A HOT FRIENDSHIP.
"I was a child, and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea."
By the time Isobel had been a week at Silversands she had begun to feel
as much at home there as the oldest inhabitant. She had won golden
opinions from Mrs. Jackson at the lodgings, and had been invited by that
worthy woman into the upper drawing-room during the temporary absence of
its occupiers, and shown a most fascinating cabinet full of foreign
shells, stuffed birds, corals, ivory bangles, sandal-wood boxes, and
other curiosities brought home by a sailor son who made many voyages to
the East.
"Don't you wish you could have gone with him and got all these things
for yourself?" said Isobel ecstatically, when she had examined and
admired every article separately, and heard its history.
"Nay," replied Mrs. Jackson, "I've never had no mind for shipboard,
though my second cousin was stewardess on a Channel steamer for a
matter of fifteen year, and made a tidy sum out of it too. She could
have got me taken on by the Anchor Line as runs to America if I'd have
signed for two years. That was when my first husband died, and afore I
married Jackson; but I felt I'd rather starve on dry land than take it,
though it was good wages they offered, to say nothing of tips."
"Why, it would be glorious to go to America," said Isobel, sighing to
think what her companion had missed. "You might have seen Red Indians,
and wigwams, and medicine men, and 'robes of fur and belts of wampum,'
like it talks of in 'Hiawatha.' Do you know 'Hiawatha'?"
"There were an old steamer of that name used to trade from Liverpool in
hides and tallow when I were a girl, if that's the one you mean. I
wonder she hasn't foundered afore now."
"Oh no!" cried Isobel hastily. "It isn't a steamer; it's a piece of
poetry. I've just been reading it with mother, and it's most delightful.
I could lend it to you if you like. We brought the book with us."
Mrs. Jackson's acquaintance with the muse, however, seemed to be limited
to the hymns in church, and a hazy remembrance of certain pieces in her
spelling book when a child, and being apparently unwilling to further
cultivate her mind in that direction, she declined the offer on the
score of lack of time.
"Not but what Jackson's fond of a bit of poetry now and again," she
admitted. "He sings a good song or two when he's in the mood, and he do
like readin' over the verses on the funeral cards. He pins them all up
on the kitchen wall where he can get at them handy. What suits me more
is something in the way of a romance--'Lady Gwendolen's Lovers,' or 'The
Black Duke's Secret'--when I've time to take up a book, which isn't
often, with three sets of lodgers in the house, and a girl as can't even
remember how to make a bed properly, to say nothing of laying a table,
and 'ull take the dining-room dinner up to the drawing-room."
The much-enduring Polly, though certainly not an accomplished waitress,
was the most good-tempered of girls, and an invaluable ally in saving
the treasured specimens of flowers or sea-weeds which Mrs. Jackson, in
her praiseworthy efforts at tidiness, was continually clearing out,
under the plea that she "hadn't imagined they could be wanted."
"She even threw away my mermaids' purses and the whelks' eggs that we
found on the sand-bank," said Isobel to her mother. "But Polly climbed
into the ashpit and grubbed them up again. She washed them in a bucket
of water, and they're quite nice now; so I shall put them in a box, to
make sure they'll be safe. Polly's father is part owner of a schooner,
and sometimes they fish up the most enormous fan shells. She says she'll
ask him to give me a few when she's time to go home, but she hasn't had
a night out for nearly three weeks, the season's been so busy."
"Perhaps old Biddy could get you some large fan shells," suggested Mrs.
Stewart. "I believe they find them sometimes very far out on the beach
when they're shrimping."
Biddy was a well-known character in Silversands. She was a lively old
Irishwoman, with the strongest of brogues and the most beguiling of
tongues. In a blue check apron, and with a red shawl tied over her head,
she might be seen every morning wheeling her barrow down the parade,
where her amusing powers of blarney, added to the freshness of her fish,
secured her a large circle of customers among what she called "the
quality." She had a wonderful memory for faces, and always recognized
families who paid a second visit to the town.
