[Frontispiece: "I'll give each of you three guesses."]
JUBILEE HALL; OR,
"THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME."
BY HON. MRS. GREENE
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS
LONDON, EDINBURGH, DUBLIN
AND NEW YORK
_CONTENTS._
I. _Joyful News_
II. _The Journey to the Hall_
III. _Jubilee Hall_
IV. _A Bad Beginning_
V. _Berry-picking_
VI. _The Winner of the Prize_
VII. _The Voice of Conscience_
VIII. _Covering the Jam_
IX. _Aunt Marian's Store-room_
X. _A Discovery_
XI. _Watching his Opportunity_
XII. _At Dead of Night_
XIII. _From Bad to Worse_
XIV. _Gloomy Forebodings_
XV. _A Contrast_
XVI. _Fighting with Self_
XVII. _The Mischief Discovered_
XVIII. _A Full Confession_
XIX. _Home, Sweet Home_
_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS._
_"I'll give each of you three guesses" ... Frontispiece_
_Fred threw his arms around his mother's neck_
_Kathleen ducked down as she was told_
_"I am so glad I have met you"_
_"Another pot of strawberry, if you please"_
_The flame of the candle flickered horribly_
_"Fred, here is mother come to see you"_
_Supper was laid in the bright parlour_
JUBILEE HALL.
CHAPTER I.
JOYFUL NEWS.
"Joy! joy! joy!" cried Kathleen Malcomson, as she burst into the
schoolroom where her two brothers were at work preparing their
lessons for school; "oh, boys, I've just heard such a grand piece of
news. I'll give each of you three guesses what it is, and only this
one hint, that it's the most glorious thing you could possibly
imagine."
"You must tell us first," cried Fred, "does it concern us boys as
well as you? Otherwise it would not be worth the bother of guessing."
"Of course it does; that's one guess for you, Fred."
"Humbug! you said we were each to have three guesses, and mine was
only a simple remark; besides, I know what it is already, so you need
not make such a row about it."
"Why, who told you?" asked Kathleen, her face falling several degrees
from its original brightness. "I am almost certain you cannot have
guessed it."
"Father is going to have the bagatelle board newly covered, and buy
fresh balls; I heard him saying so this morning,--eh? Miss Katy."
"Eh? Miss Katy," repeated Harry in a still more decisive tone; "how
wise you are with your three guesses."
"It's as much about the bagatelle board as it's about--about your
head," cried Kathleen, glancing around the room for some withering
simile; "do you think I'd make such a fuss about an old bagatelle
board? No; it's something a thousand times better than that."
"Well, then, tell us it out at once," cried both the boys, roused to
real interest by Kathleen's words and manner; "what's the use of
bottling up your news, instead of giving us the benefit of it? Pour
it all out quick, that's a good old Kat."
"Well, I'll only ask you to give one guess each," said Kathleen,
recovering the bright expectant glance of pleasure as she drew
nearer. "Now, Fred, you go ahead first, and Harry shall have his
afterwards."
"Well, I guess--I guess, humph; you said it was awfully grand, did
you not?"
"I did."
"Well, then, I guess, that my new suit has come home from the
tailor's."
"Nonsense, Fred; that's no real guess. Who cares about your suit?
You did not really try to think."
"I did, 'pon my word; but my head is nothing but a brick-bat over
this horrid Euclid. Let Harry have his shot now."
"I have known what it was all along," said Harry calmly; "the
midsummer holidays are to begin a week earlier than we thought, for I
heard mother saying so this morning; at least she told Leonard that
the pony might begin to cart gravel after the end of this week, as we
should not want it any more for the croydon, and I twigged at once
that there would be no school after that week."
"You are just a shade right in your guess, and nothing more," cried
Kathleen triumphantly; "you will not want the croydon for going to
school after the end of this week, but only because you are going
somewhere else."
"Where?" cried both the boys, springing up from their chairs in great
excitement; "not--not to Jubilee Hall, surely."
"Yes, to Jubilee Hall for the whole midsummer holidays. There was a
letter from Aunt Marian last night, asking us to spend the whole
midsummer holidays there."
