SIR JOHN'S GREAT SCHEME.
It was in this way that the great prize which caused such excitement in
Cherry Court School was started.
It was called the Scholarship prize, and was a new and daring idea of
the early seventies. Girls were not accustomed to big prizes in those
days, and scholarships were only in vogue in the few public schools
which were then in existence.
Sir John and Mrs. Clavering between them drew up a scheme which put
every other idea into the shade, for there was a great honor to be
conferred as well as a very big money prize, and the girls were
stimulated to try their very best. It was arranged that the prize was
to be competed for between this day in early June and the day when the
Cherry Feast was held by the entire Upper school, but that after that
date the competitors were only to number three. The three girls who
came out in the first list at the time of the Cherry Feast were to
compete for the great prize itself in the following October, and Mrs.
Clavering had made private arrangements with Sir John to keep Kitty at
the school, in case she came out one of the first three, until October,
when the prize itself was to be won.
There were three tests which were to qualify for the prize. First and
above all, good conduct; an unselfish, brave, noble character would
rank very high indeed. Second would come neat appearance and admirable
deportment, which would include graceful conversation, polite manners
and all those things which are more or less neglected in modern
education; and last of all would come the grand educational test.
Thus every idea of the school would be turned more or less topsy-turvy,
for Sir John's scheme was so peculiar and his prize so munificent that
it was worth giving up everything else to try for.
The prize itself was to consist of a free education at Cherry Court
School for the space of three years; accompanying it was a certificate
in parchment, which in itself was to be considered a very high honor;
and thirdly, a locket set with a beautiful ruby to represent a cherry,
which was the badge of the school.
When the great day arrived it was decided that the happy winner of this
great prize would receive the fees for a year's schooling in a purse
presented to her by Sir John himself, also the scroll of merit and the
beautiful ruby locket.
The news of Sir John's bounty and the marvelous prize which was to be
offered to the fortunate girls was the talk of the entire school. Even
Kitty, who little guessed how deeply she was concerned in the matter,
could scarcely think of anything else. It diverted her mind from her
coming sorrow. On the day that the prize was formally announced she
sat down to write to her father to inform him on the subject.
"It is too wonderful," she wrote; "I was the most miserable girl in all
the world when I got your telegram. I scarcely knew what I was doing,
and then Mrs. Clavering took me into her oak parlor and told me still
further bad news. That I--oh, father dear, oh, father--that I was to
go and live with Helen Dartmoor. How could you think of it, father?
But there, she said it had to be, and I felt nearly wild. You don't
know what I was suffering, although I tried so very hard to be brave.
I am suffering still, but not quite so badly, for what do you think
happened in the evening.
"You know, or perhaps you don't know, that at the end of summer there
is always such a glorious day--it is called Cherry Feast Day, and is
given in honor of the school, which is called Cherry Court School. The
whole day is given up to festivities of every sort and description, and
all the neighborhood are invited to a great big Cherry Feast in the
evening.
"The feast is held in the walled-in garden, which is lit with colored
lanterns. In the very centre of the garden is a grass sward, the
greenest grass you ever saw, father, and, oh, so smooth--as smooth as
velvet, and on this grass, lit with fairy lamps, the girls dance all
kinds of stately, wonderful, old-fashioned dances, and the neighbors
sit round and watch, and then at the end we all go into the house, into
the great oak hall in the middle, and Mrs. Clavering gives the prizes
to the lucky girls.
"Of course, feasts of cherries are the order of the hour, and we wear
cherry ornaments if possible. You cannot imagine how full of cherries
we are in the school, even to cherry-colored ribbons, you know.
"Well, yesterday, when your dreadful telegram came, was the day when we
were to draw up a programme for the Cherry Feast, and when all we girls
came into the oak parlor in the evening--I mean all the girls of the
Upper school, for the little ones, although they enjoy the feast
splendidly at the time, are never allowed to know much of the
preparations--well, when we were all in the oak parlor who should come
in but Mrs. Clavering and such a tall, stately, splendid-looking man.
His name is Sir John Wallis, and it seems, father dear, that he knows
all about you, for he called me up afterwards and spoke to me, and he
put his arm round my waist, and when he said good-bye he even kissed
me, and he said that you and he were some of the heroes before
Sebastopol. Oh, father, he did speak so splendidly of you, and he
looked so splendid himself, I quite loved him, I did really. But
there, how I am digressing, father!
"Mrs. Clavering gave out the programme for the day--the usual sort, you
know, the dancing on the lawn in the evening, and the crowds of
spectators, and the assembling in the big hall for the prizes to be
given out to all the lucky girls who had won them.
"Of course, I won't get any this year. I have not been at school long
enough, although I am trying and working very hard. Well, Mrs.
Clavering read out the usual programme and we all stood by and
listened, and I could not help glancing at Sir John, although I had not
spoken to him then, and did not know, not a bit of it, that he knew
you, darling, precious father.
"But all of a sudden Sir John himself came forward and he took Mrs.
Clavering's place on the little rostrum, as they call it, and he spoke
in such a loud, penetrating, and yet beautiful voice, and he said that
he, with Mrs. Clavering's permission, had a scheme to propose.
"He began by saying how he loved the school, how he had always loved
it, how his own mother had been educated at Cherry Court School, and
how he thought there was no school like it in the world, and then he
said that he was anxious, now that he had returned home to live and was
growing an old man himself, to do something for the school, and he
proposed there and then to offer it a Scholarship.
"Do you know what a scholarship is, father? I thought only men won
scholarships. Well, anyhow, he did offer a Scholarship, such a
magnificent one. It was to be held by the girl who was best in
conduct, best in deportment, and best in her educational work, in the
following October, and she was to hold it for three years, and what do
you think the scholarship was?
"Oh, was there anything so splendid! A lovely, lovely gold locket with
a ruby cherry on the right side and a wonderful inscription on the left
side, and a parchment scroll, father, in which the full particulars of
the great Scholarship were written down, and besides that, a purse of
money. Oh, father, a girl would not mind taking money in that way,
would she?--and what was the money for?--it was to pay all her fees for
a year.
"Every expense connected with the school was to be met by this
wonderful purse of money; she was to be educated and called the Cherry
Court Scholarship girl, and it was to be a wonderfully proud
distinction, I can tell you, and at the end of the year Sir John Wallis
was to give another purse of money, and at the end of that year another
purse of money, so that the lucky girl who won the Scholarship was to
be educated free of expense for three whole years.
"Oh, father, father! I mean to try for it--I mean to try with all my
might and main. I don't suppose I'll succeed, but I shall have such a
fit of trying--you never knew anything like it in your life. But do
you know, perhaps, that what Kitty tries for with all her might and
soul she generally wins.
"Oh, dear father, this has made me quite happy and has taken off the
worst of my great pain. I feel now that there is hope, for at the end
of three years I shall be a well-educated girl--that is, if I win the
Scholarship, and then perhaps you will allow me to come out to you to
India. I am not without hope, now, but I should be utterly and
completely devoid of it if I had to go and live with Helen Dartmoor.
"Your loving and excited daughter, KITTY."