The Fourth of July
Mavis and Merle went home to Bridge House feeling as if they had had a
peep at the inner life of 'The Moorings.' They had seen fresh aspects of
Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny, and though Merle could not honestly assure
herself that she knew Miss Mitchell any better than before, she had at
least the remembrance of a few words of approval.
"I'm afraid she's one of those people whom you never do get to know very
well!" ruminated Merle. "You go a little way, but never any further. We
see the school side of her, and a quite jolly-all-round-to-everybody
holiday afternoon side. I wonder what she's like to her private friends,
and at home?"
Miss Mitchell, however, was not at all disposed to make a confidante of
any of her pupils, particularly of a girl who was not yet sixteen, and
much preferred to preserve business-like relations and confine her
conversation to school topics, than to give any details of her private
life. She made it quite manifest that whoever wished to please her must
do so on general and not individual grounds, so Merle accepted the
inevitable, and worked very hard in class and at preparation, making a
sudden burst of progress in her lessons that astonished herself even more
than everybody else. It meant a certain amount of heroism to stick
steadily to her books on glorious summer evenings, when even her own
family tempted her to play tennis or go out in the car. Most of the other
members of the Fifth form showed a marked slacking off in their homework,
particularly the day-girls, whose preparation was not regulated. The
Castletons, who had another wee baby brother at home, declared they found
so much to do on their return that it was impossible to spend long over
their lessons.
"Violet's not very strong, and she's often just about done in when we get
back," explained Beata to Mavis. "Romola and I take the baby and put the
kids to bed, so as to give her a rest. I can't tell that to Miss Mitchell
as an excuse for not having touched my Latin, but it's the truth. What
else can I do? We've only one maid, and she's busy in the kitchen.
Somebody has to look after the children!"
And Mavis, who adored the new Castleton baby, and would have flung
lessons to the winds to nurse it, cordially agreed with her.
Another girl whose work suffered in summer, though for a different
reason, was Fay. Her father was better in health, but he still needed
somebody to interest him and keep him amused, and found no more lively
companion than his own daughter. He had taught her to row, and wanted her
to go out boating with him now the evenings were so long and light.
"Never mind your prep! It's more important to help to get Father well!"
Mrs. Macleod would say. "He looks forward so much to this rowing, and the
exercise is good for him. We want a companionable daughter, not a
Minerva, and you may tell Miss Mitchell so with my compliments if she
grumbles. If we can't have any of your society when you get home, you
might as well be away at boarding-school. I bargained with Miss Pollard
that you weren't to be overworked."
Fay was clever, and a hasty run through her books usually served to make
her pass muster in class. She was a jolly and amusing girl, and was
generally the life and soul of the 'sardine' party. She was great chums
with the Castletons, though she sparred occasionally with Tattie Carew or
with Nan Colville. The latter gave general offence because she always
insisted upon taking up more than her fair share of room in the crowded
car. She would wear her satchel, and let its knobby corners press against
her expostulating neighbour, or she would spread out her elbows instead
of keeping them by her side. One day Nan, after a scrimmage on the way to
school, begged a lift back from Babbie.
"But we don't go down the hill to Chagmouth," objected Babbie, who had
received instructions from her mother to allow the 'sardines' to use
their own car, and not to offer to motor any of them. "We turn off at the
cross-roads to go to The Warren."
"I know. But you always start first, and you could leave me at the
cross-roads, and the others would pick me up as they passed. Be a sport,
Babbie!"
"All right. You can come if you like."
Now it happened that Fay overheard Nan telling Lizzie that she would wait
at the cross-roads, and further witnessed the magnificent start in the
Glyn Williams' car.
"Too good for us to-day, are you?" she murmured. "Then I think you may
just do without us altogether! I've got a brain throb! It'll serve you
right, Miss Nan Colville!"
Fay went privately to Mr. Vicary and asked him if he would mind driving
them home that afternoon by Brendon, which was a slightly different route
from their ordinary one.
"I want to call for a parcel there," she explained.
