kind word to them in public. But that
morning, as they stood silent, awkward and angry, round the guns, there
is no doubt about it, the Seminary knew that it loved Bulldog. Never to
see his erect figure and stern face come across the North Meadow, never
to hear him say again from the desk, "Attention to your work, you little
fiddlers"; never to watch him promenading down between the benches,
overseeing each boy's task and stimulating the negligent on some tender
part of their bodies; never to be thrashed by him again! At the thought
of this calamity each boy felt bad in his clothes, and Speug, resenting
what he judged the impertinent spying of Cosh, threatened to punch his
head, and "learn Cosh to be watching him." As everybody knows, boys have
no sentiment and no feeling, so the collapse of that morning must be set
down to pure cussedness; but the school was so low that Byles ruled over
them without resistance, and might have thrashed them if he had so
pleased and had not ventured to use Bulldog's cane.

Had they not been boys, they would have called at Bulldog's to learn how
he was. Being boys, they avoided his name and pretended they were
indifferent; but when they met Manley on the bridge that afternoon, and
judged he had come from Bulldog's, they studied his face with the skill
of wild animals, and concluded each one for himself that things were
going badly with the master. They picked up every scrap of information
from their fathers in the evening, although they fiercely resented the
suggestion of their mothers that they would be concerned about "Mr.
MacKinnon's illness"--as if they cared whether a master were ill or
well, as if it were not better for them that he should be ill,
especially such an old brute as Bulldog. And the average mother was very
much disappointed by this lack of feeling, and said to her husband at
night that she had expected better things from Archibald; but if she had
gone suddenly into Bauldie's room--for that was his real name, Archibald
being only the thing given in baptism--she would have found that
truculent worthy sobbing aloud and covering his head with the blankets,
lest his elder brother, who slept in the same room, should hear him. You
have no reason to believe me, and his mother would not have believed me,
but--as sure as death--Bauldie was crying because Bulldog was sick unto
death.

Next morning Speug and a couple of friends happened by the merest
accident to be loitering at B