“I shall say no more,” he rejoined, still using the self-command which of all men an autocrat requires, “till I find how you do in your class. That you are the best scholar in it, is no reason why you should be allowed to idle away hours in which you might have been laying up store for the time to come.”—It was a phrase much favoured by the master—in present application foolish.—“But perhaps your father does not mean to send you to college?”
“My father hasna said, an’ I haena speirt,” answered Cosmo, with his eyes on his book.
Still misinterpreting the boy, the conceit and ill-temper of the master now overcame him, and caused him to forget the proprieties altogether.
“Haud on that gait, laddie, an’ ye’ll be as great a fule as yer father himsel’,” he said.
Cosmo rose from his seat, white as the wall behind him, looked in the master’s eyes, caught up his Cæsar , and dashed the book in his face. Most boys would then have made for the door, but that was not Cosmo’s idea of bearing witness. The moment the book left his hand, he drew himself up, stood still as a statue, looked full at the master, and waited. Not by a motion would he avoid any consequence of his act.
He had not long to wait. A corner of the book had gone into the master’s eye; he clapped his hand to it, and for a moment seemed lost in suffering. The next, he clenched for the boy a man’s fist, and knocked him down. Cosmo fell backward over the form, struck his head hard on the foot of the next desk, and lay where he fell.
A shriek arose, and a girl about sixteen came rushing up. She was the grand-daughter of James Gracie, befriended of the laird.
“Go to your seat, Agnes!” shouted the master, and turning from her, stood, with his handkerchief to one eye, looking down on the boy. So little did he know him, he suspected him of pretending to be more hurt than he was.
“Touch me gien ye daur,” cried Agnes, as she stooped to remove his legs from the form.
“Leave him alone,” shouted the master, and seizing her, pulled her away, and flung her from him that she almost fell.