CHAPTER VII
Land Girls
With the bond of such a secret between them, Diana and Loveday cementeda firm friendship. To be sure, Loveday's conscience, which was of a veryexacting and inquisitorial description, sometimes gave her unpleasanttwinges like a species of moral toothache; but then the other self whichalso talked inside her would plead that it was only sporting to screen aschoolfellow, and that no one but a sneak could have done otherwise. Shesincerely hoped that Diana had escaped notice both going and returning,and that no busybody from the village would bring a report to Miss Todd.If the matter were to leak out, both girls would get into serioustrouble--Diana for running away, and her room-mate for aiding andabetting her escapade. That she was really in some danger on her accountgave Loveday an added interest in Diana. She began to be very fond ofher. The little American had a most lovable side for certain people, onwhom she bestowed the warmth of her affection, though she could be apixie to those who did not happen to please her. With the seniors ingeneral she was no favourite. She had more than one skirmish with theprefects, and was commonly regarded as a firebrand, ready at any momentto set alight the flame of insurrection among turbulent intermediatesand juniors.
"Diana's at the bottom of any mischief that's going!" proclaimedGeraldine one day, after a battle royal over an absurd dispute about thetennis-court.
"And the worst of it is, she makes Wendy just as bad!" agreed Hilarywarmly.
"Wendy wasn't exactly a saint before Diana came," put in Loveday.
"Oh, you always stand up for Diana! I can't think what you see in her--acheeky little monkey, I call her!" Geraldine was still ruffled.
"She has her points, though."
"She'll get jolly well sat upon, if she doesn't take care," mutteredGeraldine, who held exalted notions as to the dignity of prefects.
It was at the beginning of the second week in October that Miss Todd, inwhose brain ambitious projects of education for the production of the"super-girl" had been fermenting, announced the first of her radicalchanges. She had not undertaken it without much consultation withparents, and many letters had passed backwards and forwards on thesubject. Most, however, had agreed with her views, and it had beendecided that at any rate the experiment was to be tried. Pendlemere,which so far had concentrated entirely on the Senior Oxford Curriculumand accomplishments, was to add an agricultural side to its course.There was to be a lady teacher, fresh from the Birchgate HorticulturalCollege, who would start poultry-keeping and bee-keeping on the latestscientific principles, and would plant the garden with crops ofvegetables. She could have a few land workers to assist her, and thegirls, in relays, could study her methods. Miss Todd, who in choosing acareer had hesitated between teaching and horticulture, snatched at theopportunity of combining the two. She was bubbling over with enthusiasm.In imagination she saw Pendlemere a flourishing Garden Colony, settingan educational example to the rest of the scholastic world. Her girls,trained in both the scientific and practical side of agriculture inaddition to their ordinary curriculum, would be turned out equipped forall contingencies, either of emigration, or a better Britain. Sheconsidered their health would profit largely. She explained her views tothem in detail, painting rose-coloured pictures of the delights in storefor them in the spring and summer. The girls, very much thrilled at theprospect, dispersed to talk it over.
"Is Pendlemere to be a sort of farm, then?" asked Wendy.
"Looks like it, if we're to keep hens and bees, and grow all our ownvegetables! Bags me help with the chickens. I love them when they're allyellow, like canaries. Toddlekins hinted something about launching outinto a horse if things prospered."
"A horse! Goody, what fun!" exulted Diana. "I just _adore_ horses! Bagsme help with stable-work, then. I'd groom it instead of learning mygeography or practising scales. I say, I call this a ripping idea!"
"Don't congratulate yourself too soon," qualified Magsie. "You'llprobably find the geography and the scales are tucked in somehow. Allthe same, I think it sounds rather sporty."
"It will be a change, at any rate, and we'll feel we're marching withthe times."
"When does the 'back-to-the-land' teacher come?"
"On Friday, I believe."
