PRISSY'S COMPROMISE.
After the turmoil and excitement of the notably adventurous days which
ended with the capture of the castle, the succeeding weeks dragged
strangely. The holidays were dwindling as quickly as the last grains
of sand in an hourglass, and there was an uneasy feeling in the air
that the end of old and the beginning of new things were alike at
hand.
Mr. Picton Smith returned from London the day after the great battle.
That afternoon he was closeted for a long time with Mr. Burnham, but
not even the venturesome Sir Toady Lion on his hands and knees, could
overhear what the two gentlemen had to say to each other. At all
events Mr. Smith did not this time attempt to force any confession
from the active combatants. His failure on a former occasion had been
complete enough, and he had no desire once more to confess himself
worsted by Hugh John's determination to abjure all that savoured even
remotely of the "dasht-mean."
But it is certain that the Smoutchy ringleaders were not further
punished, and Mr. Smith took no steps to enforce the interdict which
he had obtained against trespassers on the castle island.
For it was about this time that Prissy, having taken a great deal of
trouble to understand all the bearings of the case, at last, with a
brave heart, went and knocked at her father's study door.
"Come in," said the deep grave voice instantly, sending a thrill
through the closed door, which made her tremble and rather wish that
she had not come.
"Saint Catherine of Siena would not have been afraid," she murmured to
herself, and forthwith opened the door.
"Well, little girl, what is it? What can I do for you?" said her
father, smiling upon her; for he had heard of her ambassadorial picnic
to the Smoutchies, and perhaps his daughter's trustful gentleness had
made him a little ashamed of his own severity.
Prissy stood nerving herself to speak the words which were in her
heart. She had seen Peace and kindly Concord bless her mission from
afar; and now, like Paul before King Agrippa, she would not be
unfaithful to the heavenly vision.
"Father," she said at last, "you don't really want to keep people out
of the castle altogether, do you?"
"Certainly not, if they behave themselves," said her father, "but the
mischief is that they don't."
"But suppose, father, that there was some one always there to see that
they did behave, would you mind?"
"Of course not," replied her father, "but you know, Prissy, I can't
afford to keep a man down on the island to see that sixpenny trippers
don't pull down my castle stone by stone, or break their own necks by
falling into the dungeon."
Prissy thought a little while, and then tried a new tack.
"Father"--she went a little nearer to him and stroked the cuff of his
coat-sleeve--"does the land beyond the bridge belong to you?"
Mr. Picton Smith moved away his hand. Her mother used to do just that,
and somehow the memory hurt. Nevertheless, all unconsciously, the
touch of the child's hand softened him.
"No, Prissy," he said wonderingly, "but what do you know about such
things?"
"Nothing at all," she answered, "but I am trying to learn. I want
everybody to love you, and think you as nice as I know you to be.
Don't you think you could let some one you knew very well live in the
little lodge by the white bridge, and keep out the horrid people, or
see that they behaved themselves?"
"The town would never agree to that," said her father, not seeing
where he was being led.
"Don't you think the town's people would if you gave them the
sixpences all for themselves?"
Her father pushed back his chair in great astonishment and looked at
Prissy.
"Little girl," he said very gravely, "who has been putting all this
into your head? Has anybody told you to come to me about this?"
Prissy shook her head quickly, then she looked down as if embarrassed.
"Well, what is it? Go on!" said her father, but the words were more
softly spoken than you would think only to see them printed.
"Nobody told me about anything--I just thought about it all myself,
father," she answered, taking courage from a certain look in Mr.
Smith's eyes; "once I heard you say that the money was what the
town's-people cared about. And--and--well, I knew that Jane Housemaid
wanted to get married to Tom Cannon, and you see they can't, because
Tom has not enough wages to take a house."
Prissy was speaking very fast now, rattling out the words so as to be
finished before her father could interpose with any grown-up questions
or objections.
"And you know I remembered last night when I was lying awake that
Catherine would have done this----"
"What Catherine?" said her father, who did not always follow his
daughter's reasoning.
"Saint Catherine of Siena, of course," said Prissy, for whom there was
no other of the name; "so I came to you, and I want you to let Tom
and Jane have the cottage, and Jane can take up the sixpences in a
little brass plate like the one Mr. Burnham gets from the
churchwardens on Sunday. And, oh! but I would just love to help her.
May I sometimes, father?"
"Well," said her father, laughing, "there is perhaps something in what
you say; but I don't think the Provost and Magistrates would ever
agree. Now run away and play, and I will see what can be done."
* * * * *
But all the same Prissy did not go and play, and it was not Mr. Picton
Smith who saw what could be done. On the afternoon of the same day the
Provost of the good town of Edam entered the Council Chamber wiping
his face and panting vigorously. He was a stout man of much good
humour when not crossed in temper, the leading chemist and druggist in
the town, and as the proprietor of more houses and less education than
any man in Edam, of very great influence among the councillors.
"Well, billies," he cried jovially, "what do you think? There's a lass
has keep'd me from the meetin' of this council for a full half-hour."
"A lass!" answered the senior bailie, still more hilariously, "that's
surely less than proper. I will be compelled to inform Mrs. Lamont of
the fact."
"Oh, it was a lassie of twelve or thirteen," answered the Provost. "So
none of your insinuations, Bailie Tawse, and I'll thank you. She had a
most astonishing tale to tell. It appears she is Picton Smith's
lassie from Windy Standard; and she says to me, says she, 'Provost, do
you want to have the tourist folk that come to Edam admitted to the
castle?' says she. 'Of course,' says I, 'that is what the law-plea is
about. That dust is no settled yet.' 'Then,' says she, brisk as if she
was hiring me at Yedam fair, 'suppose my father was willing to let ye
charge a sixpence for admission, would you pay a capable man his wages
summer and winter to look after it--a man that my father would approve
of?' 'Aye,' says I, 'the council would be blythe and proud to do
that'--me thinking of my sister's son Peter that was injured by a
lamp-post falling against him last New Year's night as he was coming
hame frae the Blue Bell. 'Then,' says she, 'I think it can be managed.
