The Story of Baden-Powell | Page 6

coupled with his athletic prowess, made him the darling of the little
school, and the headmaster sorrowfully told his mother when the boy's
two years' schooling were over that he would thankfully keep him there
without fee of any kind, because by force of character the plucky little
fellow had raised the entire moral tone of the school.
And now we come to what I regard as the most important part of our
hero's life. In the last chapter I said we should have to say something
about B.-P.'s big brother, the sailor, Warington, named after his
grandmother, who was a Warington of Waddon Park. The very name
Warington, even though it be spelled with a single 'r,' has an inspiring
sound, and while Thackeray lives will ever be linked with all that is
true and straightforward in the human heart. Imagine the reverence felt
for Warington by the young brothers when he came home from a sea
voyage! Not only were there the broad square shoulders, the deep chest,
and the bronzed face to compel admiration; but a masterful and
commanding manner withal, a stern eye and a rousing voice--and the
overwhelming and crushing fact that he was a British Naval officer!
Warington had been born ten years before Ste, and it is a mighty good
thing for B.-P. (and he would be the first to admit it) that this was the
case. For I believe that the resourcefulness of Baden-Powell is the
result of the early training which he received at the hands of Warington;
without that training he would have grown up a delightful and an
amusing fellow, but, I suspect, as so many delightful and amusing

people are, ineffective. And that is just what B.-P. is not.
You must know that in the spring holidays the boys spent their days in
ranging field and copse "collecting," riding ponies, often with their
faces towards the tail-end, attending to their innumerable pets, and
doing a certain amount of reading of their own free will. Ste's study
was mainly history and geology, and it was his custom to embellish the
pages of the books he was reading with suitable illustrations as he went
along. With these amusements, and always a good many productions of
Ste's original comedies, the spring holidays slipped away pleasantly
enough. But in the summer holidays came Warington fresh from the
sea, with abounding energy and indomitable will, and recreation then
was of a sterner kind.
Warington had designed a yacht, a smart 5-tonner, and in supreme
command of this little craft, with his brothers for the crew, and only
one hired hand for the dirty work, he took the schoolboys away from
the ease and comforts of home life to rough it at sea. They shipped as
seamen, and as seamen they lived. It was a case of "lights out" soon
after dusk, and then up again with the sun. This rule, however, was not
followed with comfortable regularity, for sometimes stress of weather
would find the little chaps tumbling out of their hammocks in the dead
of night, and clambering upon deck with knuckles rubbing the sleep out
of their eyes. All the work usually performed by seamen, with the sole
exception of cooking, was done by these little chaps, and under the
eagle eye of Warington it was well and truly done. Not that they
showed any disposition to shirk. On the contrary, a keener crew was
never shipped, but there was something in their knowledge that the
skipper's word was law, that there was no arguing about orders, which
must have given a certain polish to their work. Warington, of course,
was no petty tyrant, lording it over young brothers, and swaggering in
the undisputed character of his sway. Like the rest he is a humourist,
and when a gale was not blowing or the yacht was not contesting a race,
he was as full of merriment and good spirits as the rest. His opinion of
Ste at this time was a high one. He was always, says he, "most
dependable." Receiving his orders, the future defender of Mafeking
would stand as stiff and silent as a rock, showing scarce a sign that he

understood them, but the orders were always carried out to the letter,
and in a thoroughly finished and seamanlike manner. Ste was always
the tallest of his brothers, and at this time he was singularly lithe and
wiry. A tall slight boy with quite fair hair, a brown skin, and sharp
brown eyes, he possessed extraordinary powers of endurance, and
could always outlast the rest of the brothers. He was quick to perceive
the reason of an order, and always quick to carry it out; he was just as
brisk in organising cruises on his own account, when, with the