The Truant Schoolmaster

== THE TRUANT SCHOOLMASTER ==
=== By Ernest N. Bagg ===
Written for Short Stories 1899
From the first time arose opposition when,
in the spring of 1760, a newcomer known as Isaac Barre was named as the
Substitute Master of the South Grammar School, in Boston, Master John Lovel had
been seriously ill for a month. The youngsters of the community were fast
becoming demoralized, so their elders thought. "He is too young," said
one, "He is too old," said some. "We know too little about
him," declared others, dreading innovation of any sort. The grandsires of
the town, too, shook their heads. Some recent accident which had deprived the
stranger of his left eye, was an "evil sign," they said. The scar
gave one view of his face a look of severity, entirely foreign to his youthful
spirit and pleasing address. For in spite of this physical defect he made
friends rapidly. "A musket-ball made that brand, or I've lost my
reck'nin','' said an old man, himself deeply scarred from encounters with the
Indians in days gone by. He was seated with others on the sunny side of a
stranded boat on Windmill Point. 
"One eye wise be better nor two
foolish," said a companion, whose conversation, dealing largely with old
"wives' sayings," as the proverbs of the people were called, gave him
the local name of "The Oracle," "But he be a Tory, I'm thinking,
an' more like to teach royalty than musketry," he added, chuckling at what
he was pleased to consider a smart saying. 
A selectman, Richard Bassett, had paused,
in passing, to listen to the discussion. He was an ardent Whig. 
"Then the sooner musketry arrays
itself against royalty the better for all of us," he blurted, with clenched
fists. "I, for one, hope our boys will speedily learn the art of war. Before
long we shall be fighting, men and boys alike, for our liberties." 
"But suppose he be a redcoat in
disguise," said one ; "you would not have a foreigner teach our sons
to bend the knee to a king, would you. Brother Richard ?" 
"I would rather see my lad lay dead, as
you know, than even listening to such teaching as that," replied Bassett
sharply. "I shall learn more of this stranger. A masker!- A wolf in lamb's
wool, I doubt not! If I find him such, he shall be jailed, or better still,
sent out of 
harbor in an open boat without oars!" And he strode angrily away toward
the town. 
The old men looked after him, and at each
other, and smiled. 
"A sharp tongue makes an unstable
rudder," sighed the "Oracle," looking out across the shimmering
bay. 
The Widow Acton's house on was
the temporary home of Isaac Barre since his arrival by stage from some weeks
previously. Thither the hot-headed selectman turned his steps, and would have
attempted some vigorous and altogether indiscreet catechising on his own
account, had he not met his friend, Samuel Adams, whose fame as a patriot was
already abroad, on his way from a meeting of kindred spirits to his home near
the Point. He listened attentively to Bassett's suspicions, and with difficulty
dissuaded him from seeking an interview, likely to engender high words, and
which might do, locally at least, serious harm to the cause of liberty. He
declared he, too, had doubts of Barre's loyalty to the colonies. He volunteered
to find out, if possible, the truth. He had to talk several minutes with
Bassett before the latter was willing the matter should be left in Adams' hands,
though the selectman well knew that Adams was usually relentless in pursuit of
those of royalist tendencies. 
The wily leader of the patriots watched
Bassett safely out of sight, and then turned toward the widow's cozy home. The April
sun shone brightly through diamond-shaped windowpanes upon the cleanest of
hearths and the brightest of pewter, for a more tidy housewife than Dame Acton
was not to be found in all the colonies. A native of old , her
hospitality needed no encouragement, and she welcomed her neighbor with quaint
courtesy. 
After some preliminary pleasantries he made
a guarded reference to the evident intelligence of her lodger, and the mystery
connected with his antecedents. The widow, suddenly crossing the room to where
he sat, said earnestly, as she laid her hand upon his arm. 
"Why mask with me, good neighbor?
M'sieur is a brave, true man — in every way worthy to teach the school, if that
is what you would know. Why should people be so suspicious of a man whose only
crime is that he is a stranger? But go and talk with him yourself. Yonder he
sits under the elms with my son. I am glad my Philip has the companionship of
such a man." 
"A pretty traitor I may unearth,"
thought as he walked in the direction
indicated. “Or perhaps he has deceived the widow too! Can I not entrap him into
a confession?" he added, entering the shadow cast by the largest of a
group of noble elms standing in what was then called Hanover Square. From the
opposite side of the very tree of 
which afterward became famous rose the subdued murmur of voices. The role of “eavesdropper"
was ordinarily an impossible one for the "Great Incendiary," as was soon after termed, to assume. But, provided the
end were liberty, almost any means in those troublous times seemed justifiable.
