“What do you want?” he asked sullenly.
“We want you to cut it out, that’s all,” answered Fowle.
“Cut it out entirely,” added Taylor.
“Well, I will,” answered Fish, in a sour tone, “but I can’t be responsible for everything that happens.”
CHAPTER XVII
A FOOLHARDY ADVENTURE
The inhabitants of the east well of Hale became lovers of peace. Mr. Alsop had not full confidence in the change, scenting something ominous in the unnatural calm. The rumor that had spread among his colleagues that Alsop was having a sad time in his dormitory touched that gentleman in a sensitive spot. Ability to get on with pupils is considered a most desirable quality in a teacher, even in an institution like Seaton, in which the headsman’s axe is the chief disciplinary weapon, and the fear of it the great persuader to the quiet life. Trouble with his boys meant that Mr. Alsop was not in all respects a success; and the teacher, while forced to confess this fact to himself, did not wish it unpleasantly noised abroad. He was suffering for his own conscientiousness and keenness of perception; he knew Fowle and Archer as dangerous boys, while other teachers were still dull-witted or misguided enough to defend them.
One morning, as Mr. Alsop, thinking gloomy thoughts about the waste of himself which a talented man commits when he takes up the life of a teacher, swung sharply round the corner of his dormitory, he beheld a most exasperating sight.
Wally Sedgwick had been loafing in 7 Hale that morning, keeping both Sam and Duncan from work which neither wanted to do. Wally’s hat lay on the window seat. Duncan, concluding that Wally had overstopped his leave, lifted the window and pushed the hat gently from its resting-place. Then he calmly informed Wally that his “dip” had fallen out. Both peered over the sill to see where the hat had fallen.
John Fish, in the room below, had caught sight of the object falling past his window, and leaned out to investigate. It occurred to him immediately that (as the physicians say) water was indicated; so he brought his pitcher and began pouring upon the hat. Duncan, observing this manœuvre from above, was seized with a bright idea. He too fetched a pitcher and poured his libation upon John Fish’s unprotected head as it projected from the window below. It was this spectacle of pitchers and streams of water and heads and an all-suffering hat which greeted Mr. Alsop’s gaze and outraged his sense of propriety as he emerged into view before the front of Hale.