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Page 44
"What's that about crackers?" inquired the tutor, sharply, his eyes
changing colour like a fire opal.
"I am talking of _Nussnacker und Mausek�nig_," laughed the young lady.
"Crackers do not belong to Christmas; fireworks come on the 5th of
November."
"Tut, tut!" said the tutor; "I always tell your ladyship that you are
still a tom-boy at heart, as when I first came, and you climbed trees
and pelted myself and my young students with horse-chestnuts. You think
of crackers to explode at the heels of timorous old gentlemen in a
November fog; but I mean bonbon crackers, coloured crackers, dainty
crackers--crackers for young people with mottoes of sentiment" (here
the tutor shrugged his high shoulders an inch or two higher, and
turned the palms of his hands outwards with a glance indescribably
comical)--"crackers with paper prodigies, crackers with
sweetmeats--_such_ sweetmeats!" He smacked his lips with a grotesque
contortion, and looked at Master McGreedy, who choked himself with
his last raisin, and forthwith burst into tears.
The widow tried in vain to soothe him with caresses, but he only
stamped and howled the more. But Miss Letitia gave him some smart
smacks on the shoulders to cure his choking fit, and as she kept up the
treatment with vigour, the young gentleman was obliged to stop and
assure her that the raisin had "gone the right way" at last. "If he
were my child," Miss Letitia had been known to observe, with that
confidence which characterizes the theories of those who are not
parents, "I would, &c., &c., &c.;" in fact, Miss Letitia thought she
would have made a very different boy of him--as, indeed, I believe she
would.
"Are crackers all that you have for us, sir?" asked one of the two
school-boys, as they hung over the tutor's chair. They were twins,
grand boys, with broad, good-humoured faces, and curly wigs, as like as
two puppy dogs of the same breed. They were only known apart by their
intimate friends, and were always together, romping, laughing,
snarling, squabbling, huffing and helping each other against the world.
Each of them owned a wiry terrier, and in their relations to each other
the two dogs (who were marvellously alike) closely followed the example
of their masters.
"Do you not care for crackers, Jim?" asked the tutor.
"Not much, sir. They do for girls: but, as you know, I care for nothing
but military matters. Do you remember that beautiful toy of yours--'The
Besieged City'? Ah! I liked that. Look out, Tom! you're shoving my arm.
Can't you stand straight, man?'
"R-r-r-r--r-r, snap!"
Tom's dog was resenting contact with Jim's dog on the hearthrug. There
was a hustle among the four, and then they subsided.
"The Besieged City was all very well for you, Jim," said Tom, who meant
to be a sailor; "but please to remember that it admitted of no attack
from the sea; and what was there for me to do? Ah, sir! you are so
clever, I often think you could help me to make a swing with ladders
instead of single ropes, so that I could run up and down the rigging
whilst it was in full go."
"That would be something like your fir-tree prank, Tom," said his
sister. "Can you believe," she added, turning to the visitor, "that Tom
lopped the branches of a tall young fir-tree all the way up, leaving
little bits for foothold, and then climbed up it one day in an awful
storm of wind, and clung on at the top, rocking backwards and forwards?
And when Papa sent word for him to come down, he said parental
authority was superseded at sea by the rules of the service. It was a
dreadful storm, and the tree snapped very soon after he got safe to the
ground."
"Storm!" sneered Tom, "a capful of wind. Well, it did blow half a gale
at the last. But oh! it was glorious!"
"Let us see what we can make of the crackers," said the tutor--and he
pulled some out of his pocket. They were put in a dish upon the table,
for the company to choose from; and the terriers jumped and snapped,
and tumbled over each other, for they thought that the plate contained
eatables. Animated by the same idea, but with quieter steps, Master
MacGreedy also approached the table.
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