ARCHIE
'God wants the boys--the merry boys,
The noisy boys, the funny boys,
The jolly boys, with all their joys--
God wants the boys.'
You must not suppose that all this time Peggy's acquaintance with Archie
Forster had been allowed to languish. That young gentleman had
introduced himself to the rest of the family, and had made himself very
much at home indeed at the Abbey. He kindly gave Father the benefit of
his experience of farming in Colorado (greatly to the latter's
edification); he amused Lilian with his funny stories, and was a source
of open-mouthed wonder to Nancy, who thought his achievements only
second to a conjurer she had once seen at Gorswen fair. Bobby naturally
regarded him with an admiration which bordered on worship, and trotted
about at his heels like an affectionate poodle, while Peggy found
herself living from Saturday to Saturday to continue the delightful
series of projects which her enterprising friend lost no time in
starting, and wondering sometimes how they had managed to exist before
they knew him.
By good rights Master Archie ought to have been away at school, but a
too active brain in a fast-growing body had brought about such a
delicacy that the doctor forbade any severer study than a few hours'
daily reading with the curate, and recommended as much fresh air and
exercise as possible. Miss Forster was not sorry to find so plausible an
excuse for keeping her pet nephew at the Willows, and the young man
himself had no objections, being fuller than ever of ingenious schemes,
only he had transferred the seat of his operations to the Abbey, as
offering a wider scope in the way of material, and having the further
advantage of a number of appreciative assistants. The only person who
was not won over by Archie's friendly ways and frank American manners
was Joe, who gloomily prophesied broken necks and kindred evils as the
result of the children's association with 'the young master from furrin
parts'; but I fear there was a good deal of jealousy in this, for poor
Joe had been a hero to the children in his modest way, and it was hard
to find himself suddenly supplanted in their affections, especially by a
rival with whom it was quite impossible to compete.
Incited by an account of the tree-dwellings in one of Miss Forster's
books of travel, Archie determined to emulate them, and construct such
an elevated establishment for themselves. The trees in his aunt's garden
were mostly ornamental shrubs, many of them clipped into quaint shapes,
and could not be thought of for the purpose, but a tall elm growing on
the borders of the Abbey stackyard seemed designed by Nature for his
requirements. He was a neat workman, and all his contrivances were
perfectly steady and durable, for, as he said:
'When you're out West, you have to be your own chore-boy. Dad put an axe
into my hand, and taught me to chop kindling before I was out of
petticoats, and when we went up the Rockies shooting grizzlies we built
log-cabins, and I can tell you there was no carpenter to fetch there
nearer than a hundred miles, so I guess I ought to know how to handle a
saw and fix up a bit of lumber.'
He first set to work to make a spiral staircase up the tree, which wound
round and round the trunk like the little turret stairs in the tower.
Every step was carefully nailed on and properly supported, and the
erection grew daily until he had reached four large boughs which
branched out twenty feet above the level of the ground. Here he arranged
a kind of platform, fixing pieces of wood across in the fashion of a
raft, and making a firm railing all round the edge. In the midst of this
platform a small hut gradually grew up, the walls of stout hazel-stakes
wattled across with branches and willow-withs, while the roof was neatly
thatched with reeds. The whole erection was so steady and well made
that, though Father, as chief inspector, stamped vigorously about, he
could not make it shake, and was able to pass it as perfectly safe, and
give his congratulations to the young architect, while even Joe
grudgingly admitted that 'Master Forster hadn't made half a bad job of
it neither.'
If grown-up people found it satisfactory, you can imagine the delight of
the children at this wonderful bird's-nest. Their first thought each day
on coming home from school was to rush off to see how 'Sky Cottage,' as
they had christened it, had progressed in their absence, and their grief
was loud if anything hindered Archie from the prosecution of his labours
on Saturdays, while they quite envied Lilian being able to run out any
time she liked and take a peep at the operations.
[Illustration: "HE FIRST SET TO WORK TO MAKE A SPIRAL STAIRCASE UP THE
TREE."]
Naturally Sky Cottage, like Rome, was not built in a day, and though
Archie worked at it pretty constantly, it was November before the roof
was on and he considered the building complete. The question of
decorations was much discussed, for while Father suggested hanging the
walls with sacking, and Lilian voted for garlanding them with wild
flowers, both ideas were rejected, the one as too prosaic and the other
as not sufficiently durable, and it was not until Peggy conceived the
brilliant thought of lining their dwelling with moss that a satisfactory
solution was arrived at.
So off went the little party to the woods, with a couple of sacks and a
coil of rope, to tear up the vivid green sheets which covered the rocks
like carpets of velvet.
