Ructions
By the end of a few weeks Avelyn began to feel more settled down in her
new quarters at Silverside. The old pupils might regret the former
regime, but she was tolerably satisfied with the new. She was in the
fifth form, and found the work not too arduous, and liked Miss Kennedy,
her teacher. She had been accustomed to the bustle of a large school,
and, though Laura Talbot might rave against the crowded conditions, to
Avelyn it was amusing to be in a room crammed full of girls. School is a
separate world of its own, and often a curious one. To outsiders and to
its Principal, Silverside might appear as an enterprise that was growing
and prospering exceedingly. Its numbers had suddenly more than doubled,
it had fresh teachers, and was going to build a cloak-room and a
gymnasium; nothing could seemingly have more hope of success. Inwardly,
however, it was a seething whirl of opposing factions. The old and the
new did not readily amalgamate. The boarders were jealous of their
rights, and would not yield an inch of the privileged position they had
always been wont to occupy; while the Hawthorners, accustomed to the
absolute democracy of a day school, could not and would not understand
why boarders should expect to have any privileges at all.
Trouble began on the very second day of term. Adah, in her new capacity
of head girl, had pinned a paper on the notice board announcing a
general meeting of the Dramatic Society for 4.15 in the studio. The old
members turned up at the time named, to find a group of Hawthorners
already in possession of the room. Adah, after waiting a minute, glanced
at the clock and coughed significantly; then, as this produced no
result, she remarked:
"Won't you be rather late if you're not getting home soon?"
"We don't much mind," returned Annie Broadside easily.
"Well, the fact is, we want to use this room," continued Adah. "We're
going to have a meeting."
"I know. That's why we've come."
Adah's eyebrows elevated themselves to an astonishing angle.
"You've come to our meeting?" she exclaimed incredulously.
"Certainly we have. Why not?"
Annie asked the question aggressively.
"Because you're not members of the Dramatic."
"But we want to join."
Adah turned to her friends, who stood looking scornfully at the
intruders.
"Did you hear that?" she remarked. "They actually want to join the
Dramatic!"
"Cheek!" murmured Consie, and the others giggled.
"And why shouldn't we join?" flamed Gladys Wilks.
"Why? Because you're day girls, and the Dramatic's only for boarders.
That's the reason."
"It's no reason at all," answered Maggie Stuart sharply. "The boarders
have no right to monopolize any society. It ought to be free and open to
the whole school."
"But it can't!" snapped Adah. "Surely you can see for yourselves that it
wouldn't work. We have all our rehearsals in the evenings, when day
girls couldn't possibly come."
"You could fix them from four to five instead," suggested Annie.
"We're not going to alter our arrangements for anybody," returned Adah
tartly.
"The boarders have always run the Dramatic," added Consie. "We'd like to
begin our meeting, please, when we can have the studio to ourselves."
"Oh, very well! Keep your wretched society to yourselves if you want!"
yapped Annie; "but I'll tell you this, at any rate, I think it's most
monstrously unfair. You needn't expect us to help you with any of your
schemes, for we just shan't!"
"Don't excite yourselves--we haven't asked you!" sneered Consie
freezingly as the Hawthorners flounced out of the room.
At first the committee was too agitated to discuss business. It was
ablaze with indignation at the impudence of mere day girls aspiring to
join the select circle.
"How could we let them?" fluttered Joyce Edwards. "To begin with, there
wouldn't be enough parts to go round, nor enough costumes. Dear me! we
should have the Juniors expecting to appear on the platform! What next,
I wonder? We Seniors have always done the acting, and let the kids and
day girls make the audience."
"And we'll go on doing so!" declared Adah. "We're the prefects, and
we'll manage the school affairs as we like, without interference from
anybody."
The decision about the Dramatic was the same as regarded most of the
other societies. The boarders kept them jealously to themselves. The day
girls grumbled, even protested indignantly, but they were powerless to
make any change. The four prefects were all boarders, and exercised
their newly-granted authority for their own advantage. Miss Thompson had
no idea of the state of affairs. In appointing as school officers girls
who had been with her for some years, she thought she was safeguarding
the tone of Silverside and preserving its traditions intact. She had
certainly no intention of establishing an oligarchy; yet in effect that
was what had resulted. The members of the Boarders' League felt pledged
to support one another against all outsiders, and every activity of the
school was in the hands of a clique.
Adah, as head girl, was intensely patronizing. She was puffed up with
pride in her new office, and would explain Silverside customs with an
airy superiority which aggravated the Hawthorners continually. Their
injured souls rallied round Annie Broadside. Annie was a born leader.
She keenly resented the state of affairs, and meant to show fight. She
only waited a suitable opportunity, and at length it came.
For the first few weeks of term the boarders had been busy with various
affairs on Saturdays, and had contented themselves with an occasional
game of tennis and croquet. At the beginning of October they suddenly
realized that the hockey season was beginning. So far hockey, and indeed
any organized games, had been only very languidly pursued at Silverside.
The smallness of the school had not given a wide choice of champions,
and for some years the elder girls had been more interested in botany
and butterfly collecting than in sports.
