AFTER the brief
encounters between the Hedge boy and Jimmie Trescott and the Hedge boy and
Willie Dalzel, the neighborhood which contained the homes of the boys was, as
far as child life is concerned, in a state resembling anarchy. This was owing
to the signal overthrow and shameful retreat of the boy who had for several
years led a certain little clan by the nose. The adherence of the little
community did not go necessarily to the boy who could whip all the others, but
it certainly could not go to a boy who had run away in a manner that made his
shame patent to the whole world. Willie Dalzel found himself in a painful
position. This tiny tribe which had followed him with such unwavering faith was
now largely engaged in whistling and catcalling and hooting. He chased a number
of them into the sanctity of their own yards, but from these coigns they
continued to ridicule him.
But it must not be
supposed that the fickle tribe went over in a body to the new light. They did
nothing of the sort. They occupied themselves with avenging all which they had
endured-- gladly enough, too--for many months. As for the Hedge boy, he
maintained a curious timid reserve, minding his own business with extreme care,
and going to school with that deadly punctuality of which his mother was the
genius. Jimmie Trescott suffered no adverse criticism from his fellows. He was
entitled to be beaten by a boy who had made Willie Dalzel bellow like a
bull-calf and run away. Indeed, he received some honors. He had confronted a
very superior boy and received a bang in the eye which for a time was the
wonder of the children, and he had not bellowed like a bull-calf. As a matter
of fact, he was often invited to tell how it had felt, and this he did with
some pride, claiming arrogantly that he had been superior to any particular
pain.
Early in the episode he
and the Hedge boy had patched up a treaty. Living next door to each other, they
could not fail to have each other often in sight. One afternoon they wandered
together in the strange indefinite diplomacy of boyhood. As they drew close the
new boy suddenly said, "Napple?"
"Yes," said
Jimmie, and the new boy bestowed upon him an apple. It was one of those
green-coated winter-apples which lie for many months in safe and dry places,
and can at any time be brought forth for the persecution of the unwary and
inexperienced. An older age would have fled from this apple, but to the
unguided youth of Jimmie Trescott it was a thing to be possessed and cherished.
Wherefore this apple was the emblem of something more than a truce, despite the
fact that it tasted like wet Indian meal; and Jimmie looked at the Hedge boy
out of one good eye and one bunged eye. The long-drawn animosities of men have
no place in the life of a boy. The boy's mind is flexible; he readjusts his
position with an ease which is derived from the fact--simply--that he is not
yet a man.
But there were other
and more important matters. Johnnie Hedge's exploits had brought him into such
prominence among the schoolboys that it was necessary to settle a number of
points once and for all. There was the usual number of boys in the school who
were popularly known to be champions in their various classes. Among these Johnnie
Hedge now had to thread his way, every boy taking it upon himself to feel
anxious that Johnnie's exact position should be soon established. His fame as a
fighter had gone forth to the world, but there were other boys who had fame as
fighters, and the world was extremely anxious to know where to place the
new-comer. Various heroes were urged to attempt this classification. Usually it
is not accounted a matter of supreme importance, but in this boy life it was
essential.
In all cases the heroes
were backward enough. It was their followings who agitated the question. And so
Johnnie Hedge was more or less beset.
He maintained his
bashfulness. He backed away from altercation. It was plain that to bring
matters to a point he must be forced into a quarrel. It was also plain that the
proper person for the business was some boy who could whip Willie Dalzel, and
these formidable warriors were distinctly averse to undertaking the new
contract. It is a kind of a law in boy life that a quiet, decent, peace-loving
lad is able to thrash a wide-mouthed talker. And so it had transpired that by a
peculiar system of elimination most of the real chiefs were quiet, decent,
peace-loving boys, and they had no desire to engage in a fight with a boy on
the sole grounds that it was not known who could whip. Johnnie Hedge attended
his affairs, they attended their affairs, and around them waged this discussion
of relative merit. Jimmie Trescott took a prominent part in these arguments. He
contended that Johnnie Hedge could thrash any boy in the world. He was certain
of it, and to any one who opposed him he said, "You just get one of those
smashes in the eye, and then you'll see." In the mean time there was a
grand and impressive silence in the direction of Willie Dalzel. He had gathered
remnants of his clan, but the main parts of his sovereignty were scattered to
the winds. He was an enemy.
Owing to the
circumspect behavior of the new boy, the commotions on the school grounds came
to nothing. He was often asked, "Kin you lick him?" And he invariably
replied, "I dun'no'." This idea of waging battle with the entire
world appalled him.
