to the 
 fact that it was an Island, separated from all the 
 rest by a stream, between twenty and thirty feet 
 wide. But his arbour was a mere tool-house, 
 where he shut himself up almost all play time 
 turning at his lathe, or making nets or sharpening
 
 6 The Fight at 
 
 knives, or cutting out boats to sail on the river. 
 Still, John was fond of a holiday now and then ; 
 and when he was tired of slaving away in his own 
 garden, he would punt himself across the brook, 
 and pay a visit to his neighbour Louis, who was 
 always cheerful and hospitable, and glad to see him. 
 Many and many a happy hour did he spend in his 
 friend's arbour, lying at full length on the soft 
 moss, and eating grapes and drinking lemonade, 
 and thinking how much pleasanter it was over 
 there than in his own close fusty shop, with its 
 dirt and litter, and its eternal smell of tar, and 
 nets, and shavings. Anyhow, thought Johnnie, I 
 make more profit out of my garden than any or 
 the other fellows, so I must put up with a few bad 
 smells. For Dame Europa, byway of encouraging 
 habits of industry, allowed the Boys to engage 
 pretty extensively in commercial pursuits, and it 
 was said that Master John, who had been working 
 unusually hard of late, had sometimes trebled or 
 quadrupled his half-yearly pocket money out of the 
 produce of his tool-house and garden. 
 
 By the side of Louis' domain was that of 
 William, the biggest and strongest of all the 
 monitors. He set up, however, for being a very 
 studious and peaceable Boy, and made the rest oi 
 the school believe that he had never provoked a
 
 Dame Europds School, 7 
 
 quarrel in his life. He was rather fond of singing 
 psalms and carrying Testaments ahout in his 
 pocket; and many of the Boys thought Master 
 William a bit of a humbug. He was as proud as 
 any body of his garden, but he never went to 
 work in it without casting envious eyes on two 
 little flower beds which now belonged to Louis, 
 but which ought by rights, he thought, to belong 
 to him. Indeed it was notorious that in old days, 
 before either Louis or William came to the school, 
 one of Louis' predecessors in the garden had 
 pulled up some stakes which served for a boundary, 
 and cribbed a piece of his neighbour's ground. 
 For a long while William had set his heart upon 
 getting it back again ; but he kept his wishes to 
 himself, and nobody suspected that so good and 
 religious a Boy could be guilty of coveting what 
 was admitted by the whole school to be now the 
 property of another. Only one Boy, his favourite 
 fag, did William take into his confidence in the 
 matter. This was a sharp shrewd lad named 
 Mark, not over scrupulous in what he did, full of 
 deep tricks and dodges, and so cunning that the 
 old dame herself, though she had the eyes of a 
 hawk, never could catch him out in anything 
 absolutely wrong. To this smart youth William 
 one day whispered his desires, as they sat together
 
 8 The Fight at 
 
 * 
 
 in the summer house smoking and drinking beer ; 
 for I am sorry to say that they both smoked and 
 drank almost all their play time, though of course 
 it was against the rules of the school. 
 
 *' There is only one way to do it," said Mark. 
 " If you want the flower beds you must fight 
 Louis for them, and I believe you will lick him all 
 to smash ; but you must fight him alone." 
 
 ** How do you mean ?" replied William. 
 
 " I mean, you must take care that the other 
 monitors don*t interfere in the quarrel. If they 
 do, they will be sure to go against you. Eemember 
 what a grudge Joseph owes you for the licking you 
 gave him not long ago ; and Aleck, though to be 
 sure Louis took little Constantine's part against 
 him in that great bullying row, is evidently begin- 
 ning to grow jealous of your influence in the 
 school. You see, old fellow, you have grown so 
 much lately, and filled out so wonderfully, that you 
 are getting really quite formidable. Why, I 
 recollect the time when you were quite a little 
 chap !" 
 
 ** Yes,*' said William, turning up his eyes 
 devoutly, "it has pleased Providence that I should 
 be stout." 
 
 ** I dare say, but it has not pleased the other 
 monitors. And they were very angry, you know,
 
 Dame Europds School, 9 
 
 when you took those little gardens belonging to 
 some of the small Boys, and tacked them on to 
 yours." 
 
