CHAPTER XV
On the River
Miss Gibbs was fast arriving at the disappointing conclusion thatpatriotism costs dearly: in other words, that if you take awayeighteen girls to do strawberry picking, you cannot expect them,immediately on their return, to settle down again into ordinaryroutine and everyday habits. An atmosphere of camp life seemed topervade the place, a free-and-easy, rollicking spirit that was not atall in accordance with Miss Beasley's ideas of propriety. ThePrincipal, who had never altogether approved of the week on the land,considered that the school was demoralized, and made a firm effort torestore discipline. The monitresses, several of whom had been guiltyof whistling in the passages, were summoned separately for privateinterviews in the study, whence they issued somewhat subdued andabashed; and the rank and file, by means of punishment lessons andfines, were made to feel a wholesome respect for the iron hand of thelaw.
Miss Beasley and Miss Gibbs agreed that the Fifth Form gave thelargest amount of trouble. It was here that most of the mischieffermented and fizzed out on unexpected occasions. At present theMystic Seven, who beforetime had offered a united front to the world,were suffering from a series of internal quarrels. The four who hadbeen to camp assumed an air of superiority over the three who had not,which led to unpleasantness. Naturally it was annoying to Ardiune,Valentine, and Fauvette to hear constant allusions to people they hadnot met, and to thrilling experiences in which they had notparticipated. They sulked or flew out as the occasion might be.
"I believe you're just making up half the things to stuff us!" sneeredArdiune.
"Indeed we're not!" flared Morvyth. "Every word we've told you isgospel truth, as you'd have found out if you'd come and done your bitfor your country!"
"D'you mean to call me a slacker?"
"Certainly not, but it's no use ostriching about things. You eitherwent and picked strawberries, or you didn't"
"You know I wasn't allowed to go! You mean wretch!"
"I know nothing at all about it."
"Well, I've told you a dozen times."
"I really can't listen, child, to all the things you tell me!"
"Then I shan't take the trouble to speak to you again!"
With Ardiune and Morvyth on terms of distant iciness, Valentine andKatherine constantly sparring over trifles, Fauvette preserving anattitude of martyred dignity, and Aveline, out of sheer perversity,striking up a friendship with Maudie Heywood, matters were not verybrisk in the Fifth.
"I'm getting just about fed up with you all!" said Raymondeirritably. "I never saw such a set! How can we have any fun, wheneverybody's grousing with everyone else? For goodness' sake, buck up!I've a blossomy idea in my head! Yes, I have, honest!"
Signs of interest manifested themselves on the faces of hercompanions. Raymonde's ideas were always worth listening to. Avelinestopped yawning, Morvyth desisted from kicking her geography bookround the floor, and Fauvette snapped the clasp of her bracelet, andsat bolt upright.
"We're hanging upon your words, if you'll condescend to explain, OQueen!" she vouchsafed.
Raymonde bowed, with heels together and hands back, like the star of apierrot troupe.
"Don't mensh! Glad to do my bit!" she replied. "Well, my notion'sthis. It's the Bumble's birthday on Friday!"
"As if every girl in the school didn't know that!" chafed Ardiuneimpatiently. "Haven't we all given our shillings towards her presentages ago? Really, Ray, what more chestnuts are you going to bringforth?"
"Don't be in such a hurry, my good child! I haven't finished yet. Ishould have thought you could have trusted your grannie by this time.My remark, though no doubt stale, was only one of those preliminaryannouncements with which a chairman always has to begin--like 'Glad tosee so many bright young faces collected here', or 'Gratified to beallowed the pleasure of saying a few words to you'. But don't look soscared, I'm not going to prose on like a real chairman at aprize-giving; I'm going to get to the point quick. Being the Bumble'sbirthday--if you grin, Ardiune Coleman-Smith, I'll pinch you!--Being,as I have observed, the Bumble's birthday, it seems only right and fitand proper that the other bees in the hive should buzz in sympathy,and take a holiday, and go and sip nectar. Let us copy Nature'smethods!"
