Ethel Talbot

“ Fleming.
“No, Gretta, I think not,” answered the head mistress. “Stella’s father, when he reads my note, will probably want to join Mrs. Fleming and go with her; it will be more sensible and useful for you to stay where you are!”
It was no time to grumble, the child knew. She watched until the car turned the corner, and then made her way to the dining-hall, at Miss Slater’s suggestion, to find Josy. The latter, roaming round, was as restless as Gretta herself, and equally in need of some employment that would keep her thoughts busily engaged until the return of the wanderers. ”

“ Josy spoke with unction. “She gave us ten minutes to talk in, every Saturday night last term, and didn’t mind the dormer feast a scrap!”
“Do you have feasts? What fun!” exclaimed Margot, sitting up in bed and peeping through her curtains into the darkness. “We’ve got money, haven’t we, Gretta? Shall we have one this term, Stella?”
“Don’t ask me!” replied that young woman dejectedly. “I go home for week-ends; we only live five miles away. I’m out of nearly all the fun. I’d rather be an out-and-out boarder; you and Josy and Gretta will have it all your own way. ”

“ Why didn’t you take it down yourself?” replied her cousin, who had no sympathy with Sybil’s lazy ways. “And look here, why aren’t you at hockey? Helen’s coaching all the little ones, and Adela’s sure to be there. Hurry up; you’ll be late.”
“I hate hockey,” said the child, shrugging her shoulders; “it’s a most stupid game!”
“Stupid! Well, I like that,” rejoined Margot; “if there’s anything it’s not, it’s that! It’s just the most ripping fun.” ”

“ HERMITS AND HORSES “OH, do go on!” begged the Dormitory, intrigued by Stella’s mysterious accents.
“Not that I know much, but it’s so queer!” Stella, however, was evidently only too willing to oblige, so far as was possible. “All alone he lives! Looking out on the sea. All the windows that face the moorland are barred up. Of course, he’s mad!”
“Who? The old man?” inquired Gretta.
“Yes, or why ever would he live there like that?”
“He might be a—hermit.” Margot spoke rather slowly. “There was one that we knew, living in the Bush. ”

“ SYBIL RETURNS “WHEW!” said Josy incisively, addressing Gretta and Stella, but gazing after Margot’s rapidly disappearing figure. “If she doesn’t take the cake for daringness! But, I say, oughtn’t we to stop her?”
“It’s simply no good,” answered Gretta, white-faced with fear at the possibility of the dangers that might have overtaken her little sister. “She’d go all the same. When she feels like this she forgets about rules—at least, about them being at all important, I mean. I think she’s frightfully brave, and it would be a blessing for Sybil if she went. ”

“ The letter, being re-read to Josy in the dormitory before church, provoked louder if not more heart-felt adulation. “Whether that Long Jake of yours is at school or whether he isn’t, he ought to have the shield,” announced that damsel. “Why, the motto simply fits him exactly; he’s the most utterly downright ripping man I ever heard of in my life!”
“It’s funny to think that if it hadn’t been for Sybil——” began Gretta.
“Talking about Sybil,” interrupted Margot vehemently, “there’s one thing I’ve made up my mind to. I’m going to see that she has a decenter time. ”

“ Oh!” and here she turned in amazement to her sister. “Gretta, can it be Auntie Tib from Australia? And can she have brought Margot, too? Oh, hurrah! hurrah!” and she began to dance wildly round the room.
“Oh, Sybil, do stop and come and help,” cried Gretta distractedly. “If it is Auntie Tib she must be coming to tea, and everything’s so untidy! Here, come and help me, do!”
But Sybil still danced on regardless of entreaties. “Put away your things yourself,{3}” she shouted. “You spend all your time playing your precious fiddle, instead of housekeeping; now you can just clear up alone!” ”

“ And now here was Margot—Margot, only six months her senior, and yet included in the band of fortunate older ones!—suggesting that this match was the “best part” of the day’s entertainment. Sybil flounced angrily out of the sitting-room and, leaving a group of amused and half-sympathetic bigger girls, betook herself in tears to the playground, to be found there presently by her chum and slave, Adela, in a very great temper indeed. ”

“ And it’s not only mother.’”
“Do be quiet, Margot,” begged Gretta. “I know what Josy means; I’m not the sort to be brave about things. The shield’ll go to Helen, or someone like that. And, as far as this dormer goes, there’s Stella, you know.” The clanging of the first breakfast-bell terrified them all into silence, and it was not until the dining-hall was reached that the three friends had time to speak to each other again. ”

“ RULES “ARE they ‘cooked all wrong, or cold, or anything?’” asked Josy mischievously from Gretta’s right-hand side.
“No, they’re very nice,” said her table-companion, determined not to show she minded being teased. “Margot”—turning to her cousin, who sat eating bread-and-butter, and wearing an unusually solemn expression—“how do you like everything? What girls have you talked to?” ”