 " But, my dear Mark, I did that by your own 
 particular advice." 
 
 *' Of course you did, and quite right too. The 
 little beggars were not strong enough to work, and 
 it was far better that you should look after their 
 gardens for them, and give them a share of the 
 produce. All the same, no doubt it made the 
 other monitors jealous, and I am not sure that the 
 old Dame herself thought it quite fair." 
 
 " Did you ever find out, Mark, what he thought 
 of it ?" asked William, winking his left eye, and 
 jerking his thumb over his left shoulder towards 
 the island. 
 
 " Oh," answered Mark, with a scornful laugh, 
 ** never you mind him. He won*t meddle with 
 any body. He is a deal too busy in that filthy, 
 dirty shop of his, making things to sell to the 
 other Boys. Bah ! it makes me sick to think 
 how that place smells !" and the fastidious youth 
 took a long draught of beer, by way of recalling 
 some more agreeable sensations. 
 
 *' He is an uncommonly plucky fellow," said 
 William, when they had smoked for a while in 
 silence, " and as strong as a lion."
 
 lo The Fight at 
 
 " As plucky and as strong as you please, my 
 
 friend, but as lazy as ," and here again Mark, 
 
 being altogether at a loss for a simile, sought one at 
 the bottom of the pewter. " Besides," he continued, 
 when he had slaked his thirst, " he is neNex ready. 
 Look what a precious mess he made of that affair 
 with Nicholas. It was before you came, you 
 know, but I recollect it well. Why, poor Johnnie 
 had no shoes to fight in, and they had it out in 
 the stoniest part of the playground, too, where his 
 feet were cut to pieces. And then again he took 
 it all so precious cool that he got late for break- 
 fast in the morning, and had to fight on an empty 
 stomach. Pluck and strength are all very w^ell ; 
 but a fellow must eat and drink, and have a pair of 
 decent shoes to stand up in." 
 
 "And why couldn't he get a pair of decent 
 shoes ?" asked William. " He has got heaps of 
 money." 
 
 " Heaps upon heaps, but he wanted it for 
 something else — to buy a new lathe, I think it 
 was ; and so he sat grinding away in his dirty 
 shop, and thinking of nothing but saving up his 
 sixpences and shillings." 
 
 " Then, my dear Mark, what do you advise me 
 to do ?" 
 
 " Ah, that is not so easy to say. Give me time
 
 Dame Eu7 opas School. 1 1 
 
 to think, and when I have an idea, I will let you 
 know. Only, whatever you do, take care to put 
 Master Louis in the wrong. Don't pick a quarrel 
 with him, but force him, by quietly provoking him, 
 to pick a quarrel with you. Give out that you 
 are still peaceably disposed, and carry your Testa- 
 ment about as usual. That will put old Dame 
 Europa off her guard, and she will believe in you 
 as much as ever. The rest you may leave to me ; 
 but, in the meantime, keep yourself in good con- 
 dition ; and, if you can hear of anyone in the 
 town who gives lessons in bruising, just go to him 
 and get put up to a few dodges. I know for a fact 
 that Louis has been training hard, and exercising 
 his fists, ever since you gave that tremendous 
 thrashing to Joseph." 
 
 The bell now rang for afternoon school, and the 
 two friends hastily smothered their cigars, and 
 finished between them what was left of the beer. 
 Mark ran off to the pump to wash his hands, 
 which no amount of scrubbing would ever make 
 decently clean, while William changed his coat 
 and walked sedately across the playground, hum- 
 ming to himself, not in very good tune, a verse of 
 the Old Hundredth Psalm. 
 
 An opportunity of putting their little plot into 
 execution soon occurred. A garden became vacant,
 
 1 2 The Fight at 
 
 on the other side of Louis' little territory, which 
 none of the Boys seemed much inclined to accept. 
 It was a troublesome piece of ground, exposed to 
 constant attacks from the town cads, who used to 
 overrun it in the night, and pull up the newly- 
 planted flowers. The cats, too, were fond of 
 prowling about in it, and making havoc among 
 the beds. Nobody bid for it, therefore, and it 
 seemed to be going begging. 
 