"Copy Nature, by all means," sneered Ardiune, "only don't suggest thatbumble-bees live in hives, or you'll be a little out of it!"
"Oh, you're so literal! It's only for the sake of the metaphor. Mayn'tI talk about 'the busy bee' and 'the shining hour'?"
"For pity's sake, don't get flowery!" snapped Morvyth.
"'How doth the little busy bee Delight to bark and bite; She gathers honey all the day, And eats it up at night!'"
misquoted Aveline with a giggle.
"Stop frivolling, and let me get to my point!" commanded Raymonde."For the third time, let me remind you that it is the Bumble'sbirthday on Friday, and that it's only decent and seemly and becomingthat the school should do something to celebrate so joyous anoccasion."
"Stop a minute!" interrupted Katherine. "Are we rejoicing that shecame into this world to gladden us, or are we counting one more yearoff towards the time when we'll have done with her? I'm not quiteclear which."
"'GRACIOUS, GIRL! TURN OFF THE WATERWORKS!'"]
"Whichever you like, so long as you look congratulatory andhappy-in-our-school-days and love-our-teachers, and all the rest ofit. What you want is to spread the butter on thick, then, when there'san atmosphere of smiles, ask for a holiday and suggest the river. Yes,my children, I said the river. You didn't misunderstand me; I speakquite clearly."
"Whew! She'll never let us! Might as well ask for the moon. Why, ourriver expedition was knocked off after that little business of theZepp scare!"
"All the more reason why we should have it now."
"Ray, you're the limit!"
"Hope I am, if it means getting what we want. I propose a deputationto the Bumble, to state that the gratitude and devotion of the hivecan only work itself off on water. Yes, Ardiune Coleman-Smith, I didsay 'the hive', my sense of poetry being more highly developed than mylove of exact science. You needn't lift your eyebrows, it's not apretty habit."
"Who's going to make the deputation?" asked Fauvette.
"You, for one. You're our strongest point. You look naturally affectionateand clinging and docile, and ready-to-be-taught-if-taken-the-right-way,and easily led, and all the rest of it. You'll burble forth somethingpretty about wanting to have an expedition with our Principal in ourmidst, and mention what a wet day it was last year, and how disappointed weall were."
"Look here, I'm not going to do all the talking, so don't think!"
"Oh, we'll support you! But I'm just giving you a few leading lines towork upon. We'll take Maudie Heywood with us; she got ninety-fivemarks out of a hundred last week, which ought to go for something!"
"Then Magsie and Muriel had better come too. It won't do to let theBumble think the whole idea has originated with us."
"Right you are! The more pattern pupils we can scrape together, thebetter."
At five o'clock the deputation presented itself at the door of thestudy, and was received graciously by the Principal, though shedeclined to commit herself to an immediate answer, promising to thinkthe matter over and to let them know later on.
"Which means she daren't say 'yes' till she's asked leave fromGibbie!" declared Raymonde, when the delegates were out of ear-shot ofthe sanctum. "Fauvette, child, you did splendidly! I'd give fivethousand pounds to have your big, pathetic, innocent blue eyes! Theyalways bowl everybody over. I envy you at your first grown-up dance.You'll have your programme full in five minutes, like the heroine of anovel."
Raymonde's supposition was not altogether mistaken, for that evening,after the school had gone to bed, Miss Beasley, Miss Gibbs, andMademoiselle sat up talking over the proposed expedition. Miss Gibbsvetoed the idea entirely.
"The girls have not been behaving well enough to justify an
y suchindulgence," she maintained impressively. "Their conduct on the stairsyesterday was disgraceful. Better make them stick to their lessons."
Mademoiselle, whose mental scales always tipped naturally towards theside of pleasure, thought it was a beautiful idea of the dear girlsto want to give their headmistress a fete on her anniversary. So sweetto go upon the water, and while the weather was so pleasant! It wouldbe an event to be remembered for ever in their young lives, whensterner lessons might be forgotten; at which remark Miss Gibbssniffed, but restrained herself. Miss Beasley vibrated for someminutes between the practical and the ideal aspects thus presented toher, but finally decided in favour of the latter.
