CHAPTER VI
American Fudge
THE events narrated in the last chapter had made an epoch in Briarcrofthistory. Henceforward the Lower School meant to manage its own affairs,and it set to work at once to settle things upon a firm basis. Needlessto say, Gipsy was the heroine of the hour. Except for a half-dozen whoenvied her popularity, the girls recognized that the revolution wasentirely owed to her suggestion, and they were ready to acknowledge heras their leader. She took her honours modestly. Having accomplished whatshe had aimed at, she was quite ready to retire from the position ofdictator until some other good cause needed a champion. After severalmeetings and much discussion, the Juniors decided that instead offounding a number of separate societies for photography, athletics,acting, &c., they would institute one united Guild, which should includeall the various forms of school activity, to be covered by onesubscription, payable each term.
"It will be far better than dividing things up," said Hetty Hancock,"because sometimes we want to spend more on one thing than on another,and it's awkward to have to vote the funds of the Photographic Societyover to the Dramatic, or vice versa. I think we should manage all rightthis way. We must elect a Committee, of course, and officers. ForPresident, I beg to nominate Gipsy Latimer. She deserves it."
"Yes! Gipsy! Gipsy!" agreed the girls.
But Gipsy shook her head, and like Oliver Cromwell waved away thetempting offer of a crown.
"No," she said firmly; "I've only been a fortnight in the school, and Idon't feel up to the post. Better choose someone as President whounderstands Briarcroft ways better than I do. I suggest Dilys Fenton.She's the oldest girl in the Upper Fourth, and from what I hear she'sbeen here one of the longest. I'll serve on the Committee, if you like,and be of any use I can, but you want an old-established Briarcroft-iteas President. I don't know any of your arrangements yet about cricket ortennis, and I should always be making mistakes."
The wisdom of Gipsy's remarks appealed to the girls. It was certainlymore suitable to choose as President somebody who understood the schoolways. They appreciated the motive of her refusal, however; and hergenerosity in thus standing aside made her, if anything, more popularthan before. They insisted upon electing her to the post of Secretary.
"You can keep the accounts, and read aloud the minutes of the meetings,and all those sorts of business things better than anybody," declaredHetty.
"If I don't happen to forget which country I'm in, and add things up ascents and dollars, instead of pence and shillings!" laughed Gipsy.
"We'll soon pull you up if you do, never fear!"
Now that her crusade was successfully accomplished, Gipsy settled downto enjoy life at Briarcroft as well as the limited circumstancespermitted. She had already made several warm friends among both theboarders and the day girls. Meg Gordon in particular was inclined toaccord her that species of hero worship often indulged in byschoolgirls. She brought offerings of late roses or autumn violets fromhome, and followed her idol about the school like a love-sick swain. Shewould sit gazing at Gipsy during classes in deepest admiration, and wasready to accept her every idea as gospel. Meg was rather a curious,abrupt girl in many ways, and though she had been a year at Briarcroft,had hitherto kept very much to herself. Her sudden and violent devotionto the newcomer caused no little amusement in the Form. She was promptlynicknamed "Gipsy's disciple", and subjected to a certain amount ofteasing on the score of her attachment.
"You agree with every single thing Gipsy says," laughed Norah Bell. "Ibelieve if she declared the trees were pink and the houses green, you'duphold her!"
"Do you wear her portrait over your heart?" enquired Daisy Scatcherdfacetiously.
"It was a very bad snapshot you got of her," remarked Ethel Newton.
"It certainly didn't do her justice," returned Meg, taking the matterquite seriously. "I'm going to have a new camera for my birthday, thenI'll try again. But no snapshot could make Gipsy look as sweet as shereally does."
"Not to your love-lorn eyes!" giggled the girls.
"Meg's a perfect joke at present," said Ethel Newton to Daisy Scatcherd."She copies Gipsy slavishly, even to doing her hair the same, and thosetwo big bows of ribbon don't suit her in the least, however nice theylook on Gipsy."
"And yet she's rather like Gipsy, just like enough to be a kind of palecopy--an understudy, in fact."
"You've hit it! Understudy's the very word. She's absolutely formingherself on Gipsy."
Curiously enough, Meg Gordon really bore rather a marked physicalresemblance to the object of her worship. She was slim, and dark, andabout the same height, and though she lacked Gipsy's vivacity ofexpression, a stranger might quite possibly have mistaken the one girlfor the other. It was perhaps just as well that Gipsy had one suchdevoted ally, for there were a few malcontents in the Form who were notat all ready to accept her with enthusiasm. Maude Helm had taken adislike to her from the first, and had allowed her prejudice not only toblind her to Gipsy's good points, but to cause her to try to influenceothers in her disfavour. It is rarely that anybody succeeds in doing apublic service without making any enemies, and Gipsy was no exception tothe rule. According to Maude's code, she had violated every tradition ofschool etiquette by pushing herself, a newcomer, into a position ofprominence; and that she had conferred a real benefit upon the LowerSchool by her championship went for nothing.
