CHAPTER VII
FOXY
After the expulsion of the master, the Twentieth School fell upon evildays, for the trustees decided that it would be better to try "gurl"teachers, as Hughie contemptuously called them; and this policyprevailed for two or three years, with the result that the big boys leftthe school, and with their departure the old heroic age passed away, tobe succeeded by an age soft, law-abiding, and distinctly commercial.
The spirit of this unheroic age was incarnate in the person of "Foxy"Ross. Foxy got his name, in the first instance, from the peculiar pinkyred shade of hair that crowned his white, fat face, but the name stuckto him as appropriately descriptive of his tricks and his manners. Hisface was large, and smooth, and fat, with wide mouth, and teeth thatglistened when he smiled. His smile was like his face, large, andsmooth, and fat. His eyes, which were light gray--white, Hughie calledthem--were shifty, avoiding the gaze that sought to read them, orpiercingly keen, according as he might choose.
After the departure of the big boys, Foxy gradually grew in influenceuntil his only rival in the school was Hughie. Foxy's father was thestorekeeper in the Twentieth, and this brought within Foxy's reachpossibilities of influence that gave him an immense advantage overHughie. By means of bull's-eyes and "lickerish" sticks, Foxy could winthe allegiance of all the smaller boys and many of the bigger ones,while with the girls, both big and small, his willingness to pleaseand his smooth manners won from many affection, and from the resttoleration, although Betsy Dan Campbell asserted that whenever Foxy Rosscame near her she felt something creeping up her backbone.
With the teacher, too, Foxy was a great favorite. He gave her worshipfulreverence and many gifts from his father's store, eloquent of hisdevotion. He was never detected in mischief, and was always ready toexpose the misdemeanors of the other boys. Thus it came that Foxy wasthe paramount influence within the school.
Outside, his only rival was Hughie, and at times Hughie's rivalry becamedangerous. In all games that called for skill, activity, and recklessdaring, Hughie was easily leader. In "Old Sow," "Prisoner's Base,"but especially in the ancient and noble game of "Shinny," Hughie shonepeerless and supreme. Foxy hated games, and shinny, the joy of thosegiants of old, who had torn victory from the Sixteenth, and even fromthe Front one glorious year, was at once Foxy's disgust and terror. Asa little boy, he could not for the life of him avoid turning his back towait shuddering, with humping shoulders, for the enemy's charge, and inanything like a melee, he could not help jumping into the air at everydangerous stroke.
And thus he brought upon himself the contempt even of boys much smallerthan himself, who, under the splendid and heroic example of those wholed them, had only one ambition, to get a whack at the ball, andthis ambition they gratified on every possible occasion reckless ofconsequences. Hence, when the last of the big boys, Thomas Finch,against whose solid mass hosts had flung themselves to destruction,finally left the school, Foxy, with great skill, managed to divert theenergies of the boys to games less violent and dangerous, and by meansof his bull's-eyes and his liquorice, and his large, fat smile, he drewafter him a very considerable following of both girls and boys.
The most interesting and most successful of Foxy's schemes was the gameof "store," which he introduced, Foxy himself being the storekeeper. Hehad the trader's genius for discovering and catering to the weaknessesof people, and hence his store became, for certain days of the week,the center of life during the recreation hours. The store itself was asomewhat pretentious successor to the little brush cabin with wide openfront, where in the old days the boys used to gather, and lying uponpiles of fragrant balsam boughs before the big blazing fire placed infront, used to listen to the master talk, and occasionally read.
Foxy's store was built of slabs covered with thick brush, and set offwith a plank counter and shelves, whereon were displayed his wares.His stock was never too large for his personal transportation, but itsvariety was almost infinite, bull's-eyes and liquorice, maple sugarand other "sweeties," were staples. Then, too, there were balls of gum,beautifully clear, which in its raw state Foxy gathered from the endsof the pine logs at the sawmill, and which, by a process of boiling andclarifying known only to himself, he brought to a marvelous perfection.
But Foxy's genius did not confine itself to sweets. He would buy andsell and "swap" anything, but in swapping no bargain was ever completedunless there was money for Foxy in the deal. He had goods second-handand new, fish-hooks and marbles, pot-metal knives with brass handles,slate-pencils that would "break square," which were greatly desired byall, skate-straps, and buckskin whangs.
But Foxy's financial ability never displayed itself with more brilliancythan when he organized the various games of the school so as to havethem begin and end with the store. When the river and pond were coveredwith clear, black ice, skating would be the rage, and then Foxy's storewould be hung with skate-straps, and with cedar-bark torches, whichwere greatly in demand for the skating parties that thronged the pondat night. There were no torches like Foxy's. The dry cedar bark any onecould get from the fences, but Foxy's torches were always well soakedin oil and bound with wire, and were prepared with such excellent skillthat they always burned brighter and held together longer than anyothers. These cedar-bark torches Foxy disposed of to the larger boyswho came down to the pond at night. Foxy's methods of finance wereundoubtedly marked by ability, and inasmuch as his accounts were neveraudited, the profits were large and sure. He made it a point to purchasea certain proportion of his supplies from his father, who was proud ofhis son's financial ability, but whether his purchases always equaledhis sales no one ever knew.
If the pond and river were covered with snow, then Foxy would organizea deer-hunt, when all the old pistols in the section would be broughtforth, and the store would display a supply of gun caps, by theexplosion of which deadly ammunition the deer would be dropped in theirtracks, and drawn to the store by prancing steeds whose trappings hadbeen purchased from Foxy.
When the interest in the deer-hunt began to show signs of waning, Foxywould bring forth a supply of gunpowder, for the purchase of whichany boy who owned a pistol would be ready to bankrupt himself. Inthis Hughie took a leading part, although he had to depend upon thegenerosity of others for the thrilling excitement of bringing down hisdeer with a pistol-shot, for Hughie had never been able to save coppersenough to purchase a pistol of his own.