"It seems ungracious to refuse when they wish it to be my birthdaytreat," she said rather apologetically. "The poor children would be sodisappointed. We might make a clear mark-book a necessary condition."
"Yes," Miss Gibbs grudgingly conceded. "They'll miss their Latinpreparation that evening," she added.
"And their French," sighed Mademoiselle. "But what will you?" with alittle shrug. "It is not every day that our Principal makes abirthday! As for me, I am glad I bought my new sunshade."
The announcement of the forthcoming water excursion was received withgreat rejoicings. Ever since the beginning of the term the school hadthirsted to go upon the river. They had been taken for an occasionalwalk along its banks, and had greatly envied the young men and maidenswho might be seen punting up its willowy reaches.
"That's what I'm going to do directly I'm grown up!" Fauvette hadconfided to her chums. "I'll buy a white boating costume, exactly likethat girl's with the auburn hair, and lean against blue cushions whileHE rows. He'll have to have brown eyes, but I've not quite decidedyet whether he shall have a moustache or not. On the whole I thinkI'll have him clean shaven."
"And tall," prompted Raymonde, to whom Fauvette's prospective romanceswere a source of perennial interest.
"Yes, tall, of course, with several military crosses. He's the one I'mgoing to like the best, though there'll be others. They'll all want meto go and row with them--but I shan't. I don't mean to flirt."
"N--no!" conceded Raymonde a little dubiously. "Don't you think,though, it might be rather good for him not to let him see you weretoo keen? Of course I don't want you to break his heart, but----"
Fauvette shook her yellow curls.
"It's not right to trifle with people's hearts," she decided, with allthe authority of an experienced reader of magazine stories. "If youpretend you don't care for them, they drive their aeroplanesrecklessly and smash up, or expose themselves to the enemy's fire, orget submarined, before you've had time to tell them you didn't reallymean to be cold. I'm not going in for misunderstandings."
Raymonde glanced at her admiringly. With those blue eyes and fluffycurls it all seemed so possible. She felt that she should look forwardto her chum's inevitable engagement almost as much as Fauvetteherself. It would be as good as a Shakespeare play, or one of the bestpieces on the kinema. But these rosy prospects were still in the dimand distant future; the present was entirely prosaic and unromantic.Whatever punting excursions Fauvette might enjoy in years to come,this particular water party would be quite unsentimental, conductedunder the watchful eyes of Miss Beasley and Miss Gibbs, with boatmenwell over military age to do the rowing. For the first time for fouryears the Principal's birthday morning was gloriously fine. The pupilsplaced the usual bouquet of flowers opposite her seat at the breakfasttable, together with a handsomely bound volume of Ruskin's _Stones ofVenice_. She thanked them with her customary surprise and gratitude,and assured them, as she did annually, what a pleasure it was to herto receive so kind a token of their esteem.
This preliminary business being over, breakfast and classes proceededas usual, a more than ordinary atmosphere of decorum pervading theestablishment, for Miss Gibbs had announced that the afternoon'sexcursion depended upon the mark-book, and the girls knew that shewould keep her word. The veriest slackers paid attention to lessonsthat morning, and even Raymonde for once did not receive an ordermark.
Lunch was served early, and directly the meal was finished all thegirls flew upstairs to change their attire. During hot weather theschool was not kept strictly to the brown serge uniform, and the girlsblossomed out into linen costumes, or white drill skirts and muslinblouses. For the credit of the Grange they made careful toilettes thatafternoon; Fauvette in particular looked ravishingly pretty in apale-blue sailor suit with a white collar and silk tie. She made quitea sensation as she came down the stairs.