The wild whoop of joy and chorus of shouting, dancing, flinging about
of lesson-books, and pounding recklessly on the piano, showed that
Kathleen had not exaggerated the rapturous quality of her news, nor
over-rated the warmth of its reception. The boys proceeded to hug
their sister enthusiastically, and to kick each other ignominiously,
till at length, lessons having been hopelessly abandoned, they all
leaped out through the open window, and rushed off with their news to
pour it into the sympathetic bosom of Mrs. Duffy, the dairywoman; or
failing her, into the somewhat obtuse ear of Quin, the gardener. But
they were both kindly souls, and always received the children's
intelligence with the full amount of surprise or joy expected from
them.
The dairy came first, being situated at the foot of the lawn, and
shaded from the house by a plantation of young firs and laurustinus
bushes; and besides, they were always sure of finding "old Mother
Duffy" at home, for she never left the precincts of her own place
except at milking-time, and it was now only four o'clock in the
afternoon.
"Well, bless my heart," cried the good old soul, coming to the door
of her dairy as she heard the loud hurrahs and yells of the children,
and saw them come flying over the sunk fence and down the meadow
towards her, "there must be some rare piece of news up now;--I'd
better turn the key on the dairy-room, or Master Harry will be
playing some of his wild tricks with the cream, or putting salt in
the milk, as he did the other day." And Mrs. Duffy, moving aside to
carry out her precautionary measure, had only just turned the key in
the lock when the trio burst headlong into the room with a clatter
and a row that brought several of the panikins and wooden butter
moulds tumbling off the dresser upon the flagged floor of the dairy.
"Now, Master Harry, and you, Master Fred, couldn't you come a trifle
easier into the house, without knocking all my little goods and
chattels about the place! What bee have you got in your bonnet this
morning, Miss Kathleen, that makes you so flighty and wild?"
"She has got the biggest bee that ever was born," cried Fred, quite
breathless from his quick race; "and we've all come down to see what
you'll think of it. Only fancy, Mother Duffy, there has been a
letter from Aunt Marian, and we are all going to spend the midsummer
holidays at Jubilee Hall."
"The jolliest place you ever were in," broke in Harry, who, having
seen at a glance that the dairy door was locked, was searching behind
every cup and platter for the key; "no end of good things to eat and
drink, and no stint of milk and butter as there is in some places;
nor locks on the doors either."
"Then she must be a rare simple lady to ask such folks as you down to
her place, and keep nought under lock and key. Wait till the first
day she finds a frog swimming in the milk-pail or a hedgehog at the
bottom of the churn, and see whether she'll turn the key in her dairy
door or not. She'll be a sillier lady than I take her for, or she'll
soon send you packing home again to your own place."
"Oh, will she? that's your view of the question, Mother Duffy, but
not mine," retorted Harry, who with his back turned, was busily
employed pouring some ink out of a small stone jar into Mother
Duffy's empty tea-pot; "Aunt Marian is the jolliest cove in all
England."
"I don't understand anything about 'coves,'" replied Mrs. Duffy,
shaking her head ominously; "but if you get on with the same tricks
at Jubilee Hall as you do here, it's the short holidays you'll have
there, I promise you. Not but I'm glad you have such a treat before
you; though how folks with such a fine place to live in as this
should set so much store by another house, is a matter I don't quite
come to see the sense of."
"Oh, but don't you see," cried Kathleen, "there is every kind of fun
going on there from morning till night,--archery, and croquet, and
lawn tennis, and ponies to ride. Arthur Jackson spent one day there
last year, and he says it's the most splendid place he ever was in."
"Splendid is no word for it," cried Fred enthusiastically; "from what
he said, it must be a--a--gollumptious place. The gooseberry bushes
there are so large and full of fruit, you could stay a whole day
under one of them, and leave it none the worse for the picking."
"I'm thinking you'll be a trifle the worse for such a picking," said
Mrs. Duffy, laughing good-humouredly, "Do you remember the day you
ate all the cherries, and the doctor had to be sent for in the
evening."
"Pooh! that was ages ago, when I was quite young," replied Fred, who
had only just passed out of his fourteenth year. "You would not
catch me making such a fool of myself again."