 " Don't you think," said Mark one day to his 
 friend and patron, "that your little cousin, the 
 new Boy, might as well have that garden ?" 
 
 '* I don't see why he should not, if he wants 
 it," replied William, by no means deep enough to 
 understand what his faithful fag was driving at. 
 
 " It will be so nice for Louis, don't you see, to 
 have William to keep him in check on one side, 
 and William's little cousin to watch him on the 
 other side," observed Mark innocently. 
 
 " Ah, to be sure," exclaimed William, beginning 
 to wake up, " so it will ; very nice indeed. Mark, 
 you are a sly dog." 
 
 " I should say, if you paid Louis the compli- 
 ment to propose it, that it is such a delicate little 
 attention as he would never forget — even if you 
 withdrew the proposal afterwards." 
 
 *' Just so, my Boy, and then we shall have to
 
 Dame Europds School. 13 
 
 fight. But look here, won't the other chaps say- 
 that I have provoked the quarrel ?" 
 
 " Not if we manage properly," was the reply. 
 " They are sure to fix the cause of dispute on 
 Louis, rather than on you. You are such a peace- 
 able Boy, you know ; and he has always been fond 
 of a shindy." 
 
 So Dame Europa was asked to assign the vacant 
 garden to William's little cousin. " Well," said 
 she, " if Louis does not object, who will be his 
 nearest neighbour, he may have it." 
 
 *' But I do object, ma'am," cried Louis. " I very 
 particularly object. I don't want to be hemmed 
 in on all sides by William and his cousins. They 
 will be walking through my garden to pay each 
 other visits, and perhaps throwing balls to one 
 another right across my lawn." 
 
 " Oh, but you might be sure that I should do 
 nothing unfair," said William, reproachfully. " I 
 have never attacked anybody," he continued, fum- 
 bling in his pocket for the Testament, and bringing 
 out by mistake a baccy pouch and a flask of brandy 
 instead, which, however, he was fortunately quick 
 enough to conceal before the Dame had caught 
 sight of them. 
 
 " That's all my eye," said Louis. " I don't 
 believe in your piety. Come, take your dear little
 
 14 The Fight at 
 
 relation off, and give him one of tlie snug corners 
 that you bagged the other day from poor Christian." 
 
 " Oh, Louis," began William, looking as meek 
 as possible, " you know I never bagged anything. 
 I am a domestic peace-loving Boy " 
 
 "Very much so, indeed," cried Louis with a 
 sneer. " It's lessons in peacemaking, I suppose, 
 that you have been taking from the * Brummagem 
 Bruiser' for the last six months or more — the 
 fellow that bragged to a friend of mine that, 
 though you used to be the clumsiest fellow he ever 
 set eyes on, he had made you as sharp as a needle 
 with your fists !" 
 
 " A friend of yours, you said, did you my dear ? 
 Perhaps that was the * Sheffield Slasher,' who told 
 my fag Mark that he had made your arms strong 
 enough to throw a ball or a stone more than a 
 hundred yards." 
 
 " Come, come," interposed the Dame, " I can't 
 listen to such angry words. You five monitors 
 must settle the matter quietly among yourselves ; 
 but no fighting, mind. The day for that sort of 
 thing is quite gone by." And the old lady toddled 
 off, and left the Boys alone. 
 
 "I would'nt press it. Bill, if I were you," said 
 John, in his deep gruff voice, looking out of his 
 shop window on the other side of the water. " I
 
 Dame Europcis School. 15 
 
 think it's rather hard lines for Louis, I do 
 indeed." 
 
 ** Always ready to oblige you, my dear John," 
 said William ; and so the new Boy's claim to the 
 garden was withdrawn. 
 
 " What shall I do now, Mark ?" asked William, 
 turning to his friend. " It seems to me that there 
 is an end of it all." 
 
 "Not a hit," was the reply. "Louis is still as 
 savage as a bear. He'll break out directly, you 
 see if he don't." 
 
