A Mass Meeting
A LARGE school is a state in miniature. Quite apart from the rule of the
mistresses, it has its own particular institutions and its own system of
self-government. In their special domain its officers are of quite as
much importance as Members of Parliament, and wield an influence and an
authority comparable to that of Cabinet Ministers. Tyrannies, struggles
for freedom, minor corruptions, and hot debates have their places here
as well as in the wider world of politics, and many an amateur "Home
Rule Bill" is defeated or carried according to the circumstances of the
case. At Briarcroft Hall there had hitherto existed a pure oligarchy, or
government of the few. The Sixth Form had jealously kept the reins in
their own hands, and, while granting a few privileges to the Fifth, had
denied the slightest right of interference to the Lower School. So far,
though the Juniors had grumbled continually, they had never taken any
steps to redress their grievances. Here and there one of them would
offer an indignant protest, which was treated with scorn by the Seniors,
and things would go on again in the old unsatisfactory fashion.
Gipsy, with the unbiased judgment of an entirely new-comer, had formed
her opinion of the Briarcroft code, and deeming reform necessary, set to
work to preach a crusade. She expounded her views to Hetty Hancock,
Lennie Chapman, and a few other sympathizers, and organized a plan of
campaign.
"What we want to do is to combine," she announced. "It's not the
slightest scrap of good a few single girls going and airing their woes
to the Sixth. They're not likely to listen. If we could show them that
the whole of the Lower School is one big united body, pledged to
resist,--well, they'd just have to give way."
"All the lower Forms feel the same," said Hetty. "I was speaking to the
Third about it this morning."
"How are we going to begin?" asked Lennie.
"We must call a mass meeting of Juniors, and put the thing to them
fairly and squarely," said Gipsy. "Explain what we want, and draw up a
programme of what we mean to do, then see if they'll give their
support."
"Best lose no time about it, then. I'll post up notices at once, and
we'll have a meeting at two o'clock to-morrow afternoon in the
play-room. It's no use letting the grass grow under our feet. Have you a
pencil and a scrap of paper there, Lennie? Give them to me, and I'll
make a rough draft. How will this do, do you think?
"'A Mass Meeting of all Members of the Lower
School will be held in the Junior Play-room on
Wednesday at 2 p.m. prompt. Business: To consider
the question of readjusting the Management of the
various Guilds.
"'Speaker: GIPSY LATIMER.'"
"First rate!" said Lennie. "I'll help you to make some copies. We must
pin one up on the notice board of each Junior classroom, and one in the
dressing-room. It'll make a stir, and no mistake!"
"Rather!" chuckled Hetty. "Gipsy, you're an Oliver Cromwell!"
"You might add: 'Chairman, Hetty Hancock', then I guess it will do,"
said Gipsy, scanning the scrap of paper.
As Lennie had prophesied, the announcement caused a great stir
throughout the Lower School. Excited girls crowded round the notices
discussing the question, and for that day the talk was of nothing else.
Gipsy had rather taken the popular fancy; and though a few considered it
impertinence on the part of a new girl to offer any criticisms on
existing institutions, all were anxious to hear what she had to say on
so absorbing a topic. At 2 p.m. on the Wednesday, therefore, the
play-room was crowded. Juniors of all sorts and conditions were there,
from the tall girls of the Upper Fourth to giggling members of the
Third, and small fry of the First and Second, who felt themselves vastly
important at being included in the proceedings. The instigators of the
movement were determined that the meeting should be held in strict
order. They had placed a table to serve as a platform, and arranged
benches that would accommodate at least a part of the audience.
"Lennie, you make them take their seats properly," commanded Hetty; "big
ones at the back, and little ones in front: those First Form kids can
sit on the floor. Don't stand any nonsense with the Third. Now, Gipsy,
are you ready? Then we'll mount the platform."
Hetty had been studying up her duties as "Chairman", and was anxious to
do the thing in style. She had prepared her speech carefully beforehand.
"Ladies and gentlemen," she began glibly, "at least, I mean girls and
fellow members of our Junior School, my pleasant business this afternoon
is to introduce to you the speaker, Miss Gipsy Latimer. Though she is a
newcomer amongst us, I'm sure we all realize that by her wide experience
of American and Colonial schools she is particularly fitted to speak to
us on the subject in hand. She has had the opportunity of studying the
working of other Societies and Guilds, and she will no doubt be able to
offer us many valuable suggestions. I will not take up the time of the
meeting by any further remarks, but will at once call upon the speaker
to address us."
