"Please, teacher, I've brought you some flowers."
Hazel Thorne turned round, to find that the speaker was Feelier Potts,
who was holding up a goodly bunch of roses, snapdragons, rose bay, and
other homely flowers tied up with some considerable amount of taste,
save that the band which held the blossoms against a good background of
ribbon grass was a long strip of flannel list, that made the bunch bulky
and strange.
There was a curious, half-defiant, half-smiling look in the girl's face,
as she handed the nosegay, and Hazel hesitated for a moment, and looked
severe, for it was as if the flowers were meant as a peace-offering or
bribe, to act as a passport in connection with Miss Feelier Potts'
evasion on the previous day.
Feelier saw the look, and was drawing back the nosegay with her
expressive young face full of chagrin, but she brightened directly as
her teacher smiled, took the flowers, smelt them, and said--
"How sweet! Thank you, Ophelia. Will you be kind enough to go indoors
for me, and ask for a jug of water to place them in?"
"Yes, teacher," cried the girl excitedly, and she rushed off, to come
back with the jug, into which the flowers, after being relieved of their
flannel outer garment, were placed, and then stood upon the corner of
the desk, while from time to time that morning Feelier's eyes twinkled
as she glanced at the post of honour occupied by her present, and then
gazed triumphantly round at her fellow-pupils, whispering every now and
then--
"I gave teacher them flowers."
Mr Samuel Chute also saw those flowers through the opening between two
shutters, and he noted how from time to time Hazel went to her desk and
smelt the roses. This fired him with the idea that he must make Hazel
the offer of another bouquet himself, and he concluded that, by the way
in which those flowers were received, he might tell how his love affairs
were likely to prosper.
For they did not seem to progress so well as he could wish. Time back
he had determined that the last person in the world for him to marry
would be a schoolmistress. His idea was to "marry money," as he termed
it, a notion highly applauded by Mrs Chute, who gave it as her opinion
that her son was a match for any lady in the land. But when the new
mistress rose upon the horizon of his view he altered his mind, and
concluded not only that he would marry a schoolmistress, but that _the_
schoolmistress he would marry was Hazel Thorne.
"You do as you like, Samuel, of course," said Mrs Chute; "but to my
mind she's not good enough for you. But you do as you like."
Mr Chute made up his mind that he would do as he liked, and among the
things he determined to do as he liked about was the giving of a
bouquet, only he did not know how to compass it; for flowers of a
superior kind were not plentiful at Plumton All Saints, and the only way
to obtain anything at all chaste was to apply to Mr Canninge's
gardeners at Ardley, or to Mr William Forth Burge's, or the rectory.
This was awkward but unavoidable, and, besides, he said to himself.
Hazel Thorne would never know whence they came.
So Mr Chute made a mental note _re_ flowers, and then went on with his
lesson-giving, while Feelier Potts, who was wonderfully quiet and
well-behaved, went on dilating about her present and rejoicing in the
grand position of donor of flowers to the manager of the school.
How quickly passing are our greatest joys. Just as Feelier was
confiding to a girl in the second class, now seated back to back, that
she gave teacher them flowers, there was a loud dab at the panel of the
door, and directly after a rattling of the latch, as a fierce-looking
woman walked straight in, exclaiming loudly--
"Where's my gal? I want that gal of mine."
Feelier Potts saw the stout fierce-looking woman, whose aspect indicated
that she had been washing, enter the schoolroom, and knew perfectly well
who she was and what she wanted, but Feelier sat perfectly still, and
ready to disown all relationship, probably from a faint hope that she
might rest unseen; but it was not to be, for, as the stout woman raised
her voice and exclaimed again, "Where's my gal?" fat Ann Straggalls,
with the most amiable of intentions, and prompted by a notable desire to
do the best she could to oblige, exclaimed loudly--
"Please, Mrs Potts, Feelier's here. Oh--oh! Please, teacher,
Feelier--oh my! oh!"
Ann Straggalls was howling loudly, for, just as she finished her
announcement of Feelier's whereabouts, that young lady threw out one
youthful leg, and delivered a sharp kick on Ann Straggalls' shin, the
kick being the sharper from the fact that the class of boot worn by the
Potts family was that known as "stout" and furnished with nails.
"What is the matter here?" exclaimed Hazel, hurrying to the spot.
"Oh, it's that gal of mine," said Mrs Potts, also hurrying up from
another direction. "You just come here, miss."
"Please, teacher, Ann Straggalls's been telling tales."
"Please, teacher, she ki-ki-kicked me."
"You come here, miss," cried Mrs Potts, who had not the slightest
veneration in her nature; and she made a grab at her daughter, who
avoided it by a backward bound over the form upon which she had been
seated, and keeping several girls between her young person and her irate
mamma.
"Mrs Potts, I presume?" said Hazel.
"Yes, my name's Potts, and I'm not ashamed of it neither," said the
woman. "I want my gal."
"Will you have the goodness to come to the door and speak to me?" said
Hazel. "I cannot have the discipline of the school interrupted like
this, Mrs Potts."
