"How did you know? Cook gave them to me. She said they were good for
a cold."
"You do look a little object," said Mona, drawing Jill to her, and
smoothing her hair as she spoke. "She is the eldest, Miss Falkner,
then comes Jack, then Winnie. They are very backward for their ages,
I am afraid, but you will remedy that."
Jill's blue eyes scanned Miss Falkner up and down. "Who was she?" she
wondered.
"Can you read, dear?" asked Miss Falkner.
Jill nodded.
"And write?"
Another nod.
Mona gave her a little shake.
"Speak properly, Jill. Where are your manners? You are like a little
savage this afternoon. I am sure it is high time you had a governess
to keep you in order."
Mona did not often speak so crossly.
Jill darted away from her with scarlet cheeks and flashing eyes. "Who
is she? and what does she want?" she demanded passionately. "Is _she_
a governess? Because, if she is, I hate her!"
Then flying out of the room she banged the door violently behind her,
and raced up-stairs, never drawing breath till she reached the nursery.
Here she flung herself down face foremost on the hearthrug, and when
a little time later Jack and Bumps rushed in, they found her still
muttering angrily to herself.
Jack at once flung himself on the top of her.
"You're in a tantrum! What have you been doing?"
Jill would not answer till she had extricated herself from his
clutches. Then she sat up and tossed her long hair back from her flushed
little face.
"We're to have a governess!"
"Hurray!" shouted Jack. "Good-bye to nurses, who are rotten rot!"
"And I've seen her," pursued Jill, shaking her head mournfully; "and I was
rude to her, I told her I hated her, and she'll never forgive me. Mona
was so cross, and then I was, and of course the governess will hate me
back, and we'll fight from the very beginning!"
"What was she like?" demanded Jack.
"Like any other person," said Jill crossly.
"Is she coming to tea?" asked Bumps with round eyes.
Jill looked at her small sister scornfully.
"She's coming to breakfast, and dinner, and tea, for ever and ever; she's
just like a nurse, only it will be lessons all day long, and punishments."
This depressing view had no effect on Jack.
"We can play truant," he suggested eagerly. "Boys do that when they go to
school--at least in books they do. To be sure," he added thoughtfully,
"they always come to a bad end and wish they hadn't, but before the end
comes, it's jolly."
"Is truant a nice game?" asked Bumps.
Jill's brown eyes began to dance with mirth.
"So we will," she exclaimed. "We'll settle what to do at once. We must
save up bits of cake and biscuits, and anything else we can stuff in our
pockets, for we must have food."
"But," objected Jack, looking thoughtful, "it's winter, and I think you
can only be truants in summer. You always spend a day in the woods
and have a kind of picnic, and you must be in the country to do it,
and we're in a town."
"What does that matter?" said Jill impatiently. "We'll show how we can
truant. I'll think of the most splendid things when I'm in bed to-night."
All her ill temper vanished. Jill's thoughts in bed were the admiration
of her brother. His brain was a quick and busy one, but nothing to be
compared to Jill's. He laid the foundation for many a mischievous scheme,
but it was Jill who took it up and worked it out.
Bumps was at present a nonentity, but she was a sturdy little follower,
and would as cheerfully have tried to walk a tight-rope as to eat her
dinner, had she seen the others attempt it.
"When shall we start?" pursued Jack--"to-morrow?"
"I don't know when she's coming," Jill replied.
"I think we shall have to do lessons with her one day first," said Jack,
"because we shan't be proper truants unless we do."
"Oh yes, and if it's a very wet day we won't go."
It was a great disappointment to them when Mona came into the nursery
that evening and called them to her.
"A very nice lady named Miss Falkner is coming to live with us,"
she began.
"I know!" exclaimed Jack. "She's a governess. Is she coming to-night?"
"Oh dear, no, not for another month, when we go down to Willowlands."
The children's faces fell. Willowlands was their country home, and it
was only shut up for three months in the winter. They liked London best,
and were always sorry when their time came to leave it.
Mona watched their expressive faces.
"You must try to be very good till she comes," she said cheerfully. "The
time will soon pass. Jill, what made you so naughty this afternoon? I
was quite ashamed of you."
Jill got very red, and twisted her hands together, as was her habit
when embarrassed. Then she looked straight at her sister with a defiant
sparkle in her eyes.
"Of course we don't like her," she said. "You've told us how you used
to hate your governess, and we shall do it too."
"Oh dear!" said Mona with a smile and a groan. "I'm always so stupid when
I talk to you. My governess was very different from Miss Falkner--she
was a tall, grim, strict old thing, who never smiled. I've found you a
very different kind of governess, and you will all love her, I feel sure."
"I wish she was coming now," said Jill gloomily.
"Why? What a queer child you are."
"It's only," explained Jack hastily, "we've settled to do something when
she comes, and we don't like waiting."
"What is it?" asked Mona unsuspiciously.