He crept as carefully as possible up to the tree and listened. A man of
uncertain age, dressed in homespun simplicity, his cocked hat, placed squarely
upon his head, giving him an air of being quite ready for any emergency, was
conversing in a low and musical voice with the widow's lame son Philip, who lay
stretched out upon the greensward beside him. The man held a young leaf in his
hand and was evidently explaining to the lad something of its construction and
unfolding. But what proved to the newcomer far more interesting than the
botanical lesson was the small packet of closely written paper lying on the
ground by the speaker's side. An ink horn with a curiously wrought silver lid
sticking foremost in the sod, and a blackened quill, showed how recent the
writing had been. The manuscript, though in a microscopic hand and in finished
French, was astonishingly plain. Adams, himself familiar with French, bending
lower and hardly daring to breathe, had no difficulty in reading what was
evidently part of a letter to some person of rank upon the condition of affairs
in .
"My Lord, it is for these
reasons," this particular sheet began, "that I assure you His Majesty
had best remove at once those most odious laws of recent and proposed
enactment, and improve the first opportunity to secure friendly relations with
a wide domain, whose inhabitants, even if on the very verge of insurrection,
are also enthusiastic for permanent independence. 
Their liberties are just as sacred as ours
! Beware now and here the writing ceased. 
waited no longer. Stealthily retracing his steps to the widow's
house, he penned a hurried note and left it in her charge for her lodger. That
evening the new schoolmaster spent over an hour in the closely shuttered study
where often wrote until late into the
night. Arm in arm they strolled together on starlit Windmill Point, and the
cordiality they expressed to each other on parting at the Widow Acton's gate showed
how complete and sympathetic was the understanding between them. 
Selectman Bassett's suspicions were
entirely set at rest, albeit he was a little surprised by a letter next day
from the influential John Hancock, in which were these words: "My friend
Isaac Barre, who is nominated for temporary Master of the South Grammar School
of Boston, is entitled to your cordial support, being mentally and in all other
ways well qualified for the place." 
In a few days the new schoolmaster was
installed. In a week's time he had entirely won the hearts of the young, and so,
of course, commended himself to all, so far as his abilities and address were
concerned. 
The summer came again, and with it the
health of Master Lovel slowly returned. He would sit a few moments each day in
the schoolroom. The new master's methods were widely different from his own ;
but, beyond offering an occasional minor suggestion, he did not interfere,
while he watched the proceedings with an amused and curious interest. 
But suspicions are not easily downed. An
overzealous member of the Committee of Public Safety one day intercepted a
letter the schoolmaster had addressed to one "Col. Carleton,
Quartermaster-General to His Majesty's Forces in , ," and learned enough from its
contents to indicate that the writer must at some time have been, and perhaps
was still, an officer of the Crown. This tamperer with the mails took care not
to expose himself, but rumors at once became current that the town of Boston
retained in its employ a British spy. It was a most unwelcome thought. The
nerves of the populace were at the highest tension. People committed wrongs to
which a second thought would never have consented. It was noticeable that the
boys sought every opportunity when outside school hours to meet with and learn of
the new master. Master Lovel could not restrain his jealousy when he discovered
their devotion. He flew into a towering rage, and declared before an admiring
audience in the public coffee house, that something should be done at once — but
what — no one volunteered to decide! No one doubted Isaac Barre's courage. It
was known that during a fierce wharf fight between drunken sailors one night
near Salutation Inn, on , he suddenly appeared on the scene,
disarmed single-handed the astonished combatants, and turned them over,
unaided, to the watch. No one cared to precipitate a crisis while everybody was
glad to await a more favorable opportunity. 
It was fall again and school had resumed
its long sessions. The attendance at the 
was largely increased. The scholars took hold of their studies “with ardor and
earnestness," as the diary of an honored clergyman of that time declares.
The people had but just heard of the surrender of and rejoiced accordingly. It was an
uncommonly warm afternoon for September. The new master was sealed near an open
window conducting a lesson in "ciphering" when rapidly approaching
commotion in the street caused all within range of windows and doors to crane
their necks quite after the manner of school children of the present day. A
dozen or more determined looking citizens armed with flint-locks, staves and
stones, pushed and dragged a stout stranger sailor, who, though bound with a
cord, gave them a continual struggle. The master rose from his seat. Some of
the young scholars ran shrieking from their benches and clung to the skirts of
his coat, as the motley procession came onward beneath the trees of the
schoolhouse yard, and halted directly in front of the open door. It was
Selectman Bassett, holding a stout hickory cane in his hand, who seemed to be
spokesman for the party. 
