Rhys, running lightly up over the terrace. "Oh, my! what _are_ you
doing? And where's Polly?" she asked of Mrs. Whitney.
It being soon told, Alexia, who evidently had some exciting piece of
news for Polly, ran into the house.
"Polly," she called. "Oh, Polly Pepper, where _are_ you?" running over
the stairs at the same time.
But Polly, as we have seen, was not in her room.
"Now then," Mother Fisher said at sound of Alexia's voice, "as we've
finished our talk, Polly, why, you must run down and see her."
But Polly clung to her mother's neck. "Do you think I ought to go next
Saturday morning out shopping, Mamsie, after I've been so naughty?"
"Indeed, you ought," cried Mrs. Fisher, in her most decisive fashion.
"Dear me! that would be very dreadful, Polly, after we put it off for
you, when we thought you had gone down to the Salisbury School. Why, we
couldn't get along without you, Polly."
So Polly, with a happy feeling at her heart that she was really needed
to make the shopping trip a success, and best of all for the long talk
with Mamsie, that had set many things right, ran down to meet Alexia,
brimming over with her important news.
"Where _have_ you been?" demanded Alexia, just on the point of rushing
out of Polly's room in despair. "I've looked everywhere for you, even in
the shoe-box." And without waiting for a reply, she dragged Polly back.
"Oh, you can't possibly guess!" her pale eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Then tell me, do, Alexia," begged Polly, scarcely less wrought up.
"Oh, Polly, the most elegant thing imaginable!" Alexia dearly loved to
spin out her exciting news as long as possible, driving the girls almost
frantic by such methods.
"Well, if you are not going to tell me, I might as well go back again,
up in Mamsie's room," declared Polly, working herself free from the long
arms, and starting for the door.
"Oh, I'll tell, Polly--I'll tell," cried Alexia, plunging after. "Miss
Salisbury says--I've just been up to the school after my German
grammar--that Mr. John Clemcy and Miss Ophelia have invited the whole
Salisbury School out there for next Saturday afternoon. Think of it,
after that smashed vase, Polly Pepper!"
Polly Pepper sat down on the shoe-box, quite gone in surprise.
It was as Alexia had said: a most surprising thing, when one took into
consideration how much Mr. John Clemcy had suffered from the
carelessness of a Salisbury pupil on the occasion of the accidental
visit. But evidently one of his reasons--though by no means the only
one--was his wish to salve the feelings of the gentlewomen, who were
constantly endeavoring to show him their overwhelming sorrow, and trying
to make all possible reparation for the loss of the vase.
And he had stated his desire so forcibly on one of the many visits to
the school that seemed to be necessary after the accident, that Miss
Salisbury was unable to refuse the invitation, although it nearly threw
her, self-contained as she usually was, into a panic at the very idea.
"But why did you promise, sister?" Miss Anstice turned on her on the
withdrawal of the gentleman, whose English composure of face and bearing
was now, in its victory, especially trying to bear. "I am surprised at
you. Something dreadful will surely happen."
"Don't, Anstice," begged Miss Salisbury, nervous to the last degree,
since even the support of "sister" was to be withdrawn. "It was the
least I could do, to please him--after what has happened."
"Well, something will surely happen," mourned Miss Anstice. "You know
how unfortunate it has been from the very beginning. I've never been
able to look at that gown since, although it has been washed till every
stain is removed."
"Put it on for this visit, sister," advised Miss Salisbury, with a
healthy disapproval of superstitions, "and break the charm."
"Oh, never!" Miss Anstice raised her slender hands. "I wouldn't run such
a chance as to wear that gown for all the world. It will be unlucky
enough, you will see, without that, sister."
But as far as anybody could see, everything was perfectly harmonious and
successful on the following Saturday afternoon. To begin with, the
weather was perfect; although at extremely short intervals Miss Anstice
kept reminding her sister that a tremendous shower might be expected
when the expedition was once under way.
The girls, when they received their invitation Monday morning from Miss
Salisbury in the long schoolroom, were, to state it figuratively, "taken
off their feet" in surprise, with the exception of those fortunate
enough to have caught snatches of the news always sure to travel fast
when set going by Alexia; and wild was the rejoicing, when they could
forget the broken vase, at the prospect of another expedition under Miss
Salisbury's guidance.
"If Miss Anstice only weren't going!" sighed Clem. "She is such a fussy
old thing. It spoils everybody's fun just to look at her."
"Well, don't look at her," advised Alexia calmly; "for my part, I never
do, unless I can't help it."