Miss Chadwick, the graduate of Birchgate Horticultural College, who wasto run the new experiment, arrived at the end of the week, and broughttwo students as her assistants. They were a fresh, jolly-looking trio,with faces rosy from open-air work, and serviceable hands which caused aconsiderable flutter among those of the school who went in for manicure.At tea-time they talked gaily of onion-beds, intensive culture,irrigation, proteids, white Wyandottes, trap-nests, insecticides,sugar-beets, and bacteria. Miss Todd, keenly interested, joined in theconversation with the zeal of a neophyte; Miss Beverley, thenature-study side of whose education had been neglected, and whoscarcely knew a caterpillar from an earthworm, followed with the uneasyair of one who is out of her depth; the school, eating theirbread-and-butter and blackberry jam, sat and listened to the talk at thetop end of the table.
"It sounds rather brainy," commented Diana in a whisper.
"Yes," replied Wendy, also in a subdued tone. "Poor old Bunty'sfloundering hopelessly. Did you hear her ask if they were going tocultivate cucumbers in the open? I nearly exploded! I believe she thinkspineapples grow on pine-trees. She's trying _so_ hard to look as if sheknows all about it. I'll be sorry for the infant cabbages if she has thecare of them."
"It wouldn't be her job, surely."
"I'd agitate for a 'Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Vegetables'if it were. I believe I'm going to adore Miss Chadwick! She looks sosporty. She wrinkles up her nose when she laughs, just like a babydoes."
"The little dark student with the freckles is my fancy."
"Oh! I like the other, with the bobbed hair."
Miss Chadwick, with her assistants Miss Carr and Miss Ormrod, brought anew and decidedly breezy element into the school. They spent Saturday inreviewing the premises, and on Monday they set to work. The girls, whoas yet were only in the position of onlookers, watched the operations,much thrilled. All sorts of interesting things began to arrive: portablehen-houses packed in sections, chicken-coops, rolls of galvanized wirenetting, iron stakes, the framework of a greenhouse, and a whole cargoof tools. The three enterprising ladies seemed to have some knowledge ofcarpentry, and at once began to fit parts together and erect sheds.Their sensible land costumes excited admiration and envy.
"It's what I mean to do when I grow up," resolved Magsie. "Did you seethe way Miss Carr ran up that ladder? And she's begun to thatch the roofso neatly. She does it far better than that old man from the village whopotters about. I'm just yearning to try my hand at thatching. I wishMiss Carr would let me!"
While they were busy getting the place in order, Miss Chadwick and herassistants declined all offers of inexperienced help, assuring the girlsthat they would have their "jobs" given them later on, when there wastime to teach them. This did not at all content the enthusiastic spiritswho were burning to throw lessons to the winds and spend their days inmixing putty, lime-washing hen-houses, and fixing up wire netting. Theyhung about disconsolately, snatching at such opportunities of assistanceas holding ladders or handing nails.
"You _might_ let me tar the roof of the chicken-coop," begged Wendy."I'd just love to let it all squelch on, and I adore the smell!"
But Miss Carr, who the day before had rashly allowed Diana the use ofthe lime-wash pail, was firm in her refusal.
"I haven't time to show you how, and I don't want things spoilt. Putdown that tar-brush, Wendy! If you get smears on your skirt, you'llnever get them off again."
"I don't see where _we_ come in!" groused Wendy. "I thought we were tolearn agriculture."
"You won't learn it by dabbing tar on the end of your nose," laughedMiss Carr.
In the course of a few weeks, however, the preliminary stages were over.Some fowl-houses and runs were finished, and their feathered occupantsarrived and took possession. A con
signment of spades, rakes, and hoeswas delivered by the carrier, and arranged by the students in the newtool-shed. Miss Carr announced herself ready to begin her course ofinstruction. To the girls the crowning-point of the preparations was theopening of several large boxes posted from a London shop. They containedtwenty land costumes in assorted sizes. The excitement of trying them onwas immense. Twenty little figures in smocks and gaiters went caperingabout the school, wild with the fun of the new experiment, and feelingthemselves enthusiastic "daughters of the soil".
"It was A1 of Toddlekins to let us have a 'land uniform'."
"Couldn't do any decent work without, I should say."
"I believe Miss Carr insisted on it."
"Sensible woman!"
"It feels so delightfully business-like."
"Shall we win green armlets?"
