Читать книгу The Outlaw - John David Hennessy - Страница 10

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The school had been opened a week, and Salathiel had so far succeeded, in his role of school teacher, as to have won favourable opinions from both parents and School Committee.

There had been difficulty, at first, in getting the younger children to attend, for they were a shy hoddy-doddy crowd, and so unused to strangers that, rough and boisterous as most of them were at home, they were as wild and frightened as newly captured brumbies* in the presence of a stranger.

(*The wild horse of Australia)

Jack, however, set himself to master the novel situation. There would be no flogging in the school, he announced, except in cases of absolute defiance, and then he would not be answerable for what he might do. He made this statement with a smiling face and in a tone of masterful self-confidence, which, in view of his height and strength of limb, was listened to respectfully, even by Bob Carey and Mick Cassidy. Silas Stump had seen to the furnishing of instruments of punishment for the schoolmaster's use, but Jack tied them together with the lash of a stockwhip, and hung them on a nail over his teacher's platform, out of reach of any adventurous scholars.

They were there, however; but Jack determined, so far as he was concerned, that there they should remain. For the time being, his whole mind seemed bent only on winning the respect and affection of these girls and boys, and he made his plans and marshalled his forces as carefully as he would have done had he been preparing a raid upon a wealthy station, or the robbery of a mail coach. The love of praise and esteem of others was strong in him, and he craved for the kind regard of the motley crowd which now confronted him every day.

He borrowed an old flute from a settler, and after putting it in repair, taught the children to sing 'Home, Sweet Home' and other popular melodies. Occasionally, when attention flagged, he would take his scholars out into the school paddock and drill them, or charm them with a solo on the flute, or a pleasant talk about the habits of the Bush animals with which they were familiar.

He divided his scholars into four grades to start with: the boys under fifteen and those above that age, and the girls under fourteen and those older, and he found that the latter was the largest class in the school. Betsy Carey, after some persuasion, was made school-monitor and put over the younger class of boys, while Tot Gardiner was put in charge of the younger girls. He examined them as to their proficiency in the three R's, and set Kitty Conroy to teach the most backward pupils their ABC under an outside veranda.

On the whole, things were going well, and Jack began to congratulate himself upon having surmounted his first difficulties, when one day the aspect of affairs was suddenly altered. There was an old feud between the Lords and the Careys, arising in the first instance about some land. The Lords had no dealings with the Careys. Mercy Lord, a delicate girl of about fourteen, was found by Jack to be his best scholar; and it was perhaps impossible for him not to show some preference. She had been well trained and taught by her mother, and possessed intelligence above the average, so he would occasionally call her to the front, for the edification of the other scholars. The elder girls and boys, of course, took sides for and against the Lords and Careys; and Betsy Carey and Tot and Judy Gardiner were ringleaders in sundry acts of petty persecution against the child. This went on at first without Jack's knowledge, but one morning, when he found her crying over an ink-besmeared copy-book, his eyes were opened; and after school he heard from Mercy's reluctant lips a story of ill-treatment by some of the older girls, which decidedly disturbed his mind. Mercy had to pass the Gardiners' stockyard on her way home on her pony; and that afternoon she was pelted with mud from the enclosure as she went by.

Salathiel rode to Silas Stump's that evening, and had a long talk with him. Major Browne was having a cedar table made for the teacher, and four desks for the more advanced scholars to write their copies upon. It gave Jack the opportunity he wanted to find out something more about the antecedents of the Lords and Careys, and the quarrel between the two families.

"They hate each other like pisen, barring Mrs. Carey, an' I don't think it's in her to hate any critter," said Silas. He then enlarged, from his own standpoint, upon the old misunderstanding, which, originating over land, had developed in connection with the branding of some calves, and had rankled, with growing bitterness, up to the time of the building of the school-house. Robert Lord had refused to act on the committee, because Poddy Carey was nominated; and they could not do without the latter, for several reasons, not the least of which was Mrs. Carey, who, as the wife of a committee-man, was in herself a host.

Jack cautiously told Silas how the unpleasantness between the two families was affecting his schoolwork; but soon found out that the secretary was on the side of the Careys.

"You've been a-showing off that girl Mercy a bit too much, schoolmaster," he said bluntly. "If I were you I'd 'come it' on the boys with one of those canes to-morrow morning, and if Tot Gardiner smears copy-books, and throws mud at girls younger than herself, I'd hang a green hide calf-skin round her neck and make her stand out, and shame her before all the school. I'll lend you one, mister, to take over with you; it's a bit strong, but that'll make it all the better for punishment."

Jack smoked away in silence; he did not like the advice at all, and yet he knew well that, by some means, the discipline of the school would have to be maintained. He had not heard before about the pelting of Mercy. But he knew that both Tot and Judy Gardiner would be rough material to handle, and he was concerned, too, as to how far Betsy might be implicated. This thought involved him in deeper perplexity; he could not help having a kindly feeling for Betsy; he had consulted her, as his first acquaintance and most intelligent coworker, about the general management of the school. He could not imagine her as an actual conspirator against his peace of mind and success as a teacher. She almost always brought a bunch of freshly gathered flowers for the school table. So far, she had not once been absent, nor even late, and he regarded her as his chief lieutenant in the school management. He could not afford to lose her support and good will, and yet his whole nature rebelled against the jealous spite of the big girls against Mercy.

He carried the green calf-skin back with him, however, and determined to begin school on the following morning with a serious talk to the whole of the scholars. He might even make use of the calf-skin to punish some of the younger girls; but he would sooner go away and return at once to his old wild, lawless life than lift his hand to flog the children.

"Curse it all!" he ejaculated bitterly. "And I was getting along so well; but I can't flog them!"

Salathiel's mind as he rode homeward would have presented a curious ethical study for a philosopher. Here was a man, who had done violence to the law of the land, moralizing over school discipline, and hesitating to enforce the law of his school, because he had beforetime been flogged unjustly when a convict. He would have thought little of felling one of his gang with a blow, or even shooting him for the safety of the rest; but amid those girls and boys, who looked up to him as something far better and worthier than he knew himself to be, he was a coward at heart.

Nor was he sure yet of his feelings in regard to Betsy Carey. He had no place in his heart now—at least, so he told himself—for any woman's love; but——and that 'but' was a very awkward thing just then for Jack to deal with. There were so many big 'buts' about his life and surroundings. He would sometimes, it is true, almost forget the old dead past amid his present more wholesome environment. If only he could drag the hateful years up by the roots, and cast them out of his life for ever, he would gladly have done so; but he could not. He started now at unusual sounds in the Bush. In school, his heart would beat fast sometimes, although there was not a trooper within miles of him, and bushrangers in the Broadhaven district were only as legends of a far-off land. He still took every precaution for his easy escape and personal safety. Under his coat he always carried loaded fire-arms, and Fleetfoot was never very far away.