"How are you going to help it," cried Amy Garrett dismally, "when you
are in her classes? Oh dear! I do wish Miss Salisbury would get rid of
her as a teacher, and let Miss Wilcox take her place."
"Miss Wilcox is just gay!" exclaimed Silvia. "Well, don't let's talk of
that old frump any more. Goodness me! here she comes," as Miss Anstice
advanced down the long hall, where the girls were discussing the
wonderful invitation after school.
And as the day was perfect, so the spirits of the "Salisbury girls" were
at their highest. And Mr. Kimball and his associates drove them over in
the same big barges, the veteran leader not recovering from the
surprise into which he had been thrown by this afternoon party given to
the Salisbury School by Mr. Clemcy and his sister.
"Of all things in this world, this is th' cap-sheaf," he muttered
several times on the way. "A good ten year or more, those English folks
have been drawin' back in them pretty grounds, an' offendin' every one;
an' now, to get a passel o' girls to run over an' stomp 'em all down!"
Being unable to solve the puzzle, it afforded him plenty of occupation
to work away at it.
Mr. Clemcy and Miss Ophelia, caring as little for the opinion of the
stage-driver as for the rest of the world, received the visitors on the
broad stone piazza, whose pillars ran the length of the house, and up to
the roof, affording a wide gallery above. It was all entwined with
English ivy and creepers taken from the homestead in Devonshire, and
brought away when the death of the old mother made it impossible for
life to be sustained by Miss Ophelia unless wrenched up from the roots
where clustered so many memories. So Brother John decided to make that
wrench, and to make it complete. So here they were.
"I didn't know it was so pretty," cried Clem, after the ladies had been
welcomed with the most gracious, old-time hospitality, and the
schoolgirls tumbled out of the barges to throng up. "It rained so when
we were here before, we couldn't see anything."
"Pretty?" repeated Alexia, comprehending it all in swift, bird-like
glances. "It's perfectly beautiful!" She turned, and Mr. Clemcy, who was
regarding her, smiled, and they struck up a friendship on the spot.
"Miss Salisbury, allow me." Mr. Clemcy was leading her off. Miss
Anstice, not trusting the ill-fated white gown, rustled after in the
black silk one, with Miss Ophelia, down the wide hall, open at the end,
with vistas of broad fields beyond, where the host paused. "Let the
young ladies come," he said; and the girls trooped after, to crowd
around the elder people.
Amongst the palms and bookcases, with which the broad hall was lined,
was a pedestal, whose top was half covered with a soft, filmy cloth.
Mr. Clemcy lifted this, and took it off carefully. There stood the
little vase, presenting as brave an appearance as in its first
perfection.
[Illustration: THERE STOOD THE LITTLE VASE, PRESENTING AS BRAVE AN
APPEARANCE AS IN ITS FIRST PERFECTION.]
Miss Salisbury uttered no exclamation, but preserved her composure by a
violent effort.
"I flatter myself on my ability to repair my broken collection," began
Mr. Clemcy, when a loud exclamation from the girls in front startled
every one. Miss Anstice, on the first shock, had been unable to find
that composure that was always "sister's" envied possession; so despite
the environment of the black silk gown, she gave it up, and sank
gradually to the ground.
"I told you so," cried Clem, in a hoarse whisper to her nearest
neighbors; "she always spoils everybody's fun," as Miss Anstice, at the
host's suggestion, his sister being rendered incapable of action at this
sudden emergency, was put to rest in one of the pretty chintz-covered
rooms above, till such time as she could recover herself enough to join
them below.
"I couldn't help it, sister," she said. "I've been so worried about that
vase. _You_ don't know, because you are always so calm; and then to see
it standing there--it quite took away my breath."
Oh, the delights of the rose-garden! in which every variety of the
old-fashioned rose seemed to have had a place lovingly assigned to it.
Sweetbrier clambered over the walls of the gardener's cottage, the
stables, and charming summer-houses, into which the girls ran with
delight. For Mr. Clemcy had said they were to go everywhere and enjoy
everything without restraint.
"He's a dear," exclaimed Lucy Bennett, "only I'm mortally afraid of
him."
"Well, I'm not," proclaimed Alexia.
The idea of Alexia being in any state that would suggest fear, being so
funny, the girls burst out laughing.
"Well, we sha'n't any of us feel like laughing much in a little while,"
said Clem dolefully.
"What is the matter?" cried a dozen voices.
"Matter enough," replied Clem. "I've said so before, and now I know it's
coming. Just look at that."