A war for complete
supremacy of the tribe which had been headed by Willie Dalzel was fought out in
the country of the tribe. It came to pass that a certain half-dime
blood-and-thunder pamphlet had a great vogue in the tribe at this particular
time. This story relates the experience of a lad who began his career as cabin
boy on a pirate ship. Throughout the first fifteen chapters he was rope's-ended
from one end of the ship to the other end, and very often he was felled to the
deck by a heavy fist. He lived through enough hardships to have killed a
battalion of Turkish soldiers, but in the end he rose upon them. Yes, he rose
upon them. Hordes of pirates fell before his intrepid arm, and in the last
chapters of the book he is seen jauntily careering on his own hook as one of
the most gallous pirate captains that ever sailed the seas.
Naturally, when this
tale was thoroughly understood by the tribe, they had to dramatize it, although
it was a dramatization that would gain no royalties for the author. Now it was
plain that the urchin who was cast for the cabin-boy's part would lead a life
throughout the first fifteen chapters which would attract few actors. Willie
Dalzel developed a scheme by which some small lad would play cabin boy during
this period of misfortune and abuse, and then, when the cabin boy came to the
part where he slew all his enemies and reached his zenith, that he, Willie
Dalzel, should take the part.
This fugitive and
disconnected rendering of a great play opened in Jimmie Trescott's back garden.
The path between the two lines of gooseberry bushes was elected unanimously to
be the ship. Then Willie Dalzel insisted that Homer Phelps should be the cabin-
boy. Homer tried the position for a time, and then elected that he would resign
in favor of some other victim. There was no other applicant to succeed him,
whereupon it became necessary to press some boy. Jimmie Trescott was a great actor,
as is well known, but he steadfastly refused to engage for the part. Ultimately
they seized upon little Dan Earl, whose disposition was so milky and docile
that he would do whatever anybody asked of him. But Dan Earl made the one firm
revolt of his life after trying existence as cabin-boy for some ten minutes.
Willie Dalzel was in despair. Then he suddenly sighted the little brother of
Johnnie Hedge, who had come into the garden, and in a poor little stranger sort
of fashion was looking wistfully at the play. When he was invited to become the
cabin boy he accepted joyfully, thinking that it was his initiation into the
tribe. Then they proceeded to give him the rope's end and to punch him with a
realism which was not altogether painless. Directly he began to cry out. They
exhorted him not to cry out, not to mind it, but still they continued to hurt
him.
There was a commotion
among the gooseberry bushes, two branches were swept aside, and Johnnie Hedge
walked down upon them. Every boy stopped in his tracks. Johnnie was boiling
with rage.
"Who hurt
him?" he said, ferociously. "Did you?" He had looked at Willie
Dalzel.
Willie Dalzel began to
mumble: "We was on'y playin'. Wasn't nothin' fer him to cry fer."
The new boy had at his
command some big phrases, and he used them. "I am goin' to whip you within
an inch of your life. I am goin' to tan the hide off'n you." And
immediately there was a mixture--an infusion of two boys which looked as if it
had been done by a chemist. The other children stood back, stricken with
horror. But out of this whirl they presently perceived the figure of Willie
Dalzel seated upon the chest of the Hedge boy.
"Got enough?"
asked Willie, hoarsely.
"No," choked
out the Hedge boy. Then there was another flapping and floundering, and finally
another calm.
"Got enough?"
asked Willie.
"No," said
the Hedge boy. A sort of war-cloud again puzzled the sight of the observers.
Both combatants were breathless, bloodless in their faces, and very weak.
"Got enough?"
said Willie.
"No," said
the Hedge boy. The carnage was again renewed. All the spectators were silent
but Johnnie Hedge's little brother, who shrilly exhorted him to continue the
struggle. But it was not plain that the Hedge boy needed any encouragement, for
he was crying bitterly, and it has been explained that when a boy cried it was
a bad time to hope for peace. He had managed to wriggle over upon his hands and
knees. But Willie Dalzel was tenaciously gripping him from the back, and it
seemed that his strength would spend itself in futility. The bear cub seemed to
have the advantage of the working model of the windmill. They heaved, uttered
strange words, wept, and the sun looked down upon them with steady, unwinking
eye.
Peter Washington came
out of the stable and observed this tragedy of the back garden. He stood
transfixed for a moment, and then ran towards it, shouting: "Hi! What's
all dish yere? Hi! Stopper dat, stopper dat, you two! For lan' sake, what's all
dish yere?" He grabbed the struggling boys and pulled them apart. He was
stormy and fine in his indignation. "For lan' sake! You two kids act like
you gwine mad dogs. Stopper dat!" The whitened, tearful, soiled
combatants, their clothing all awry, glared fiercely at each other as Peter
stood between them, lecturing. They made several futile attempts to circumvent
him and again come to battle. As he fended them off with his open hands he
delivered his reproaches at Jimmie. "I's s'prised at you! I suhtainly is!"
"Why?" said
Jimmie. "I 'ain't done nothin'. What have I done?"
