Pixie-led
Next morning Merle got out of bed on the wrong side. She did it
deliberately and with intention. It was a rather awkward business to
achieve, too, for the beds were placed close together with only a few
inches between them, and to make her left-handed exit she was obliged to
scramble over the recumbent form of Mavis, who protested sleepily.
"Don't care! Bags me first innings at the hot water," blustered Merle,
bouncing down with a plump on to the rush mat in front of the wash-hand
stand.
"Don't care came to a bad end," quoted a dormouse voice among the
blankets.
"Right-o! I'm in for it."
After such a shameless tempting of fate it was not to be wondered at
that matters immediately turned in the direction of bad luck.
Merle poured out a liberal half of the hot water which Jessop had
brought, then seized up the toilet jug to add some cold. But either her
hand was wet or she was careless, or some unseen imp actually
intervened; anyhow, the handle slipped from her grasp, down fell the
jug, breaking its spout, and the contents spread themselves over the
floor.
Anybody who has ever upset a bedroom jug must have been astonished at
the enormous volume of water it contains. It seemed to Merle as if the
bath had suddenly emptied itself. Streams and trickles were running
everywhere, and the rush mat was a swamp. She stood staring at it in
utter consternation.
"Mop it up, you Judkins!" shrieked Mavis, now thoroughly awakened. "Why
can't you mop it up? Goody, what a mess!"
Mavis put one foot out of bed into the wet pool, and drew it back like a
cat. She reached for her bedroom slippers, pulled them on, then set to
work with a sponge to try and remedy the damage. For what seemed about
five minutes the girls were mopping and dabbing, getting the bottoms of
their nightdresses soaked in the process, and having to scramble under
the beds to follow some of the streams. Jessop, hearing the commotion,
came in and scolded.
"The new toilet jug! Whatever were you doing? What will your aunt say,
I wonder? Girls are as careless as boys it seems to me! I used to make
Master Cyril wash in the bathroom. We shall have to buy you enamel-ware
if you break the china. Rivet it, did you say? No one could rivet these
bits! Besides which, the old man who used to come round riveting things
has never turned up since the war. The jug's done for and that's the
long and short of it. There, get on with your dressing, or you'll be
late for breakfast. I'll bring you some more water in a can. I suppose
girls will be girls, and the thing's done now, and past praying for, so
there's an end of it."
It might be the end of the water jug, but unfortunately it was not the
end of Merle's ill-luck. She must have been in a particularly awkward
and maladroit mood, for at breakfast-time she actually managed to upset
her cup of tea.
"Hello! What are we doing here?" asked Uncle David, peering round his
newspaper at the puddle on the clean tablecloth.
"I don't know. I think the pixies nudged me. I'm fearfully sorry,"
apologized Merle, thanking her stars privately that Jessop was not in
the dining-room, and hoping to escape to school before that already
offended domestic deity came to clear away and discovered the tell-tale
evidence.
"Ah yes! Put it all on to the pixies; they've broad shoulders," twinkled
Uncle David, as he helped himself to more bacon.
"It's like the Mad Hatter's tea-party," grunted Mavis, moving farther
down the table to avoid the wet patch, which had spread in her
direction.
Certainly Merle seemed pixie-led, for everything went wrong. When she
put on her boots she broke her boot-lace, and had to piece it with a big
knot which ran into her instep and hurt her. She struggled into her
coat, slammed on her hat, and tore out after Mavis, who had already
started; but when she was half-way along the High Street she discovered
that she had forgotten one of her books and had to run back for it. It
was in the summer-house, at the bottom of the garden, where she had left
it the day before, and as she scurried up the steps she stumbled and
fell, and grazed her knee. She picked herself up, looked ruefully at the
injured limb, seized her book, and rushed away, limping slightly on one
leg, and grousing hard. She was late for school, though, in spite of her
best efforts, and only slipped into the big classroom just when Miss
Pollard was closing the register.
"Where have you been, Merle?" inquired Miss Pollard in the most
scholastic manner she knew how to adopt.
"I forgot my history and went back for it--I'm very sorry," gasped
Merle, much out of breath with running.
Opal smiled, and counted over the books which she held on her lap with
the air of one who is thinking to herself: "Other people don't forget
their things!" Merle, by this time thoroughly cross, frowned at her
darkly. There was something so aggravatingly smug about Opal; all her
peccadilloes were well hidden, and never came under public and official
notice. She took advantage of her position, too; for, as the girls filed
out of the room, she stroked Miss Pollard's arm caressingly as she
passed, a token of affection which Merle, who admired the head mistress
after yesterday's tea-party, would have loved to bestow but did not
dare.