The mistresses had also turned out suitably dressed for the occasion:Miss Beasley was dignified and matronly in blue voile with a motorveil; Miss Gibbs, who intended to row, was in practical blouse andshort skirt; while Mademoiselle was a dream of white muslin, chiffonruffles, and pink parasol.
It was about half an hour's walk to the river, down shady lanes andacross lately cleared hayfields. There was a little landing-placeclose to the weir, with a boat-house, a refreshment room, and rows ofbenches and tables under the trees, where visitors could sit and drinktea or lemonade. Miss Beasley had engaged boats beforehand, and thesewere drawn up ready, with their boatmen, a rheumatic and elderly set,waiting about smoking surreptitious pipes among the willows. There wasa great deal of arranging before everybody was settled, and manyinjunctions to sit still, and not to change places, or to grab atwater-lilies, or lean too far over the side, or play any other foolishor dangerous prank likely to upset the equilibrium of the boat andendanger the lives of its occupants. At last, however, the whole partywas stowed safely away, and the little procession set off up theriver.
All agreed that it was quite delightful. The banks were covered withtrees, and tall reeds, and masses of purple willow herb, and agrimony,and yellow ragwort, which were reflected in the dark waters of quietpools. In the centre the sunshine made little gleaming, glintingripples like leaping bars of gold, and here and there patches ofwater-lilies spread their white chalices open to the sky. There was adelicious breeze, most grateful after the hot walk across thehayfields, and the smooth gliding motion was ideal. The girls trailedtheir hands in the river, and dabbed their faces, and said it wastopping, and began to sing boat songs which they had learnt atschool, and which sounded very pretty and appropriate to anaccompaniment of oars and lapping water.
The great event of the afternoon was to be a picnic tea. Hampers ofprovisions had been brought, and Miss Beasley proposed that theyshould land at one of the numerous little islands, light a fire, andboil their big kettles. The selection of the particular island was, ofcourse, in her discretion, and she had a conference with her oldboatman on the subject.
"Island? I knows of the very one to suit you. I've taken parties therebefore, and there's a good spot to land, and a place to tie the boatsto, which there isn't on every one of them islands. It's just anhour's row up from the weir, and less time to go back because of thecurrent."
After gliding onward for what seemed to the girls all too short aspace of time, but no doubt appeared considerably longer to theirrheumatic rowers, the island in question was at last reached. Itlooked most attractive with the willows and bulrushes and tanglyinterior. A tree-stump made quite a good landing-place, and everyonemanaged to scramble out successfully without planting a foot in thewater. The first business was to explore, and to hunt up sufficientwood for a camp fire. Luckily the weather had been dry, so that allavailable sticks would be suitable for fuel. The girls dispersed invarious directions, on the understanding that they were to reassemblewhen Miss Beasley blew her whistle as a signal.
"I call this a great stunt!" observed Morvyth, as the Mystic Sevenmoved off in company.
"Even Gibbie's in spirits, bless her!" murmured Aveline fatuously.
"So she is. But all the same, I'd rather wander off alone than be tiedto her apron-strings; so come along, quick! Remember you're to earnyour living by picking up sticks, so don't slack!"
"Cheero, old sport! Don't get raggy!"
Pioneers were penetrating
the virgin forest on all sides. From rightand left came squeals, giggles, or chuckles, as the girls investigatedthe capacities of the island. Some kept to the banks and cut dry reedsto make the bonfire burn quickly, while others were in quest of moresolid fuel.
"If we'd only had a hatchet or a saw," sighed Raymonde, "we might havecut off some quite nice logs. There really isn't much to pick up onthe ground."
"Wish we could take that rotten tree along with us," murmured Morvyth,pointing to a decayed old stump that stood upright with two witheredboughs like scraggy arms outstretched on either side of it.
"Too big a job, my child; but we might break off one of thosebranches," opined Raymonde. "No, I know we can't reach it from below,that's self-evident. Your humble servant's going to climb. Here, Ave,you bluebottle, give me a leg up!"
"Oh! Suppose it topples over with you! Don't, Ray!"