The irate lady was about to make an angry retort, but that word
"discipline" was too much for her. Mrs Potts had a husband whose
weakness it was to have "bad breakings out" at times. Not varieties of
eczema, or any other skin disease, but fits of drunkenness, when he
seemed to look upon the various branches of his family as large or small
kinds of mats, which it was his duty to beat, and, from his wife
downwards, he beat them accordingly whenever they came within his reach.
The consequence was, that from time to time he was haled before the
magistrates, and cautioned, and even imprisoned, the justices of the
peace telling him that as he was so fond of disciplining he must receive
wholesome discipline himself, and considerately upon the last occasion
giving him a month.
Now Mrs Potts objected to marital punishment, but it was short if not
sweet, and when it was over Potts went to work. She objected, however,
much more to magisterial punishment, because it fell upon her. If Potts
was fined, she suffered in the housekeeping money by running short, and
if on the other hand he was sent to prison, while he was lying at ease
and fed on bread and water, a pleasantly lowering diet for a man of his
inflammatory nature, she had to set to work and earn by the hard use of
soap, soda, hot water, and much rubbing, the necessary funds to buy food
for the youngsters' mouths.
Discipline, then, had a very important ring to her ears, and she became
amenable directly to the quiet words of authority, following Hazel
meekly to the door, going through the process of wiping a pair of very
crinkly, water-soaked hands upon her apron the while.
"Another time, Mrs Potts, if you will knock at the door, I will come
and talk to you, for, as the mother of children, you must know how
necessary it is to preserve discipline amongst the young."
"Which well I know it, miss; but I'm that aggravated with that limb of a
gal, that if I don't take it out of her I shall be ill."
"What is the matter, then!" cried Hazel.
"Matter, nuss? Why, everything's the matter when that gal's got her own
way. Here did I tell her, only this morning, that, as I'd got to stop
at the wash-tub all day, she must stay at home and look after the little
bairn, and what does she do but take my scissors and cut off every
flower there was, and tie 'em up and slip off. I didn't know where
she'd gone to, till all of a sudden I thought it might be to school; and
here she is. And now I would like to know what she did with them
flowers."
"Flowers!" said Hazel, as a thought flashed across her mind.
"Well, there now, if that ain't them upon your desk, nuss! That's my
love-lies-bleeding, and London-tuft, and roses. Oh, just wait till I
get hold on her. Did she bring 'em to you, miss?"
"Yes, Mrs Potts; she brought me the nosegay. I am very sorry that she
should have done such a thing without asking leave."
"I ain't got much about the house that's nice to look at," said the
woman, gazing wistfully at the flowers; "and she's been and cutten it
all away. But only just wait till I get her home."
"Don't punish the girl, Mrs Potts," said Hazel quietly. "I think it
was from thoughtlessness. Ophelia knew I was fond of flowers, and
brought them for me. I will talk to her about it. Indeed I am very
sorry that she should do such a thing."
"Well, miss, if so be as you're fond o' flowers, and will give her a
good talking to, why I won't say no more about it. Ah, you bad gal!"
This was accompanied by a threatening gesture from the stout lady's
fist, which, however, did not seem to cause Miss Feelier Potts much
alarm, that young personage only looking half defiantly at her parent,
and as soon as the latter's eyes were removed, indulging herself by
making a few derisive gestures.
"You will take the flowers back with you, Mrs Potts. I am very sorry."
"Which I just won't, miss, so now then," said the woman sharply. "If
you like flowers, miss, you shall have 'em; and if you could make a
better gal of that Feelier, I'm sure there ain't nothing I wouldn't do
for you. And now, as my water's all getting cold, I must be off!"
"But you said that you wished Ophelia to come home and help you. I
don't like the girls being kept away, but of course it is her duty to
help you at a time like this. Ophelia Potts."
"Yes, teacher; please I wasn't talking," said Feelier sharply.
"Come here."
"No, no, miss, you let her 'bide, and when I'm gone just you give her a
good talking to."
"And you will not punish her, Mrs Potts?"
"No, miss, I'll leave it all to you;" and, quite tamed down by the quiet
dignity of the young mistress, Mrs Potts returned to her soap and soda,
and the little "bairn" that Feelier was to attend enjoyed itself upon
the doorstep, off which it fell on an average about once every quarter
of an hour, and yelled till it was lifted up by its mother's wet hands,
shaken, and bumped down again, when it returned to its former sport with
its playthings, which consisted of four pebbles and an old shoe, the
former being placed in the latter with solemn care, and shaken out again
with steady persistency, the greatest gratification being obtained
therefrom.
Meanwhile Hazel had an interview with Feelier, who listened attentively
to "teacher's" remarks anent the objectionable plan of stealing other
people's goods when a present is intended in another direction, all of
which Miss Feelier quietly imbibed, and, mentally quoting the words of
common use with her brothers, she said, "She'd be blowed if she'd bring
teacher any more flowers, so there now!" while on being allowed to go
back to her place she solaced herself by giving Ann Straggalls a severe
pinch on the arm, and making her utter a loud cry.