"Now, then speak up like a man. Here's
the master. Give him your message !" 
"If I had been alone one instant, thy
tongue would wag on a new plan," exclaimed the sailor. "FU talk when
and where I please without your telling. Ho, Schoolmaster! Come out !" He
shouted the last words so suddenly that the nearest bystanders shrank back a
little. 
"Aye ! Come out. Schoolmaster ! Come
out in your true guise ! Greet thy comrade here ! He has a message hidden away,
somewhere for you from King George, like as not. But I shall read it before he
gives it up!" exclaimed the fiery Bassett. 
A slightly increased pallor was the
schoolmaster's only outward sign of excitement. 
"Silence !" he exclaimed, quite
as much to the men as to the smaller children who through fear had renewed
their cries. A look of recognition, so swift as to be unnoticed by the shrewdest
captor, passed between him and the sailor. 
"What does this unseemly disturbance
mean ?" he demanded sternly of the leaders of the party. 
Bassett was on the point of making some
reply, when the captive turned toward the citizen nearest him, addressed him fretfully
as if complaining of the severity of his bonds, in French, yet in a perfectly
audible tone, "L'Major, I must see you at once and alone." 
"What jargon is this?" asked the
citizen, tightening his grasp. "No, I shall not let you go, even if you do
'Major' me. You spoke good English a moment ago!" 
The schoolmaster looked quickly from one
to. another. Not one in the crowd knew a word of French. By the greatest good
fortune the invalid and erudite Master Lovel had gone for the day. 
"Perhaps I can speak with him in his
own tongue," said Barre, obligingly. Then, in a tone of harsh inquiry, as
if reprimanding the sailor for the whole affair, using the Gascon dialect which
he knew the man best understood, he said : 
"Tell it quickly in Gascon, none of
these people can understand." 
The seaman was an adept in dissembling. He
began tugging at the ropes again. Raising his voice angrily as if demanding release
: 
"L'Major is ordered to convey in
person to the Crown the news of the fall of ." Here he paused while the captors
tightened their bonds. Tugging still harder he cried out also in French :
"Captain Deane, with the frigate Juno, awaits you off town since . He sails at once," he added fretfully, as
if despairing of his captor's pity. 
The tone and expression of the sailor was
so totally unlike that of a person who was imparting information that the
bystanders were completely deceived. The schoolmaster turned to Bassett with a
look of mingled despair and amusement. 
"Let him go, men. He is no rogue, only
light-headed," he added, tapping his forehead significantly. "You
heard how he wanders from one tongue to another, prattling of and speaking very bad French. Your
rejoicings of the victory have turned his head." 
Most of the witnesses were convinced that
this was true. Richard Bassett, however, was not yet fully satisfied. 
"We will give this fellow safe conduct
back to salt water where he came from in his cockle shell of a boat," he
said. "When we have examined the papers he may have, we will bring you
anything that concerns yourself. And, look'ee 1 The Committee of Safety have
set a guard near your lodgings to see that this friend of yours does not
return. Do not let us keep you longer from your pupils !" he added with a
sneer. 
"Your sarcasm is ill-timed," said
the schoolmaster quickly. "One of the town fathers should set these pupils
a better example. As for this man who has done you no harm, and whom you are
treating with unnecessary severity, it matters little to me whether you carry
him to or .
But 'Squires Hancock and Adams would never sanction this unlawful treatment of
a poor, harmless stranger against whom you have unproved suspicions." 
He turned abruptly and entered the
schoolhouse door. An angry response was on the peppery tongue of Richard
Bassett, but when he saw the faces of the school children at the windows,
something told him to refrain. With ardor somewhat dampened, the crowd passed
down the street, dragging with them a seemingly sullen captive, who in reality
was inwardly rejoicing over the successful discharge of duty and the chance of
speedy escape. Isaac Barre went on with the interrupted recitations as if
nothing had happened. Not the slightest allusion did he make to the episode.
But Philip Acton, wiser than his years, pondered deeply the things he had seen
and heard. 
Philip and his teacher walked slowly home
together when school was done. 
"You would not leave without saying 'good-by' to me, would
you?" the boy suddenly asked. 