She pushed aside the swaying branches of the sweetbrier, and pointed
tragically. "I don't see anything," said one or two of the girls.
"_There!_" "There" meant Mr. Clemcy and Miss Salisbury passing down the
rose-walk, the broad central path. He was evidently showing her some
treasured variety and descanting on it; the principal of the Salisbury
School from her wide knowledge of roses, as well as of other subjects,
being able to respond very intelligently.
"Oh, can't you see? You stupid things!" cried Clem. "He's going to marry
our Miss Salisbury, and then she'll give up our school; and--and--" She
turned away, and threw herself off in a corner.
A whole chorus of "No--no!" burst upon this speech.
"Hush!" cried Alexia, quite horrified. "Polly, do stop them; Miss
Salisbury is turning around; and she's been worried quite enough over
that dreadful Miss Anstice," which had the effect of reducing the girls
to quiet.
"But it isn't so," cried the girls in frantic whispers, "what Clem
says." And those who were not sure of themselves huddled down on the
summer-house floor. "Say, Alexia, you don't think so, do you?"
But Alexia would give them no comfort, but wisely seizing Polly's arm,
departed with her. "I shall say something that I'll be sorry for," she
declared, "if I stay another moment longer. For, Polly Pepper, I do
really believe that it's true, what Clem says."
And the rest of that beautiful afternoon, with rambles over the wide
estate, and tea with berries and cream on the terraces, was a dream,
scarcely comprehended by the "Salisbury girls," who were strangely quiet
and well-behaved. For this Miss Salisbury was thankful.
And presently Miss Anstice, coming down in the wake of Miss Ophelia, was
put carefully into a comfortable chair on the stone veranda, where she
sat pale and quiet, Miss Clemcy assiduously devoting herself to her, and
drawing up a little table to her side for her berries and cream and tea.
"Now we will be comfortable together," said Miss Ophelia, the maid
bringing her special little pot of tea.
"I am so mortified, my dear Miss Clemcy," began Miss Anstice, her little
hands nervously working, "to have given way;" all of which she had said
over and over to her hostess in the chintz-covered room. "And you are so
kind to overlook it so beautifully."
"It is impossible to blame one of your delicate sensibility," said Miss
Ophelia; with her healthy English composure, quite in her element to
have some one to fuss over, and to make comfortable in her own way.
"Now, then, I trust that tea is quite right," handing her a cup.
XXIV THE PIECE OF NEWS
"Pepper, you're wanted!" Dick Furness banged into Joel's room, then out
again, adding two words, "Harrow--immediately."
"All right," said Joel, whistling on; all his thoughts upon "Moose
Island" and the expedition there on the morrow. And he ran lightly down
to the second floor, and into the under-teacher's room.
Mr. Harrow was waiting for him; and pushing aside some books, for he
never seemed to be quite free from them even for a moment, he motioned
Joel to a seat.
Joel, whose pulses were throbbing with the liveliest expectations,
didn't bother his head with what otherwise might have struck him as
somewhat queer in the under-teacher's manner. For the thing in hand was
what Joel principally gave himself to. And as that clearly could be
nothing else than the "Moose Island expedition," it naturally followed
that Mr. Harrow had to speak twice before he could gain his attention.
But when it was gained, there was not the slightest possible chance of
misunderstanding what the under-teacher was saying, for it was the habit
of this instructor to come directly to the point without unnecessary
circumlocution.
But his voice and manner were not without a touch of sadness on this
occasion that softened the speech itself.
"Joel, my boy," Mr. Harrow began, "you know I have often had you down
here to urge on those lessons of yours."
"Yes, sir," said Joel, wondering now at the voice and manner.
"Well, now to-day, I am instructed by the master to send for you for a
different reason. Can you not guess?"
"No, sir," said Joel, comfortable in the way things had been going on,
and wholly unable to imagine the blow about to fall.
"I wish you had guessed it, Joel," said Mr. Harrow, moving uneasily in
his chair, "for then you would have made my task easier. Joel, Dr. Marks
says, on account of your falling behind in your lessons, without
reason--understand this, Joel, _without reason_--you are not to go to
Moose Island to-morrow."
Even then Joel did not comprehend. So Mr. Harrow repeated it distinctly.
"_What!_" roared Joel. In his excitement he cleared the space between
them, and gained Mr. Harrow's side. "_Not go to Moose Island, Mr.
Harrow_?" his black eyes widening, and his face working fearfully.
"No," said Mr. Harrow, drawing a long breath, "you are not to go; so Dr.
