"They're jolly queer, grown-ups are," he said, sleepily. "Jolly queer!"
CHAPTER VIII
THE NATIVE PROTÉGÉ
The person who was ultimately to blame was the secretary of the Dramatic Society of the school of which William was a humble member. The Dramatic Society had given an historical play in which Christopher Columbus was depicted among the aborigines of America. William was too unimportant a member of the institution which served him out his daily ration of education to figure on the stage, but he was a delighted spectator in the back row. Christopher Columbus interested him not at all. Christopher Columbus was white, and except for his rather curious and violently anachronistic costume, looked exactly as the postman or William's own father might look. But the aborigines! William could not take his eyes from them. They were Jones Minor and Pinchin Major and Goggles, and all that crew. Of course he knew that. Yet how different—how rapturously different. Browned from head to foot—a lovely walnut brown. It made their eyes look queer and their teeth look queer. It set them in a world apart. It must feel ripping. William decided then and there that his life's happiness could never be complete till he had browned himself like that. He wondered whether brown boot polish would do it. Knife polish might. Something must.
He went out with the stream of spectators at the end in a golden dream of happiness. He saw himself, browned from head to foot, brandishing some weapon and dancing on bare brown feet in a savage land. He was so rapt in his day-dream that he collided with a tall lank VI. Form boy who was coming along the passage carrying a box.
"Look out where you're going, can't you?" said that superior individual coldly. "Do you want me to drop this stuff all over the place?"
He pointed with a languid hand to "this stuff." "This stuff" was sticks of brown and red and black grease paint, pots of cold cream, and tins of powder.
William's eyes brightened.
"Shall I carry it for you?" he said meekly. "So's to save you trouble?"
The VI. Form boy started. William's attitude towards his intellectual superiors generally lacked that respect which is the due of intellectual superiors.