A harum-scarum schoolgirl

by Angela Brazil

  CHAPTER IV

  The Rush-bearing

  Among Miss Todd's modern principles of education was the sensible theorythat if you can once get a girl interested in a subject she will learnwithout any labour, and that self-acquired knowledge is far more readilyretained than facts which are crammed down one's throat. More especiallyshe applied this to history. Instead of making it a dry catalogue ofdates of kings and battles, she tried to show the gradual evolution ofthe British nation from the barbarism of the Stone Age to present-daycivilization. She dwelt much on folk-lore, ancient customs andtraditions, and especially encouraged the study of all local legends andobservances. In this she found an ally in the new vicar who had latelycome to the church at Pendlemere, and whose daughters, Meg and Elsie,attended the school as day-girls. Mr. Fleming was an enthusiasticantiquarian, and revelled in the history of the neighbourhood. He wentround his parish collecting information from the oldest inhabitants withregard to vanished and vanishing customs, and took notes for a bookwhich he hoped to write upon the folk-lore of the northern counties. Inthe heat of his ardour he suggested the revival of several quaint oldfestivals which had once held time-honoured places in the calendar ofthe year. First and foremost came the Rush-bearing. In ancient days ithad been the custom of the parishioners to cut bundles of rushes, and,walking in procession to the church, to strew the floor thickly withthem as a covering for the winter. They would be left till the spring,and cleared away in time for Easter. This old ceremony had long falleninto disuse, and was only remembered by village patriarchs as one of theyearly events of their far-away childhood.

  Though it might not be desirable once more to strew the floor withrushes, Mr. Fleming suggested that it would be a pretty idea if thegirls at Pendlemere School were to cut some bundles of them, tie themwith ribbons, and carry them into the church on the date of the oldfestival, as a memorial of the past observance. Anything so interestingas going out to cut rushes appealed to the girls, and they readilyadopted the suggestion. Miss Todd decided to turn the afternoon into akind of natural history and antiquarian excursion.

  "The rushes by the lake are not very easy to get," she explained, "butthere are beauties growing on Fox Fell. We'll have a ramble there onSaturday, take our lunch, and bring back our bundles. Then we can plaitour ribbons at our leisure on Monday, in time for the festival onTuesday. Who wants to go? Anybody who likes may stay at home."

  A rustle passed round the room, for nobody was anxious to be left out ofthe fun. Rambles were considered special treats at Pendlemere, andsmiles decorated twenty faces at the prospect. At Geraldine's suggestionthey did their Saturday prep. in Friday's recreation time.

  "And get all your practising finished too," she urged. "If we can tellMiss Todd that our work's quite squared up, she'll let us stay outlonger; but you know her. If there's a single girl who hasn't learnt herliterature, or made up her music list, the whole crew of us will have tocome trotting back. I'd be sorry for that girl!" Geraldine looked roundthe room grimly. "I should give her a very unpleasant time myself, and Iexpect the rest of you would, too. She'd richly deserve all she got."

  Warned by the head girl's awful threat, tasks were completed in goodtime, and promptly by half-past ten the school, in a uniform of brownjerseys, brown tam-o'-shanters with orange tassels, strong boots,lunch-wallets slung over their shoulders, and sticks in their hands,were prepared, like a group of pilgrims, to make their start. Spot, thefox terrier, escorted them, barking his loudest. Meg and Elsie Flemingjoined them in the village; so with Miss Todd and Miss Beverley theyformed a party of twenty-four. They set their faces towards the fells,and stepped out briskly. They were not bound to walk in a crocodile,but, though some progressed in groups, most of the girls gravitated intopairs. Diana and Wendy linked arms as naturally as two pieces of mercurymerge together in a box. Their spirits, usually high, were to-day atbubbling-over point: they laughed at everything, whether it was a jokeor not.

  "It's my first real mountain walk in England," announced Diana.

  "Oh! I'm glad you allow they _are_ mountains," said Sadie, coming upfrom behind. "You've been bragging so hard about America, that I thoughtperhaps you'd consider them hillocks."

  "They _are_ hillocks compared with the Rockies," flashed Diana. "I'm notgoing to give way an inch about America, so there!"

  "All right, Uncle Sam, brag away. Everything over there is ten timesbigger and better than here--the apples are the size of pumpkins, andthe brooks are so wide you can't see across them, and it takes you yearsto ride round a single farm! We know! You needn't tell us again."