"It's sickening, the way everybody truckles to her," declared Maude to afew of her particular chums. "I vote we stick out, at any rate, anddon't let her have everything her own way. We don't want the schoolAmericanized to suit her fancy."
"No; Miss Yankee will have to find out we're not all ready to lick herboots!" grumbled Alice O'Connor.
"Glad she wasn't chosen President of the Guild, at any rate," remarkedGladys Merriman. "If she puts up for anything else I shall oppose her.There are other people in this Form quite as capable of taking the leadas she is, if they only got the chance."
"Yourself not excepted, I suppose!" snapped Mary Parsons, who happenedto overhear. "You forget Gipsy refused the Presidency voluntarily."
"Clever enough to see it would pay her best!" sneered Gladys. "Sheevidently knows how to get round the Form."
"Gladys! How mean you are! Well, you can't do Gipsy much harm by yournastiness, that's one comfort."
"It only makes me like her all the more," broke out Joyce Adamson, whohad strolled up to take Mary's arm.
"All the same," said Mary to Joyce, as they walked away, "I believethose three would do Gipsy a bad turn if they got the chance."
"But could they?"
"Easy enough. Gipsy's anything but a favourite with the monitressesafter this Guild business, and they'd be only too delighted to drop onher if they found a reasonable excuse."
"So they would, and Gipsy's hardly what you call a bread-and-butterMiss!"
"I should rather think not! She's ready for any amount of fun. She'sbound to come into collision with Helen Roper sooner or later. I shallgive her a hint that she'd better look out."
Gipsy was getting along famously in the Upper Fourth. Though some of thework was rather different from what she had been accustomed to in herformer schools, she was a bright girl, and managed to fill up herdeficiencies with tolerable ease. In one or two subjects she wasactually ahead of her Form, and in all practical matters she had a mineof past experience to draw upon. She approved of her Form mistress, MissWhite, adored the Swedish drill mistress, tolerated the Germangoverness, and detested the French master. For Miss Edith she wasdisposed to reserve a very warm place in her heart, but she franklydisliked Miss Poppleton.
"There are headmistresses and headmistresses," she said. "Of course oneexpects them to stand on a pillar above the common herd, but some ofthem condescend to peep down below. Now Poppie doesn't. I'd as soonthink of going to the man in the moon, and telling him I felt homesickor headachy or worried about anything, as I should to her. Much she'dcare! She'd tell me not to report myself till I was sent for! Now atDorcas City Miss Judki
ns was just a dear! We all went and told her ourwoes, and she comforted us up like a mother. We might go errands, too,if we asked leave first, and we made Fudge on the play-room stove aboutthree times a week."
"You're always talking about Fudge!" giggled the boarders in whom theseconfidences were reposed.
"So'd you be if you'd once tasted it, I guess. It was real mean ofPoppie not to let me buy that pan. We used to have good times candymaking when I was out West," said Gipsy, relapsing into Americanisms atthe remembrance of past delights in the States.
"Wish you could make some here, Yankee Doodle! I haven't had even achocolate drop for three days," declared Lennie Chapman.
"Poppie never said I mightn't borrow a pan," returned Gipsyreflectively. "It would be a pity for you not to see Fudge made. I callit neglect of your education. I believe it's my solemn duty to try andteach you," and her eyes twinkled.
"A duty's a duty," urged Lennie with a disinterested air.
"It's a cruel rule that we may only buy sweets once a week," remarkedDilys Fenton.
"More honoured in the breach than in the observance," added HettyHancock.
"I'm not going to break any rules," said Gipsy. "There's no law againstborrowing, at least none that I've heard of. It's a good motto to dowhat you want until you're told not to. Ta ta! I'm off on a foragingexpedition. Expect me back when you see me. I'm going to put my powersof persuasion to the test."
"You mad thing! Don't get into too big a scrape; Poppie can make herselfnasty!" called Hetty.
"Don't worry yourself! I'll keep carefully out of Poppie's clutches,"returned Gipsy, as she banged the door of the Juniors' sitting-room.
"She'll get into a row with Poppie yet, though," said Dilys; "she's fartoo free and easy for this school. Did you see how Poppie glared at herthis morning in maths.?"
"Yes, but Gipsy didn't mind. She takes Poppie very lightly."
"She'll go too far some day," returned Dilys.
How Gipsy managed to wheedle the cook nobody ever discovered, but shereturned in a short time triumphantly carrying a tray.
"Got all I wanted!" she announced. "A pan, and milk, and sugar, and evena bottle of vanilla. Can't you clear a place on the table? The thing'sheavy."
A number of willing hands swept away books, needlework, and otherimpedimenta. It was evening recreation hour, so nearly all the Juniorboarders were collected in the room. They viewed the interestingpreparations with pleased anticipation.
