Complete Novels of E Nesbit

by Edith Nesbit

  ‘Can’t I come too?’ he asked.

  And when he understood that he could not he went on with the bricks in silence, with his mouth shut very tight.

  After a moment he said, ‘Salisbury? Then I shall see Stonehenge?’

  ‘Yes,’ said his mother, pleased that he took the news so calmly, ‘you will be sure to see Stonehenge some time.’

  He stood still, looking down at the little mould of clay in his hand — so still that his mother got up and came close to him.

  ‘Quentin,’ she said, ‘darling, what is it?’

  He leaned his head against her.

  ‘I won’t make a fuss,’ he said, ‘but you can’t begin to be brave the very first minute. Or, if you do, you can’t go on being.’

  And with that he began to cry, though he had not cried after the affair of the grocer’s boy.

  * * * * *

  The thought of school was not so terrible to Quentin as Mrs. de Ward had thought it would be. In fact, he rather liked it, with half his mind; but the other half didn’t like it, because it meant parting from his mother who, so far, had been his only friend. But it was exciting to be taken to Southampton, and have all sorts of new clothes bought for you, and a school trunk, and a little polished box that locked up, to keep your money in and your gold sleeve links, and your watch and chain when you were not wearing them.

  Also the journey to Salisbury was made in a motor, which was very exciting of course, and rather took Quentin’s mind off the parting with his mother, as she meant it should. And there was a very grand lunch at The White Hart Hotel at Salisbury, and then, very suddenly indeed, it was good-bye, good-bye, and the motor snorted, and hooted, and throbbed, and rushed away, and mother was gone, and Quentin was at school.

  I believe it was quite a nice school. It was in a very nice house with a large quiet garden, and there were only about twenty boys. And the masters were kind, and the boys no worse than other boys of their age. But Quentin hated it from the very beginning. For when his mother had gone the Headmaster said: ‘School will be out in half-an-hour; take a book, de Ward,’ and gave him Little Eric and his Friends, a mere baby book. It was too silly. He could not read it. He saw on a shelf near him, Smith’s Antiquities, a very old friend of his, so he said: ‘I’d rather have this, please.’

  ‘You should say “sir” when you speak to a master,’ the Head said to him. ‘Take the book by all means.’ To himself the Head said, ‘I wish you joy of it, you little prig.’

  When school was over, one of the boys was told to show Quentin his bed and his locker. The matron had already unpacked his box and his pile of books was waiting for him to carry it over.

  ‘Golly, what a lot of books,’ said Smithson minor. ‘What’s this? Atlantis? Is it a jolly story?’

  ‘It isn’t a story,’ said Quentin. And just then the classical master came by. ‘What’s that about Atlantis?’ he said.

  ‘It’s a book the new chap’s got,’ said Smithson.

  The classical master glanced at the book.

  ‘And how much do you understand of this?’ he asked, fluttering the leaves.

  ‘Nearly all, I think,’ said Quentin.

  ‘You should say “sir” when you speak to a master,’ said the classical one; and to himself he added, ‘little prig.’ Then he said to Quentin: ‘I am afraid you will find yourself rather out of your element among ordinary boys.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Quentin calmly, adding as an afterthought ‘sir.’

  ‘I’m glad you’re so confident,’ said the classical master and went.

  ‘My word,’ said Smithson minor in a rather awed voice, ‘you did answer him back.’

  ‘Of course I did,’ said Quentin. ‘Don’t you answer when you’re spoken to?’

  Smithson minor informed the interested school that the new chap was a prig, but he had a cool cheek, and that some sport might be expected.

  After supper the boys had half an hour’s recreation. Quentin, who was tired, picked up a book which a big boy had just put down. It was the Midsummer Night’s Dream.

  ‘Hi, you kid,’ said the big boy, ‘don’t pretend you read Shakespeare for fun. That’s simple swank, you know.’

  ‘I don’t know what swank is,’ said Quentin, ‘but I like the Midsummer whoever wrote it.’

  ‘Whoever what?’

  ‘Well,’ said Quentin, ‘there’s a good deal to be said for its being Bacon who wrote the plays.’