"Bunkum! It won't! I'm not scared, thanks!"
"FAUVETTE IN PARTICULAR LOOKED RAVISHINGLY PRETTY"]
As a matter of fact, Raymonde knew perfectly well that she was goingto perform rather a risky feat. She did it because she was in adon't-care frame of mind, also because she had quarrelled with Morvythearlier in the afternoon, and wished to astonish her. Morvyth wasstanding now, elevating her eyebrows, and looking as if she did notbelieve that Raymonde would really carry out her boast, which was allthe more reason for the latter to put speech into action.
Aveline obediently rendered the required assistance, and with a swingand a clutch Raymonde managed to scramble up the trunk to the placewhere the boughs forked. One of these was in a particularly crumblingand decrepit condition, and she thought that with a strong effort shemight succeed in breaking it off. It was not an easy matter to balanceherself on the fork and stretch out to pull at the branch.
"You'll be over in a sec.!" called Morvyth.
"Bow-wow!" responded Raymonde airily.
She leaned a little farther along, seized the branch with both hands,and gave a mighty tug. The result was more than she anticipated. Thepoor old tree had reached a stage of such interior decay that it wasreally only kept together by the bark. The violence of the wrenchupset it to its foundations; it tottered, swayed, and suddenlydescended. The girls picked up Raymonde out of a cloud of dust and amass of touchwood. By all strict rules of retribution she ought tohave been hurt, but as a matter of fact she was only a little bruised,considerably choked with pulverized wood, and very much astonished.When she recovered her presence of mind, she set to work to break offpieces from the boughs, which were just exactly what was wanted forthe bonfire fuel.
"Don't tell Gibbie!" she besought the others.
"Right-o! Mum's the word!" her chums assured her. "Bless its littleheart, we wouldn't get it into a scrape! Don't think it of us!"
Miss Beasley's signal sounded at this critical moment, so the MysticSeven filed off like vestal virgins to feed the fire which Miss Gibbs,with her accustomed energy, had already lighted. Their contribution ofwood was so substantial that it drew comment from the rest of theparty, but they received the congratulations with due modesty, and didnot divulge the source of their supply. Most of the girls were toomuch interested in proclaiming their own adventures to care to listento anybody else's, and the mistresses were busy watching the kettles.It seemed like camp life over again to be sitting in a circle,drinking tea out of enamelled mugs, and eating thick pieces of breadand butter. Miss Beasley had provided a large home-made plum birthdaycake, with a sixpence baked in it, the acquisition of which wasnaturally a matter of keen interest to each several girl, until thelucky slice fell to the lot of Cynthia Greene, who fondled the covetedcoin tenderly.
"I'll have a hole bored through it, and wear it on my chain always, inmemory of you, dear Miss Beasley!" she declared in emphatic tones.
"Little sycophant!" sneered Morvyth enviously.
"She ought to give it to the soldiers!" snapped Raymonde.
But Miss Gibbs was rattling a row of mugs together as a delicate hintthat the feast was finished, and the Principal was consulting herwatch, and calling to the boatmen to make ready. The monitressesswept all remaining comestibles into the baskets, stamped out thefire, emptied the kettles, and proclaimed the camping-ground left indue order. One by one the boats started on their way down the river,drifting easily now with the current, and leaving long trails ofripples behind them. The sun was sinking low in the west, and therewas a lovely golden light on the water, the shadows on the willowyshore were deep and mysterious, a kingfisher flashed along the banklike a living jewel. The spirits of the school, already risen tofermenting point, effervesced into stunt songs composed on theemergency of the moment, and passed on from boat to boat.
"For we've had such a jolly good day-ay-ay, As we only get once in a way-ay-ay! I can tell you it was prime, Oh! we've had a topping time, And we wish a little longer we could stay-ay-ay! With a rum-tum-tum And a rum-tiddley-um, We will make the river hum; So come, come, come, Don't be glum, glum, glum! But pass the stunt along and just be gay-ay-ay!"