"I was afraid you understood what the
sailor said to-day," responded Isaac Barre. "Can I trust you, my dear
lad, to say nothing about it to any one just now? All will one day be explained.
I cannot say more now." 
For answer the boy's eyes filled with
tears. Slipping his arm through the teacher's sturdy one, they walked silently
on. 
For an hour the next morning the boys
waited and wondered why the teacher did not come. At that moment the ponderous
frigate Juno was standing out to sea, with every inch of canvas spread, and
land fast fading from sight behind. On its deck, his civilian's dress changed
for military cloak and the uniform of a Major in the British service, stood the
man who had so endeared himself to the youth of while himself a student of American
manners and customs. His thoughts were of his pupils, but his face was set
resolutely toward his native shores and the fulfilment of duty. 
The boys who were lounging about the
schoolhouse yard or playing on the neighboring green quickly took their places on
the rough benches when the former master, John Lovel, with Samuel Adams and two
other citizens was seen approaching and were found awaiting their elders with
an air of respectful attention. 
"Master Lovel permits me to explain
the absence of your late master," said ,
without more ado, addressing the school. "You have lately had the honor of
a personal acquaintance with a soldier distinguished for his bravery, and in the
line of early promotion in the British Army. But he is one of 's
warmest friends, and a. man whom you will do well to emulate. You may never see
him again, though he hopes to visit us again at no distant day. He left late last night,
but he left with me a letter for his pupils which I have the pleasure of
reading to you: 
". 
"Beloved
friends : — My hasty departure, without either explanation or farewells, you
will, when you know the truth, condone. I long desired to study Americans, not
as the English were told of them, but as they actually were. Impossible as this
seemed for a busy soldier, an extended leave of absence while recovering from
wounds received in the late Siege of 
gave me the opportunity. I much enjoyed playing for a time the part of a
citizen. To make my identity the more secure I have seemed to take no interest
in your military affairs. It is now safe to confess that my heart has always
throbbed in response to the brave music of your patriot fife and drum. ''
"I
thank you earnestly for your zeal and industry in learning, not more than for
your uniform kindness to me. An imperative order demands my immediate presence
in .
It so happens that any other farewell than this would be only a delay. You may
later learn of my humble efforts in behalf of freedom for the Colonies of . I hope
that Master Lovel may speedily recover, and that he may find the principles of
liberty indelibly impressed upon your youthful minds. 'Get wisdom, get
understanding !”Farewell. ''
"Your
Most Ob't, Humble Sv't, ''
"Isaac
Barre. "Late Major in 
and Adjutant-General under the lamented Wolfe, now attached to the Forces of
the Crown under General Sir Jeffrey Amherst." ''
Master Lovel was so far recovered as to
resume his place at the head of the school at once. The boys, though not wholly
relishing the change, accepted it gracefully, and astonished their parents as
well as their former teacher with the effects of their recent good discipline
in both scholarship and deportment. 
Philip Acton was the proud possessor of an
ink-horn with a lid of silver, given him on the memorable night of Major Barrels
departure. When the boy died greatly mourned in the following year, this valued
relic, together with a little packet of letters received from the
tender-hearted soldier, were, at Philip's urgent request, buried with him. 
Through all the stirring events that
followed in quick succession the passage of the odious Stamp Act, against which
Barre, as a member of Parliament, so valiantly fought, and the thrilling scenes
around the famous elms in Hanover Square, which he had learned to love so well
— ^Samuel Adams and Selectman Bassett, as well as the pupils of the South
Grammar School, watched with keenest interest the career of the knightly defender
of their cause abroad. The two former were foremost in the movement which ultimately
placed a handsome portrait of the British patriot Barre in Faneuil Hall. If you
will look earnestly at his engraved portrait in its frame in the Bostonian
Society's "Council Chamber," you will get a good idea of the man who,
it is believed, wrote the stirring and famous letters of Junius. 
Out on Windmill Point, in sheltered spots,
the old men of the town continued to sit on sunny autumn afternoons. Two weeks
after the truant schoolmaster's departure, the aged veteran of the Indian wars,
taking a pinch of sniilT, remarked : 
"The Major were a fine man, all but
the ugly mark the Frenchman's bullet plowed in his forehead!" 
For a full minute no one spoke. "Better's a friend's frown nor a foe's smile,"
murmured the "Oracle," as he watched the white sails standing out to
sea.
Category:Bagg
Category:ShortStories