Silverside had had a hockey team, and had occasionally played a match,
though it could not pride itself on its record of goals. The present
prefects had never distinguished themselves remarkably at athletics, but
they were sufficiently enthusiastic to wish the school to win successes.
They called a boarders' meeting to discuss matters.
"We ought to have a splendid games club this term," smiled Adah
complacently. "There should be several sets of hockey going on in the
same afternoon."
"There isn't room in the field for more than one," ventured Laura
Talbot.
"Then we must take a larger field," decreed Consie. "With so many new
subscriptions we can easily afford it."
"Ninety-five girls instead of only thirty-six in a school make a
difference," admitted Irma Ridley.
"The treasurer will have quite a nice little sum in hand," chuckled
Isobel Norris.
"I want the school to begin and make a name for itself," said Adah. "I
don't want to say anything against Jessie Carew and Maggie Stephens,
last year, but really we all know they were slackers."
"Silverside must buck up!" agreed the others.
"You, Laura, and Janet, and Ethelberga have the makings of good players
in you," murmured Adah reflectively, "and of course Consie and myself,
and perhaps Joyce."
"What about the Hawthorners?" asked Isobel.
"We shall have to include them, of course."
"Couldn't get up the teams without them, I'm afraid," sniggered Minnie
Selburn.
Adah stared hard at Minnie, who straightened her face and sat up
stiffly.
"In the matter of hockey, of course, everybody in the school, whether
day girl or boarder, will be invited to join," continued Adah.
"Some of those Hawthorners are jolly good," ventured Mona Bardsley.
"They won ever so many matches last year, I believe," added Alice
Webster.
"Whom did they play?" asked Adah quickly.
"I don't know."
"I do," said Avelyn, speaking for the first time. "It was Workington
Ladies' College, Mirton High School, Redlands County School, and
Harlingden Ladies' Team, and they beat them all, except Harlingden, and
that was a draw."
Adah was rapidly scribbling some entries in her notebook.
"We'll challenge Workington Ladies' College," she announced. "I wanted
us to do it last year, but we decided our team wasn't strong enough.
I'll write to their secretary to-night and make a fixture. It would be a
tremendous triumph for Silverside to beat Workington. They've rather a
reputation."
"The old school's going to forge ahead!" smiled Consie.
"We'll ask Miss Thompson to speak about hiring that larger field," said
Isobel. "We'd better secure it at once, in case the farmer should let it
to anybody else."
Next day Adah pinned up a notice, announcing that hockey would begin on
the following Saturday afternoon, and asking all girls to sign their
names as members of the games club, and to pay their subscriptions to
the treasurer. She watched the day girls come and surge round the notice
board, then she ran upstairs to her form room. She considered that she
was performing her duties admirably as head of the school.
Meantime, downstairs, a ferment was going on that would have surprised
her. The grumblings and dissatisfaction increased till a whisper began
to circulate.
"Annie Broadside says, don't sign or do anything yet, but let the 'Old
Hawthorners' League' meet on the common this afternoon at 4.15. Pass
this on, and all turn up."
The boarders could not understand why, that afternoon, the day girls
scuttled away so promptly at four o'clock, and seemed in such a frantic
hurry to get on their boots and be gone. As a rule they loitered about
in an annoying fashion, and were seldom clear of the premises till
half-past four. The prefects ventured the opinion that Silverside rules
were at last beginning to be properly kept. They would have been
immensely electrified if they could have seen what was really happening.
Not far from the house was a small common, which most of the girls were
bound to pass on their way to and from school. To-day, instead of going
home they trooped here. There was an old tree stump at one side, and
Annie, scrambling to the top of it, and holding on by a branch, made it
serve as an orator's platform from which to address her audience, which
stood below. She first of all looked round critically.
"Are we all here?" she began.
Several voices replied:
"All who could come."
"Some girls had to catch trains."
"And the Potters had music lessons."
"And Trissie Marsh had to go to the dentist's."
"But they sympathize. They'd have come if they could."
"I'm glad to hear that," continued Annie. "I like to know I have your
sympathy. Are we all old Hawthorners?"
"Yes, yes!"
"And no spies among us?"
"Certainly not!"
"Then I can speak freely. I want to say, what I'm sure we all think,
that we're perfectly disgusted with the way those boarders have been
behaving. They speak as if the school existed for them, and them alone.
Some societies we aren't allowed to join at all, and those that we may
belong to are kept well in their own hands, because they appoint
themselves as presidents, and secretaries, and treasurers, and members
of committee. We simply haven't a look in anywhere. Now, I ask you, is
this fair?"
"Not at all!" howled the girls.
"We're exactly in the position of serfs, and it's monstrous. What right
have those boarders to rule over us?"
"None!"
"It's quite time we showed our spirit. I've been wondering for a long
time how we could checkmate them, and now I see my way clear. They're
going to start the hockey season."
"Yes!"
"Who do you think will make all the arrangements and be captains of the
teams? Boarders or day girls?"
"Why, boarders, of course."
"And who are the best players; who are going to win the goals?"
"_We_ are!"
"Of course, we are; everybody knows that! But the boarders would take
all the credit, and talk about _their_ successes. The very idea makes me
ill! Why should we play for _them_?"