The pixies would not let Merle alone that morning. They jerked her pen,
so that she made blots on her exercise, they whisked dates out of her
memory, and put wrong figures into her sums. When it came to literature
lesson they must have deliberately absconded with her copy of _Julius
Caesar_. She hunted for it in vain.
"I _know_ I left it in my desk yesterday," she assured Miss Fanny, who
was waiting to take the class and chafing at the delay.
"You ought to have your books ready. Be quick and look again. It's
probably underneath something else," urged the mistress impatiently.
Merle seized a top layer of textbooks and essay paper and dumped them
down on the floor, the more readily to burrow deeper into the rather
mixed and miscellaneous collection in her desk.
"Merle Ramsay! Really, you forget yourself," chided Miss Fanny. "Pick
those things up and put them back. A more disgracefully untidy
performance I never saw. I won't have that litter on the floor. Is your
_Julius Caesar_ there, or is it not?"
Apparently it was not, for Merle turned over her heap of confusion in
vain; and in her agitation let the lid of the desk fall with an awful
slam that echoed through the room. She sat up scarlet in the face.
"That will do!" said Miss Fanny icily. "You must look on with Mavis if
you can't find your own."
"Please, Miss Fanny, I saw a _Julius Caesar_ in the pound this morning,"
volunteered Opal demurely. "I don't know whose it is."
The mistress turned to the lost-property basket, stooped down, drew out
the missing book, and handed it reproachfully to Merle.
"If you kept your desk in better order you wouldn't lose your things.
See how you've delayed the whole form! You must bring a penny for the
missionary box this afternoon."
Merle sat through the lesson with a face like thunder. She was
absolutely certain that she had left the book inside her desk, and she
strongly suspected Opal of having deliberately taken it out and placed
it in the pound.
"Just like one of her disgusting tricks. She'd do anything mean. I'll
have something to say to her after school," she mused gloomily.
She tackled Opal in the cloakroom when the latter was tying her
shoe-laces.
"Look here, you blighter," she began, "what do you mean by cribbing my
books and sticking them into the pound? It's the absolute limit."
Opal tied an elegant bow, and put out a foot to admire the result.
"I've never seen your books, my good girl," she yawned. "What are you
setting on me for?"
"You have! You took it out of my desk and put it in the pound on
purpose. I know you did!"
"I didn't!"
"What a whopper!"
"Look here, just stop talking!"
"I shan't! I'll say what I think. We used to play 'rags' at Whinburn
High, but when one girl started that rag of hiding books we all 'booed'
her out of our secret society as a sneak."
"How clever of you!" sneered Opal. "What you did at your precious high
school is nothing to me, I'm sure."
"Well, my _Julius Caesar_ is at any rate. You took it away, and it's you
who've got to put the penny in the missionary box for it."
"Don't count on me to pay your fines for you; I'm always stony broke,"
laughed Opal, as she put on her coat.
"Opal Earnshaw, I _shan't_ pay that penny when it's your business."
"Dear, dear! What tempers we get ourselves into!
"'Little children should not let
Their angry passions rise!
Their little hands were never made
To scratch each other's eyes!'"
Opal spoke airily as she arranged her hat.
"It'll come to scratching in another moment!" exploded Merle. "You
_know_ it's all your fault."
"Merle, _darling_! _Don't!_" remonstrated Mavis, seizing her sister's
arm and whispering "It's no use and it only makes Opal all the nastier.
I've put the penny in the box for you already. I told Miss Fanny, and
she said it was all right. It's a shame, I know, but we can't do
anything."
"I'd like to spifflicate that girl," fumed Merle, looking after Opal,
who was walking away giggling.
Poor Merle took life hardly. She went home still reviling Fate. Directly
lunch was over she seized her writing-pad and scribbled the following
letter as fast as her pen would go.
"Un-dear Opal,
"I think you're the horridest, meanest girl I have ever
met in my life, and that's saying something. You think yourself
very clever and pretty, and all the rest of it, but you're not.
You may get Miss Pollard to shut her eyes to what you do, but
some day she'll find you out and then there'll be squalls, and
I for one shall dance for joy. If you want to know what I think
about you, I call you a proud popinjay; it's the best name to
suit you! I wish you were not at this school or else that I
hadn't come to it!
