The School Birthday
When Miss Thompson had bought the connection of The Hawthorns, and
amalgamated that school with her own, she had undertaken a more
difficult task than she had altogether anticipated. She had spoken much
of Silverside traditions, but it had never struck her that the
Hawthorners might have some of their own to which they might cling
tenaciously. It was not easy for the Principal to get to know the exact
mind of the school. She saw the girls in class, respectful,
well-behaved, and very much in awe of her, but it was another matter to
judge the mental barometer of the play-room. She suspected that there
was an undercurrent of trouble: the smallness of the Silverside Hockey
Club, the rival stalls at the bazaar, and the scanty audience at the
dramatic performance had shown her clearly which way the wind was
blowing. She thought the matter over seriously. From her knowledge of
girls she decided that it would be unwise to interfere directly. You
cannot cause rival factions to love each other by act of parliament. She
trusted that time and tact would cement a union, and meanwhile she
meant to hold her judgment in the balance and favour neither party.
On the first day of the next term she made the important announcement
that she had appointed two new prefects, Annie Broadside and Gladys
Wilks, who would be given equal powers with their co-officers. It was a
great step for the day girls to have their former leaders raised to a
recognized position in the school. Though they were only two, as opposed
to four prefects who were boarders, they could look after their own
flock, and redress their grievances. Adah and her companions took the
news badly. They considered that their old privileges were being
outraged.
"What's Miss Thompson _thinking_ of?" asked Consie indignantly.
"She absolutely truckles to those wretched Hawthorners!" declared
Isobel.
"Will Annie and Gladys expect to come to our prefects' meetings?"
demanded Joyce.
"Of course they will! That's the sickening part of it!" said Adah
bitterly. "If Miss Thompson thinks she's going to manage us that way,
she's mistaken. I _won't_ be friends with those Hawthorners! I wish
they'd never come to the school at all!"
"Pretty prefects Annie and Gladys will make!" sneered Joyce.
To do Annie Broadside and Gladys Wilks justice, they made excellent
prefects. They were the acknowledged leaders of their own clique, and
they insisted upon certain rules being obeyed. They even suggested a
few innovations, which, though resisted at first by Adah, were
afterwards acknowledged as so excellent that they were put into force.
It did not add to their favour with the boarders, however, to have the
changes recommended as "what we always did at The Hawthorns".
"What you may have found expedient there need be no law for us here,"
replied Adah with uplifted eyebrows.
January 21st was the school birthday. It was exactly fourteen years
since Miss Thompson had first opened Silverside, and she had kept the
anniversary as a festival ever since. This year it was to be quite a
public occasion. The house was far too small for the increased number of
pupils, and she had decided to build on an annexe, consisting of a large
hall and cloak-rooms. An architect had been busy drawing out plans, but,
owing to the difficulty of getting labour during the war, the contracts
had only just been passed. Now, after many delays, all was in training,
and the builders were ready to begin their work. Miss Thompson felt that
it would be an appropriate act for the foundation stone to be laid on
the school birthday. She was fortunate enough to persuade the Bishop of
the diocese to come and perform the ceremony. It was to be a great day
at Silverside. The girls discussed it freely beforehand, especially the
inmates of the Cowslip Room.
"Ever so many smart people will be there," said Laura delightedly.
"Tommiekins is sending out heaps of invitations. I know, because Miss
Kennedy told Consie, and Consie told Nita Paget. The Bishop will make a
speech."
"And what are _we_ going to do?"
"Stand round and listen, and look intelligent and appreciative, and all
the rest of it, I suppose. We'll have to be saints during the ceremony,
but we'll have some fun afterwards. D'you know the school's to be thrown
open to all sorts of visitors? Not only old fogies who make speeches,
but other people. The day girls may each ask three friends, and they can
bring brothers if they like."
"You don't say so! Miss Thompson _is_ coming on. Are you certain?"
"It's quite true," confirmed Avelyn. "I was allowed an invitation card
too, and I've asked Mother and Daphne and David, and I've got Pamela to
ask Anthony with one of her spare invitations."
"What sport!"
"We'll all have to wear our best dresses," said Janet.
"Rather! You bet we do!"