My father will put Tom Cannon in the lodge at the white bridge. You
will pay him ten shillings in the week for his wife looking after the
gate and taking the parties over the castle.' 'His wife,' says I; 'Tom
is no married that ever I heard.' 'No,' says she, 'but he will be very
quick if he gets the lodge.' Then I thocht that somebody had put her
up to all this, and I questioned her tightly. But no--certes, she is a
clever lass. I verily believe if I had said the word she would hae
comed along here to the council meeting and faced the pack o' ye. But
I said to her that she might gang her ways hame, and that I would put
the matter before the council mysel'!"
[Illustration: "'THEN,' SAID PRISSY, 'I THINK IT CAN BE MANAGED.'"]
The Provost, who had been walking up and down all the time and wiping
his brow, finally plumped solidly into his chair. There was a mighty
discussion--in which, as usual, many epithets were bandied about; but
finally it was unanimously agreed that, if the offer were put on a
firm and legal basis and the interdict withdrawn, the "Smith's Lassie"
compromise, as it was called for brevity, might be none such a bad
solution of the difficulty for all parties.
Thus by the wise thought and brave heart of a girl was the great
controversy ended. And now the tourist and holiday-maker, each after
his kind, passes his sixpence into the slot of a clicking gate,
instead of depositing it in the brazen offertory salver, which had
been the desire of Prissy's heart.
"For," said one of the councillors generously, when the plate was
proposed, "how do we know that Mrs. Cannon might not keep every second
sixpence for herself--or maybe send it up to Mr. Smith? We all know
that she was long a servant in his house. No, no, honesty is
honesty--but it's better when well looked after. Let us have a patent
'clicker.' I have used one attached to my till for years, and found it
of great utility in the bacon-and-ham trade."
But the change made no difference to Hugh John and no difference to
Toady Lion; for they came and went to the castle by the
stepping-stones, and Cissy Carter took that way too, leaping as nimbly
as any of them from stone to stone.
On the Sunday after this was finally arranged, Mr. Burnham gave out
his text:--
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God."
And this is the way he ended his sermon: "There is one here to-day
whom I might without offence or flattery call a true child of God. I
will not say who that is; but this I will say, that I, for one, would
rather be such a peacemaker, and have a right to be called by that
other name, than be general of the greatest army in the world."
"I think he must mean the Provost--or else my father," said Prissy to
herself, looking reverently up to where, in the front row of the upper
seats, the local chief magistrate sat, mopping his head with a red
spotted handkerchief, and sunning himself in the somewhat sultry beams
of his own greatness.
As for Hugh John, he declared that for a man who could row in a
college boat, and who worshipped an old blue coat hung up in a glass
case, Mr. Burnham said more drivelling things than any man alive or
dead.
And Toady Lion said nothing. He was only wondering all through the
service whether he could catch a fly without his father seeing
him.--He found that he could not. After this failure he remembered
that he had a brandy ball only half sucked in his left trousers'
pocket. He got it out with some difficulty. It had stuck fast to the
seams, and finally came away somewhat mixed up with twine, sealing
wax, and a little bit of pitch wrapped in leather. But as soon as he
got down to it the brandy ball proved itself thoroughly satisfactory,
and the various flavours developed in the process of sucking kept
Toady Lion awake till the blessed "Amen" released the black-coated
throng.
Toady Lion's gratitude was almost an entire thanksgiving service of
itself.
As he came out through the crowded porch, he put his hand into his
father's, and with a portentous yawn piped out in his shrillest voice,
"Oh, I is so tired."
The smile which ran round the late worshippers showed that Toady Lion
had voiced the sentiments of many of Mr. Burnham's congregation.
At this moment Mr. Burnham himself came out of the vestry just in time
to hear the boy's frank expression of opinion.
"Never mind, Toady Lion," he said genially, "the truth is, I was a
little tired myself to-day. I promise not to keep you quite so long
next Sunday morning. You must remind me if I transgress. Nobody will,
if you don't, Toady Lion."
"Doan know what 'twansguess' is--but shall call out loud if you goes
on too long--telling out sermons and textises and fings."
As they walked along the High Street of Edam, Prissy glanced
reverently at the Provost.
"Oh, I wish I could have been a peacemaker too, like him," she sighed,
"and then Mr. Burnham might have preached about me. Perhaps I will
when I grow up."
For next to Saint Catherine of Siena, the Provost was her ideal of a
peacemaker.
As they walked homeward, Mr. Burnham came and touched Prissy on the
shoulder.
"Money cannot buy love," he said, somewhat sententiously, "but you, my
dear, win it by loving actions."
He turned to Toady Lion, who was trotting along somewhat sulkily,
holding his sister's hand, and grumbling because he was not allowed to
chase butterflies on Sunday.
"Arthur George," said Mr. Burnham, "if anybody was to give you a piece
of money and say, 'Will you love me for half-a-crown,' you couldn't do
it, could you?"
"Could just, though!" contradicted Toady Lion flatly, kicking at the
stones on the highway.
"Oh no," his instructor suavely explained, "if it were a bad person
who asked you to love him, you wouldn't love him for half-a-crown,
surely!"
Toady Lion turned the matter over.
"Well," he said, speaking slowly as if he were thinking hard between
the words, "it might have to be five sillin's if he was _very_ bad!"