Marks says."
"But I _must_ go," cried Joel, quite gone in passion.
"'Must' is a singular word to use here, Joel," observed Mr. Harrow
sternly.
"But I--oh, Mr. Harrow, do see if you can't help me to go." Joel
squirmed all over, and even clutched the under-teacher's arm piteously.
"Alas, Joel! it is beyond my power." Mr. Harrow shook his head. He
didn't think it necessary to state that he had already used every
argument he could employ to induce Dr. Marks to change his mind. "Some
strong pressure must be brought to bear upon Pepper, or he will amount
to nothing but an athletic lad. He must see the value of study," the
master had responded, and signified that the interview was ended, and
his command was to be carried out.
"Joel,"--Mr. Harrow was speaking--"be a man, and bear this as _you_ can.
You've had your chances for study, and not taken them. It is a case of
_must_ now. Remember, Dr. Marks is doing this in love to you. He has got
to fit you out as well as he can in this school, to take that place in
life that your mother wants you to fill. Don't waste a moment on vain
regrets, but buckle to your studies now."
It was a long speech for the under-teacher, and he had a hard time
getting through with it. At its end, Joel, half dazed with his
misfortune, but with a feeling that as a man, Dr. Marks and Mr. Harrow
had treated him, hurried back to his room, dragged his chair up to the
table, and pushing off the untidy collection of rackets, tennis balls,
boxing gloves, and other implements of his gymnasium work and his
recreation hours, lent his whole heart with a new impulse to his task.
Somehow he did not feel like crying, as had often been the case with
previous trials. "He said, 'Be a man,'" Joel kept repeating over and
over to himself, while the words of his lesson swam before his eyes.
"And so I will; and he said, Dr. Marks had got to make me as Mamsie
wanted me to be," repeated Joel to himself, taking a shorter cut with
the idea. "And so I will be." And he leaned his elbows on the table,
bent his head over his book, and clutching his stubby crop by both hands
and holding on tightly, he was soon lost to his misfortune and the
outside world.
"Hullo!" David stood still in amazement at Joel's unusual attitude over
his lesson. Then he reflected that he was making up extra work, to be
free for the holiday on the morrow. Notwithstanding the need of quiet,
David was so full of it that he couldn't refrain from saying jubilantly,
"Oh, what a great time we'll have to-morrow, Joe!" giving him a pound on
the back.
"I'm not going," said Joel, without raising his head.
David ran around his chair to look at him from the further side, then
peered under the bunch of curls Joel was hanging to.
"What's--what's the matter, Joe?" he gasped, clutching the table.
"Dr. Marks says I'm not to go," said Joel, telling the whole at once.
"_Dr. Marks said you were not to go!_" repeated David. "Why, Joel,
why?" he demanded in a gasp.
"I haven't studied; I'm way behind. Let me alone," cried Joel. "I've got
a perfect lot to make up," and he clutched harder than ever at his hair.
"Then _I_ shall not go," declared David, and rushing out of the room he
was gone before Joel could fly from his chair; which he did, upsetting
it after him.
"Dave--_Dave_!" he yelled, running out into the hall, in the face of a
stream of boys coming up from gymnasium practice.
"What's up, Pepper?" But he went through their ranks like a shot.
Nevertheless David was nowhere to be seen, as he had taken some short
cut, and was lost in the crowd.
Joel bent his steps to the under-teacher's room, knocked, and in his
excitement thought he heard, "Come in." And with small ceremony he
precipitated himself upon Mr. Harrow, who seemed to be lost in a revery,
his back to him, leaning his elbow on the mantel, and his head upon his
hand.
"Er--oh!" exclaimed Mr. Harrow, startled out of his usual composure, and
turning quickly to face Joel. "Oh, it's you, Pepper!" which by no means
lifted him out of his depression.
"Dave says he won't go without me. You must make him," said Joel, in his
intensity forgetting his manners.
"To Moose Island?" asked Mr. Harrow.
Joel nodded. He couldn't yet bring himself to speak the name.
"All right; I will, Joe." Mr. Harrow grasped the brown hand hanging by
Joel's side.
"Really?" said Joel, swallowing hard.
"Really. Run back to your books, and trust me."
So Joel dashed back, not minding the alluring cries from several chums,
"Come on--just time for a game before supper," and was back before his
table in the same attitude, and hanging to his hair.
"I can study better so," he said, and holding on for dear life.
One or two boys glanced in. "Come out of this hole," they cried. "No
need to study for to-morrow. Gee whiz! just think of Moose Island, Joe."