In preparation for the coming event, a wave of what Miss Hopkins would
have dubbed "worldliness" swept over the Cowslip Room. The girls
reviewed their frocks critically. Laura implored Miss Kennedy to allow
hers to be sent to the dressmaker, to be lengthened two inches. Janet
borrowed the last drops of Ethelberga's before-the-war bottle of
benzoline, to remove a stain left by the dropping, butter-side down, of
a piece of muffin. Avelyn brushed her hair every night with eau de
Cologne to make it glossy. Ethelberga, in defiance of food saving,
begged oatmeal from the cook, and rubbed it on her face to improve her
complexion. Irma, after criticizing the costumes of her friends, sprang
a surprise on them.
"I've sent home for a new dress," she announced carelessly.
"You haven't!"
"Yes, I have, and what's more, I expect it to-morrow. Mother wrote that
she was telling Barclays to post it to me direct."
"Well, I do think you might have told us before."
The other girls felt as if Irma had stolen an advantage. If the idea had
occurred to them they might also have written home for new dresses. It
was unfortunately too late now. Irma alone, of the Cowslip Room, would
attend the festival in the glory of a new gown. She gave herself airs in
consequence. It was an unfortunate characteristic of Irma that she was
apt to get swelled head on occasion. Her room-mates were constantly on
the look-out for symptoms of this complaint, and generally applied
drastic measures before things went too far. In a dormitory it does not
do to allow a girl to maintain too exalted an opinion of herself.
"Irma's swanking no end!" affirmed Ethelberga.
"Putting on side galore!" agreed Janet tartly.
"We ought to do something to take the wind out of her sails a little,"
said Laura, looking pensive.
Avelyn's eyes suddenly sparkled.
"I've got it!" she chuckled. "We'll play a rag on her this afternoon.
It'll be ever such fun! Oh, I've thought of a perfectly gorgeous plan.
No, I don't think I'll tell you what it is yet; but stroll up to the
dormitory as soon after four as you can, and make Irma come too on some
excuse. Then I'll have a little surprise for you."
"You might tell us!"
"No, no! Not a word! It would spoil the surprise."
The members of the Cowslip Room were always ready for some diversion.
They wondered what kind of a practical joke Avelyn was going to play on
Irma. They took particular care to decoy their victim upstairs at four
o'clock. As a bait, Ethelberga offered to lend Irma her manicure set.
They were rubbing pink powder on Irma's almond-shaped nails when a rap
came at the door.
"Entrez!" shouted Janet casually.
It was a demure-eyed junior who made her appearance, carrying a large
parcel.
"This has just come, and it's for your room, so I brought it up," she
announced, dumping it down on the bed, and leaning over to read the
address. "Miss Irma Ridley. Wish it had been Miss Dorothy Elston. I've
no luck. Ta-ta!" and she waved a rather impertinent hand, and trotted
away.
Irma jumped up, upsetting the box of manicure powder, and scattering the
other implements over the floor.
"It's never my box!" she exclaimed.
At that psychological moment Avelyn entered the room.
"I didn't expect it until to-morrow," rejoiced Irma. "They must have
sent it by carrier instead of by post. Lend me your scissors, Janet. Oh,
I'm just dying to look!"
The parcel was a large cardboard box done up in rather untidy brown
paper. It had evidently suffered considerably on the journey. Irma cut
the string with the utmost haste, and began to tear off the wrappers and
open the box.
"I know Mother will have chosen me something pretty," she purred.
"Mother's got such lovely taste, and she wrote that she'd seen the very
thing, and was sure I should like it."
"It's well wrapped up," remarked Janet.
Irma was removing sheet after sheet of tissue paper with a pleased
giggle. At last she reached the core of the package, and unfolded--not a
smart new frock, but her own ordinary school evening dress. Her stare of
blank astonishment was comical.
"What's this? What have they sent me?" she gasped.
But her room-mates were collapsing in various attitudes of mirth, and
she understood. For a moment two red spots flared in her cheeks, then
she had the sense to take the joke with a good grace. If she was angry,
the others shouldn't have the triumph of seeing her annoyance.
"You geese!" she remarked. "I might have known the box couldn't arrive
to-day. So this is why you hauled me upstairs, is it? Oh, go on and
laugh if you like! It doesn't hurt me. I don't mind."
She hung the dress up again in her wardrobe, and folding the sheets of
tissue paper, appropriated them.
"I've been wanting some tissue paper," she said airily.
The girls restrained themselves and sobered down.
"You're a trump, Irma!" declared Avelyn.
"It was too bad, but we couldn't help laughing," murmured Janet.
"Poor old Irmie, you took it sporting!" sympathized Ethelberga.