 " I have been grossly insulted," began Louis at 
 last, in a towering passion, " and I shall not be 
 satisfied unless William promises me never to 
 make any such underhanded attempts to get the 
 better of me again." 
 
 " Tell him to be hanged," whispered Mark. 
 
 "You be no," said William, recollecting 
 
 himself, " I never use bad language. My friend," 
 he continued, " I cannot promise you anything of 
 the kind." 
 
 " Then I shall lick you till you do, you psalm- 
 singing humbug !" shouted Louis. 
 
 " Come on !" said William, lifting up his hand 
 as if to commend his cause to heaven, and looking 
 sanctimoniously out of the whites of his eyes. 
 And it was well for him that Louis did not take
 
 1 6 The Fight at 
 
 him at his word ; for, while one hand was lifted 
 up, the other was encumbered with a bundle of 
 good books which he was carrying to his summer- 
 house, and it would not have required much to 
 knock him down. But Louis did not feel quite 
 well. He had taken a blue pill that morning, and 
 he put off the attack therefore till he should meet 
 his adversary again. 
 
 Meanwhile, by Mark*s advice, "William ran off 
 to the Brummagem Bruiser, who put him up to all 
 the latest dodges, and exercised him in the noble 
 art to such good purpose that on his first en- 
 counter with Louis after breakfast the next morn- 
 ing he hit out a crushing blow from his shoulder 
 and knocked his enemy down. Louis was soon 
 on his legs again, and he too did good execution 
 with his fists; but he was clearly overmatched, 
 and at the end of the first round had been punished 
 pretty severely. 
 
 "Hot work, isn't it, my Boy?" said William, 
 chaffing him as he mopped the perspiration from 
 his steaming forehead. " This is what you call 
 your Baptism of fire, I suppose, aye?" Then he 
 wrote home to his mother, on the back of a half- 
 penny post card, so that all the letter carriers 
 might see how pious he was : — " Dear Mamma, I 
 am fighting for my Fatherland, as you know I call
 
 Dame Europds School. 17 
 
 my garden. It is a fine name, and creates sym- 
 pathy. Glorious news ! Aided by Providence, I 
 haye hit Louis in the eye. Thou may'st imagine 
 his feelings. What wonderful events has Heaven 
 thus brought about ! Your affectionate Son, 
 William." Then he sang a hymn, and went on 
 with the second round. 
 
 Meanwhile, the other monitors looked quietly 
 on, not knowing exactly what to do. 
 
 " Oughtn't I to interfere ?" asked John, ad- 
 dressing one of his favourite fags. 
 
 " No," said Billy, who was head fag, and 
 twisted Johnnie round his finger. " You just sit 
 where you are. You will only make a mess of it, 
 and offend both of them. Give out that you are a 
 * neutral.' " 
 
 "Neutral!" growled John, "I hate neutrals. 
 It seems to me a cold-blooded cowardly thing to 
 sit by and see two big fellows smash each other 
 all to pieces about nothing at all. They are both 
 in the wrong, and they ought not to fight. Let 
 me go in at them." 
 
 " No, no," said Bobby, a clever fair-haired Boy, 
 who kept John's accounts, and took care of his 
 money. " You really can't afford it ; and besides, 
 you've got no clothes to go in. There is not a 
 fellow in the school who wouldn't laugh at you, if
 
 1 8 The Fight at 
 
 you stood up in his garden. Sit still and grind 
 away, old chap, and make some more money, and 
 be thankful that you live on an island, and can take 
 things easily." 
 
 "Well," said John sulkily, "I don't half like 
 it, though certainly my clothes are not very re- 
 spectable, and there is no time now to mend them. 
 But look here. Bob ; I mean to go across and help 
 to sponge the poor beggars, if they get mauled." 
 
 " You may do that, and welcome," replied 
 Bobby. " You will make no enemies that way, 
 and it may cost you perhaps eighteenpence in 
 ointment and plaster. But bless you, Johnnie, if 
 you were to rig yourself out well enough to hold 
 your own against Louis or William, you would 
 have to fork out a ten-pound note or more." 
 