"As it happens, I have an errand I can do there too," agreed Mr. Vicary.
"It won't take above five minutes or so longer, I daresay."
"That's all right then. By the by, Miss Colville won't be with us to-day.
Miss Williams is motoring her home."
"Yes; I saw them set off."
Fay took care that Lizzie Colville sat at the back of the car that
afternoon and not in front with Mr. Vicary. She stifled her objections
when they turned off in the direction of Brendon.
"I tell you Mr. Vicary has to go on an errand and so have I, so just shut
up! Nan? If she chooses to wait at the cross-roads it's her own fault.
She should have come with us."
The 'sardine-tin' entered Chagmouth that afternoon from the direction of
Brendon, and Nan, after sitting a long time by the roadside expecting its
appearance, gave it up and walked the rest of the way home, very annoyed
at the trick that had been played her.
"You shouldn't have let them, Lizzie!" she scolded.
"How could I help it? Fay wouldn't let me speak, and Mr. Vicary just flew
on to Brendon. Why didn't Babbie take you into Chagmouth?"
"She never even suggested it. I don't know which is the meaner, she or
Fay!" grumbled Nan.
On the Fourth of July, Fay went to school determined to have what she
termed 'a real good time,' and to celebrate appropriately the great
anniversary of American independence. She armed herself with her national
flag and a box of sugared popcorns, a delicacy which was unknown at
Durracombe shops, and had been specially sent for from London. As she
passed these round generously, the 'sardines' fell in with her mood and
vowed to stand by her at school, and help to celebrate the honour and
glory of the Stars and Stripes.
"I didn't make much fuss of my own birthday, but I'm wrought up over
this!" declared Fay. "It's a shame there isn't a public holiday. I'd like
to fire a cannon. Couldn't get any crackers at those wretched shops in
Chagmouth either."
"D'you want crackers?"
"Rather!"
"They had a lot of fireworks last November at Hodges' in Durracombe.
Perhaps they'd have some left."
"Oh, good bizz! We'll stop in the High Street and see, before we go into
school."
They were in excellent time, so they called a halt at Hodges' shop and
dismissed the car. The assistant, after searching in various drawers and
boxes, produced a small supply of surplus fireworks, which Fay eagerly
purchased, being also provident enough to remember to buy a box of
matches. She pranced into school in the highest of spirits, flaunting her
flag, and stuck it in a conspicuous place in the classroom, where Miss
Mitchell eyed it indeed with some astonishment, but offered no
remonstrance. At eleven o'clock interval the fun began. Fay and her
confederates retired to a secluded part of the garden and began to let
off squibs and crackers, the sound therefrom drawing an interested and
excited little crowd, who hopped about squealing at the explosions, and
were immensely thrilled at the audacity of such a performance on school
premises.
"They're great!"
"Hold me down, or I'll fly off in sparks!"
"Fay, you are the limit!"
"It's a brainy notion!"
"Wow! Don't set me on fire!"
"Goody! Here's Miss Fanny coming!"
It was a decidedly wrathful Miss Fanny who descended upon them, and
promptly confiscated the few fireworks that were left.
"Most dangerous!" she remarked indignantly. "You might easily, some of
you, have been burnt. Really, Fay, I'm surprised. A girl in the Fifth
form ought to know better. Go back all of you at once. And don't let such
a thing ever happen again!"
The confederates had been lucky enough to have almost finished their
display before Miss Fanny appeared on the scene, so they bore the loss of
the last three squibs with equanimity.
"If Miss Fanny had only been an American she'd have helped to let them
off herself instead of interfering!" protested Fay. "I haven't worked my
spirits off yet, so I warn you! We'll do something mad after dinner."
"What?"
"I haven't quite fixed it up yet, but I'll tell you later on."
The girls from Chagmouth dined daily with the boarders in the hostel, and
were on very good terms with most of them. Fay could therefore be
tolerably sure of a certain amount of support in any scheme she chose to
evolve. She thought things over during the French class, a process of
mental abstraction which brought the wrath of Mademoiselle on to her
head, for she answered at random and made some really idiotic mistakes,
at which the other girls giggled.