"With the reverse of love,
"Yours unaffectionately,
"MERLE RAMSAY."
"There! That's done me good!" she declared, handing the letter to her
sister.
Mavis read the effusion quite calmly, folded it, and placed it in the
envelope addressed to Miss O. Earnshaw.
"Shall we put it in our usual post office?" she asked, then dropped it
into the fire.
She understood Merle, who loved to relieve her feelings by writing
violent letters, which fortunately never reached the people to whom they
were directed. It was merely a form of letting off steam, and did nobody
any harm. Mavis always took care, though, to make sure that the epistles
were safely consigned to the flames. She had pulled Merle out of many
scrapes, and knew just how to manage her hot-tempered sister.
"Opal's simply not worth thinking about," she consoled. "Let's forget
this business. Uncle David says he's going to pay a visit at a farm on
the moor this afternoon, and if we'll scurry home quick from school at
four, he'll wait for us and take us with him."
"Oh, Jubilate!" rejoiced Merle, recovering her good spirits. "What fun!
I was just pining for a jaunt in the car. Go? I should think we will,
rather! We'll fly the very second Mademoiselle lets us off. Thank
goodness, it will be something decent to think about all the afternoon.
Opal Earnshaw may go to Hong-Kong if she likes. I don't care about her
and her meannesses. We're wangling a drive with Uncle David.
Cock-a-doodle-do!"
Merle got through her music lesson with moderate success, and did her
drawing with tolerable correctness, so, except for a lost button and
breaking the hinge off her pencil-box, she had no more conspicuous
mishaps. She nearly undid herself by catching up her drawing-board and
rising to go the moment the clock began to strike four, which caused a
glare from Mademoiselle, who added:
"Sit down till I dismiss the class. If you go too soon I shall make you
stay behind all the others and wait."
[Illustration: "HERE WE ARE AT CROSS NUMBER TWO" _Page 163_]
Much terrified lest the teacher should keep her threat, Merle popped
back into her place, and filed out in orderly fashion behind Maude
Carey, fuming that the latter's movements were so dilatory and slow. She
and Mavis hurried home almost at a run.
After all they need not have been in such fearful haste, for they found
Uncle David and Tom busy in the yard putting the spare wheel on the car.
"Just had a puncture," explained Dr. Tremayne. "A nasty bit of broken
glass in the High Street. Fortunately I was almost home. No, Tom, I
haven't time to stay now while you mend it. I must get off to see old
Mr. Tracy at once. We must just trust the spare wheel won't puncture,
that's all. People ought to be prosecuted for leaving broken glass about
to cut tyres. It's a dastardly trick to play on motorists. If I were a
magistrate I'd fine them for it. The amount of time I waste over
punctures is perfectly disgusting."
The spare wheel was put on at last, in place of the one with the
punctured tyre, and Uncle David and Mavis and Merle got into the car,
and started off on to the moors. It had been quite clear in Durracombe,
though not sunny, but directly they were up amongst the peat and heather
great white clouds came rolling across the road, and in a few moments
they were in the thickness of a white Devonshire mist. It was possible
to see only for about a space of ten feet all round them. The doctor
drove slowly, sounding his horn to warn anybody who might be approaching
either in front or from behind.
"I didn't think we should have caught a mist to-day," he commented. "I'd
have started earlier if I'd known it was going to be like this. Curious
how these queer fogs come on. I suppose it's our nearness to the sea.
It's a regular winding-sheet. No use turning on the lamps, for they
don't help. What's that! G-r-r-r! Great Scott! I believe we've got
another puncture!"
The unmistakable jarring sensation that betrays mishap to a tyre brought
Dr. Tremayne to a sudden standstill. He got out to inspect.
"Yes, it is! And the spare wheel, too! Of all the hard luck. I shall
have to set to work and mend it. And here in the midst of all the fog.
It might have kept up till we'd reached the farm. This is the second
puncture this afternoon."
"I'm afraid I'm the Jonah," said Merle. "I've had a pixie day ever since
I got up this morning. Every single thing has gone wrong. I believe in
bad luck, especially if you start badly. You'd better throw me
overboard."
"We must get started again before we can throw anybody overboard."
"Can we help you, Uncle?" asked Mavis.
"No, dear, not just at present. It's a question of finding the puncture.
Ah! Here it is! And, would you believe it? another bit of broken glass!
Some wretched tourist has been picnicking up here, I suppose, and
smashed a ginger-beer bottle. Well, now I've found the spot, I can get
to work."