"Why, it's niver Masther Charlie, sure?" she exclaimed with delight, on
meeting the Chesters one day. "It's meself that knew the bright face of
yez the moment I saw ut, though ye're growed such a foine young
gintleman an' all. Ye was staying at No. 7 two years back with yer
mamma--an illigant lady she was, too--and your sister, Miss Hilda, the
swate little colleen. Holy saints! this must be herself and none other,
for it's not twice ye'd see such a pair of eyes and forgit them."
What became of Biddy during the winter, when there were no visitors to
buy her fish, was an unsolved mystery. "Sure, I makes what I can by the
koindness of sthrangers during the summer toime!" she had replied when
Isobel once sounded her on the subject. "There's many a one as gives me
an extra penny or two, or says, 'Kape the change, Biddy Mulligan!' The
Blessed Virgin reward them! Thank you kindly, marm," as Mrs. Stewart
took the hint. "May your bed in heaven be aisy, and may ye niver lack a
copper to give to them as needs it."
Besides Biddy, Isobel had a number of other acquaintances in
Silversands. There was the coastguard at the cottage on the top of the
cliffs, who sometimes allowed her to look through his telescope, and who
had an interesting barometer in the shape of a shell-covered cottage
with two doors, from one of which a little soldier appeared when it was
going to be fine, while a nautical-looking gentleman in a blue jacket
came out to give warning of wet weather. Then there was the owner of the
pleasure boats, who had promised to take her for a row entirely free of
charge on the day before she was going home; and the bathing woman, who
always tried to keep for her the van with the blue stripes and the brass
hooks inside because she knew she liked it. The donkey boy had
christened the special favourite with the new harness "_her_ donkey,"
and made it go with unwonted speed even on the outward journey (as a
rule it galloped of its own accord when its nose was turned towards
home); and the blind harpist by the railway station had waxed quite
confidential on the subject of Scottish ballads, and had allowed her to
try his instrument.
As for the members of the Sea Urchins' Club, she felt as if she had
known them all her life, and the sayings and doings of the Chesters, the
Rokebys, the Wrights, and the Barringtons occupied a large part of her
conversation. Jolly as they were, none of them in Isobel's estimation
could compare with Belle Stuart, who from the first had claimed her as
her particular chum. The two managed to spend nearly the whole of every
day together, sometimes in company with the other children, or
sometimes alone on the beach, hunting for shells and sea anemones,
picking flowers, or just sitting talking in delicious idleness under the
shade of a rock, listening to the dash of the waves and the screams of
the sea gulls which were following the tide.
"I'm not generally allowed to make friends with any one whom we don't
know at home," Belle had confided frankly. "But mother said you looked
such a very nice lady-like little girl, she thought it wouldn't matter
just for this once. I told her your father had been an officer, and she
said of course that made a difference, but I really was to be careful,
and not pick up odd acquaintances upon the beach, for she doesn't want
me to talk to all sorts of people who aren't in our set of society, and
might be very awkward to get rid of afterwards."
Isobel did not reply. She would never have dreamt of explaining that it
was only due to her most urgent entreaties that she, on her part, had
been allowed to pursue the friendship. Mrs. Stewart, from somewhat
different motives, was quite as particular as Belle's mother about
chance acquaintances, and had been a little doubtful as to whether she
was acting wisely in allowing Isobel to spend so much of her time with
companions of whom she knew nothing, and whether this new influence was
such as she would altogether wish for her.
"But I can't keep her wrapped up in cotton wool," she thought. "She has
been such a lonely child that it's only right and natural she should
like to make friends of her own age, especially when I'm not able to go
about with her. She'll have to face life some time, and the sooner she
begins to be able to distinguish the wheat from the chaff so much the
better. Thus far I've perhaps guarded her too carefully, and this is an
excellent opportunity of throwing her on her own resources. I think I
can trust her to stick to what she knows is right, and not be led astray
by any silly notions. She'll soon discover that money and fine clothes
don't represent the highest in life, and I believe it's best to let her
find it out gradually for herself. She's like a little bird learning to
fly; I've kept her long enough in the nest, and now I must stand aside
and leave her to try her wings."