"I'm just dying to start and dig!"
"And I want to climb a tree!"
Miss Chadwick and her students set to work methodically. They gaveclassroom lectures on the principles of agriculture, and practicaldemonstrations in the garden. The girls learnt the constituents ofsoils, and also how to trench; the theory of scientific poultry-raising,and the actual mixing of the food. They prepared plots that would besown in the spring, cleared and rolled paths, planted bulbs, and dividedroots of perennials; they sawed wood, lifted rhubarb, and helped toprepare a mushroom bed. It was all new and exciting, and there was aspice of patriotism mixed up with it. They felt that they were trainingto be of some service to the community.
"It's fearfully weird," said Wendy, writing her essay on _Insect Pests_,"to have to find out whether your insect has a biting or a suckingmouth, so as to know whether you must spray the beastie direct, or applypoison to the plant. I'd feel rather like a dentist examining theirjaws."
"I heard of an editor in America," laughed Magsie, "who got his 'answersto correspondents' mixed up, and in reply to 'how to kill a plague ofcrickets' put 'rub their gums gently with a thimble, and if feverish,administer Perry's Teething Powders'; while to 'Anxious Mother ofTwins', he gave the advice: 'Burn tobacco on a hot shovel, and thelittle pests will hop about and die as dead as door-nails'."
"You always fix these yarns on America," pouted Diana. "It sounds agreat deal more like one of your British editors."
To some of the girls the greatest event of all was the arrival of thehorse and trap which Miss Todd had decided to add to her establishment.Pendlemere was some distance from the station and from Glenbury, thenearest town, and she thought it would be a great convenience to beindependent of carriers and able to fetch supplies for themselves.Diana, keenly interested, was allowed by Miss Ormrod to make theacquaintance of "Baron", the pretty chestnut cob, and even to help inhis toilet. Diana loved horses, and used the curry-comb with enthusiasm,talking to Baron in what she called "horse language"--a string ofendearing terms that on the whole he seemed to appreciate.
"I'd just adore to drive him!" she sometimes hinted; but Miss Ormrodalways ignored the hint, and, instead of offering her the reins, nevereven invited her into the cart. Diana would stand watching wistfullywhen Baron was harnessed, and the governess car would start out on apilgrimage to the town. She considered that a practical part of hereducation was being obviously neglected.
"If we could each keep a pony and go for rides on the hills, it would beripping!" she sighed.
"Goody! What a circus we'd look!" said Vi, who did not take so kindly tohorsemanship, and preferred a car.
Early in November, Miss Todd, having some urgent business to transact,went up to London for a few days, leaving Pendlemere in the hands ofMiss Beverley. The school jogged along without any mishaps during herabsence. She was expected home upon the Thursday. On Wednesdayafternoon, which was a holiday, Miss Chadwick, Miss Carr, Miss Ormrod,and Miss Hampson mounted bicycles, and rode away with a party of seniorsto Glenbury. The juniors, by special invitation from Mrs. Fleming, wentto tea at the Vicarage. Two intermediates were in bed with a mild formof "flu", and the remainder amused themselves as they liked best. Peggysat indoors, doing pen-painting; Vi brought stones for a rockery; Sadieand Magsie played a set of tennis on the cinder court; Diana and Wendy,who had asked to join the cycle party, and had in consequence received asevere snub from Geraldine, wandered about the garden like unquietspirits.
"It's the limit to be an intermediate!" groused Wendy gloomily. "Seniorsand juniors get all the fun! Did you ever hear of _our_ form being takento do anything special while the others stopped at school? Of course youdidn't, because we never are! The seniors get first innings, and we onlyhave the crumbs that are left, and those juniors are treated like babiesthough they're nearly as tall as we are. I'm fed up with it!"
"We'd better have a demonstration--parade the corridor with a placard:'Fair play for Intermediates! Equal treats for all!'" suggested Diana,who was always ready with ideas.
"Much good it would do us! We should only get sat upon by everybody.Hullo! Here's Peggy wandering down. What's the matter with you, chucky?You look disturbed."