"Y-y-you done
'courage dese yere kids to scrap," said Peter, virtuously.
"Me?" cried
Jimmie. "I 'ain't had nothin' to do with it."
"I raikon you
'ain't," retorted Peter, with heavy sarcasm. "I raikon you been
er-prayin', 'ain't you?" Turning to Willie Dalzel, he said, "You jest
take an' run erlong outer dish yere or I'll jest nachually take an' damnearkill
you." Willie Dalzel went. To the new boy Peter said: "You look like
you had some saince, but I raikon you don't know no more'n er rabbit. You jest
take an' trot erlong off home, an' don' lemme caitch you round yere er-fightin'
or I'll break yer back." The Hedge boy moved away with dignity, followed
by his little brother. The latter, when he had placed a sufficient distance
between himself and Peter, played his fingers at his nose and called out:
"Nig-ger-r-r!
Nig-ger-r-r!"
Peter Washington's
resentment poured out upon Jimmie.
"'Pears like you
never would understan' you ain't reg'lar common trash. You take an' 'sociate
with an'body what done come erlong."
"Aw, go on,"
retorted Jimmie, profanely. "Go soak your head, Pete."
The remaining boys
retired to the street, whereupon they perceived Willie Dalzel in the distance.
He ran to them.
"I licked him!
Didn't I, now?"
From the Whilomville
point of view he was entitled to a favorable answer. They made it.
"Yes," they said, "you did."
"I run in,"
cried Willie, "an' I grabbed 'im, an' afore he knew what it was I throwed
'im. An' then it was easy." He puffed out his chest and smiled like an
English recruiting-sergeant. "An' now," said he, suddenly facing
Jimmie Trescott, "whose side were you on?"
The question was direct
and startling. Jimmie gave back two paces. "He licked you once," he explained,
haltingly.
"He never saw the
day when he could lick one side of me. I could lick him with my left hand tied
behind me. Why, I could lick him when I was asleep." Willie Dalzel was
magnificent.
A gate clicked, and
Johnnie Hedge was seen to be strolling toward them.
"You said,"
he remarked, coldly, "you licked me, didn't you?"
Willie Dalzel stood his
ground. "Yes," he said, stoutly.
"Well, you're a
liar," said the Hedge boy.
"You're
another," retorted Willie.
"No, I ain't,
either, but you're a liar."
"You're
another," retorted Willie.
"Don't you dare
tell me I'm a liar, or I'll smack your mouth for you," said the Hedge boy.
"Well, I did,
didn't I?" barked Willie. "An' whatche goin' to do about it?"
"I'm goin' to lam
you," said the Hedge boy.
He approached to attack
warily, and the other boys held their breaths. Willie Dalzel winced back a
pace. "Hol' on a minute," he cried, raising his palm. "I'm
not--"
But the comic windmill
was again in motion, and between gasps from his exertions Johnnie Hedge
remarked, "I'll show--you whether--you kin--lick me--or not."
The first blows did not
reach home on Willie, for he backed away with expedition, keeping up his futile
cry, "Hol' on a minute." Soon enough a swinging fist landed on his
cheek. It did not knock him down, but it hurt him a little and frightened him a
great deal. He suddenly opened his mouth to an amazing and startling extent,
tilted back his head, and howled, while his eyes, glittering with tears, were
fixed upon this scowling butcher of a Johnnie Hedge. The latter was making slow
and vicious circles, evidently intending to renew the massacre.
But the spectators
really had been desolated and shocked by the terrible thing which had happened
to Willie Dalzel. They now cried out: "No, no; don't hit 'im any more!
Don't hit 'im any more!"
Jimmie Trescott, in a
panic of bravery, yelled, "We'll all jump on you if you do."
The Hedge boy paused,
at bay. He breathed angrily, and flashed his glance from lad to lad. They still
protested: "No, no; don't hit 'im any more. Don't hit 'im no more."
"I'll hammer him
until he can't stand up," said Johnnie, observing that they all feared
him. "I'll fix him so he won't know hisself, an' if any of you kids bother
with me--"
Suddenly he ceased, he
trembled, he collapsed. The hand of one approaching from behind had laid hold
upon his ear, and it was the hand of one whom he knew.
The other lads heard a
loud, iron-filing voice say, "Caught ye at it again, ye brat, ye."
They saw a dreadful woman with gray hair, with a sharp red nose, with bare
arms, with spectacles of such magnifying quality that her eyes shone through
them like two fierce white moons. She was Johnnie Hedge's mother. Still holding
Johnnie by the ear, she swung out swiftly and dexterously, and succeeded in
boxing the ears of two boys before the crowd regained its presence of mind and
stampeded. Yes, the war for supremacy was over, and the question was never
again disputed. The supreme power was Mrs. Hedge.