Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Cover art]
A Bunch of Cherries
A STORY OF CHERRY COURT SCHOOL
BY
Mrs. L. T. MEADE
AUTHOR OF
"A Modern Tomboy," "The School Favorite," "Children's Pilgrimage,"
"Little Mother to the Others," Etc.
CHICAGO:
M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
1898
CONTENTS
CHAPTER.
I. The School
II. The Girls
III. The Telegram
IV. Sir John's Great Scheme
V. Florence
VI. Kitty and Her Father
VII. Cherry-Colored Ribbons
VIII. The Letter
IX. The Little Mummy
X. Aunt Susan
XI. "I Always Admired Frankness"
XII. The Fairy Box
XIII. An Invitation
XIV. At the Park
XV. The Pupil Teacher
XVI. Temptation
XVII. The Fall
XVIII. The Guests Arrive
XIX. Tit for Tat
XX. The Hills for Ever
XXI. The Sting of the Serpent
XXII. The Voice of God
A BUNCH OF CHERRIES.
CHAPTER I.
THE SCHOOL.
The house was long and low and rambling. In parts at least it must
have been quite a hundred years old, and even the modern portion was
not built according to the ideas of the present day, for in 1870 people
were not so aesthetic as they are now, and the lines of beauty and
grace were not considered all essential to happiness.
So even the new part of the house had square rooms destitute of
ornament, and the papers were small in pattern and without any artistic
designs, and the windows were square and straight, and the ceilings
were somewhat low.
The house opened on to a wide lawn, and at the left of the lawn was a
paddock and at the right a shrubbery, and the shrubbery led away under
its overhanging trees into the most perfect walled-in garden that was
ever seen. The garden was two or three hundred years old. The oldest
inhabitants of the place had never known the time when Cherry Court
garden was not the talk of the country. Visitors came from all parts
round to see it. It was celebrated on account of its very high walls
built of red brick, its size, for it covered at least three acres of
ground, and its magnificent cherries. The cherry trees in the Court
garden bore the most splendid fruit which could be obtained in any part
of the county. They were in great demand, not only for the girls who
lived in the old house and played in the garden, but for the neighbors
all over the country. A big price was always paid for these cherries,
for they made such splendid jam, as well as being so full of juice and
so ripe and good to eat that their like could not be found anywhere
else.
The cherries were of all sorts and kinds, from the celebrated White
Heart to the black cherry. There were cherries for cooking and
cherries for eating, and in the season the trees, which were laden with
ripe fruit, were a sight to behold.
In the height of the cherry season Mrs. Clavering always gave a cherry
feast. It was the event of the entire year, and the girls looked
forward to it, making all their arrangements in connection with it,
counting the hours until it arrived, and looking upon it as the great
feature of their school year. Everything turned on whether the
cherries were good and the weather fine. There was no greater stimulus
to hard work than the merest mention of this golden day, which came as
a rule towards the end of June and just before the summer vacation.
For Cherry Court School was old-fashioned according to our modern
ideas, and one of its old-fashioned plans was to give holidays at the
end of June instead of the end of July, so that the girls had the
longest, finest days at home, and came back to work at the end of
August refreshed and strengthened, and prepared for a good long tug at
lessons of all sorts until Christmas.
The school consisted of twenty girls, never more and never less, for
Mrs. Clavering was too great a favorite and had too wise and excellent
ideas with regard to education ever to be without pupils, and never
more, for she believed twenty to be the perfect number to whom she
could give every attention and offer every advantage.
The school, small as it was, was divided into two sections, the Upper
and the Lower. In the Upper school were girls from eighteen to
fourteen years of age, and in the Lower some of the small scholars
numbered even as few years as six. There was a resident French
mistress in the school and also a resident German, and there was an
English governess, and, of course, Mrs. Clavering herself; but the
other teachers came from the neighboring town of Hartleway to instruct
the pupils in all those accomplishments which were in the early
seventies considered necessary for a young lady's education. I can
assure those of my readers who are well acquainted with modern schools
that no one could have been more particular than Mrs. Clavering with
regard to her girls. In such things as deportment and nice manners and
all the code which signifies politeness, and in the almost lost art of
brilliant conversation, she could instruct as very few other people
could in her day, and then what accomplishments she did teach were
thorough. The girls were taught French properly, they understood the
grammar of the language, and could also speak it nicely; and their
German was also very fair, if not quite as thorough as their French.
And their music had some backbone in it, for a little of the science
was taught as well as the practice, and their singing was very sweet
and true. They could also recite, those of them who had any gift for
it, quite beautifully, and if they had a turn for acting that also was
brought to the fore and made the most of. As to their knowledge of the
English language, it bade fair to eclipse many of the High School girls
of the present day, for they did understand in the first place its
literature, and in the next its grammar, and were well acquainted with
the works of Shakespeare and those other lions of literature whose
names we are so proud of and whose works we love.