 John went on with his work in rather a grumpy 
 humour, for he had always been looked up to as 
 the leading Boy in the school, and he did not like 
 to play second fiddle. He felt sure that if he had 
 been half so natty and well got up as he used to 
 be, he might have stopped the fight in a moment. 
 For the next half hour he cursed Billy and Bobby, 
 and all the other little sneaks who had wormed 
 themselves into favour with him, by teaching him 
 to save money. " Hang the money !" growled 
 Johnnie to himself; " I'd give up half my shop to
 
 Dame Europas School. 1 9 
 
 get my old prestige back again." But it was too 
 late now. Nevertheless, lie had his own way 
 about the sponging, and certainly he did behave 
 well there. At the end of every round that was 
 fought, he got across the stream, and bathed poor 
 Louis' head, for he wanted help the most, and 
 gave him sherry and water out of his own flask. 
 *' I am so very sorry for you, my dear Louis," said 
 he, as the Boy, more dead than alive, struggled 
 up to his feet again. 
 
 " Thank you kindly, John," said Louis ; " but," 
 he added, looking somewhat reproachfully at his 
 friend, " why don't you separate us ? Don't you 
 see that this great brute is too many for me ? I 
 had no idea that he could fight like that." 
 
 ** What can I do?" said John. *'You began 
 it, you know, and you really must fight it out. I 
 have no power." 
 
 " So it seems," replied Louis. ''Ah, there was 
 a time — well, thank you kindly, John, for — the 
 sticking plaster." 
 
 " Come on !" shouted William, thirsting for 
 more blood. 
 
 ** Vive la guerre /" cried poor Louis, rushing 
 blindly at his foe. Well and nobly he fought, but 
 he could not stand his ground. When he did hit, 
 indeed, he hit to some purpose ; but seldom could
 
 20 The Fight at 
 
 he reach out far enough to do much damage. Foot 
 by foot and yard by yard he gave way, till at last 
 he was forced to take refuge in his arbour, from 
 the window of which he threw stones at his enemy^ 
 to keep him back from following. 
 
 Louis was plainly in the wrong. He ought to 
 have calculated the other Boy's strength before 
 attacking him, and he deserved a licking for his 
 rashness. But he had had his licking now ; and 
 when William, who talked so big about his peaceable 
 disposition, and declared that he only wanted to 
 defend his "fatherland," chased him right across 
 the garden, trampling over beds and borders on his 
 way, and then swore that he would break down his 
 beautiful summer-house, and bring Louis on his 
 knees, everybody felt that the other monitors 
 ought to interfere. But not a foot would they 
 stir. Aleck looked on from a safe distance, won- 
 dering which of the combatants would be tired 
 first. Joseph stood shivering with fright, not 
 daring to say a word, lest William should turn 
 round upon him, and thrash him again; and 
 John sat in his shop, grinding away like a nigger 
 at a new rudder and a pair of oars which he was 
 cutting out for Louis' boat, in case he wanted to 
 take advantage of the brook — for which service 
 Louis would pay him handsomely and William 
 abuse him cordially.
 
 Dame Europds School. 2 1 
 
 " I can't help it," said John, apologetically, 
 *' I'll make a rudder and some oars for you too, 
 and a boat besides, if you want one — that is, of 
 course, if you will pay me well." 
 
 " But I don't want one," answered William 
 angrily. " I have got no water to float it in, as 
 you very well know." By which it will appear 
 that John did not make many friends by his 
 neutrality. "And just look here," continued 
 William, " do you know where these cuts on my 
 forehead came from ? Why, from stones which 
 you pitched across the water for Louis to throw at 
 me. 
 
 " Can't help it. Bill ; it is the law of neutrality." 
 
 " Neutrality, indeed ! I call it Brutality." And 
 so William went across the garden again, leaving 
 Johnnie at his work — of which, however, he began 
 to feel thoroughly ashamed. 
 
 " Come and help a fellow, John," cried Louis in 
 despair from his arbour. "I don't ask you to 
 remember the days we have spent in here together, 
 when you have been sick of your own shop. But 
 you might do something for me, now that I am in 
 such a desperate fix, and don't know which way to 
 turn." 
 