'All the thickest and best is on the other side of the stream, beyond
where we had our picnic in the summer,' said Peggy, leading the way with
the proud air of a pioneer. 'If only we can manage to cross, for the
water is rather full to-day,' she added, with a lively remembrance of
her former dipping.
They found an unexpected help, however, for a recent storm had blown
down a large oak, which now stretched itself very conveniently over the
stream like a bridge, and by the aid of its branches it was quite easy
to hop across and climb up the bank at the other side. The woods were
thick here and damp, and the moss was of such superior quality that it
fully justified the extra labour involved in fetching it. They pulled it
up in pieces a yard or more square, and crammed it into the sacks, tying
the mouths with rope, so as to be able to drag them along, for the moss
was full of moisture, and the bags were dreadfully heavy. They were
rather at a loss how to convey their spoils over the bridge. Bobby
suggested floating them down the stream, but, as Lilian pointed out,
they would promptly sink to the bottom; so in the end Archie hoisted a
sack upon his back, and, with Lilian to steady it behind, managed to
stagger across in safety, coming back for the other when the first had
been successfully landed.
It was hard work bumping the sacks over the rough, uneven ground, but
they got them home at last, safely conveyed to Sky Cottage, and emptied
out on to the platform. They were all busily engaged within the hut,
nailing sheets of moss over the wattled walls, when a curious squeaking
noise began to attract Peggy's attention.
'What's that?' she inquired, pausing with the hammer suspended in her
hand.
'A bird, most likely,' replied Lilian, with her mouth full of nails.
'No, it isn't,' said Peggy, going out to investigate. 'It seems to come
from the moss at my feet. Archie, do come and look! Whatever can it be?'
The noise grew louder and louder, so that it resembled the squealing of
a kitten, and all four began to turn over the moss with eager fingers,
till, with a cry, Archie drew out a small round ball of dried grass,
about the size of Bobby's fist, from which issued such crescendo squeaks
that there could be no mistake as to the locality of the sound. The
little ball was so beautifully made and so neatly rounded that there was
not the slightest aperture to be seen, and Archie turned it over and
over in his hand in some perplexity.
'What can it be?' cried Peggy.
'Do open it!' piped Bobby.
'Oh, _do_ be careful! Suppose it's a viper!' shrieked Lilian.
'You goose! Vipers don't squeal, at any rate,' said Archie, whose
friendship had reached a degree of intimacy that was distinctly
brotherly; and gingerly pulling asunder the neatly-woven grass, he
disclosed to view a plump yellow dormouse, whom they had evidently
disturbed in his winter quarters.
The little fellow lay flat on his back in the midst of his snug little
nest. He had not taken the trouble to open his eyes, but his paws were
crossed, and his pink mouth was open, giving vent to loud disapproval of
the bumpings to which he had been rudely subjected unawares.
'My! ain't he cunning?' said Archie, stroking the soft fur with his
finger, while the others crowded round to look. 'And so clean, too; he
looks as if you had just loaned him new from a store, and he's as fat as
butter. He's been feeding up for this, I reckon. What shall I do with
him?'
'Oh! can't we keep him for a pet?' implored Peggy, with an eye on the
ever-increasing menagerie. 'We could get nuts and acorns and things for
him, and I've no doubt he would eat corn, too.'
'I guess he'll want to sleep now right away till spring, like our
grizzlies do in the fall.'
'Let's wrap him up again,' said Lilian. 'I'm sure he'll catch cold, poor
dear! and we'll put him in a snug corner of the orchard, where we can
look at him now and then, and in the spring perhaps he'll wake up.'
As this seemed the most humane suggestion, Master Dormouse was tucked up
in bed once more, and, still protesting, was carried to a sunny bank
under an apple-tree, and stowed away under a protecting clump of leaves,
where his plaintive voice gradually subsided, and he settled down for
five months of oblivion, to ignore the winter frosts and storms until
the April sunshine should tempt him out of his lair.
The moss lining to Sky Cottage was a great success, Archie arranged
willow withs in a neat pattern over it, to keep it from falling down,
and everyone agreed that it looked charming. Furnishing was the next
consideration, and the attics and lumber-room at the Abbey were
ransacked for any treasures they might afford. A few broken chairs, and
a rickety gate-legged table were soon mended by Archie's clever fingers.
Lilian hunted out an old piece of carpet and a tablecloth, and the place
looked so comfortable that the children, fired by Archie's accounts of
the log-cabins in the Rocky Mountains, longed to put in a cooking-stove
and emigrate there altogether. They decided to have quite a garden on
the platform next spring, and to grow seeds in pots, and persuade
nasturtiums and canary-creepers to climb up the walls, and they made a
beginning by hauling up a box of soil, and planting some ivy, which they
hoped in time would cover the whole roof.