It was rather cold standing in the midst of the fog watching Uncle
David. The girls began to walk up and down the road instead while they
waited for him. They could see a patch of heather on either hand, and
occasionally, looming through the mist, the dark body of a mountain pony
or a bullock. Quite close to them, on the top of a small mound, was a
little old, old worn cross, and they naturally stepped aside to look at
it. Perhaps it marked some traveller's grave, or had been part of a
shrine in long-ago times. Standing by its shaft they could make out
through the fog another cross only a short distance away. It seemed a
pity not to inspect this also. It was a far finer one than the first,
and they walked all round it; then because they thought they spied a
cromlech on the top of another mound they set off to inspect that too.
It was not a cromlech after all, only a pile of boulders, so they turned
back again.
"Here we are at cross number two," said Merle.
"Ye-e-s," agreed Mavis doubtfully. "It seems to have gone rather
smaller, though. I don't remember that clump of ferns at the bottom."
"Well, there's the first cross at any rate. Come along."
But when they reached what they supposed to be the first cross they were
more doubtful still. It was quite unfamiliar. Moreover, there was no
road within sight of it.
"We--we've come wrong!" faltered Merle.
"There must be several of these crosses."
"Let's go back to that one over there, then perhaps we shall find our
first one."
But meanwhile the treacherous mist was rolling up thicker and thicker.
The girls hurried back as fast as they could, but this time they missed
the cross altogether. There is nothing so easy as to get lost in a fog
on the moors. Thoroughly frightened, they called to Uncle David, but
they could hear nothing in reply. They wandered on, hoping he would
sound the hooter and so give them some clue to his whereabouts, but
everything was deadly still. It seemed as if a great white wall had
arisen and shut them up in some elfin castle on the moor.
"We're pixie-led. That's just all about it," said Merle. "I told you it
was an unlucky day."
"Well, look here, we mustn't go too far! If we walk on like this we may
be going straight away from the road, and might tramp miles or get into
a bog. We'd better stay where we are and shout every now and then, and
perhaps Uncle David will find us."
Two very forlorn girls, feeling extremely chilly and cold in the clammy
fog, squatted down on the heather and took it in turns to call
"Coo-e-ee!"
"What are we to do if we have to stop here all night?" asked Merle,
nearly crying.
"I don't know!"
"How long do these mists last?"
"Oh, days and days sometimes I suppose!"
"Should we be dead before morning?"
"Oh, I hope not! Shout again!"
They both called together, but there was no response.
"I'm going to count a hundred, and if we hear nothing by then I shall
walk on somewhere. It's so bitterly cold sitting still," said Mavis, who
was shivering.
She counted aloud, and at the end they gave a frantic shout. Not even a
bird rustled in reply. "Well here goes, there's nothing for it but a
plunge," said Mavis. "I've not the glimmer of an idea which way to
take."
"I shall follow my nose," said Merle, setting off.
"Don't go too fast or you'll lose me. Let me take hold of your arm. We
never came this way, I'm sure. We certainly didn't pass a little
stream."
"Any way is better than no way," said Merle desperately. "Hello! why
there's the road!"
The relief at finding themselves back upon the track of civilization was
intense. They ran joyfully along, and in a few moments came upon Uncle
David, just screwing on his last nuts and whistling to himself quite
unconcernedly.
"Where have you two been?" he asked.
"Where!" answered Merle with dramatic unction. "Where? Why, getting lost
like the babes in the wood! We thought we were going to perish upon the
moors and never see home again! We wandered on for _hours_. Didn't you
hear us shouting?"
"Exactly twenty-five minutes," corrected Dr. Tremayne, consulting his
watch. "No, I never heard you shout. I should have hooted if I had. I
wondered where you were. Better not run off too far another time. Well,
I've mended this tyre, and been remarkably quick over it too, I think.
I'm rather proud of myself. It's a record."
Feeling a little small, the girls got into the car. It was humiliating
that Uncle David did not seem to realize their terrific adventure, and
was far more concerned over the tyre than over their possible loss and
death from exposure and starvation.
"It's all the fault of the Devonshire pixies," whispered Mavis.
And Merle nodded emphatically.
"Rather! I consider we were absolutely and entirely pixie-led. I can
almost hear the little wretches laughing about it over there. I'll do
for them if I catch them! It's been a pixie day."
"Then for goodness sake do get out of bed to-morrow on the right side,"
implored Mavis.