But deer-hunting with pistols was forbidden by the teacher from the daywhen Hughie, in his eagerness to bring his quarry down, left his ramrodin his pistol, and firing at Aleck Dan Campbell at point-blank range,laid him low with a lump on the side of his head as big as a marble. Theonly thing that saved Aleck's life, the teacher declared, was histhick crop of black hair. Foxy was in great wrath at Hughie for hisrecklessness, which laid the deer-hunting under the teacher's ban, andwhich interfered seriously with the profits of the store.
But Foxy was far too great a man to allow himself to be checked by anysuch misfortune as this. He was far too astute to attempt to defy theteacher and carry on the forbidden game, but with great ability headapted the principles of deer-hunting to a game even more exciting andprofitable. He organized the game of "Injuns," some of the boys beingset apart as settlers who were to defend the fort, of which the storewas the center, the rest to constitute the invading force of savages.
The result was, that the trade in caps and gunpowder was brisker thanever, for not only was the powder needed for the pistols, but evenlarger quantities were necessary for the slow-matches which hissed theirwrath at the approaching enemy, and the mounted guns, for which earthenink-bottles did excellently, set out on a big stump to explode, to thedestruction of scores of creeping redskins advancing through the bush,who, after being mutilated and mangled by these terrible explosions,were dragged into the camp and scalped. Foxy's success was phenomenal.The few pennies and fewer half-dimes and dimes that the boys had hoardedfor many long weeks would soon have been exhausted had Hughie notwrecked the game.
&
nbsp; Hughie alone had no fear of Foxy, but despised him utterly. He had stoodand yelled when those heroes of old, Murdie and Don Cameron, Curly Ross,and Ranald Macdonald, and last but not to be despised Thomas Finch, haddone battle with the enemy from the Sixteenth or the Front, and he couldnot bring himself to acknowledge the leadership of Foxy Ross, forall his bull's-eyes and liquorice. Not but what Hughie yearned forbull's-eyes and liquorice with great yearning, but these could not atoneto him for the loss out of his life of the stir and rush and daring ofthe old fighting days. And it galled him that the boys of the Sixteenthcould flout the boys of the Twentieth in all places and on all occasionswith impunity.
But above all, it seemed to him a standing disgrace that the habitantteamsters from the north, who in former days found it a necessary andwise precaution to put their horses to a gallop as they passed theschool, in order to escape with sleighs intact from the hordes thatlined the roadway, now drove slowly past the very gate without anapparent tremor. But besides all this, he had an instinctive shrinkingfrom Foxy, and sympathized with Betsy Dan in her creepy feeling wheneverhe approached. Hence he refused allegiance, and drew upon himself Foxy'sjealous hatred.
It was one of Foxy's few errors in judgment that, from his desire tohumiliate Hughie and to bring him to a proper state of subjection,he succeeded in shutting him out from the leadership in the gameof "Injuns," for Hughie promptly refused a subordinate position andwithdrew, like Achilles, to his tent. But, unlike Achilles, though hesulked, he sulked actively, and to some purpose, for, drawing off withhim his two faithful henchmen, "Fusie"--neither Hughie nor any one elseever knew another name for the little French boy who had drifted intothe settlement and made his home with the MacLeods--and Davie "Scotch,"a cousin of Davie MacDougall, newly arrived from Scotland, he placedthem in positions which commanded the store entrance, and waited untilthe settlers had all departed upon their expedition against the invadingIndians. Foxy, with one or two smaller boys, was left in charge of thestore waiting for trade.
In a few moments Foxy's head appeared at the door, when, whiz! asnowball skinned his ear and flattened itself with a bang against theslabs.
"Hold on there! Stop that! You're too close up," shouted Foxy, thinkingthat the invaders were breaking the rules of the game.
Bang! a snowball from another quarter caught him fair in the neck.
"Here, you fools, you! Stop that!" cried Foxy, turning in the directionwhence the snowball came and dodging round to the side of the store.But this was Hughie's point of attack, and soon Foxy found that the onlyplace of refuge was inside, whither he fled, closing the door after him.Immediately the door became a target for the hidden foe.
Meantime, the Indian war was progressing, but now and again a settlerwould return to the fort for ammunition, and the moment he reached thedoor a volley of snowballs would catch him and hasten his entrance. Oncein it was dangerous to come out.
By degrees Hughie augmented his besieging force from the moreadventurous settlers and Indians, and placed them in the bushsurrounding the door.
The war game was demoralized, but the new game proved so much moreinteresting that it was taken up with enthusiasm and prosecuted withvigor. It was rare sport. For the whole noon hour Hughie and hisbombarding force kept Foxy and his friends in close confinement, fromwhich they were relieved only by the ringing of the school bell, for atthe sound of the bell Hughie and his men, having had their game, fledfrom Foxy's wrath to the shelter of the school.
When Foxy appeared it was discovered that one eye was half shut, but thelight that gleamed from the other was sufficiently baleful to give tokenof the wrath blazing within, and Hughie was not a little anxious to knowwhat form Foxy's vengeance would take. But to his surprise, by the timerecess had come Foxy's wrath had apparently vanished, and he was willingto treat Hughie's exploit in the light of a joke. The truth was, Foxynever allowed passion to interfere with business, and hence he resolvedthat he must swallow his rage, for he realized clearly that Hughiewas far too dangerous as a foe, and that he might become exceedinglyvaluable as an ally. Within a week Hughie was Foxy's partner inbusiness, enjoying hugely the privilege of dispensing the store goods,with certain perquisites that naturally attached to him as storekeeper.