The champion now sent for his wife, whom he revered as a
preeminently sensible and well-mannered woman. The newcomer could
see in her only a ridiculous dancing-mistress; but he treated her
with great deference, and thereby improved the favorable opinion
which Skene had already formed of him. He related to her how, after
running away from school, he had made his way to Liverpool, gone to
the docks, and contrived to hide himself on board a ship bound for
Australia. Also how he had suffered severely from hunger and thirst
before he discovered himself; and how, notwithstanding his unpopular
position as stowaway, he had been fairly treated as soon as he had
shown that he was willing to work. And in proof that he was still
willing, and had profited by his maritime experience, he offered to
sweep the floor of the gymnasium then and there. This proposal
convinced the Skenes, who had listened to his story like children
listening to a fairy tale, that he was not too much of a gentleman
to do rough work, and it was presently arranged that he should
thenceforth board and lodge with them, have five shillings a week
for pocket-money, and be man-of-all-work, servant, gymnasium-
attendant, clerk, and apprentice to the ex-champion of England and
the colonies.
He soon found his bargain no easy one. The gymnasium was open from
nine in the morning until eleven at night, and the athletic
gentlemen who came there not only ordered him about without
ceremony, but varied the monotony of being set at naught by the
invincible Skene by practising what he taught them on the person of
his apprentice, whom they pounded with great relish, and threw
backwards, forwards, and over their shoulders as though he had been
but a senseless effigy, provided for that purpose. Meanwhile the
champion looked on and laughed, being too lazy to redeem his promise
of teaching the novice to defend himself. The latter, however,
watched the lessons which he saw daily given to others, and, before
the end of a month, he so completely turned the tables on the
amateur pugilists of Melbourne that Skene one day took occasion to
remark that he was growing uncommon clever, but that gentlemen liked
to be played easy with, and that he should be careful not to knock
them about too much. Besides these bodily exertions, he had to keep
account of gloves and foils sold and bought, and of the fees due
both to Mr. and Mrs. Skene. This was the most irksome part of his
duty; for he wrote a large, schoolboy hand, and was not quick at
figures. When he at last began to assist his master in giving
lessons the accounts had fallen into arrear, and Mrs. Skene had to
resume her former care of them; a circumstance which gratified her
husband, who regarded it as a fresh triumph of her superior
intelligence. Then a Chinaman was engaged to do the more menial work
of the establishment. "Skene's novice," as he was now generally
called, was elevated to the rank of assistant professor to the
champion, and became a person of some consequence in the gymnasium.