 "I am very sorry, Louis," said John, "but 
 what can I do ? It is no pleasure to me to see
 
 22 The Fight at 
 
 you thrashed. On the contrary; it would pay me 
 much better to have a near neighbour well off and 
 cheerful than crushed and miserable. Why don't 
 you give in, Louis ? It is of no mortal use to go 
 on. He will make friends directly if you will give 
 back the two little strips of garden ; and if you 
 don't, he will only smash your arbour to pieces, or 
 keep you shut up there all dinner time, and starve 
 you out. Give in, old fellow. There's no disgrace 
 in it. Everybody says how pluckily you have 
 fought." 
 
 " Give in !" sneered Louis, " that is all the 
 comfort you have for a fellow, is it ? Give in ! 
 why, would you give in, if that great brute was in 
 front of your shop, swearing that he would break 
 it down ? No disgrace, indeed ! No, I don't 
 think there is any disgrace in anything that I 
 have done ; but though my dear dear arbour that 
 I have spent so many weeks in building should be 
 pulled down about my ears, and every flower in my 
 garden be rooted up, I would not change places 
 with you, John, sitting there sleek and safe — no, 
 not for all the gold that ever was coined ! Give in, 
 indeed ! Mon Dieu ! that I should ever have 
 heard such a word as that come across our little 
 stream !" 
 
 So Johnnie began to discover that, if lookers-on
 
 Dame Europds School. -^ '^ 
 
 -J 
 
 see the most of the game, they do not always get 
 the most enjoyment out of it. But the hell now 
 rang for dinner, and he followed the rest of the 
 Boys with some anxiety, not being quite easy in 
 his mind as to the account he would have to give 
 to Mrs. Europa of what had been going on. 
 
 "Louis and William are very late to-day,'* 
 observed the Dame, when dinner was half over. 
 ** Does any one know where they are ?" And 
 then hit by bit she learned from some of the Boys 
 sitting near her the whole story. 
 
 "And pray, John, why did you not separate 
 them ?" demanded the Dame. 
 
 " Please ma'am," answered Johnnie, " I was a 
 neutral. ^^ 
 
 " A what, sir ?" said she. 
 
 "A neutral, ma'am." 
 
 ** Just precisely what you had no business to 
 be," she returned. " You were placed in authority 
 in order that you might act, not that you might 
 stand aloof from acting. Any baby can do that. 
 I might as well have made little Georgie here a 
 monitor, if I had meant him to have nothing to 
 do. Neutral, indeed ! Neutral is just a fine 
 name for Coward. Besides, there is no such 
 thing. You must take one side or the other, do 
 what you will. Now, which side did you take, I 
 wonder ?"
 
 24 The Fight at 
 
 A titter ran round the room, and the little Boys 
 began to whisper to one another something which 
 appeared to be in their small estimation an excel- 
 lent joke. It was good fun to them to see a 
 monitor badgered, even if they should get paid out 
 for it afterwards. 
 
 " What are you saying ?" said the Dame. 
 ** Both sides, aye ? Well, and how did you 
 manage that, Master John ?" 
 
 There was some more tittering and whispering 
 and shuffling about on the forms, and then a 
 chorus of voices said, " Please 'em, he sucked up 
 to both of them.' ^ 
 
 ** Just what ' neutrals ' always do," said Mrs. 
 Europa ; " sucked up to both, I suppose, and 
 pleased neither. Ah, no doubt," she continued, 
 gradually gathering information, " offended Louis 
 by always preaching at him that he was in the 
 wrong ; and offended William, by supplying Louis 
 with stones. Now, I tell you what it is, John. I 
 have long watched your career with pain, and have 
 seen how you are content to sacrifice everything — 
 duty, and influence, and honour, — for the sake of 
 putting by a few paltry shillings. You have been 
 badly advised. You have chosen to have about 
 YOU a set of fags who are no credit to anybody, 
 simply because they make better bargains for you
 
