There was no doubt that Harriet was clever, but even she felt a little
nervous when she went into Ralph's bedroom to awaken him on Saturday
morning.
Ralph had a sweet little room to sleep in. It opened into Miss Ford's,
but the door between the two was shut; for Ralph's whole endeavour was
to be a very manly boy, and manly boys always liked best to sleep alone.
He looked very pretty indeed, now, in his sleep, his mop of brown curls
pushed back from his forehead, the long black lashes lying like a cloud
on his rounded cheeks; his red, red lips slightly parted, a smile on his
little face. But Harriet saw no beauty in the sleeping boy.
"Little tiresome thing!" she murmured under her breath. "If it wasn't
for that pony and my determination to win the prize over Robina,
wouldn't I give him a time to-day!"
But the pony was worth winning, and Harriet was clever. She bent down
over Ralph, and touched him gently on his arm. He woke with a start,
looked at Harriet, coloured brightly, and then said:--
"What's up?"
"Time for you to rise," said Harriet. "I am your school-mother for
to-day."
"Oh," said Ralph. His face turned a little pale, but he did not start.
"You can lie in bed as long as ever you like," said Harriet; "I don't
care; I'm not going to tell on you; you may be as naughty as you please
to-day--you needn't do any single thing except just what you like."
"Needn't I, really?" said the boy.
"Of course, you needn't," said Harriet. "Why should you bother to be
good?"
"But Father likes me to be good," said Ralph; "and--and--Mrs Burton
does. I love Mrs Burton, don't you?"
Harriet longed to say "No," but, shutting up her lips, she nodded her
head.
"You are the girl who was so horrid and rude to me the other day," said
Ralph; "you slapped me on my cheek."
"And you beat me," said Harriet.
Ralph's eyes began to twinkle.
"So we're quits," said Harriet. "Let's shake hands; let's be pals."
"It's nice of you to forgive," said Ralph.
"Oh, that's nothing," replied Harriet. "If you but knew me, you'd
consider that I am quite the nicest girl in the school."
"Are you really?"
"Yes; but what do you think, after all, of getting up? I have such a
wonderful plan of spending our day together."
"Have you?" said Ralph.
"A delicious plan; you can't guess how you will enjoy yourself."
"Can't I, really?"
"Hadn't you better get up. You can wash yourself, you know."
"Oh, I never washed myself yet," said Ralph.
"Well, you'll have to begin some time. I'll sit and stare out of the
window, and you can pop into your tub, and have a good splash; I don't
care a bit if you wet the floor; manly boys can't be always thinking of
those sort of things. Now, then, up you get, and I'll stare out of the
window."
Harriet suited the action to the word. Ralph saw a long, narrow back
and very thin light hair only partly concealing it. He observed that
the lanky little figure sat very still. He felt impressed, much more
impressed than he had been when kind Frederica and unselfish Patience,
and even pretty, pretty Rose Amberley had been his school-mothers. They
had been commonplace--quite nice, of course, but nothing special. The
lanky person was not commonplace.
He hopped up with a little shout, washed and dressed himself after a
fashion, and then went up to Harriet.
"Well, pal," she said, just glancing at him, "are you ready?"
"Quite," said Ralph. "I like you to call me your pal. You're a very
big girl compared to me, aren't you?"
"You're not a girl at all," said Harriet; "you're a very manly boy, and
you're awfully pretty; don't you know that you are very pretty?"
"No," said Ralph, turning scarlet, "and boys ought not to be pretty; I
hate that."
"Well, then, you're handsome. I'll show you your face in the glass
presently. But come down now. I am allowed to do just what I like with
you to-day, and we're going to have such a good time!"
The beginning of the good time consisted in having a real picnic
breakfast out of doors. Ralph and Harriet collected twigs and boiled
the kettle in one corner of the paddock. It didn't matter to Harriet
that the paddock was rather damp and cold at this hour, and it certainly
did not matter to Ralph, who was wildly excited, and quite forgot
everything else in the world while he was trying to light the dry wood.
Really, Harriet was nice; she did not even mind his having matches.
"They never allowed me to have matches before I came here."
"You can put them in your pocket, if you like," said Harriet. "Manly
boys like you should not be kept under. You wouldn't burn yourself on
purpose, would you?"
"Of course not."
"Have you a knife of your own?"
"No; Father says I'm rather young."
"But you're not; I'll give you a knife if you like. I have an old rusty
one upstairs with a broken blade. You shall have it."
"Thanks aw-filly!" said Ralph. "But, perhaps," he added, after a
minute's pause. "I had best not have it, for Father would not like me
to."