"You didn't shine this morning, old sport!" whispered Beata when the
class was over. "I believe Mademoiselle thought you were ragging her!"
"I wasn't doing anything of the sort. Can't you all realise it's the
Fourth of July?"
"You've mentioned that once or twice before!"
"Well, I'll mention it again. Of course I focus my mind on America, not
on France! You can't expect me to go jabbering French when I think of the
times my friends will be having to-day on the other side of the Atlantic.
I've had rather a brain throb though. We'll dress up after dinner in
anything we can borrow, and have a parade on the tennis lawn, with prizes
for best costumes."
"Who's to give the prizes?"
"_I_ will. I'll ask Maude to buy me some packets of candy when she
goes home, and bring them to school this afternoon. They'll do all
right."
Fay was discreet enough not to mention her project to Iva or Nesta, in
case, being hostel monitresses, they might have felt bound to offer
conscientious objections. Members of the Fourth and Third forms, however,
jumped at the idea of an impromptu fancy-dress parade, and the moment
they were released from the dining-room they tore off to array
themselves. It was already a quarter to two, and school would begin again
at 2.30, so there was no time to be lost if the thing was to be done at
all.
"I give every one a quarter of an hour to dress!" declared Fay. "You've
got to be on the lawn when the clock strikes two. Anybody who's late will
be disqualified from the competition."
"Who's to judge?" asked Kitty.
"Votes, of course! Don't stand asking questions. Hurry up, if you're
going to be in it!"
[Illustration: THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE]
A quarter of an hour is very scant time in which to robe in fancy
costume, but most of the girls had decided during dinner what they meant
to be. Romola flew to the kitchen and borrowed an apron from the cook,
tied a duster round her head, seized up a pail and a carpet-sweeper, and
came as 'Domestic Service.' Beata commandeered the boarders' bath-towels
and appeared as an Arab, in robe and turban. Peggie, with her dormitory
eider-down for a train, was a court lady. Catie draped a scarf over her
hair and shoulders and, holding a bedroom jug aloft on her head, posed as
Rebecca at the well. Nan and Tattie, wrapt in identical blankets, were
Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Winnie, with a painted moustache and a
dressing-gown, was a Turk. Nita slipped on a night-dress and clutched a
bedroom candlestick; Joyce rolled an enormous brown-paper cigar which she
pretended to be puffing. But perhaps the best of all was Fay herself as
the American eagle. She borrowed two mackintoshes and fastened them to
her shoulders, securing the other ends to blackboard pointers which she
held in each hand. By extending her arms at full width she gave the
impression of wings and flapped wildly round the lawn, the illusion being
furthered by a brown-paper head-dress with a long twist to resemble a
beak.
When the day-girls returned after dinner they were electrified to find
this extraordinary assemblage parading upon the lawn. By this time both
monitresses and mistresses had caught glimpses from the window and came
hurrying out to see what was happening. Fortunately Miss Mitchell, who
arrived first on the scene, took it in what the girls called 'a
thoroughly sporting fashion.' She laughed, and congratulated the wearers
upon the excellence of their hasty costumes.
"We must have another parade some day, when we've more time to prepare
for it," she said. "Perhaps I'll come in costume myself then. The
American eagle is simply immense! I give Fay my vote for first prize!
Hands up all who agree!"
"But _I'm_ giving the prize, so I can't take it myself!" protested
Fay.
"That doesn't matter at all if you've won it. I think Tweedledum and
Tweedledee should divide the second."
"Best divide the candy all round," said Fay, receiving the packets from
Maude, and sharing them among the competitors. "Thanks awfully, Miss
Mitchell, for coming to look at us. I couldn't let the Fourth of July go
by without taking some notice of it! It wouldn't have been loyal to
America, would it?"
"You've certainly stood up for the honour of the Stars and Stripes!"
laughed Miss Mitchell. "Now suppose you all go and take these things off
again as fast as you can. My watch is exactly right, and the bell will
ring in another five minutes."