"Why, indeed?"
"We're not obliged to. Our Saturdays are our own, and nobody can make us
come and play hockey if we don't want. I vote we just say we won't join
their old games club. Let's start a rival one of our own."
"Yes, yes! Oh, do let us!"
"We'll call it 'The Old Hawthorners' Hockey Club', and we'll hire our
old ground and wear our old colours, and play matches of our own, and
let those conceited Silversiders go to Jericho."
Annie's daring suggestion met with a chorus of applause. The
Hawthorners, made to feel unwelcome in their new school, clung
desperately to their old traditions. They had had an excellent hockey
record in past years, and felt confident that they could raise a team
sufficiently strong to challenge their former rivals to matches.
"Will you elect Gladys as secretary?" asked Annie. "That's all right.
And Maggie as treasurer? Then give in your names, and bring your
subscriptions to-morrow, and I'll go this very night and see about
getting our old field. It belongs to Mr. Gardner, and my father knows
him quite well, so I'm sure we shall manage it. If not, we'll hire
another field."
"Or play on the common," declared the girls as they crowded round Gladys
Wilks, giving in their names.
Adah Gartley had kept her word and written immediately to the secretary
of Workington Ladies' College, who had replied by return of post,
arranging a match for a date in November. She showed the letter with
much satisfaction to the boarders after breakfast.
"By the by, have those day girls paid their subscriptions yet to the
Games Club?" she asked suddenly.
"Not one of them," answered Isobel.
"The blighters! And hockey begins to-morrow. Isn't it just like day
girls? I must talk to them about it at eleven o'clock 'break'."
The day girls were busy consuming packets of lunch when Adah, glass of
milk and piece of bread and butter in hand, strolled amongst them, bent
on her mission.
"Look here, you slackers! D'you know you've never paid your half-crowns
yet? Can't admit anybody to the hockey field who hasn't given in her
subscription--that's one of the traditions of Silverside."
"Is it?" said Annie Broadside casually. "I can't see that it concerns
us."
"You'll see to-morrow when you get to the field. A nice little
disappointment it will be for you to find you're not allowed to play."
Annie took a big bite of oatcake and gulped it.
"Suppose we don't want to play?"
"Not want to play!" Adah's expression was one of sheer incredulity.
"Why should we? You boarders have taken up all the other societies, so
you may have the hockey as well. We don't want to intrude on your
privileges, thanks!"
"But I say," blustered Adah, "you _must_ play! We've got to win matches
and keep up the credit of the school."
"Keep it up yourselves!" put in Gladys sarcastically. "You've rubbed it
into us hard enough that it's only you who understand the school
traditions, and we're nothing but outsiders!"
"But you're keen on hockey! Surely you want to play?" Adah was making a
desperate effort to curb her temper and be conciliatory.
"Certainly we do, but we're going to have a club to ourselves."
"You can't here!"
"We don't mean to try. It's an 'Old Hawthorners' Club', and nothing to
do with Silverside."
"But you mustn't! You shan't go ratting like this!" exploded Adah,
scarlet with indignation.
"Don't get excited!" said Annie politely. "There's nothing to prevent
us. Our Saturdays are our own, and nobody can compel us to come to
school and play hockey if we don't want."
"You miserable blighters!"
"There! Keep a civil tongue, please. I thought the traditions of
Silverside didn't run to slang. Perhaps you'd like to arrange a match
with us: 'The Old Hawthorners' versus 'Silverside Boarders'? Gladys is
our secretary, and will book it."
"I shall do nothing of the sort!" choked Adah, beating as dignified a
retreat as she could.
It was certainly a terrible blow for the prefects. They had counted
entirely on the strength of the day girls in arranging teams. To be
deserted in this fashion meant the ruin of the hockey season. They were
aghast at the bad news.
"I wonder if Miss Thompson can refuse the larger field?" speculated
Joyce.
"We certainly can't afford to hire it with the subscriptions we've got,"
mourned Isobel.
"And it's not the slightest use our trying a match with Workington, for
we should only get a jolly good licking," announced Consie. "We don't
want to court disaster."
"I shall write to the secretary to-night," said Adah bitterly, "and tell
her we've been obliged to make other arrangements. Those day girls are
the absolute limit!"
"Don't you think," ventured Isobel, "that perhaps you've been a little
high-handed? If you'd tried to conciliate them, now----"
"Conciliate!" echoed Adah scornfully. "Really, Isobel, what next? If you
think I'm going to truckle to day girls, you're much mistaken."
"I'm afraid we're making a good many mistakes," murmured Isobel, but too
low for her friend to overhear her.
The three other prefects certainly laid the blame of this occurrence on
Adah, and considered that, if they had conducted the negotiations in her
place, they would have been able to manage the refractory Hawthorners.
Though they always loyally supported their head girl, they were quite
aware that her overbearing manners gave offence. They sometimes suffered
from her themselves. She had so thoroughly established herself as
leader, however, that it was not possible to break away from her rule.
She had been longer than any other girl at Silverside, and thus stood
for the old traditions. Whether these in the end were going to prove the
best for the school was a matter that admitted of some debate.