Hetty sat down, consciously covered with glory. Her own Form cheered
lustily, and even the unruly Third appeared much impressed. The little
girls in the front row were staring round-eyed and open-mouthed with
admiration. Gipsy rose slowly, took one long, comprehensive glance over
her audience, then in her clear, high-pitched tones began her crusade:
"Girls! I'm afraid most of you will think it's rather cheeky of me to
have taken the matter up when I've only been ten days or so at
Briarcroft, and I'd like at the very start to apologize for what really
must look to you like a piece of cocksure presumption. I think you'll
all allow, though, that it's a pretty true saying that 'outsiders see
most of the game'. I've been examining your institutions pretty
carefully since I came, and it seems to me the game's all in the hands
of the Sixth. There are five separate Guilds in this school--the
Needlework, the Photographic, the Dramatic, the Musical, and the
Athletic. I made enquiries about all of them, and I find that though the
Juniors contribute the bulk of the subscriptions, they haven't the least
voice in the arrangements. Now, in the countries I've lived in, such a
state of affairs would be denounced as tyranny pure and simple. I reckon
a school ought to be a democracy, and every member who joins a society
and pays a subscription has a right to have some say at least in the way
the subscriptions are to be spent. If they don't, it's 'taxation without
representation', a bad old mediaeval custom that it's taken some
countries a revolution to get rid of. I put it to the meeting--Are you
willing to sit down and be tyrannized over by the Sixth? Do you mean to
go on paying your shillings, and never getting the least advantage or
satisfaction out of any of the Guilds?"
An indignant roar of "No, no!" came from the audience. Gipsy had stated
the case very clearly. It was what the Juniors had all felt, but had
never fairly voiced before. They wanted to hear more.
"Go on! Go on!" they cried eagerly.
"There are at present ninety-three girls in this school," continued
Gipsy. "Twenty-two are in the Fifth and Sixth, and seventy-one in the
lower Forms. Just compare those figures! Twenty-two Seniors and
seventy-one Juniors! Why, our majority is simply overwhelming. Now, for
an example let us take the Dramatic Guild. At a shilling a year a head,
the subscriptions of the Upper School amount to L1, 2_s._, and those of
the Lower School to L3, 11_s._ I asked how last year's funds were spent,
and found the whole went in hiring Pompadour wigs and other things that
were worn by the Sixth. Only three Juniors took part in the
performances, and they were actually obliged to provide their own
costumes, because there was no money left to buy materials. Now, I ask
you, is such a state of affairs to be tolerated any longer?"
"No!" shrieked a chorus of voices.
"The Dramatic Guild is no exception. All the other societies are equally
bad. The funds ought to be applied to the general good; and if they're
only spent on a few, I call it misappropriation of a trust. In America
and in the Colonies our watchword was always 'Liberty'; and we took care
that all got their rights. Are you Briarcroft girls going to let this
injustice go on, or will you all join together and make a stand for fair
practices? In the name of Liberty, I ask you!"
As Gipsy warmed to her subject her brown eyes flashed and sparkled, and
the whole of her dark face seemed afire with enthusiasm. She looked a
convincing little figure as she stood there, urging the rights of her
schoolfellows, and hardly a girl in the room but was carried away by
her arguments. Instinctively the Juniors felt they had found a leader.
[Illustration: THE LOWER SCHOOL FIND A LEADER]
"I put it to the meeting. Are you ready to combine and stand together?
Those who are in favour, kindly hold up their hands."
Such a clamour arose from the play-room that the noise drifted upstairs
to the ears of the Seniors, who sat all unconscious of the rebellion
that was being preached below. With memories of Wat Tyler, Hampden,
Oliver Cromwell, the Seven Bishops, and other famous champions of the
commonweal fresh in their minds from their history books, the girls were
ready to take any measures suggested to them. There was scarcely a
dissenting voice. Enthusiasm fires enthusiasm. Gipsy's speech seemed an
inspiration, and everybody was agog with interest.
"She's right!"
"We've been kept down too long!"
"I always said it was monstrously unfair!"
"The Seniors will have to give way!"
"We'll get our rights now!"
"I wonder nobody thought of it before!"
The talk burst out on all sides, for every one was eager to have her own
say, and discuss the matter with her neighbour. Even the First Form
children had followed the arguments, and were as keen as anybody. Gipsy
calmly counted the upraised hands, then rang a bell for silence.