"I hate coming out in a wind," said Peggy, holding her hands over herrumpled hair. "I say, did you, or did you not see Miss Chadwick, MissOrmrod, _and_ Miss Carr bike off to Glenbury? Are they all three gone?"
"Of course they're gone!"
"You saw them with your own eyes?"
"Helped to blow up their tyres, which we thought was really saintly,when we weren't asked to go with them," said the still injured Wendy.
"Well, it's a pretty go they're all off! Bunty's just had a telegramfrom Toddlekins. She's coming back this afternoon, and wants the trap tomeet the four-thirty train."
"She should! She's in a precious hurry to leave her beloved London.Whence this thusness?"
"I don't know. She's coming, at any rate," said Peggy, rather crossly."Bunty sent me to find out if everybody had really gone. Toddlekins willhave to get a taxi, that's all. Whew! I'm being blown to bits! I want toget back to my pen-painting. I'm making a birthday present for mycousin. Ta-ta!"
Diana stood watching Peggy's retreating figure as the latter raced upthe garden and into the house.
"Toddlekins will be rather savage not to be met," she commented.
"Yes; she's so keen on the trap, and the amount it saves in taxis andcarriers."
"It does seem rough on her, especially when she's sent a telegram. Lookhere, old thing, let's take it to meet her ourselves!"
"What? You and me?"
"Why not? I can drive, and I know how to harness Baron. I have helped toput him in the trap heaps of times. Bunty? Best not tell her anythingabout it; she's always such a scared rabbit, and she'd only have fits!"
Wendy's eyes shone like stars.
"It _would_ be a stunt! Fancy driving in state to the station andfetching Toddlekins! She'd be pleased to save a taxi."
"Bless her, she shall! We'll show her that her girls have some spiritand self-reliance at a crisis. It's only making a practicaldemonstration of our new agricultural course! What's the use of learningif you can't apply it at the right moment? Run and fetch our coats andhats and gloves, that's a cherub, while I go and tell Baron all aboutit."
Wendy, much thrilled, and fired with the excellence of Diana's notion,went indoors, and, taking elaborate precautions not to meet anybody,secured outdoor garments worthy of the occasion. She rolled them in aUnion Jack for camouflage, and bore them off to the stable.
"I've brought 'bests'," she said. "Toddlekins wouldn't thank to be metby two Cinderellas!"
Diana was standing with her arms thrown round Baron's neck, whisperingsweet nothings into his twitching ear. If he did not understand thesubstance of her remarks, he realized the force of her affection, andkept rubbing his nose against her shoulder in a sort of caress, verygently catching her jersey with his lips and pulling it.
"I've told him, and he's delighted to go," declared Diana. "He's justpining for a run. It's so dull for him standing here with no one to talkto. It takes away his appetite. He'll enjoy his supper twice as muchwhen he comes back.
Won't you, dear old man?"
"We mustn't be all day about starting. If you've finished making love tohim, let's get out the trap."
"Right you are!"
Diana was perfectly capable of accomplishing what she had undertaken.She took down the harness, led Baron out into the yard, and proceeded toput him into the shafts in quite a professional fashion. She looked overall the straps, fetched the whip, donned the garments which Wendy hadbrought, and proclaimed herself ready.
"We'll go out quietly by the back way," she chuckled. "Open the gate;that's a mascot!"
There was nobody to say them nay, so in a few minutes they were trottingbriskly along the Glenbury Road. Diana was a capital little Jehu, andheld the reins with a practised hand. Baron, perfectly conscious of whowas driving him, behaved admirably. The girls felt their spirits athigh-water mark. They had certainly scored over the rest of the school,and secured a superior jaunt to anybody. Moreover, it was a pleasantafternoon to be out. The weather, which for some days had been damp, hadchanged to windy. Long, dappled mare's-tail clouds stretched across thepale November sky, and every now and then the sun shone out betweenthem. The glory of the autumn tints had been blown away, but theinfinitely intertwined, almost leafless boughs of the woodlands had abeauty apart from foliage. Bushes covered with crimson masses of hips orhaws foretold a hard winter; birds twittered restlessly in thehedgerows; and the withered leaves came whirling along the road with ascurrying, rustling sound as of the little footsteps of innumerablefairies. A seed-vessel of the sycamore, flying like a miniatureaeroplane, struck Diana full in the face. She picked it up as it fell onher coat, and put it in her pocket.