"I hope not," said Mrs. Duffy; "but I'd be sorry to be the
cherry-tree that should come in your way, old as you are and wise.
But what's Master Harry at that he's so quiet yonder in the corner?"
"Oh, nothing," cried Harry, gliding away from the dresser, where he
had just poured some vinegar into a jug of new milk. "I was looking
at that grand picture that you've stuck up on the wall since I was
here last."
Harry's face looked so innocent, and his remark was so plausible a
one, that Mrs. Duffy, who was only too easily imposed upon, allowed
the excuse to pass muster, and continued,--"On what day are you going
to leave us, Master Fred? I'll be lonesome enough without you, bad
as you are with your tricks and treacherous ways."
"We are going on this day week," replied Kathleen. "I was the first
to hear it all, and the boys knew nothing about it until I told them."
"Phew! how grand you are!" cried both the boys contemptuously. "Why
should you have been told before either of us, I should like to know?
You happened to go into the drawing-room first, and that was all."
"No, it was not all; I was sent for," replied Kathleen proudly.
"Mamma had to get me some new clothes made before I went on a visit,
and so she told me all about it then. And what was more, she said
that although I was the youngest, she hoped I would try to prevent
you boys from being too wild or playing practical jokes while you
were away; for there are to be lots of other visitors at the Hall,
and mamma was afraid you might get into some scrape, and perhaps have
to be sent home."
[Illustration: Fred threw his arms around his mother's neck.]
"Oh, dear! so we are to be under your thumb, Miss Wiseacre, are we?"
cried Fred, pointing contemptuously with his finger at his sister,
whose heightened colour betrayed her vexation. "We must do nothing,
and say nothing, and think nothing even, without coming to ask your
leave or advice; ain't it likely just? that's all I say," and Fred
whistling, turned on his heel and stepped over the threshold of the
dairy door.
"You might do worse than follow Miss Kathleen's advice," cried Mrs.
Duffy, seeing the ready tears in the little girl's eyes, and always
prepared to take the part of the weak; "for she's a good girl, and
always tries to do what her mamma tells her, and that's more than I
can say for either of you. For if a bit of a spree turns up in your
paths, it's little you think of who likes it or dislikes it either;
and as I said before, I just think it more than likely we'll be
having you home here before you've been half a week away."
"Bosh," cried Fred, leaping over the gravel walk and turning off
towards the garden.
"Gammon," cried Harry, as he also left the dairy and followed in his
brother's wake.
"That last idea is a trifle too rich, ain't it, now?" said Fred, as
he linked his arm in that of his younger brother, in the shady
shrubbery path leading to the front garden; "that a couple of big
fellows like us are to be under the guidance of a little
scrap-o'-my-thumb of a child like Katy. Why, I look on the very fact
that we shall have no one over us to say, 'do this, or do that,' is
the very cream of the whole joke; don't you?"
"Of course I do."
"Father always looks so grave if a fellow does anything the least out
of the common run, and mother is so--"
"Mother is awfully jolly, I think, and father too," replied faithful
Harry, who, under all his madcap ways, had a loyal, loving heart.
"Well, I should rather think they were. I ain't the one to run down
mother, I should think, or father either, for that matter; but I mean
it will be an awfully jolly sensation to be entirely one's own
master, and no one to pull a long face if one happens to do or say
anything not exactly laid down by rule. You see what I mean, don't
you, Harry?"
"Oh yes; of course, it will be grand sport and no mistake."
"I hope Kathleen won't really be poking her nose into all our
doings," said Fred meditatively; "there are heaps of larks which are
perfectly harmless in themselves which might throw her into fits of
terror. I'm sorry mother ever put such a silly notion into her head."
"O Fred!"
"My dear fellow, don't 'oh' and 'ah' at every word I say. One would
think I was running mother down, by the way you bounce up whenever I
mention her name. But ain't it a silly notion, now, for a little
meawy kitten like Kathleen to be set to watch over our actions?"
"I expect she will be so nervous when she gets there, she will have
enough to do to look after herself," replied Harry evasively; and
having reached the garden gate, their talk and walk ended in the ever
entrancing operation of gooseberry-picking.