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Updated: June 22, 2025
Together with Walter Heriot, Andrew Saddlebank, our best bowler, the drollest fellow in the world, John Salter, and little Gus Temple, were oftenest cited. They declared that they invariably uttered 'Amen, as Heriot did, but we none of us heard this defiant murmur of assent from their lips.
Saddlebank, however, put on such a pace that no one had leisure for melancholy. 'I'll get you fellows up to boiling point, said he. There was a tremendously hot sun overhead. On a sudden he halted, exclaiming: 'Cooks and gridirons! what about sage and onions? Only Temple and I jumped at the meaning of this.
After squeezing through boxes and straw, I lay flat, covered by a mat smelling of abominable cheese, and felt a head outside it on my chest. Several times Mr. Rippenger pronounced my name in the way habitual to him in anger: 'Rye! Temple's answer was inaudible to me. Saddlebank spoke, and other boys, and the man and the woman.
But, observing the narrowness of the tents, it struck me there would be snoring companions. I felt so intensely sensitive, that the very idea of a snore gave me tremours and qualms: it was associated with the sense of fat. Saddlebank had the lid of the pot in his hand; we smelt the goose, and he cried, 'Now for supper; now for it! Halloa, you fellows!
Two others, Paynter and Ashworth, attacked the apples, rendered desperate by thirst. Saddlebank repelled them furiously. He harangued those who might care to listen. 'You fellows, by George! you shall eat the goose, I tell you. You've spoilt everything, and I tell you, whether you like it or not, you shall have apples with it, and sage and onions too. I don't ask for thanks.
The lot fell to a boy named Barnshed, a big slow boy, half way up every class he was in, but utterly stupid out of school; which made Saddlebank say: 'They'll take it he's the bird that wants stuffing. Barnshed was directed where to rejoin us. The others asked why he was trotted after sage and onions. 'Because he's an awful goose, said Saddlebank.
So we played at catch with the Dutch cheese, and afterwards bowled it for long-stopping, when, to the disgust of Saddlebank and others, down ran the black-haired girl and caught the ball clean at wicket-distance. As soon as she had done it she was ashamed, and slunk away. The boys called out, 'Now, then, pig-iron! One fellow enraged me by throwing an apple that hit her in the back.
'Aha! Saddlebank grumbled, 'this comes of the precious company you would keep in spite of my caution. The man told us to go it, for he liked to observe young gentlemen enjoying themselves. Temple tossed him a pint bottle of beer, with an injunction to him to shut his trap. 'Now, you talk my mother tongue, said the man; 'you're what goes by the name of a learned gentleman. Thank ye, sir.
'Oh, it's Catman; we don't mind him, Saddlebank reassured us; but we heard ominous voices, and perceived people standing over a prostrate figure. Then we heard a voice too well known to us. It said, 'The explanation of a pupil in your charge, Mr. Catman, being sent barefaced into the town a scholar of mine-for sage and onions... 'Old Rippenger! breathed Temple. We sat paralyzed.
'By jingo! what a treat you'll have, Temple said among them, bursting with our secret. Saddlebank pleaded that he had missed his way on presenting himself ten minutes after time. To me and Temple he breathed of goose, but he shunned us; he had no fun in him till Saturday afternoon, when Catman called out to hear if we were for cricket or a walk. 'A walk on the downs, said Saddlebank.
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