"I shall keep it as my mascot," she said. "It was evidently meant forme, so it will bring me luck. Do you believe in luck?"
"Very much, sometimes, but I don't often have any."
"We've got it to-day, though. Baron's going splendidly. I think the windexcites him. You wouldn't believe he'd been out every day this week.He's as fresh as a daisy. What's the time? I can't get to my watch."
"Quarter past four."
"Gee whiz! We must hurry ourselves. We've to be waiting at the stationby half-past. Baron, can you put on a spurt?"
They were bowling along a good macadam road and down hill, so that Barondid not object to the extra strain put upon his legs. The spire ofGlenbury Church loomed ahead; in a few more minutes they began to seethe roofs of the houses. They crossed the bridge over the river, turnedthe corner by the King's Arms Inn, and were trotting at a good pacealong Castle Street, when suddenly Wendy's side of the trap dipped down.There was a horrible jarring and grinding, and horse and governess carseemed to be trying to practise sliding. With great presence of mind,and also strength of arm, Diana pulled Baron up.
"We've lost our wheel!" she gasped.
A crowd immediately collected round the little carriage, which stoodlop-sided in the gutter. One passer-by held the horse, another helpedDiana and Wendy out; a boy came running up with the wheel that haddanced across the street. People stood at shop doors and stared.Sympathetic voices asked if the girls were hurt. Several connoisseurswere feeling Baron's legs. In that most critical and agitatingsituation, who should be seen riding up from the town but a group of tencyclists, led by Miss Chadwick, and displaying the familiar hatbands ofPendlemere School. Diana and Wendy turned the colour of boiled beetroot.The cyclists dismounted in a body, and Miss Chadwick, staggered at theamazing spectacle of the wreck before her, took over instant possession.She tilted her bicycle against a lamp-post, sent a boy for a blacksmith,and began to unharness Baron. When he was clear of the shafts, and beingled away by a friendly ostler, she demanded explanations. Diana suppliedthem briefly. Miss Chadwick looked at her keenly, but forbore to commentbefore the crowd.
"Miss Ormrod and I will stay in town and come back with Miss Todd," shesaid, with compressed lips. "You and Wendy can ride our bicycles. MissCarr, will you please go as quickly as you can to the station andexplain to Miss Todd what has happened. The train must be in by now. Ithink, Miss Hampson, you'd better take the girls on."
It was ignominious to be thus dismissed, and to be forced to mountmachines and cycle back to school, instead of having the prouddistinction of driving the head mistress. Diana and Wendy felt theirfeathers fall considerably, especially when they contemplated the fullerexplanations which must inevitably follow.
It was quite dark before Miss Todd arrived in the mended cart. She andMiss Chadwick and Miss Ormrod had tea together in the drawing-room.
Later in the evening Diana and Wendy received orders to reportthemselves in the study. They entered with sober faces. Outside, a bandof thrilled intermediates, who had listened with bated breath to theaccount of the adventure, hung about and discussed possible punishments.Miss Todd was not a mistress to be trifled with, and the trap was herlatest toy. It was nearly half an hour before the door opened, and twovery subdued and crushed specimens of girlhood issued, mopping theireyes.
"She says Miss Chadwick knew the wheel wasn't safe, and had gone to geta fresh pin for it," volunteered Wendy with a gulp. "But how could _we_know that? She doesn't believe in practical demonstrations of ourlessons, or in self-reliance; she says we've just to do what we aretold. She got quite raggy when Diana mentioned it. We mayn't go near thestable for a week, and we've each to learn ten pages of poetry byheart."
"Ten pages! What an atrocious shame!" sympathized Vi. "It'll take allyour recreation time this week."
"I know it will, and I wanted to do some sewing."
"She never said _what_ poetry," put in Diana, her moist eyes suddenlytwinkling. "I'll learn something out of the _Comic Reciter_--the verymaddest and craziest one I can manage to find."