School Stories · Chapter
Bradshaw’s Little Story explained
The narrator recounts an incident involving Frederick Wackerbath Bradshaw, a schoolboy whose cunning and unscrupulous nature foreshadows his later criminal career.
What happens
The narrator recounts an incident involving Frederick Wackerbath Bradshaw, a schoolboy whose cunning and unscrupulous nature foreshadows his later criminal career. On the eve of a Euripides exam, Bradshaw lounges idly while his study mates panic. He learns from the narrator that Mr. Yorke is setting the paper, and later devises a scheme to avoid punishment for his poor performance. He claims he accidentally saw the exam paper and deliberately did badly to avoid unfair advantage. The headmaster sees through the lie and punishes him. Bradshaw blames the narrator for misinforming him—the paper was actually set by the headmaster. Despite the setback, Bradshaw later concocts a successful explanation to Mr. Mellish, leaving the narrator and friends curious but unable to extract the truth.
Themes in this chapter
Trickery and Cunning
Bradshaw's entire scheme—from feigning ignorance to fabricating an elaborate lie about seeing the exam paper—exemplifies his delight in deception for its own sake.
Authority and Rebellion
Bradshaw's defiance of school rules and his manipulation of masters (Mellish, the Headmaster) highlight the tension between student cunning and institutional authority.
Honor and Reputation
The narrator and his friends are concerned with doing well in the exam and maintaining their academic standing, contrasting with Bradshaw's disregard for honest achievement.
Characters to notice
- Frederick Wackerbath Bradshaw
The central figure of the chapter, a cunning and unscrupulous schoolboy who schemes to avoid studying for the Euripides exam and later fabricates an elaborate excuse.
- Charteris
The narrator and a study mate who inadvertently misinforms Bradshaw about who is setting the exam paper, leading to Bradshaw's punishment.
- Kendal
A study mate who participates in the group's attempts to study and later to extract Bradshaw's secret explanation.
- White
Another study mate who joins in the efforts to study and to interrogate Bradshaw.
- Mr. Mellish
The form-master who reads out the exam marks and is initially astonished by Bradshaw's offer to explain his poor performance.
- Mr. Prater
The housemaster who interrupts the study mates' attempt to force a confession from Bradshaw.
Key passages
“The qualities which in later years rendered Frederick Wackerbath Bradshaw so conspicuous a figure in connection with the now celebrated affair of the European, African, and Asiatic Pork Pie and Ham Sandwich Supply Company frauds, were sufficiently in evidence during his school career to make his masters prophesy gloomily concerning his future.”
Bradshaw's later notoriety in a major fraud case was already apparent in his school days, leading his teachers to predict a bad end for him.
Foreshadows Bradshaw's adult criminal career and links his schoolboy cunning to his later crimes.
“It was not the marks that he cared for. He despised them. What he enjoyed was the refined pleasure of swindling under a master’s very eye.”
Bradshaw didn't care about grades; he took pleasure in cheating right in front of the teacher.
Highlights Bradshaw's love of deception for its own sake, a key character trait.
“At the trial the judge, who had, so ran report, been himself rather badly bitten by the Ham Sandwich Company, put the case briefly and neatly in the words, 'You appear to revel in villainy for villainy’s sake,' and I am almost certain that I saw the beginnings of a gratified smile on Frederick’s expressive face as he heard the remark.”
The judge, reportedly a victim of the fraud, noted that Bradshaw seemed to enjoy wrongdoing for its own sake, and Bradshaw appeared pleased by the comment.
Reinforces the theme of trickery and cunning, and shows Bradshaw's pride in his villainy.
