CHAPTER X
The school had been working for over three years when Mrs. Cameron andthe Schoolmaster came to an agreement by which Davey was to have extralessons after school hours--to learn something of foreign languages, andof the higher mathematics, not to speak of other odds and ends ofknowledge that Mr. Farrel might consider part of that "liberaleducation" she was so anxious he should acquire--and Deirdre was to staywith Mrs. Cameron for a while, and learn to cook and sew, and,generally, to practise woman's ways about a house.
It was bareback on Lass, that Davey and Deirdre came jogging along theroad from school for the first time.
Mrs. Cameron heard their shrill, joyous voices long before they emergedfrom the cover of the trees; then she watched them climbing the trackacross the rise, straddling the old horse's fat sides, Deirdre with herarms round Davey's waist, the red handkerchief containing her wardrobein his left hand, fast in Lass's matted mane. He gave the old mare aflick, now and again, with a stripped branch he had in his right hand,though it made no more impression than a fly alighting on her thickhair. She kept on at her steady, jogging pace until they were againstthe yard gate.
Mrs. Cameron laughed when she saw them.
She kissed Deirdre and took the red bundle from Davey's hand.
"Father says," Deirdre said, a quaint air of sedateness settling down onher, "that he's 'shamed to send me without stockings or a weddinggarment, Mrs. Cameron. But if you will get what is necessary for me nexttime you go to the Port he will be--what was it, Davey?"
"Extremely obliged," Davey replied carefully. "Mr. Farrel says that he'sbought her shoes and stockings over and over again, mother, but shewon't wear them."
"There's two shoes in the 'possum's nest by our house, and a pair ofboots in the creek," Deirdre admitted with a sidelong look at him.
While Davey took Lass to the paddock on the top of the hill, Deirdrewent indoors with Mrs. Cameron. She had never been away from her fatherbefore. At first she had been surprised at the suggestion of goinganywhere without him, but he had told her that she was going to learn tobe like Mrs. Cameron--a good housewife--so that she could look after himand their home as well as a grown woman; and she was delighted at theidea. Jogging up the hills behind Davey, she had not realised that shewas to spend the night away from "Dan," as he was to her in all hertense moments.
It was only when she went into the tiny, box-like, paper-covered roomwith two little white beds in it that she began to understand this. Shegazed at the room, she had never seen anything like it, with its whitecovers, little cupboard with a mirror on it, and papered walls spreadwith red and brown flowers.
"You must wash your face and hands, and feet, Deirdre," Mrs. Cameronsaid, "and then I'll bring you a pair of Davey's shoes and stockings towear until I can get others for you."
She unknotted the red handkerchief. The two or three little garments ofcoarse calico it contained had been washed and rough-dried. Mary turnedthem over critically.
"Dan washed them himself," Deirdre said, sullenly sensing the criticism."He put them under his bed and slept on them so that they would looknice this morning. He sewed up the holes, too. And he said 'O God!' whenhe folded them up and put them in the handkerchief."
Mrs. Cameron stared at the clothes, her heart sore for the Schoolmasterand his attempt to send the child to her with all her little belongingsneatly mended and in order.
There was silence a moment. Then Deirdre started away from her.
"I don't want to stay here!" she cried.
"Deirdre!" Mrs. Cameron was amazed at the change that had come over thesunny, little face.
"I want Dan! I want to go home," Deirdre cried passionately. "I don'twant to stay here. I don't want to be like you! I want--want Dan."
She brushed past Mrs. Cameron and ran out of the house. Mrs. Cameronwent after her, calling her, but Deirdre, a light, flying figure, ranon, sobbing; the trees swallowed her.
"Where's the child?" Davey asked, with the easy superiority of his extrayears, when he came down from the stables and found his mother standingat the gate, looking down the track Deirdre and he had just come by.
"She's gone, Davey," Mrs. Cameron cried distressfully.
"Gone--where?"
"Home!"
"She went down the track?" he asked.
Mrs. Cameron nodded, tears of disappointment in her eyes. She had beenlooking forward to having a little girl to teach and look after asthough she were her own.
Davey set off at a run.
It was nearly an hour later that he returned, a kicking, struggling,scratching, little creature in his arms. He released his hold of her ashe entered the kitchen, threw her from him, and slammed the door behindhim.
"There, scratch cat!" he cried fiercely. "Next time you try to run awayremember what the Schoolmaster said: 'If you love me, Deirdre, you'll begood to Mrs. Cameron and do what she wants you to!'"
Deirdre had dropped to the floor and was crying, wildly, furiously.
Davey stared at her.
"If you don't stop that howling and yelling at once, I'll ride over andtell him how you're behaving," he said. "And then what'll he say?"
Deirdre's sobbing subsided.
There was a heavy step outside. Donald Cameron opened the kitchen door.
"What's this?" he asked, looking down on the huddled heap on the floorthat was Deirdre. He glanced questioningly from his wife to Davey.
"It's the Schoolmaster's little girl!" Mrs. Cameron explained. "She'snever been away from him before, and--"
"Well, we can't have this noise in the place," he said irritably.
Deirdre had looked up at the sound of that harsh voice. The sight ofDavey's father quelled her.
"Take her away and see that she gets ready for tea, Davey," Mrs. Cameronsaid anxiously.
Although Deirdre made no more noise, she sat shivering and quivering allthe evening, her eyes vacant of all but an inexpressible misery, herthin little body shaken by long, gasping breaths. Mrs. Cameron tried tocomfort and console her, talking to her gently and lovingly as she puther to bed, but the child's mind was adamant.
"I want Dan! I want Dan!" she sobbed.
And in the morning when Mrs. Cameron went into her room, the window wasopen and the little white bed empty.
The Pioneers Page 10