“ They dismissed the subject from their minds, and did not think of it again for some time, as during supper that evening a fresh interest arose, and that a most absorbing one.
“What are the prospects of winning the Redford School match, Helen?” inquired the house-mistress, as she served out liberal helpings of pudding to the rows of waiting girls.
“Well, we didn’t manage to last year, Miss Read, but we mean to this year, if we can. It’ll take all our strength, though; they’re most awfully strong.” ”

“ The doctor relapsed once more into a state of gloom; any disturbing trifle would plunge him into depression, nowadays, and Gretta tried to devise a means of comfort.
“Shall I stay with you a little, dad? I could sew, or something, up here, and talk to you.” The girl had spent many afternoons by her father’s bedside, recounting tales of life as spent at the Cliff School; of hockey matches, of dormitory feasts, and daring escapades. He already knew about Long Jake; and the wonders of the “Little House” had been explained; the story of Margot’s adventure with the pony had been narrated, too ”

“ Thus adjured, and as much awed by the astonishingly high cap of this personage as by her commanding manner, the four new girls stepped warily behind her. “Nurse!” whispered Sybil—the only one of the quartette who cared to open her lips—“Gretta, is she a nurse? We’re not babies!”
“Sssh!” said her sister urgently, as the uniformed personage drew up at one of the doors. “Two of you will have your cubicles here,” she said. “Margot Fleming—oh, that’s you, is it?”—as Margot took a step forward—“and Margaret Grey. ”

“ You can just roll your old grass yourselves!”
“All right, just wait till Helen comes along, young lazy-bones,” shouted Josy cheerily, and bent herself energetically to the task in hand.
“I can’t think what’s come over Sybil lately,” said Gretta to Margot. “She’s so frightfully cross.”
“Oh, mother’ll put her right,” declared her cousin with assurance, pushing manfully, “just wait till she comes.” ”

“ It’s not even sensible. One girl against two great gipsies! Even if you did go inside, what would you do?”
“I’d not be—one girl, if you came too,” Margot informed her. “Here, you’re right in one thing; we’d better get the men out of the tent, first, and then go in! Only, how....”
“There’s no way. How could there be? I’m going home,” said Stella.
“Of all the cowards! That’s what you are! I’d rather be—Australian, as you call it, than a coward and leave a baby crying!” Stella’s guest of the afternoon turned upon her hostess with flashing eyes. “And after talking of winning the bravery shield!” ”

“ This roller’s jolly heavy!”
“They won’t come,” announced Joan Curtis, the school-baby, pushing manfully, and evidently feeling rather neglected by her friends; “they’re talking secrets, and they won’t let me hear.”
“Secrets! Rot!” laughed Josy. “Come and push, you two kids!” she called again. “It’s not fair to leave this for the team to do; they’ll need every jolly scrap of strength they’ve got for this afternoon.”
“If you mean us,” said Sybil, turning and surveying the breathless quartette with what Josy called “the most utter cheek!” in her face, “we’re not kids, and we’re not coming! ”

“ Margot spoke quietly. “You see, it’s all very well to say that gipsies tell lies. Perhaps they do. But it was one of the old Bush people—the ‘blacks,’ they call them out there—who taught Long Jake how to whisper to the horses. Long Jake said that, compared to them, he knew nothing about it, really. It was ... because they loved horses that they could do it, Long Jake said; and it was only, I suppose, because he felt so horribly sorry for the horse that he simply had to try to see what he could do. The ‘blacks’ know much more than that, too. ”

“ Gretta gazed up without speaking, only half understanding the importance of her aunt’s words.
“It’s like this, darling. Uncle Bob and I are going back to Australia by the next boat; we start early in the week. We mean to leave Margot here, for we can afford that; also, Uncle Bob says that he wants either you or Sybil to stay, but to keep you both here after the end of this term is not possible. I went to see your father on Friday, and yesterday—before there was the sudden excitement of Sybil’s absence—I spoke to Miss Slater.” ”

“ That’s the reason, partly, why the dormer feasts always come that night.”
“Why?” asked Margot. “That night! Saturday week! Is there really going to be one then!”
“Oh, rather!” returned Josy. “It’s partly to make up for the puddings that the team have missed, nurse says; and, besides, it’s an awfully ripping finish to the day, if we win; and it’s rather decent and comforting if we don’t. So Miss Slater always lets us have it; all but the little ones—they don’t have one now.”
“How about the dormitory lists this time, Helen?” inquired the house-mistress. ”

“ The thought of hockey now changed the current of her thoughts, and she turned a very interested face in Gretta’s direction.
“You like games, too, don’t you? Of course I shall miss hockey to-morrow, as I’m going home with Stella, but there’s that match next Saturday week against the Redford School. I’m longing to watch it. Oh, I wonder if I shall ever be in the team!”
“Of course you will,” replied her cousin in all good faith. “I love games, too, of course, but I know I’ll never be much good. I’m not half so fast a runner as you are, Margot ”