"I may take it, then, that the motion is carried by the general consent
of the meeting," she continued. "We're agreed that some stand ought to
be made against the aggressions of the Seniors. Now, the next
question to be considered is what we mean to do, and how we're going to
do it. It seems to me that we ought to have something very definite to
work upon. What I propose is that a picked few of us go as delegates to
the Sixth, and ask for something that has always been refused before.
If, as I expect, they say 'No', then we shall have a just ground of
complaint, and we'll use it as a text at the Annual Meeting to demand a
new arrangement of the Guilds. Four of us ought to make up the
deputation. I'm willing to go for one, and I think I can promise for
Hetty Hancock and Lennie Chapman. Who'll volunteer to be the fourth?"
There was a moment's silence. It was all very well to shout rebellion in
chorus, but the old tradition of awe for the Sixth still oppressed the
Juniors, when it came to the point of openly bearding the lions in
question.
"I will!" said a voice from the back row.
It was Meg Gordon, a member of the Upper Fourth, a rather nice-looking
girl of about Gipsy's own age. Meg had listened with closest attention
and wholehearted agreement, and was prepared to embrace the cause with
the zeal she considered it deserved. If called upon to do so, she would
have been ready even to face Miss Poppleton herself.
"Good!" replied Gipsy. "Then we'll make up a test case. If it's refused,
then we draw up a statement of our grievances, and what we want
reformed, and present it at the General Meeting. If that's also
refused--" (Gipsy paused a moment to let her words take due effect)
"then we show our teeth!"
"What's our programme then?" shouted one of the Lower Fourth.
"I'll tell you. If the Seniors have shown themselves unworthy of our
confidence, they don't deserve our support in any respect. Instead of
voting to elect them as officers, we'll withdraw our subscriptions, and
found a separate system of Guilds for the Lower School alone."
The boldness of Gipsy's suggestion almost took away the breath of her
hearers. To break loose from the hard regime of the Seniors and form a
system of self-governing societies among the Juniors had never occurred
to anybody at Briarcroft before. The idea was splendid in its magnitude.
"It seems to me we've got the game into our own hands if we like,"
continued the speaker. "Nobody can force us to subscribe to societies of
which we don't approve. We'll insist on a referendum of the whole
school, and see how the result turns out. Are you all ready to combine
on this point? Those in favour, please say 'Aye'."
"Aye! Aye! Aye!" arose from all sides.
"Well spoken!"
"Hurrah for the Junior School!"
"Three cheers for Gipsy Latimer!" shouted Hetty Hancock, jumping up
agitatedly from her chair, and nearly falling over the edge of the
platform in the heat of her enthusiasm.
"Hear, Hear!"
"Hip, hip, hip, hooray!"
The excitement was intense. Gipsy's oratory had been quite spontaneous
and unaffected, and like most genuine things it carried conviction to
its hearers. In the midst of a babel of voices the big bell rang for
afternoon school. The girls fled to their various classrooms, discussing
the matter on their way upstairs.
"It's the best idea I've ever heard!" declared Meg Gordon. "Gipsy
Latimer's a trump! I'll support her in anything she proposes."
"I wonder we never thought of such a thing before," said Cassie Bertram.
"Yes, to think of our having stood the Sixth for years, and never making
a move!"
"I think it ought to have come from some of us, though," objected Maude
Helm. "Gipsy's quite a new girl, and it's rather cheek of her to try and
foist her American notions upon us, as if we didn't know anything."
"Oh, you shut up! Why didn't you suggest it yourself?"
"I'm rather of Maude's opinion," said Alice O'Connor. "I agree with the
thing in principle, but I don't like it coming from a new girl."
"New girls oughtn't to run the whole show," added Gladys Merriman.
"Oh, you three! You'd find fault with an angel! For goodness' sake don't
get up these petty little jealousies, and spoil the whole affair. What
does it matter if Gipsy's new? Everybody has to be new some time. She's
shown she's capable of a great deal more than most of us are."
"And she knows it too, doesn't she just?" sneered Maude. "The way she
stood on that platform and talked!"
"It's sheer nastiness on your part, Maude Helm, to try and belittle her!
You won't get much glory for yourself by sticking pins in other people;
and I can tell you, if you're going to set up in opposition to Gipsy,
you've no chance. I'll undertake there's hardly a girl in the Lower
School now who won't side with Gipsy Latimer!"