  Of course that settled it. From that moment, he was called not de Ward, which was strange enough, but Bacon. He rather liked that. But the next day it was Pork, and the day after Pig, and that was unbearable.

  He was at the bottom of his class, for he knew no Latin as it is taught in schools, only odd words that English words come from, and some Latin words that are used in science. And I cannot pretend that his arithmetic was anything but contemptible.

  The book called Atlantis had been looked at by most of the school, and Smithson major, not nearly such an agreeable boy as his brother, hit on a new nickname.

  ‘Atlantic Pork’s a good name for a swanker,’ he said. ‘You know the rotten meat they have in Chicago.’

  This was in the playground before dinner. Quentin, who had to keep his mouth shut very tight these days, because, of course, a boy of ten cannot cry before other chaps, shut the book he was reading and looked up.

  ‘I won’t be called that,’ he said quietly.

  ‘Who said you wouldn’t?’ said Smithson major, who, after all, was only twelve. ‘I say you will.’

  ‘If you call me that I shall hit you,’ said Quentin, ‘as hard as I can.’

  A roar of laughter went up, and cries of, ‘Poor old Smithson’—’Apologise, Smithie, and leave the omnibus.’

  ‘And what should I be doing while you were hitting me?’ asked Smithson contemptuously.

  ‘I don’t know and I don’t care,’ said Quentin.

  Smithson looked round. No master was in sight. It seemed an excellent opportunity to teach young de Ward his place.

  ‘Atlantic pig-swine,’ he said very deliberately. And Quentin sprang at him, and instantly it was a fight.

  Now Quentin had only once fought — really fought — before. Then it was the grocer’s boy and he had been beaten. But he had learned something since. And the chief conclusion he now drew from his memories of that fight was that he had not hit half hard enough, an opinion almost universal among those who have fought and not won.

  As the fist of Smithson major described a half circle and hurt his ear very much, Quentin suddenly screwed himself up and hit out with his right hand, straight, and with his whole weight behind the blow as the grocer’s boy had shown him. All his grief for his wounded father, his sorrow at the parting from his mother, all his hatred of his school, and his contempt for his schoolfellows went into that blow. It landed on the point of the chin of Smithson major who fell together like a heap of rags.

  ‘Oh,’ said Quentin, gazing with interest at his hand — it hurt a good deal but he looked at it with respect—’I’m afraid I’ve hurt him.’

  He had forgotten for a moment that he was in an enemies’ country, and so, apparently, had his enemies.

  ‘Well done, Piggy! Bravo, young ‘un! Well hit, by Jove!’

  Friendly hands thumped him on the back. Smithson major was no popular hero.

  Quentin felt — as his schoolfellows would have put it — bucked. It is one thing to be called Pig in enmity and derision. Another to be called Piggy — an affectionate diminutive, after all — to the chorus of admiring smacks.

  ‘Get up, Smithie,’ cried the ring. ‘Want any more?’

  It appeared that Smithie did not want any more. He lay, not moving at all, and very white.

  ‘I say,’ the crowd’s temper veered, ‘you’ve killed him, I expect. I wouldn’t like to be you, Bacon.’

  Pig, you notice, for aggravation — Piggy in enthusiastic applause. In the moment of possible tragedy the more formal Bacon.
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br />   ‘I haven’t,’ said Quentin, very white himself, ‘but if I have he began — by calling names.’

  Smithson moved and grunted. A sigh of relief swept the ring as a breeze sweeps a cornfield.

  ‘He’s all right. A fair knock out. Piggy’s got the use of ‘em. Do Smithie good.’ The voices hushed suddenly. A master was on the scene — the classical master.

  ‘Fighting?’ he said. ‘The new boy? Who began it?’

  ‘I did,’ said Quentin, ‘but he began with calling names.’

  ‘Sneak!’ murmured the entire school, and Quentin, who had seen no reason for not speaking the truth, perceived that one should not tell all one knows, and that once more he stood alone in the world.

  ‘You will go to your room, de Ward,’ said the classical master, bending over Smithson, who having been ‘knocked silly’ still remained in that condition, ‘and the headmaster will consider your case to-morrow. You will probably be expelled.’