“ The house is built on a sandy soil, and there is every modern convenience conducive to health; sanitary arrangements splendid; you’re a pair of lucky children!”
Gretta was used to streams of eloquence that she only half understood. She waited patiently until this one was over. Evidently none of the details dear to the hearts of children were to be elicited through conversation with the doctor; she was thrown back upon her own imaginings, and waited patiently for the advent of her aunt and Sybil on the following day. ”

“ But evidently such a verb was unknown in the vocabulary of the rector’s Jim; for five minutes Margot stood at the pony’s head in a fever and ferment of excitement; then her powers of endurance gave out.
“Oh, how slow they are in England!” she lamented, “and that boy, I declare he’s——!” A sudden idea flashed into her mind before even she had finished the sentence. “I’ll just not wait for him,” she said; “I’ll go! Stella’ll guess when she finds the trap gone; I’m sure I can drive quicker than he would, too; and who knows where Sybil mayn’t be by this time?” ”

“ She turned the handle as she spoke, and instantly, as though by magic, the noisy babel of conversation ceased, there was a scrambling as the girls jumped up hurriedly from their seats, and a whisper, deferential, yet delighted, ran round the room. “It’s Miss Slater!”
“I have brought two new girls, Helen,” said the head mistress, smiling at the group, and then turning to a tall and responsible-looking damsel with merry eyes and a thick plait of hair, who advanced as she was addressed. “Margaret Grey and her cousin, Margot Fleming;{40} they will sleep in Dormitory 3, with Stella and Josy. ”

“ Oh, I can’t go and leave him all alone with Ann! How lonely he’d be! And he might even get ill. Sybil can go, but I don’t see how I can!”
“Well! Well!” said her father irritably. “Have you nothing to say? Your aunt has been most generous; wants you both to get the advantage of good teaching—even suggests that she will pay for violin lessons for you——”
“Oh!” Gretta’s face crimsoned with pleasure at the idea. “Dad,” she ventured, “but could you spare me?” ”

“ She can’t like chattering to Adela all day. Josy, let’s take her in hand; we’ll make her keen on hockey. We could easily do it; she’s as good and better at it than any of her dormer, and she’s only six months younger{188} than me. I believe she’d be as keen as mustard in no time.”
“It’s the very thing!” Gretta was beginning, her eyes sparkling, just as nurse appeared at the dormitory door, looking remarkably brisk and business-like. “Gretta,” she announced, “you’re to go to Miss Slater’s study. No, don’t wait a moment. Go down at once!” ”

“ It’s common land, or something; and they may pitch their tents there, dad says, by law, so long as they behave themselves. They’re there most of the year, too, because they’re horse-dealing gipsies, who go from fair to fair buying horses and selling them again. Well, mother says there’s one good point about the old man—he does keep the gipsies away from our stretch of moor. They won’t camp within a mile of his little house. They say he’s a witch, or something of that sort.”
“He can’t be a witch; they’re women,” put in Josy. ”

“ She’s most frightfully strict. You have to sit still the whole lessons through. There’s no chance of my winning a lesson-prize in that class I know, Gretta, so it’s no use trying for one. And as I told Ann that I should bring one back with me, I think I shall just try for that other one for being the bravest; it’s much more interesting, and might even be fun.”
“You mean the Hope-Scott prize!” questioned Gretta in amazement. “Oh, Sybil, do you think you’re brave enough? ”

“ Gretta’s face dimpled with smiles as his laugh rang out in appreciation of some story. “Margot said Long Jake always came in the nick of time,” she thought to herself; “and it’s true—he does!”
For Mr. Courtney, in explaining to the girl the reason of his unexpected appearance, had told her of Mrs. Fleming’s suggestion that he would probably be welcome at the doctor’s house if he could make time to drop in there. “Of course, I’ll go straight away,” he explained to Gretta, as she came into the drawing-room to greet him, “if you think that your father’s not well enough for visitors ”

“ But how could horses possibly be dangerous? Margot says....”
But Margot, appealed to by this very headstrong daughter, looked thoughtful. “They can be fierce, even. Horses! why, of course. I don’t know about these, but we once had a stampede. Mother and I didn’t see anything of it, but dad told us that if it hadn’t been for Long Jake....”
Even Stella appeared to knuckle under to the general opinion, since Long Jake, the dormitory hero, evidently shared it. “Still these horses wouldn’t be,” she added. “They’re mostly old and half worn out. The gipsies buy them at fairs and sell them again. ”

“ But it’s rather difficult to tell.” Mrs. Fleming cleared her throat, while Gretta waited in suspense; then came the deluge!{189}
“Gretta, I’ve something to tell you. You know how delighted I was when your father allowed us the great pleasure of sending you and Sybil to school with Margot?”
“Yes?” Gretta’s tone sounded as bewildered as she felt.
“Well, dear, to cut a long story short, things have happened that we in no way expected. Uncle Bob is not the rich man that he was. I needn’t trouble you with details, child, but we are just now in rather a difficult position.” ”