Part 13 (2/2)

”It is a bonnet with a big snout, so like a railway porter's My father's a porter and he has ane”

Evidently the man he is afraid of is his father Thisfro his father; when he starts to return he is going back to his father and is afraid

I asked hiht but he went through with it so that the other boys should not call hiht with a divided ht only of hitting and winning, Geordie was picturing the end of the fight

I asked him if he had a sweetheart, and he blushed deeply He told irls, but they would not have hi hefty lad and the girls like the beefyit is called in analysis His dreams always take the forhter in the school, the best scholar, the ht drea, and he has more than once dreamt that his father and Macdonald were dead He finds compensation for his weaknesses in his day-drea He likes tales of heroes who always kill the villians and carry off the heroines

It is difficult to knohat to do in a case like this The best ould be to change the boy's environment, but that is out of the question Even then the early fears would go with him; he would transfer his father-complex to another man

I tried to explain to Mac the condition of Geordie The boy is all bottled up; his energy should be going into play and work, but instead it is regressing, going back to early ways of adaptation to environment

”But what can I do with him?” asked Mac

”Give him your love,” I said ”He fears you now, and your attitude to hiain, Mac”

”That's all very well,” said Mac ruefully, ”but what a a lesson, aet off?”

”Chuck punishether,” I said ”You don't need it; it is always the resort of a weak teacher”

”I couldn't do without it,” he said

”All right then,” I said wearily, ”but I want you to realise that your punish Geordie a cripple for life”

I went down and had a talk with Geordie's father He was not very pleasant about it; indeed he was al wi' the laddie,” he said aggressively ”He's a wee bit lassie-like and he has no pluck”

Here Geordie entered the kitchen, and his father turned on him harshly

”Started to yer lessons yet?” he de had to feed his rabbits

”I'll rabbit ye! Get yer books oot thisso

I tried to be as amiable as I could, and avoided controversy I soon saw that father and ether, and I suspected that the father's harshness to Geordie was often a weapon to wound the fond ood, and I took my departure

Later I went to see Dauvit, and found him alone I asked him to tell me about the Wylies

”Tarn Wylie is wan o' the stupidest men in a ten mile radius,” said Dauvit ”But he's no stupid whaur money is concerned; they tell es, and his puir wife has to suffer

That laddie o' theirs, he was born afore the e, and they tell me that Tarn wud never ha' married her if he hadna been fell drunk the nicht he put in the banns”