Peggy and Bobby would have been quite content to go on adding a nail
here or a shelf there, and further making improvements, but Archie, now
that the chief work was over, found his interest cooling, and having got
hold of a book on 'Balloons and Air-Ships,' proposed no less daring a
scheme than that he should construct a flying machine, and start it from
the platform. Father, however, getting to hear of the project, forbade
it so emphatically that the disgusted aeronaut was obliged to give way,
and consoled himself by constructing a fire-balloon out of gay strips of
pink and green tissue-paper, which, ignited by methylated spirits, was
to be set off with great effect on Peggy's birthday.
As some slight amends for his disappointment, Lilian proposed that they
should have a grand housewarming at Sky Cottage on Saturday afternoon,
and invite Father to tea in the sanctum. The rest giving a hearty and
vigorous approval, she set to work to bake cakes in honour of the
occasion, preserving such a halo of mystery round her cookery that the
others were consumed with curiosity, and felt ready for any surprises.
There were a great many preparations to be made when the eventful
afternoon arrived. The hut had to be swept and dusted, late flowers to
be gleaned from the garden to decorate the tea-table, cups and saucers
packed up and conveyed in baskets, together with the little tin kettle
and the methylated spirit lamp, as they could scarcely light a fire on
the platform like they did for picnic teas in the woods. Archie hung up
a Japanese lantern in the doorway, and fixed a Union-Jack on one side,
and the star-spangled banner of the United States on the other, and
Peggy found enough Michaelmas daisies and white asters to put a wreath
all round the railing of the veranda, which rather suggested harvest
decorations, but looked very festive all the same.
They had brought a clean tablecloth from the kitchen drawer, and set the
table quite artistically, with a jam-pot full of flowers in the centre,
and little plates full of cakes grouped round it. Lilian put out a very
tempting looking selection of rock-buns and ginger-nuts, and Archie
produced a tin of real Scotch shortbread and some macaroons, a
contribution from his aunt; so with bread-and-butter, and a pot of the
newly-made blackberry jam, there was quite a noble display. But Lilian
had kept her surprise in the background, and it was only when all was
ready that she opened a basket, and proudly drew out her masterpiece, a
substantial-looking cake, with a cut-paper frill, and white icing on
the top, on which in pink sugary letters were inscribed the words:
'Success to Sky Cottage!' Certainly some of the capitals were a little
staggery, and the 'y' had strayed into the pink border round the edge,
but it was felt to be a triumph of culinary art all the same, and gave
quite a grace to the table.
At the last minute Father had been obliged to send his regrets and
apologies, for the veterinary surgeon had arrived to doctor a sick
horse, and he could not possibly leave the stables, so the tea-party
must perforce begin without him, for the days were growing short now,
and there was no time to spare.
It was a merry, not to say boisterous, party, for Archie was in one of
his funniest moods, and told 'tall' Yankee stories till the children
nearly rolled off their seats with laughter, and Lilian went on pouring
into her overflowing cup till the tray was swimming with tea. The cake
looked such a work of art that, as Mrs. Squeers remarked of her
Yorkshire pie, it seemed 'quite a pity to cut into it'; but, seizing the
knife, Peggy boldly severed the 's' and the 'u,' and with Aunt Helen's
wedding festivities fresh in their memories, the company drank the
health of Sky Cottage in tea, clinking their cups together over the
table in imitation of old Squire Henley.
They were in the very midst of one of Archie's most comical adventures,
when a shout was heard underneath the tree, and going out on to the
veranda, they beheld Nancy struggling timorously up the staircase, her
evident anxiety to make some communication overcoming her natural
abhorrence of such an airy structure.
'Oh, Miss Lilian,' she panted, 'if there isn't Mrs. Davenport just
arrived in her pony-shay, and she's put it up in the yard, and says
she's sure you'll give her a cup of tea! So I left her sittin' in the
drawing-room lookin' at the photo-albums, and rushed off to tell you
she's here!'
'_What_ a nuisance!' groaned Lilian, who was not generally inhospitably
disposed. 'Run back, Nancy, quick, and be getting some tea ready, and
I'll follow you! I must bring these cakes; they're the only ones we
have!'
She bundled the remains of the feast into her basket, and had just
descended the stairs, escorted by the sympathizing Peggy and Bobby, when
round the corner of the large haystack suddenly loomed the tall figure
and black alpaca skirts of Mrs. Davenport, who, finding herself left
longer in the drawing-room than she appreciated, had sallied forth in
search of her hostess. She stopped short now, quite thunderstruck at the
vision before her.
