He walked with the support of a malacca
cane, dragging his wounded leg after him; and had a trick of talking
to himself as he went.
I need scarcely say that we mimicked him; but in school he kept far
better discipline than Stimcoe, for, with all his oddity, we knew him
to be a brave man. Such mathematics as we needed he taught capably
enough and very patiently. The "navigation," so far as we were
concerned, was a mere flourish of the prospectus; and his
qualifications as a teacher of English began and ended with an
enthusiasm for Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas."
Such was Captain Branscome: and, such as he was, he kept the school
running on days when Stimcoe was merely drunk and incapable. He ever
treated Mrs. Stimcoe with the finest courtesy, and, alone among her
creditors, was rewarded with that lady's respect.
I knew, to be sure--we all knew--that she must be in arrears with
Captain Branscome's pay; but we were unprepared for the morning when,
on the stroke of the church clock--our Greenwich time--he walked up
to the door, resolutely handed Mrs. Stimcoe a letter, and as
resolutely walked away again. Stimcoe had been maudlin drunk for a
week and could not appear. His wife heroically stepped into the
breach, and gave us (as a geography lesson) some account of her uncle
the admiral and his career--"distinguished, but wandering," as she
summarized it.
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