CHAPTER TEN.

That evening after tea, while Mercer and I were down by the gardens, where I found that somebody had been dancing a jig on my newly-raked beds, we heard a good deal of chattering and laughing over in the play-field, and Burr major's voice dominating all the others so queerly that I laughed.

"I say, isn't it rum!" said Mercer, joining in. "I hope we shan't be like that by and by. Hodson is sometimes. There, hark!"

I listened, and Burr major was speaking sharply in a highly-pitched voice, that was all squeak, and then it descended suddenly into a gruff ba.s.s like a man's.

"Do you know what old Reb said he was one day?" said Mercer, wiping his eyes, for a chance to laugh at his tyrant always afforded him the most profound satisfaction.

"No. A dandy?"

"A hobbledehoy! and he looks it, don't he? It did make him so savage when he heard, and he said he wasn't half such a hobbledehoy as old Reb was, and d.i.c.ksee said he'd go and tell."

"And did he?"

"Did he? You know how my nose was swelled up."

"Of course."

"Well, that was nothing to d.i.c.ksee's. His is a nose that a tap will swell up, and when old Eely regularly hammered till it was soft, it looked dreadful, and when he said he'd go straight to the Doctor, Eely hammered him again till he went down on his knees and begged Eely's pardon, and promised to say it was done by a cricket-ball. I say, hark!

they've got something over there. Let's go and see."

We went down along the hedge to the gate, and as soon as we pa.s.sed through we could see Burr major standing up tall and thin in the midst of a group of boys, to whom he was showing something, and, our curiosity being excited, we strolled up to the group, to find that a general inspection was going on of a little bright new silver watch which Burr major had received in a box along with some new clothes that day from his father in London.

The great tall, thin fellow was giving himself the most ridiculous airs, and talking in a haughty condescending way to the boys about him, just as if watches were the commonest things in the world to him.

"Then, you know," he was saying, as we drew nigh, "you press on that little round place very lightly with your nail, and the back flies open--see."

He pressed the spring, the back opened, showing the polished interior of the case, and then shut it with a snap two or three times, the case flashing in the evening light; and as I glanced at Mercer, I quite wondered to see the eager look of interest and longing he directed at that watch.

"I say, how do you wind it up?" cried a small boy.

"Why, you just push the key in that little hole, and turn it a few times so. Oh, I forgot--I did wind it up before."

"Why, you wound it up six times," said d.i.c.ksee, with a sneer.

"Well, it's my own watch, isn't it, stupid? I can wind it up a hundred times if I like," cried Burr major contemptuously.

"I say, how much did it cost?" said Hodson.

"How should I know? I'm not going to ask my father how much a thing costs when he gives me a present. Lot of money--ten or fifteen pounds, I daresay."

"Yah! Silver watches don't cost so much as that," sneered d.i.c.ksee.

"Look here, d.i.c.ky," cried Burr major, "you're getting too cheeky. I shall have to take you down a peg or two."

"Oh, never mind old Fatsides," cried another boy. "Here, Burr, old chap, show us the works."

"Oh, nonsense, boys! I'm going to put it away now," said Burr major, opening and shutting the back, so as to make a loud snapping noise.

"I say, I should have a gold chain if I were you, Burr," said another boy.

"No, I don't think I shall," said the big fellow nonchalantly; "not for school. Silver would be good enough when a fellow's playing cricket or football."

"Oh, I say, do show us the works!" said the boy who had spoken before.

"Oh, very well. What young noodles you are! Any one would think you had never seen a watch before. You see this is one of the best cla.s.s of watches, and you open the gla.s.s by pressing your nail in there. That's it, you see; and then you stick your nail on that little steel thing, and then it comes open--so. Here, keep back, some of you. Breathing on the works spoils a watch."

"Oh, what a beauty!" rose in chorus, and I saw Mercer press forward with his eyes dilated, and an intense look of longing in his countenance, as he gazed at the bright yellow works, and the tiny wheel swinging to and fro upon its hair-spring.

"Yes, it's a good watch," said Burr major, in a voice full of careless indifference. "Not the same make as my father's. His is gold, of course, and when you open it, there's a cap fits right over the top-- just over there. His is a repeater, and when you touch a spring, it strikes the quarters and the hours."

Mercer looked on as if fascinated.

"Like a clock," said Hodson.

"Of course it does like a clock," said Burr major contemptuously. "It's jewelled, too, in ever so many holes. It cost a hundred guineas, I think, without the chain."

"Oh!" rose in chorus.

"Is that jewelled in lots of holes?" said one of the boys.

"Of course it is. My father wouldn't send me a watch without it was."

"I can't see any holes," said one.

"And I don't see any jewels," said another.

"Where are they, then?" said Hodson.

"The other side, of course."

"Then what's the good of them?"

"Makes a watch more valuable," said Burr major haughtily. "There, don't crowd in so. I'm going to put it away now."

"What jewels are they?" said a boy. "Pearls?"

"Diamonds," said Mercer, with his eyes fixed on the watch, "to make hard points for the wheels to swing upon, because diamonds won't wear."

"Oh, hark at him!" cried Burr major. "Old Senna knows all about it.

Hardly ever saw a watch before in his life."

"Haven't I?" cried Mercer. "Why, my father has a beauty, with second hands--a stop watch."

"Ha, ha, ha!" cried Burr major, closing his new present with a loud snap. "A stop watch! that's an old one that won't go, boys. Poor old Mercer!--poor old Senna Tea! Did your father buy it cheap?"