"Oh, it's a secret," exclaimed Jill; "we aren't going to tell any one."
"I hope it isn't anything naughty. I wish you would try to be good. I
can't think why you are always in mischief!"
She left them. Jill was up on the window-seat drumming her fingers on
the pane.
"I wish," she said at length, "that the king would pass a law that for one
day every child could do exactly what they liked, that they could be just
as naughty as ever they wished to be. Why, there are crowds and crowds
of things that I'm _longing_ to do, only Mona would think it wicked!"
"And God would too," put in Jack, who in spite of his mischievous
rollicking ways had occasional qualms of conscience.
Jill looked at him meditatively.
"I try and think God looks the other way sometimes when we're doing
things. That's what I shall do when I have any children. I shall only
look at them when they want me to! It's a pity this governess isn't
coming soon; but we'll have plenty of time to save heaps of food for
our truant day, and I'll think out some lovely things to do on it."
"I think," said Jack, "I'll keep the food in my play-box that locks
up. Lumps of sugar will be a very good thing to save up."
"And treacle pudding," put in Bumps anxiously. She was only too eager
to bring contributions to Jack's secret store. He kept his box in a
corner of the nursery, and more than once had to interfere when Bumps
was eagerly putting all kinds of her favourite puddings into screws of
paper and attempting to stuff them in with drier and more suitable food.
This hope of "playing truant" did much to comfort them in the dread of
possible lessons and punishments. Jill's programme for "truant day"
grew more glorious as time went on, and when her imagination sometimes
failed before Bumps' eager and original questions, Jack came to her
rescue and threw himself gallantly into the breach.
"What shall we do if there are no blackberries or nuts in the woods to
eat, and a mad bull has eaten all our food, and the sun has dried up
all the ponds and rivers so that we can get no water? Why, you stupid,
of course we'll go up to a cottage like beggars, and they'll give us
some food."
Bumps nodded contentedly.
"We'll be proper beggarth, with no shoeth and stockingth, and we'll have
no hat, and I'll tear a 'normouth hole in my frock!"
The time seemed to pass very slowly, but the month wore away, and then
came the move into the country.
For the first few days after their arrival the children ran wild. Nurse
was too busy unpacking and arranging things to heed them, and their
adventurous spirits led them into every kind of mischief.
Then Mona was appealed to, and she made short work of nurse's complaints.
"I don't care what they do as long as they don't hurt themselves. Miss
Falkner is coming the end of the week, and then she will be entirely
responsible for them."
And so, after a long and tiring journey, when Miss Falkner arrived at
the house, this is what she saw in the hall--
Bumps seated in a large copper coal-scuttle, which was suspended by a
rope from the stair-railings above. Her face, pinafore and hands were
covered with black coal-dust, for the contents of the coal-scuttle had
been hastily emptied into the hall fire-place, and Bumps had taken her
place without a thought of consequences.
Jack, with red and hot cheeks, was sitting astride of the balustrade and
trying vainly to haul up his heavy load, being in danger of over-balancing
himself with his exertions, and Jill, arrayed in all the coats and wraps
that she could find, was ambling about on all fours making sudden
rushes at the coal-scuttle, which was just high enough to swing over
her head. All three children were screaming at the top of their voices,
and when William the butler came forward to open the door, nothing that
he could do or say seemed to have any result.
It was not till a very bright clear voice spoke that there was a sudden
hush.
[Illustration: "ARE THESE MY LITTLE PUPILS?"]
"Are these my little pupils?"
Jill threw off her disguise and stood upon her feet. Jack scrambled
down from his post, and Bumps was the only one that continued her
occupation. She swung helplessly to and fro, and puckered up her face
as if she were meditating a weep.
"Take me down, Jack," she whined; "I'm thy!"
Miss Falkner lifted her down.
"Now, what game is this, I wonder?" she said. "It looks most interesting;
do tell me."
"It's a princess being rescued from a dragon," said Jack eagerly. "And
I'm the one who saves her; I'm the prince!"
Miss Falkner smiled, and her smile emboldened Jack still further.
"Everybody is out," he informed her; "Mona and Miss Webb have gone
to a party. We've had our tea, and nurse has gone down-stairs to have
hers. She's going to-morrow, because you've come, and I'm jolly glad too!
And if you make haste and have your tea, you can come back and be the
old queen who has lost the princess. It's a jolly game. Jill and I made
it up ourselves."
"I think I should like some tea very much," said Miss Falkner, following
William up-stairs. "Won't you all come and talk to me while I have it?"
When Mona returned home just before dinner, she found the children
clustering round their new governess in the school-room, whilst she
related to them some childish reminiscence of her own. Their rapt
attention proved she could interest them, and Mona said to Miss Webb
triumphantly--
"I have succeeded at last in finding some one who will manage them."
Miss Webb shook her head doubtfully.
"Time will show," she said wisely.