NOVELS.
WILSON'S.*:
MR. DESMOND COKE has set himself so high a standard as a writer of school stories in his early works that it iE pleasant for a conscientious reviewer to be unable tc note any falling off in his new venture. And the achieve- ment is all the more remarkable in that he has deliberately hampered himself by the choice of a subject which rules out the exercise of that finely developed sense of the ridiculous which enlivened the earlier chapters of The Bending of the Twig. One of our contributors wrote last week on "the man with an uncongenial task," and "the boy with an uncon- genial task" would serve very well as a sub-title to Wilson's. The uneongeniality of the task that falls to Dick Hunter is
only enhanced by its unexpectedness. Up to the beginning of the story his lines had fallen in pleasant places. He has health, strength, a genius for games and popularity without stint.
Then just when his prestige is at its height his father loses most of his fortune by rash speculation, and Dick is confronted with the choice between leaving Sherborough or migrating to the weakest and worst House, the master of which is prepared to give him his board for nothing in return for his services as a reorganiser and regenerator.
From the point of view of the boy no sacrifice could possibly be greater than to leave the School House, of which he is the idol, for Wilson's, and he makes the choice grudg- ingly and with a bad grace. Dick so far has always been favoured by fortune, and spoiled by his father; it remains to be seen whether he can rise to an occasion. And it is only fair to him to admit that the result exceeds his worst antici- pations. His chums at the School House, ignorant of the reason of the move and refused any enlightenment by Dick, regard it in the light of an act of desertion. On the other hand there is not a single boy in Wilson's with whom he can consort on equal terms. The head of the House, whom he supersedes, has brains without authority, and the only influ- ence is exerted by Stone, a bully and a blackguard. The tradition of slackness has eaten into the heart of the house and is not only acquiesced in but defended.
"Weary Willie's was in very truth, as everybody said, 'a rotten House.' There were twenty fellows in it, of whom four were new. These four, so far as Dick could see as yet, were his one hope, and there was every risk that they would take their tone from the sixteen. These four were apart, together; but for the rest, there seemed equality, though not fraternity, in Wilson's. Medwin, weak and nervous, full of apology for even being supposed to have any power, was pleasant to every one, and Stone was impartially unkind to all. He would cannon a second-term boy into a wall with just as unceremonial an air as he would trip up Medwin. In the appalling uproar that was practically unceas- ing in the study-passage, you would always find Stone ; generally Medwin, afraid to be thought stand-offish or a prig; and mixed with the two Monitors, the rank and file—any one, in fact, except the four new boys, still seemingly outcasts even in this curious republic. Naturally, Medwin and Stone had no authority what- ever, nor did the last-named desire it. Who wanted to keep order? He didn't want the study-passage quiet—unless, of course, he had to work ! At other times he always made most of the noise himself. And as to power ; well, he had always kicked any one
* Wason's. By Desmond Coke. London: Chapman & Hall. [Ga.]
who annoyed him and thrashed those who were cheeky, and that was all he wished to do. He thought less than nothing of being made a Monitor. And, indeed, what is that to one who for three terms has been a tyrant ?°
Dick Hunter's task, it will be admitted, was no sinecure, for it had to be done single-handed, and the opposition showed a diabolic ingenuity in frustrating his schemes and intimidating the rank and file. But in the end the miracle is accomplished, not without many moments of discouragement and despon- dency, and when, by a pardonable turn of Fortune's wheel, Colonel Hunter's finances are so far improved as to enable him to send his son back to the School House on the old footing, Dick thinks it would be "rather rough luck on Willie" and resolves that "he'd rather stick to him." The relations between father and son are delightfully drawn throughout, and nothing could be pleasanter than the way in which their partial estrangement prepares the way for a closer attachment.
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