No answer.
"Joe!" They ran in and shook his shoulders. "Moose Island!" they
screamed, and the excitement with which the whole school was charged was
echoing it through the length of the dormitory.
"Go away," cried Joel at them, "or I'll fire something at you," as they
swarmed around his chair.
"Fire your old grammar," suggested one, trying to twitch away his book;
and another pulled the chair out from under him.
Joel sprawled a moment on the floor; then he sprang up, hanging to his
book, and faced them. "I'm not going. Clear out." And in a moment the
room was as still as if an invasion had never taken place. In their
astonishment they forgot to utter a word.
And in ten minutes the news was all over the playground and in all the
corridors, "Joe Pepper isn't going to Moose Island."
If they had said that the corner stone of the dormitory was shaky, the
amazement would not have been so great in some quarters; and the story
was not believed until they had it from Joe himself. Then amazement
changed to grief. Not to have Joe Pepper along, was to do away with half
the fun.
Percy ran up to him in the greatest excitement just before supper. "What
is it, Joe?" he cried. "The fellows are trying to say that you're not
going to Moose Island." He was red with running, and panted dreadfully.
"And Van is giving it to Red Hiller for telling such a whopper."
"Well, he needn't," said Joel, "for it's perfectly true. I'm not going."
Percy tried to speak; but what with running, and his astonishment, his
tongue flapped up idly against the roof of his mouth.
"Dr. Marks won't let me," said Joel, not mincing matters. "I've got to
study; so there's an end of it." But when Davie came in, a woe begone
figure, for Mr. Harrow had kept his promise, then was Joel's hardest
time. And he clenched his brown hands to keep the tears back then, for
David gave way to such a flood in the bitterness of his grief to go
without Joel, that for a time, Joel was in danger of utterly losing his
own self-control.
"I'm confounded glad." It was Jenk who said it to his small following;
and hearing it, Tom Beresford blazed at him. "If you weren't quite so
small, I'd knock you down."
"Well, I am glad,"--Jenk put a goodly distance between himself and Tom,
notwithstanding Tom's disgust at the idea of touching him--"for Pepper
is so high and mighty, it's time he was taken down," but a chorus of
yells made him beat a retreat.
Dr. Marks paced up and down his study floor, his head bent, his hands
folded behind him.
"It was the only way. No ordinary course could be taken with Pepper. It
had come to be imperative. It will make a man of him." He stepped to the
desk and wrote a few words, slipped them into an envelope, sealed and
addressed it.
"Joanna!" He went to the door and summoned a maid, the same one who had
shaken her broom at Joel when he rushed in with the dog. "Take this over
to the North Dormitory as quickly as possible." It seemed to be
especially necessary that haste be observed; and Dr. Marks, usually so
collected, hurried to the window to assure himself that his command was
obeyed.
Mrs. Fox took the note as Joanna handed it in, and sent it up at once,
as those were the orders from the master. It arrived just at the moment
when Joel was at the end of his self-mastery. He tore it open. "My boy,
knowing you as I do, I feel sure that you will be brave in bearing this.
It will help you to conquer your dislike for study and make a man of
you. Affectionately yours, H. L. Marks."
Joel swung the note up over his head, and there was such a glad ring to
his voice that David was too astonished to cry.
"See there!" Joel proudly shook it at him. "Read it, Dave."
So David seized it, and blinked in amazement.
"Dr. Marks has written to me," said Joel importantly, just as if David
hadn't the note before him. "And he says, 'Be a man,' just as Mr. Harrow
said, and, 'affectionately yours.' Now, what do you think of that, Dave
Pepper?"
David was so lost in the honor that had come to Joel, that the grief
that he was feeling in the thought of the expedition to be made to Moose
Island to-morrow without Joel, began to pale. He smiled and lifted his
eyes, lately so wet with tears. "Mamsie would like that note, Joe."
Tom Beresford rushed in without the formality of a knock, and gloomily
threw himself on the bed. "Poor Joe!" was written all over his long
face.
"Oh, you needn't, Tom," said Joel gaily, and prancing up and down the
room, "pity me, because I won't have it."
"It's pity for myself as well," said Tom lugubriously, and cramming the
pillow-end into his mouth. "What's a fellow to do without you, Joe?"
suddenly shying the pillow at Joel.
Joe caught it and shied it back, then twitched the master's note out of
David's hand. "Read it, Tom," he cried, with sparkling eyes.
"I'd much rather stay back with you, Joe," Tom was saying.