"There!" said Gipsy, putting her burden down with a slam. "I reckon ifany of you care to learn how to make American Fudge, now's your chance!Positively the last opportunity! By the by, 'reckon' is one of the wordsPoppie said I'd got to avoid, but it slipped out. I'll be more carefulnext time."
"Does Poppie know you've got these things?" squeaked Aggie Jones, aten-year-old from the First Form.
"She's a trump if she let you!" echoed Pamela Harvey, of the LowerSecond.
"You kids mind your own business!" said Hetty Hancock hastily.
"Poppie never said I mightn't have them, which amounts to the samething," replied Gipsy calmly. "She hasn't given me a list of schoolrules, so I can't break them till I know what they are, can I? There's alaw in most countries that a dog's allowed a first bite free. Well, thisis going to be my first bite. Do you want to join this cookerydemonstration, or not?"
"Rather!" said Lennie Chapman, "if you'll take the responsibility."
"And let us taste some of it afterwards!" added Daisy Scatcherd.
"I'd never be so mean as to eat it all myself. I'll share it roundevenly to the last crumb. Now, if you want to help, you may measure outthree cupfuls of sugar, and three-quarters of a cupful of milk. Now thistablespoonful of butter. Yes, that's all, thanks. Somebody pull thatfender away, please; I want to get to the fire."
Stolen waters are sweet, and schoolgirl nature is the same the wholeworld over. The Junior boarders all had more than a suspicion thatGipsy's cookery was unauthorized, but who could resist the attractionsof toffee making?
"I hope it's a sort that goes cold quickly, and won't take till nextmorning to harden," said Dilys Fenton. "Last 5th of November I think wedidn't boil ours quite long enough, and we really couldn't wait, so weate it soft."
"You boil this till it threads from the spoon, and then you beat it witha fork till it creams," murmured Gipsy, with her head over the pan.
"Let me stir!" begged Pamela Harvey.
"You mustn't stir it. That's the secret of good Fudge-making, not tostir at all while it's boiling. It makes it coarse-grained if you do."
"Won't it burn, though?"
"It doesn't out in U.S.A. But then we make it on stoves, you see. Ican't guarantee it on an open fire. By good rights it ought to havepieces of hickory nut in it, but it won't taste bad without."
"I'd call that fire fierce for ordinary toffee," commented LennieChapman.
"I'm sure I smell something," sniffed Dilys Fenton.
"Oh, it's burning!"
"Gipsy! Stir it!"
"It's boiling over!"
"Take it off, quick!"
Half a dozen eager hands snatched at the pan, but it was too late; thesugary compound rose like a volcano and overflowed into the fire. A wailof lament came from the disappointed girls.
"I knew it would!" protested Lennie.
"Oh, it's made an awful smell! Open the window, somebody!" shriekedGipsy. "If we don't mind, Poppie'll nose it out, and come poking up.Oh! Good gracious!"
Gipsy might well exclaim, for there, just behind them, stood MissPoppleton herself. She had been walking along the passage, and attractedby the smell of burning, she had opened the door quietly to ascertainthe cause. There was a moment of awful silence. Eleven sinners feltthemselves most horribly caught.
"Who brought these things here?" demanded Miss Poppleton, eyeing thetray and its paraphernalia.
"I did. I got them from the kitchen," answered Gipsy. "We always madeFudge in the schoolroom in Dorcas City," she added, with a spice ofdefiance in her voice.
"You won't here!" returned Miss Poppleton grimly. "Take those thingsback to the kitchen at once. You will stay in from hockey to-morrow, andlearn a page of French poetry. Each of you others" (glaring at thecrestfallen circle) "will copy fifty lines of _Paradise Lost_, and bringthem to me before Thursday. If you can't be trusted, I shall have tosend one of the Seniors to sit with you in the evenings."
With this awful threat she departed, having first seen the exit of Gipsywith the tray.
"I knew Gipsy was bound to get into a scrape sooner or later," groanedDilys.
"And we're in too, worse luck!" wailed Daisy Scatcherd. "Fifty lines isno joke!"
"It's ironical of her to choose _Paradise Lost_ when the Fudge had justboiled over!" said Hetty. "She doesn't like Gipsy, it's easy enough tosee that."
"Here's Gipsy back. Well, my child, what do you think of your 'firstbite', as you call it? Poppie didn't see your privileges! You'll havethe pleasure of learning a whole page of French poetry to improve yourmind, instead of playing hockey to-morrow!"
"I don't care!" said Gipsy, with an obstinate set to her mouth. "She maygive me anything she likes, to learn. When folks are nice to me, I'llkeep any number of rules; but when they begin to bully me, I just feelinclined to go and do something outrageous. I'm afraid there's not muchlove lost between Poppie and me."