8. CHAPTER VIII.
AMALGAMATION IN THE OLDEN TIME.
Moore returned to breakfast looking rather haggard, after a sleepless night
and a fruitless journey. He said he had traced the coach back to York, but
there it had been dismissed and there in all probability it belonged. There
was a faint clue he said to the supposition that they had gone on to the capital,
directly after their return from Temple Farm. Kate, as she entered and
took her seat at the table, welcomed him with a cheerful mood, and asked in
a playful way if he had discovered their Hero and Heroine of the masks.
She looked quite disappointed at the result, and expressed her regret especially
that Bernard had not brought the lady back. “It is such an unusual
thing,” she said, “people calling at a house in the night with masks on, in a
country like this—and that house too belonging to the Chief Magistrate of the
Colony.”
“If you had been in York last night, and seen the crowds of houseless
strangers that I saw,” said Moore, “just arrived from England, you could not
have been at a loss to select any sort of character from among them.”
“Let us all then ride there this morning?” said Kate, “and see for ourselves.”
No objection being made, it was settled that they would make a general
descent upon York, and see one of those human swarms from the European
hives, by which this country was populated. The letter of the previous night
also, added a zest to the general curiosity to see that portion of these said to
be of a higher order than usual.
“Who can that hot headed man be?” said Kate, “whom papa's friend
speaks of in his letter, as having compromised himself by meddling in matters
that did not concern him.”
“Our College,” said the Reverend Commissary, “will one day or other,
save our young gentry from the temptation of meddling in transatlantic affairs.
Now it is made a mere grammar school—this is all wrong. What say you
Mr. Carter? Mr. Moore?”
“I think, Sir, to speak with frankness,” said Moore, “that it will never be
any thing else, while it remains half savage, half civilized.”
Both Kate and Dorothea smiled at the rude interpretation which might be
put upon this speech. The Doctor replied:
“I understand, you allude to Mr. Boyle's plan of educating the Indians.”
“Exactly, and to the utter impracticability of ever carrying on a literary
institution with two such heterogeneous classes as those now in College.”
“Why Sir,” said Carter, “I have been looking for bloodshed between your
Indian hostage pupils and our native young bloods for some time.”
“Alas,” replied the Doctor, “that the most benevolent intentions, devised with
the truest apparent wisdom, are ever thus thwarted by the wickedness of man.”
“We grant you the intentions,” said Moore, “but for the wisdom of shutting
up twenty or thirty wild young Indians, in the same building with an equal
number of whites, quite as wild in one sense, we cannot vouch. You must
recollect, Doctor, that Carter and myself have been personal witnesses of the
experiment, and we can testify to the ceaseless arrogance on the part of the
whites, and the consequent deadly enmity of the Indians. They are most of
them princes of the blood, too, and may ill brook indignity from mere plebeian
youths, even of our color. Why Sir, it was no longer ago than one night last
week, being in the capital and hearing a great noise and confusion in the
College, I walked up to ascertain the cause. Must I tell it, Doctor?”
“Tell it—tell it,” said Kate.
“Tell it,” said Dorothea.
“I see the two Doctors and the Governor, hang their heads, but being put
upon the stand I must tell the whole truth. Thus, then, you know ladies, that
there is a particular wing of the College, devised by Sir Christopher Wren,
for the express accommodation of their young savage majesties. Two occupy
each room, and for their farther accommodation, there are two cots. Now on
the night alluded to, half an hour after the Indian class was dismissed to their
quarters, and after prayers, such a yelling was heard from that wing that the
people of the town actually thought the College again on fire, and some of
the wicked lads in the other end began tolling the bell, which brought also the
firemen with their buckets and ladders. In the melee I arrived and found
upon enquiring, that the connecting pins from every cot in the Indian wing
had been removed, so that each one caught a tumble when he supposed himself
only leaping into bed, and that was not all. Every tub and bucket in old
Mrs. Stites' kitchen (the Stewardess of the College) had been filled with
water, and as far as they would go, placed under the cots, so that many of
them got a ducking into the bargain. Such yelling, and screeching, and
whooping, never was heard. The savage youngsters were for rushing in a
body upon their white assailants, and it required all the authority of the Indian
master, backed by the other Professors and citizens who had assembled, to
quell the riot. A party of citizens had to patrol the College the whole night,
to prevent bad consequences between the two races.”
“It is too true,” said Dr. Blair, “but that is the fault of our boys, and not
of the original design.”
“I beg your pardon, Reverend Sir, for controverting your position, said
Carter, but the original design to be entitled to the wisdom which you claim
for it, should have provided for the liability in boys of one race to play pranks
upon another. This is not a solitary instance. Moore and myself could entertain
this goodly company till dinner time, with accounts of these disasters.”
The Reverend Commissary had risen from the table and was walking along
the room back and forth, his hands locked behind him, thrown into painful
reflections by the testimony and the arguments of his former pupils. The
girls were still laughing over the ridiculous figures which the savages must
have cut, but not daring to give full vent to their feelings because they knew
that it was a tender subject with all three of the elderly gentlemen.
In this very different state of feeling in the two—the elder and the younger'
the breakfast table was soon deserted. The young people to prepare for the
contemplated excursion, and the elders to debate that matter gravely, over
which the others were still amusing themselves.