  Quentin went to his room and thought over his position. It seemed to be desperate. How was he to know that the classical master was even then saying to the Head:

  ‘He’s got something in him, prig or no prig, sir.’

  ‘You were quite right to send him to his room,’ said the Head, ‘discipline must be maintained, as Mr. Ducket says. But it will do Smithson major a world of good. A boy who reads Shakespeare for fun, and has views about Atlantis, and can knock out a bully as well.... He’ll be a power in the school. But we mustn’t let him know it.’

  That was rather a pity. Because Quentin, furious at the injustice of the whole thing — Smithson, the aggressor, consoled with; himself punished; expulsion threatened — was maturing plans.

  ‘If mother had known what it was like,’ he said to himself, ‘she would never have left me here. I’ve got the two pounds she gave me. I shall go to the White Hart at Salisbury ... no, they’d find me then. I’ll go to Lyndhurst; and write to her. It’s better to run away than to be expelled. Quentin Durward would never have waited to be expelled from anywhere.’

  Of course Quentin Durward was my hero’s hero. It could not be otherwise since his own name was so like that of the Scottish guardsman.

  Now the school in Salisbury was a little school for little boys — boys who were used to schools and took the rough with the smooth. But Quentin was not used to schools, and he had taken the rough very much to heart. So much that he did not mean to take any more of it.

  His dinner was brought up on a tray — bread and water. He put the bread in his pocket. Then when he knew that every one was at dinner in the long dining-room at the back of the house, he just walked very quietly down the stairs, opened the side door and marched out, down the garden path and out at the tradesmen’s gate. He knew better than to shut either gate or door.

  He went quickly down the street, turned the first corner he came to so as to get out of sight of the school. He turned another corner, went through an archway, and found himself in an inn-yard — very quiet indeed. Only a liver-coloured lurcher dog wagged a sleepy tail on the hot flag-stones.

  Quentin was just turning to go back through the arch, for there was no other way out of the yard, when he saw a big covered cart, whose horse wore a nose-bag and looked as if there was no hurry. The cart bore the name, ‘Miles, Carrier, Lyndhurst.’

  Quentin knew all about lifts. He had often begged them and got them. Now there was no one to ask. But he felt he could very well explain later that he had wanted a lift, much better than now, in fact, when he might be caught at any moment by some one from the school.

  He climbed up by the shaft. There were boxes and packages of all sorts in the cart, and at the back an empty crate with sacking over it. He got into the crate, pulled the sacking over himself, and settled down to eat his bread.

  Presently the carrier came out, and there was talk, slow, long-drawn talk. After a long while the cart shook to the carrier’s heavy climb into it, the harness rattled, the cart lurched, and the wheels were loud and bumpy over the cobble stones of the yard.

  Quentin felt safe. The glow of anger was still hot in him, and he was glad to think how they would look for him all over the town, in vain. He lifted the sacking at one corner so that he could look out between the canvas of the cart’s back and side, and hoped to see the classical master distractedly looking for him. But the streets were very sleepy. Every one in Salisbury was having dinner — or in the case of the affluent, lunch.

  The black horse seemed as sleepy as the streets, and went very slowly. Also it stopped very often, and wherever there were parcels to leave there was slow, long talkings to be exchanged. I think, perhaps, Quentin dozed a good deal under his sacks. At any rate it was with a shock of surprise that he suddenly heard the carrier’s voice saying, as the horse stopped with a jerk:

  ‘There’s a crate for you, Mrs. Baddock, returned empty,’ and knew that that crate was not empty, but full — full of boy.

  ‘I’ll go and call Joe,’ said a voice — Mrs. Baddock’s, Quentin supposed, and slow feet stumped away over stones. Mr. Miles leisurely untied the tail of the cart, ready to let the crate be taken out.

  Quentin spent a paralytic moment. What could he do?

  And then, luckily or unluckily, a reckless motor tore past, and the black horse plunged and Mr. Miles had to go to its head and ‘talk pretty’ to it for a minute. And in that minute Quentin lifted the sacking, and looked out. It was low sunset, and the street was deserted. He stepped out of the crate, dropped to the ground, and slipped behind a stout and friendly water-butt that seemed to offer protective shelter.