For the present, at any rate, Isobel could see no fault in her new
friend. Belle had completely won her heart. Her charming looks; her
fair, fluffy curls; her little, spoilt, coaxing ways; the clinging
manner in which she seemed to depend upon others; her very helplessness
and heedlessness; even the artless openness with which she sought for
admiration--all appealed with an irresistible force to Isobel's stronger
nature. If it ever struck her that her companion was lacking in some of
those qualities which she had been taught to consider necessary, she
thrust the thought away as a kind of disloyalty; and if it were she who
generally carried the heavy basket, searched for the lost ball, fetched
forgotten articles, or did any of the countless small services which
Belle exacted almost as a matter of course from those around her, it
certainly was without any idea of complaint. There are in this world
always those who love and those who are loved, and Isobel was ready with
spendthrift generosity to offer her utmost in the way of friendship,
finding Belle's pretty thanks and kisses a sufficient reward for any
trouble she might take on her account, and perhaps unconsciously
realizing that even in our affections it is the givers more than the
receivers who are the truly blessed. Belle, who usually found a brief
and fleeting attraction in any new friend, was pleased with Isobel's
devotion, and ready to be admired, petted, and waited on to any extent.
I think, too, that, to do her justice, she was really an affectionate
child, and at the time she was as fond of her friend as it was possible
for her light little character to be. She would not have troubled to
put herself out of the way for Isobel, and it would not have broken her
heart to part with her, but she enjoyed her company, and easily gave her
the first place among the dozen bosom friends each of whom she had taken
up in turn and thrown aside.
One particular afternoon found the namesakes strolling arm in arm along
the narrow sandy lane which led inland from the beach towards the woods
and the hills behind. It was the most delightful lane, with high grassy
banks covered with pink bindweed and tiny blue sheep's scabious, and
bright masses of yellow bedstraw, and great clumps of mallows, with
seed-vessels on them just like little cheeses, which you could gather
and thread on pieces of cotton to make necklaces. There was a hedge at
the top of the bank, too, where grew the beautiful twining briony, with
its dark leaves and glossy berries; and long trails of bramble, where a
few early blackberries could be discovered if you cared to reach for
them; and down among the sand at the bottom of the ditch you might find
an occasional horned poppy, or the curious flowers and glaucous prickly
leaves of the sea holly. Isobel, on the strength of a new bright-green
tin vasculum, purchased only that very morning at the toy-shop near the
station, and slung over her shoulder in the style of a student in a
German picture-book, felt herself to be a full-fledged botanist, and
rushed about in a very enthusiastic manner, scrambling up the banks
after pink centaury, diving into the hedge bottom for campions, or
getting her hair caught, like Absalom, in a prickly rose-bush in a
valiant endeavour to secure a particularly fine clump of harebells which
were nodding in the breeze on the stones of the old wall.
"They're perfectly lovely, aren't they?" she cried. "I've got fourteen
different sorts of flowers already, and I'm sure some of them must be
rare--anyway, I've never seen them before. I'm going to press them
directly I get home. Do you think this stump will bear me if I climb up
for that piece of briony?"
"I'm afraid it won't," said Belle, fastening some of the harebells in
her dress (they matched her blue sash and hat ribbons). "It looks
fearfully rotten. There! I told you it wouldn't hold," as Isobel
descended with a crash. "And you're covered with sand and prickly
burrs--such a mess!"
"Never mind," said Isobel, the state of whose clothing rarely distressed
her. "They'll brush off. But I must have the briony. I'll climb up by
the wall if you'll hold these hips for a moment."