 Dame Europas School. 25 
 
 in the things you sell to the other Boys ; and now 
 you see the consequence. If such fellows as Ben 
 and Hugh had been your fags, you know very well 
 that this disgraceful scene would never have taken 
 place at all. You would have been sufficientl} 
 well trained and well equipped to command the 
 respect of the other monitors, and the two rivals 
 would not have dared to come to blows. There 
 was a time when, if you so much as held up your 
 finger, the whole school would tremble. Nobody 
 trembles now. Nobody cares one farthing what 
 you think or say. And why ? because you have 
 grown a sloven and a screw, and Boys despise both 
 the one and the other. You ought to have pre- 
 vented the fight from the very first. Failing this, 
 you ought, in conjunction with the other Monitors, 
 to have stepped in the moment the Boys had 
 proved their relative strength, and struck a fair 
 balance between them. Instead of doing so, you 
 sit coolly in your shop, supplying the means of 
 carrying on the fight, and coining a few wretched 
 coppers out of your schoolfellows' blows and 
 wounds. You have been a bad friend to both of 
 them. Well, some day, perhaps, you may want 
 friends yourself. When you do, I hope you 
 may find them. Take care that William, the 
 'peaceable unaggressive Boy, does not contrive (as
 
 26 The Fight at 
 
 I fully believe he will contrive) to get a footing on 
 the river, where he can keep a boat, and then one 
 fine morning take your pretty island by surprise." 
 
 " It was Louis' own fault, ma'am," urged 
 John. " He began it all. William was only 
 defending his Fatherland." 
 
 " Defending his Grandmotherland !" retorted the 
 Dame contemptuously. " It looks very like self- 
 defence, to chase a Boy half across the playground 
 and threaten to kick down his arbour. Very like 
 self-defence, to train hard for six months, and then 
 propose something which is certain to create a row. 
 And although Louis has been in the wrong, he has 
 also been severely punished, and it is time that 
 he should be relieved. What ! Are those who 
 make mistakes never to be helped out of them ? 
 Is it any the less incumbent on the strong to 
 protect the weak, because the weak has got himself 
 into a mess by his own fault ? However, there is 
 some excuse for William, who is half mad with the 
 fever of success ; but there is no excuse for you, 
 who have sat still in cold blood and looked on. 
 You have abused the trust committed to you as 
 one of the five monitors of this school, and your 
 office shall be taken from you " 
 
 " Please 'em," said a chorus of little Boys 
 together, *' please 'em, do let him off this time.
 
 Dame Europas School. 2 7 
 
 He was so kind to Louis and William when they 
 were bad. He brought them water, and bathed 
 their faces, and stopped the bleeding, and did all 
 sorts of things for them. Please 'em, let him off.'* 
 " Well," said the Dame, much affected, " kind- 
 ness to the wounded shall plead his cause this 
 once, and I will think of some punishment less 
 severe. For I have hopes of Johnnie even yet, 
 that he will rise to a sense of his high position in 
 the school ; and learn that duties cannot be coolly 
 ignored, because they are disagreeable ; that he 
 who shirks the responsibility of doing right, does 
 in very deed and truth do wrong ; that the true 
 test of greatness is the ability to grapple with 
 great difficulties ; that it is but a sorry thing to 
 boast of bravery and skill and power, if, just at the 
 very instant when you are called upon to act, your 
 resources fail you, and you whine out the miserable 
 excuse that * you don't exactly see how you can 
 interfere.' If, indeed, such an excuse be allowed 
 to stand — if it be really true that the head and 
 champion of the school is thoroughly beaten by 
 circumstances — utterly at a loss, at some critical 
 moment, what is the right thing to do ; let him 
 confess at once that he is unequal to his place' — 
 that he is not the Boy we took him for — that his 
 courage has been overrated, and his reputation as
 
 28 The Fight at Dame Europas School. 
 
 a hero too cheaply earned ; that for all his vaunted 
 influence with others he is too weak to stay an 
 unrighteous strife — to avert a storm of cruel, 
 savage hlows — to spare the infliction of wounds 
 which will lie gaping and unhealed for long long 
 years to come, bearing on their ghastly face a 
 bitter hatred for the foe that dealt them, and 
 contempt for the * neutral' friend who looked 
 calmly on." 
 
 lieuiiett, Priuter, Journal Office, Salisbury.

 

 
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