Our Boys and Girls.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 546, 22 July 1882, Page 3

Our Boys and Girls.

A SCHOOL BOY’S STORY.

There never was a fellow in school so fond of playing tricks on people as Jim Roche was before that happened. Before what happened, you say ? Well, I’m going to tell you. Don’t be in such a hurry. Jim was head' boy in Dr. Doldrum’s school when I went there. We all liked him. He didn t mean any barm by his tricks t He wasn t angry if we played one on him. But it

wasn’t alw,ays pleasant to have salt in your coffee when yon thought it was sugar,, and were thirsty ; or to have sugar on your beefsteak ; or to have a pitcher full of water poured on your head as you were going out dressed for church : or to be bumped and thumped, and frightened and fooled half the time. Jim used to say that he played tricks on everybody but his father. We all knew that nothing could have made him do anything that would make his father feel unpleasantly. He adored him. Yes, that is the word. There were only two of them in the world, and they were just wrapped up in each other. That summer Jim’s father was in Europe. How be used to wait for letters from him ; how he used to read them to the boys ; how glad he was when one of them said that his father was coining home! I never shall forget it. W e all loved our parents, but we loved nobody as well as Jim loved his father. But there wasn’t another boy who would have tied the brush to the cat s tail, soaked them both in turpentine and set fire to the brush ; who would have stolen the poor old German master’s clothes when he went to bathe on the beach and kept him in the water three mortal hours ; to be sure when he got cramps he went in and hauled him out. But, then, when Jim started it was so funny, and we enjoyed the joke as well as he did. That was natural. One night he had been tal ing and talking of the ship being in and his father coming home so soon now, and was so glad about it. We were all down on the stone fence, a dozen of us who were chums, taking exercise before the dormitor bell rang. It was about nine, o'clock and the moon was going down behind the old mill; and just then old Dan, the hired man, who did odd jobs, came stumbling and tumbling along the path. “ Where are you going, Dan ? ’ said some of us. “To the store,” replied Dan, “for four dozen eggs. I’ve got the meal-bag for ’em. It’s a deal better for eggs than a basket. I must hurry, or he’ll be shut up—the store will—for he’s an early sleeper.” Away he stumbled as he spoke, and on the instant Jim whispered : “ Boys, boys, 111 tell you what we’ll do. I’ll tie a cord across the path, and when Dan come 3 back with the basket of eggs, we’ll hear a little fun. Flop will go Dan, squash will go the eggs, out will come the cook. We can hear every word they say from the dormitory window. Who has a piece of twine ?” “ I don t think it very great fun to throw a poor old man down and spoil good provisions,” said Roger Sharp, a gentlemanly sort of young fellow, though he hadn’t much fun in him. “ I think I’d give up the idea, Jim.”

“ Oh, it s not so mu<h the falling down, as hearing all he’ll have to say. Dan is as good as a play,” said Jim. “ Here’s the cord. Fasten it to the fence. Brown. Here, I’ve got the other end. Now, all’s right.” “ Theres the dormitory bell,” cried Brown.

“ Hurry, then,” said Jim, “or we’ll have one of the teachers tumbling down and spoiling the sport.” With that we all hurried in, only Noakes, who was near-sighted, tripped over the cord himself, and set us all laughing, and raised a blue lump on his cheek bone where he had hit it against a stump. We all went in, as I said, had prayers, and went to bed, and there we of the first class lay listening, but we heard no more for a long while, and we made up our minds that Dan had escaped, when suddenly there were all sorts of noises together—the trampling of horses’ feet, a cry, or shout, a fall, groans, people rushing out of the house, and some one being carried into it. There were eight of us in the room, a d we were out of bed in a twinkling and at the windows, but all we could see was a horse and a crowd of people gathered about the gate. “ Something has happened,” said Brown. “ Doubtless Roche’s practical joke has been more successful than usual, and he has broken Dan’s neck,” said Noakes, “ I never wanted to kill any one,” said Jim Roche, “and its something about a horse, I think. We 11 know pretty soon.”

We did. In a few moments some one opened the door and came in; it was the pr feasor, in a dressing-gown. “Gentlemen,” be said, “I have very serious news to tell one of you. An accident has happened. Some wicked person has tied a cord across the entrance to [the drive, and it has proved the cause of a very terrible occurrence. A gentleman who was coming here to see his son rode in quite unprepared for this obstacle. The horse stumbled and threw him, and in the darkness kicked him. He lies below at the point of death. I have come to take his son to him. It is a gentleman who has just returned from Europe and longed to meet his son at once. It is—” • “ My father !" shrieked Roche, and fell upon his face on the floor. “My father—and it was I who tied the string J “My poor boy, I am sorry for you,’’ said the professor. We all were, even Noakes, for we never saw any one seem to suffer so terribly. As the professor told us afterward, it was a warning to any one not to bring remorse upon himself. . Poor old Roche ! He went to his father after awhile, and for two or three days we only saw him now and then, white as a ghost and shivering all over. But by that time his father began to get better, and he didn’t die, though the doctor i aid he would. He was as well as ever when they rode away together in a couple of months, and Mr Roche gave the school a gymnasium and a speech ; and when Jim Roche presided over the little supper he was allowed to give to the class on parting, this is what he said : “ Boys, I’m cured of playing practical jokes. They’ve proved no joke to me, And Noakes was quite right about thorn; they are both cruel and ungentlemanly.”