"Oh, do come along--that's a darling!" entreated Belle. "I don't want to
wait. They're only wild things, after all. I wish you could see our
garden at home, full of lovely geraniums and fuchsias and lobelias, and
the orchids and gloxinias in the conservatory. They're really worth
looking at. Carter, our gardener, takes tremendous pains with them, and
he gets heaps of prizes at shows."
"But I like wild flowers best," said Isobel. "You can find them yourself
in the hedges, and there are so many kinds. It's most exciting to hunt
out their names in the botany book."
"Do you care for botany?" said Belle. "I have it with Miss Fairfax, and
I think it's hateful--all about corollas, and stigmas, and panicles, and
umbels, and stupid long words I can't either remember or understand."
"I haven't learnt any proper botany yet," said Isobel, "only just some
of the easy part; but when we come into the country mother and I always
hunt for wild flowers, and then we press them and paste them into a
book, and write the names underneath. We have eighty-seven different
sorts at home, and I've found sixteen new ones since I came here, so I
think that's rather good, considering we've only been at Silversands a
week. How hot it is in this lane! Suppose we go round by the station and
up the cliffs."
The little lane with its high banks was certainly the most baking spot
they could have chosen for a walk on a blazing August afternoon. The sun
poured down with a steady glare, till the air seemed to quiver with the
heat, and the only things which really enjoyed themselves were the
grasshoppers, whose cheery chirpings kept up a perpetual concert. In the
fields on either side the reapers had been busy, and tired-looking
harvesters were hard at work binding the yellow corn and the scarlet
poppies into sheaves. Little groups of mothers and children and babies
had come to help or look on, as the case might be, and brought with them
cans of tea and checked handkerchiefs full of bread and butter.
"Don't they look jolly?" said Isobel, peeping over the hedge to watch a
family who were picnicking among the stooks, the father in a
broad-brimmed rush hat, his corduroy trousers tied up with wisps of
straw, wiping his hot forehead on his shirt sleeves; the mother putting
the baby to roll on the corn, while she poured the tea into blue mugs;
and the children, as brown as gypsies, sitting round in a circle eating
slices of bread, and evidently enjoying the fun of the thing.
"Ye-e-s," said Belle, somewhat doubtfully, "I suppose they do. Are you
fond of poor people?"
"I like going with mother when she's district-visiting, because the
women often let me nurse the babies. Some of them are so sweet they'll
come to me and not be shy at all."
"Aren't they rather dirty?"
"No, not most of them. A few are beautifully clean. Mother says she
expects they know which day we're coming, and wash them on purpose."
"Babies are all very well when they're nicely dressed in white frocks
and lace and corals," remarked Belle, "so long as they don't pull your
hair and scratch your face."
"One day," continued Isobel, "we went to the _creche_--that's a place
where poor people's children are taken care of during the day while
their mothers are out working. There were forty little babies in cots
round a large room--_such_ pets; and so happy, not one of them was
crying. The nurse said they generally howl for a day or two after
they're first brought in, and then they get used to it and don't bother
any more. You see it wouldn't do to take up every single baby each time
it began to cry."
"I wish you'd tell that to the Wrights; they give that 'Popsie' of
theirs whatever she shrieks for. She's a nasty, spoilt little thing.
Yesterday she caught hold of my pearl locket, and tugged it so hard she
nearly strangled me, and broke the chain; and the locket fell into a
pool, and I couldn't find it, though I hunted for half an hour. The
nurse only babbled on, 'Poor pet! didn't she get the pretty locket,
then?' I felt so cross I wanted to smack both her and the baby."
"And haven't you found the locket yet?"
"No, and I never shall now; it's been high tide since then."
"What a shame! I should have felt dreadfully angry. I don't like the
Wrights' nurse either. She borrowed my new white basket, and then let
the children have it; and they picked blackberries into it, and stained
it horribly. Why, there's Aggie Wright now, with the Rokebys. What _are_
they doing? They're hanging over that gate in the most peculiar manner.
Let us go and see."