"Oh, please yourself," said Harriet. "Have you had enough breakfast?"
"Yes, thank you awfully, and it was _so_ good. I suppose," added Ralph,
a little timidly, "we'd best begin my lessons now. I hate reading to
myself, but I suppose I must learn."
"You needn't learn from me," said Harriet. "I'm not going to give you
any lessons."
"Oh--but--oughtn't you to?"
"Whether I ought to or not, I don't mean to," said Harriet. "Now, look
here, what shall we do with ourselves?"
"I don't know," said Ralph, who was so excited and interested that he
leaned up against Harriet, who would have given worlds to push him away,
but did not dare.
"You're very nice, really, truly," he said, and he touched her lank hair
with his little brown hand.
"Yes, am I not nice?" said Harriet, smiling at him. "Now, if you were
to choose me for your school-mother, you would have a jolly time."
"Am I to choose who I like?" said Ralph.
"Of course, you are. We are all trying our hands on you; but you are to
make your own choice. Didn't the other girls tell you?"
"No."
"Do you like being with the others?"
"They were _very_ kind," said Ralph.
"Did you have a picnic breakfast with them?"
"Oh, no."
"If I were your school-mother," said Harriet, after a pause, "we would
have one every day, and--and--no lessons; and you might play with
matches, and you might have a pop-gun, and there's something else we
would do."
"Oh, what is it?"
"We'd go and see the gipsies."
"But I am frightened of gipsies," said Ralph. As he spoke he pressed a
little nearer to Harriet. "Are there gipsies about?"
"There are some gipsies living two fields off--you look almost like a
gipsy boy yourself, you are so dark. There are a lot of little brown
babies rolling about on the grass, and big brown men, and big brown
women, and there are dogs, and a donkey, and an old horse; but the most
wonderful thing of all is the house on wheels."
"The house on wheels?" said Ralph.
"Yes, the old horse draws it, and the gipsies live inside; oh, it is
wonderful!"
"Aren't gipsies very wicked people?"
"Wicked?" said Harriet. "They're the most lovely people in all the
world. I can't take you to see them to-day, but if I were your
school-mother, we would manage to slip off and have a good time with
them. They love little brown boys like you, and you would love them.
Oh, you don't know what a gipsy is! Frightened of them, are you? Well,
I'll tell you a story of what they did for me when I ran away once and
stayed with them for a whole night. I never had such a good time in all
my life."
Harriet made up a story out of her head. It is true she had once been
for a very frightened half-hour with some gipsies on the common nearest
to her father's house; but that time now was changed into something
quite fairy-like.
Ralph listened with his eyes shining, his lips apart, and his breath
coming fast.
"Oh, I didn't know they were like that," he said. "Let us go now, now;
don't put it off, please; let's come this very instant-minute."
"No," said Harriet firmly. "I could not possibly take you to-day. But
I will manage it if you choose me for your school-mother. Of course,
you won't choose me. I know who you'll choose."
"Who?" asked Ralph.
"That Robina girl."
"Who?" asked Ralph.
"Oh, that creature who came for you and Curly Pate when you were sent
for, to say good-bye to your father."
"Is _she_ Robina?" asked Ralph. "Oh, I like her so much!"
"That is because you don't know her. Shall I tell you some things about
her?"
"Would it be right?" asked Ralph.
"You needn't listen if you don't like," replied Harriet. "You can go to
the other side of the paddock. I am going to say them aloud, whether
you listen or not."
Harriet instantly crossed her hands on her lap, and began saying in a
chanting tone:--
"Robina was so naughty at home, and made such a dreadful noise in the
room with her poor sick mother that she had to be sent away. She was
sent here to this school, and since she came all the rest of us are
dreadfully unhappy, for, although she looks kind, she is not a bit kind;
she is the sort of girl who doesn't obey. She was sent away from home
because she was so disobedient--"
"Oh, don't!" said Ralph suddenly.
"Why--what is the matter?" said Harriet. "Were you listening?"
"I couldn't help myself; you spoke so loud. I didn't want to, but you
did speak very loud. Why do you say those horrid things about her?"
"They are true," said Harriet. "I don't mean to be unkind to her. I
wouldn't be unkind to anybody, but, at the same time, I want to warn you
in case you are taken in by her ways and choose her as your
school-mother."
Ralph was quite silent. After a minute he said in an altered voice:
"Let's do something now--what shall we?"
Harriet suggested that they should visit the farmyard at the back of the
house and coax Jim, the groom, to let them ride on some of the horses.