"You'll like your dress all the more when it really comes," comforted
Laura.
When Irma's parcel arrived the next day her room-mates, having played
their joke upon her, had the grace to be nice and to admire the new
frock, which was a charming creation in blue, and suited its owner
admirably. They went out of their way to be pleasant about it, and
Avelyn lent a hair ribbon which exactly matched the shade of colour,
while Laura offered a chain of Venetian beads. They all felt, as they
dressed for the festival, that if Irma's costume eclipsed the rest of
them, she deserved her little triumph for keeping her temper.
"It's a shame to have to put a coat over it," said Ethelberga.
"Well, she certainly can't stand outside in the cold with only that thin
dress on," decreed Laura.
The ceremony was to take place at three o'clock, and shortly before
that hour all the school, in hats and coats, were marshalled outside to
the spot where the new hall was to be erected. It was a cold, grey
January afternoon, with one or two snowflakes floating down, and
everybody stood and shivered. Some of the invited guests were keeping
warm in the house, and others strolled out to the scene of action. The
girls, drawn up in line, nodded and smiled to many friends from the
town. They were cold, and impatient for the proceedings to begin.
Waiting is weary work on a January afternoon. Their talk, which at first
had been low and subdued, began to buzz, and rose higher and higher.
"What a disgraceful noise!" said Adah. "It's all those wretched
Hawthorners. If Miss Thompson brings out the Bishop while all this
clamour is going on she'll be thoroughly ashamed of the school. Less
noise, girls! Do you hear?"
The girls heard perfectly well, but they did not heed, and the hum of
unrestrained conversation continued. Adah waxed desperate.
"This can't go on! It mustn't!" she said indignantly.
She thought for a moment, then took an extreme measure. She walked up to
Annie Broadside, and confronted her with flashing eyes.
"You're a prefect! If you've any influence with your old crew, why don't
you stop this din? It's a disgrace to Silverside! I've said what I can!"
Annie looked astonished, but for once she fell in with the head girl's
suggestion. Passing along the lines, she commanded silence, and she was
obeyed. Where Adah had failed to restore order, she succeeded. At that
moment the house door opened, and Miss Thompson appeared, ushering out
the Bishop--a reverend figure in gaiters--and followed by the mistresses
and a number of guests. A dead hush fell upon the school, and all eyes
were fixed at attention.
The little ceremony was not very long--perhaps the Bishop himself felt
the cold. There were one or two brief speeches, and Edna Esdale, the
youngest member of Form I, handed a trowel decorated with ribbons, a dab
of mortar was deposited, and the foundation stone laid. The girls sang
"God Save the King", then, as the snow was beginning to come down in
good earnest, everybody thankfully turned into the house. It was
certainly a crowd, but it was pleasant to meet friends. The Watson
family had all turned up, and had actually brought Mrs. Reynolds with
them, to Pamela's great triumph, for as a rule her mother shunned all
public gatherings. The poor lady, though very nervous, seemed to be
mildly enjoying herself.
"I am glad Pam didn't ask her uncle," thought Avelyn. "I shouldn't have
been surprised if he had insisted on coming!"
There was actually a birthday cake for the school, with fourteen little
candles on it, and the Bishop, at Miss Thompson's request, cut the first
slice. There was only enough for visitors, but the girls had had the
satisfaction of viewing it lighted beforehand, and had known that it
was not big enough to go round, so consequently were not disappointed.
Irma, in her new blue dress, produced quite a sensation among those of
her form who had not yet seen its beauties. Its attractions even went
further.
Miss Thompson, ciceroning the Bishop round the premises and expatiating
on the value of her new scheme of ventilation, let her eyes pass over a
line of girls, flattening themselves dutifully against the wall, and
singled out the creation in blue.
"We've many nice children here. Come here, Irma dear! This one is Irma
Ridley. Run, child, and fetch me your Nature notebook. I should like the
Bishop to look at it. We make a point of Nature study, my Lord."
Irma departed on her errand like a blue sunbeam. She stood smiling and
speechless while the great Church dignitary benevolently examined her
record of the months, and murmured his approval.
"Miss Thompson says it all went off splendidly," declared Janet, as the
girls warmed themselves at the class-room fire afterwards.
"David and Anthony called it 'ripping!'" affirmed Avelyn.
"And _I_ was introduced to the Lord Bishop of Howchester!" triumphed
Irma, with the glamour of the honour still dancing in her shining eyes.