  Joe came, and the crate was taken down.

  ‘You haven’t seen nothing of that there runaway boy by chance?’ said a new voice — Joe’s no doubt.

  ‘What boy?’ said Mr. Miles.

  ‘Run away from school, Salisbury,’ said Joe. ‘Telegrams far and near, so they be. Little varmint.’

  ‘I ain’t seen no boys, not more’n ordinary,’ said Mr. Miles. ‘Thick as flies they be, here, there, and everywhere, drat ‘em. Sixpence — Correct. So long, Joe.’

  The cart rattled away. Joe and the crate blundered out of hearing, and Quentin looked cautiously round the water-butt.

  This was an adventure. But he was cooler now than he had been at starting — his hot anger had died down. He would have been contented, he could not help feeling, with a less adventurous adventure.

  But he was in for it now. He felt, as I suppose people feel when they jump off cliffs with parachutes, that return was impossible.

  Hastily turning his school cap inside out — the only disguise he could think of, he emerged from the water-butt seclusion and into the street, trying to look as if there was no reason why he should not be there. He did not know the village. It was not Lyndhurst. And of course asking the way was not to be thought of.

  There was a piece of sacking lying on the road; it must have dropped from the carrier’s cart. He picked it up and put it over his shoulders.

  ‘A deeper disguise,’ he said, and walked on.

  He walked steadily for a long, long way as it seemed, and the world got darker and darker. But he kept on. Surely he must presently come to some village, or some signpost.

  Anyhow, whatever happened, he could not go back. That was the one certain thing. The broad stretches of country to right and left held no shapes of houses, no glimmer of warm candle-light; they were bare and bleak, only broken by circles of trees that stood out like black islands in the misty grey of the twilight.

  ‘I shall have to sleep behind a hedge,’ he said bravely enough; but there did not seem to be any hedges. And then, quite suddenly, he came upon it.

  A scattered building, half transparent as it seemed, showing black against the last faint pink and primrose of the sunset. He stopped, took a few steps off the road on short, crisp turf that rose in a gentle slope. And at the end of a dozen paces he knew it. Stonehenge! Stonehenge he had always wanted so desperately to see. Well, he saw it now, more or less.


  He stopped to think. He knew that Stonehenge stands all alone on Salisbury Plain. He was very tired. His mother had told him about a girl in a book who slept all night on the altar stone at Stonehenge. So it was a thing that people did — to sleep there. He was not afraid, as you or I might have been — of that lonely desolate ruin of a temple of long ago. He was used to the forest, and, compared with the forest, any building is homelike.

  There was just enough light left amid the stones of the wonderful broken circle to guide him to its centre. As he went his hand brushed a plant; he caught at it, and a little group of flowers came away in his hand.

  ‘St. John’s wort,’ he said, ‘that’s the magic flower.’ And he remembered that it is only magic when you pluck it on Midsummer Eve.

  ‘And this is Midsummer Eve,’ he told himself, and put it in his buttonhole.

  ‘I don’t know where the altar stone is,’ he said, ‘but that looks a cosy little crack between those two big stones.’

  He crept into it, and lay down on a flat stone that stretched between and under two fallen pillars.

  The night was soft and warm; it was Midsummer Eve.

  ‘Mother isn’t going till the twenty-sixth,’ he told himself. ‘I sha’n’t bother about hotels. I shall send her a telegram in the morning, and get a carriage at the nearest stables and go straight back to her. No, she won’t be angry when she hears all about it. I’ll ask her to let me go to sea instead of to school. It’s much more manly. Much more manly ... much much more, much.’

  He was asleep. And the wild west wind that swept across the plain spared the little corner where he lay asleep, curled up in his sacking with the inside-out school cap, doubled twice, for pillow.

  He fell asleep on the smooth, solid, steady stone.

  He awoke on the stone in a world that rocked as sea-boats rock on a choppy sea.

  He went to sleep between fallen moveless pillars of a ruin older than any world that history knows.

  He awoke in the shade of a purple awning through which strong sunlight filtered, and purple curtains that flapped and strained in the wind; and there was a smell, a sweet familiar smell, of tarred ropes and the sea.