'What do I see?' she exclaimed. 'What mad folly is this? Really, Lilian,
I am astonished that you countenance such wild proceedings! Peggy I knew
was a sad tomboy, but I thought you, at least, were the sensible member
of the family, and would try to train the younger ones into more
civilized habits. I had heard from Miss Forster that that very indulged
and unmanageable nephew of hers had been making some sort of place in a
tree at the Abbey, but I never imagined so much as this. Sheer waste of
good time, I call it; and a boy who can expend so much energy as to
raise such a construction must be only shamming ill-health, and would be
far better packed off to school. I shall tell his aunt so the next time
I see her, and I don't care who hears me!' she added, catching sight of
a grinning face on the veranda, for Archie had stolen out to see the
fun, and overflowed in such gurgles of delight at this sally that
Lilian trembled for the result.
'You had better come down, Archibald,' said Mrs. Davenport in her most
majestic voice. But Master Archie evidently thought discretion the
better part of valour, for he dived through the doorway like a rabbit
into a burrow, his overwrought feelings so far overcoming him that he
exploded into a tremendous cock-crow as he sought the friendly shelter
of Sky Cottage.
An embarrassing silence followed, broken at last by Lilian, who asked
Mrs. Davenport if she would not like to return to the house. Peggy and
Bobby tried, as Archie expressed it, to 'do a slope,' but in vain, for,
saying she had not seen them for a long time, and should like to talk to
them, their unwelcome visitor took the dismayed pair into custody like a
female policeman, and whirled them sternly along before her.
It really was too bad that Mrs. Davenport, instead of coming upon a
Wednesday or Thursday, when all would have been neatness and order, and
Nancy in her best black dress and muslin apron, should have chosen this
particular Saturday afternoon, when there was no fire in the
drawing-room, a pile of mending on the dining-room table, and all the
family in somewhat dishevelled array.
'But she always does manage to catch us, somehow,' lamented Lilian
afterwards. 'She calls it "taking us just as we are," but then we
_aren't_ generally in a muddle like this, so it doesn't seem quite fair.
She ought to come sometimes when we are tidy, to see both sides.'
Once established in an armchair by the dining-room fire, Mrs. Davenport
took off her gloves, untied her veil, and enjoyed herself thoroughly.
She catechized Lilian freely about her housekeeping arrangements, hoped
Nancy did her duty, and did not neglect to sweep out corners, told Bobby
that his irrepressible curls looked girlish, and his hair ought to be
cropped close every week, plied Peggy with embarrassing questions on the
subject of fine needlework and stocking-darning, and drank four cups of
tea in the meantime, with the air of one conferring a favour thereby.
'I hear you see a good deal of Miss Forster's nephew,' she remarked, her
eye wandering round the room, and taking in the pile of untidy music
scattered about on the window-seat and Father's dirty shooting-boots
under the sofa.
'I suppose we do,' said Lilian meekly, wondering privately where Archie
was, and if he would go home without saying good-bye.
'Not a very suitable companion for any of you, I consider. Young people
in America are brought up to have far too good an opinion of themselves,
and this lad is no exception. I was not at all pleased with his manner
when I met him at the Willows,' frowning slightly at the remembrance;
for Archie's cool and elaborately courteous treatment of her criticisms
on that occasion had completely baffled her.
But luckily the growing dusk reminded Mrs. Davenport that country lanes
were unpleasant to drive along in the dark, so drawing on her gloves she
routed her groom, a small, depressed-looking boy, out of the
harness-room, where he was retailing his grievances to the awe-stricken
Joe, and tucked her black skirts safely into her pony-carriage, assuring
the children that it should not be long before she looked them up again,
as she had promised their aunt to keep an eye on them after they were
left alone. Half-way down the drive she met Mr. Vaughan, and stopped to
give him some good advice as to the general upbringing of his family,
even suggesting that Peggy--for a yearly consideration--should be
transplanted to Pendlefield Rectory, to share the studies and maternal
care of the five little Davenports, a proposal which he declined with a
haste that was perhaps more emphatic than polite.
With a sigh of relief Lilian had adjourned with Peggy to the kitchen to
help Nancy to wash up, when the back-door was softly pushed ajar.
'Is she gone?' said a cautious voice, and a fluffy red head appeared in
the opening, only followed by the rest of Archie's body on the full
assurance of the entire retreat of the enemy. 'I thought I should have
died with laughing,' announced that youth, sitting down easily among the
crockery on the table. 'My stars! Isn't she a terror? I shall have to
keep clear of the Willows every afternoon next week, for I know she'll
make a point of calling and telling poor Aunt Mary her candid opinion of
me. What a mercy we live at Gorswen instead of Pendlefield! Think of
exchanging the Rector for _her_ and little crushed Mr. Davenport! If she
came to live any nearer than four miles away, I declare I would pack my
boxes and beg to be sent off to school!'