This, of course, was most fascinating, and no sooner had it been thought
of than it was done. The ride was followed by something still more
exciting. Jim was going to drive to the nearest town with the spring
cart, and he offered to take the two children with him.
Harriet no sooner heard this proposal than she accepted it, and she and
Ralph had a glorious drive to town. There she spent sixpence--all the
money she possessed--on different sweetmeats.
"I wish I had some more," she said. "I'd give you all my money--I
would, indeed!"
"There are quite enough sweeties there," said Ralph; "but if you really
want to buy other things, Harriet, I have got money."
"Have you? Let's see what you've got," said Harriet.
Ralph put his hand into his breeches pocket, and took out a handful of
coppers, a shilling, and two sixpences.
"Here's lots," he said. "Isn't it lots, Harriet?"
"Yes," said Harriet, looking at it greedily. "We might buy a picnic tea
for ourselves out of that."
"Oh! might we?" said Ralph. "How per-fect-ly bee-tttiful!"
The picnic tea was purchased; it was not wholesome. The children went
back. Ralph and Harriet had their dinner all alone, for during the
trial day the arrangement was that the rest of the school children were
not to interfere. Afterwards, they had their picnic tea out of doors,
and after that was over, Harriet again spoke of the gipsies, and the
delight of knowing them, and the certain fact that they would give them
tea, or, perhaps, dinner, in the wonderful house on wheels, and the
still more certain fact that Ralph would not be a true boy until he had
visited the gipsies with Harriet.
On the whole, Harriet considered that her trial day was a success. It
was an untidy, flushed, and not a healthy little boy who crept rather
late into bed that night, and whom Harriet undressed without troubling
herself whether he was washed too carefully or his hair brushed or not.
Even to his cry that he had just a _weeny, teeny_ pain, and that he did
not feel _quite_ quite well, she made no response. But when she was
bidding him good-night, she said:--
"Remember the gipsies, and I am the sort of girl who always keeps her
word."
"Good-night, dear, dear Harriet!" said the little fellow. "I have had
quite a lovely day!"
After Harriet went away, it was some time before Ralph fell asleep. Of
course, he was a manly boy, and he did not mind a bit being alone, and
it was nice, very nice, to have a little room all to himself. But,
notwithstanding his bravery, and his fixed determination not to be
lonely without Father, and never to cry even the smallest tear, there
was an ache in his heart. He kept on thinking so much of his
school-mother that he could not sleep. The girls in the school were
very nice. Rose had been sweet to him, so had Frederica, so had
Patience, and his school-mother of the past day--oh, she had been the
most exciting of all. She was not a bit a pretty girl--in his heart of
hearts he thought her rather ugly; but she had done things none of the
others had done. She had given him adventures--that breakfast out of
doors, a box of matches to keep in his own pocket; that ride on
Firefly's back--Firefly was a very spirited pony--and the girl had
looked on admiringly while Ralph kept his seat; and then the drive to
town, and the spending of all Harriet's money on sweetmeats and of all
Ralph's money on a picnic tea. Oh, yes; he had had a good day, very
good, and there had been no lessons.
Ralph could not honestly say that he loved lessons. He used to pretend
he did, for he hated to grumble about things, and manly boys learned
things--at least, so his father used to say. Manly boys always knew how
to read, and they spelt words properly, and they wrote neat, good hands,
and they learned, too, how to add up long, terrible rows of figures.
All these things were necessary if a boy was to be manly and wise.
Ralph knew perfectly well that he must go through with these unpleasant
things. Nevertheless, he had to own that he did not like them. This
school-mother, if he were to select her, would not be very particular
about his reading aloud, and spelling properly, and working at his sums.
Oh, no, he would have a good time with her; matches in his pocket,
knives to play with--although his father did not like him to have
knives--and, above all things, such a wonderful, glorious hope was held
out to him! They would go away together, he and his school-mother, to
see the gipsies. They would climb up the steps into that house on
wheels; and, perhaps--perhaps--it would move, and they would feel it
moving, and the brown babies would roll about on the grass at his feet,
and the brown men and women would talk to him.
Harriet had spoken much to him about the delights of gipsy life. Ralph
felt that he would give a great deal to taste it for himself. He tossed
from side to side of his little bed, and presently he sat up, his cheeks
flushed, his hair tumbled. "What would Father say to all this? Father
liked boys to do lessons, and to lead orderly lives, and--"
"Oh, Father!" sobbed the child. He could not help crying just a little
bit. He wanted his father more than anything in all the world just
then; yes, although his heart was full of Harriet and her proposal to
visit the gipsies.
Book 1--CHAPTER SEVEN.