  "I wasn't going to!" retorted Diana. "What's the use, when you can makeit all up for yourself?"

  "Oh! my invention's nothing to yours. I expect you're telling Wendy somestartlers. I'm going to walk with Vi, she's more interesting than youtwo."

  "What's the matter with Sadie?" asked Diana, as their schoolmate ran onto catch up Violet.

  "Jealous!" said Wendy, shaking her head sagely. "She has these attackssometimes, and I know the symptoms. She doesn't like to see you and mewalking together. Last term she and I and Magsie and Tattie were inDormitory 4. Magsie and Tattie did the 'twin cherries on one stalk'business all the time, so in self-defence Sadie and I had to chum,though we squabbled six times a day. I'm not going to be monopolizednow, so she needn't think it. Let her chum with Vi if she likes, I'msure I don't care. Hallo! Which stile do we go over here, I wonder?"

  The two girls had lagged behind, so that the rest of the party, walkingat the brisk pace set by Miss Todd, had passed on in front. Wendymounted each stile in turn, and surveyed the prospect of fields and highhedges. There was not a solitary tam-o'-shanter to be seen from eitherof them. In much doubt she hesitated.

  "It'll probably be to the left, because I know we have to go throughthat wood over there before we get out on to the fells," sheconjectured.

  "I can't help you," said Diana. "Is it any use tossing for it?"

  They ventured to the left, and, after walking over three fields, foundthemselves in a narrow lane which terminated in a pond. It was such anevident cul-de-sac that there was nothing for it but to turn back. Whenthey again reached the stiles they found Geraldine sitting upon theright-hand one. Her expression was thundery, and her greeting thereverse of cordial.

  "Where _have_ you been, you two stupids? Why can't you keep up with therest of us instead of side-tracking like this? Here you're keeping thewhole party waiting, and I've had to turn back to hunt you up."

  "Sorry to be on the earth!" apologized Wendy; "but we missed our way."

  "Then it's your own fault, for we left the gipsy trail for you as plainas plain could be. Some people have no eyes!"

  "What gipsy trail?"

  Geraldine pointed laconically to the grass.

  There, just by the right-hand stile, lay two crossed sticks. They wereplaced in a most obvious position. It was a marvel how they had escapednotice.

  "You may well stare!" commented Geraldine with sarcasm.

  "I believe I did see them," said Diana, "but I didn't know what theymeant."

  "Didn't know! Why, Sadie told you! I sent her on purpose. Miss Todd saidwe were to leave the gipsy trail at every doubtful place."

  "Sadie never told us. She never said a single word."

  "You probably didn't listen. Well, I can't argue it out now, the othersare waiting, and Miss Todd's furious. Come along as fast as you can."

  Diana and Wendy considered that the summary scolding which they receivedfrom Miss Todd, who was in too big a hurry to listen to any excuses, wasentirely Sadie's fault, and a point to be settled up with her later. Atpresent she scuttled on ahead, conveniently out of their way.

  "Just let her wait!" vowed Wendy darkly.

  It was necessary to step along briskly if they meant to accomplish thewalk which Miss Todd had in her mind's eye, and anybody who has everacted leader to a party of twenty-four knows the difficulty of makingeveryone keep the pace.

  "I believe Toddlekins would like to rope us
all together as if we wereSwiss mountaineers," giggled Magsie, "or a gang of prisoners clankingchains. It's rather weak if one can't even stop to pick a flower."

  They had passed through the wood by now, and were on the open fells. Theview was gorgeous. The October sun flooded the landscape and showed upthe wealth of autumn colour: tree-crested crags, ravines with brawlingbrooks, stretches of heather-clad moor, banks of faded bracken, ruggedrocks and stony hill-crests were spread on the one hand, while to thewest lay a distant chain of lakes, embosomed in meadows green asemerald, and reflecting the pale autumn sky in their smooth expanse. Atthe top of the first fell, Miss Todd called a halt. They had reachednumber one of the objects she had set in the day's programme. It was apre-historic cromlech--three gigantic stones reared in the form of atable by those old inhabitants of our island whose customs and modes ofworship are lost in the mists of antiquity. The storms and snows of manythousand years sweeping round it had slightly displaced the cap stone,but it stood otherwise intact, a grey, hoary monument to the toil of theshort, dark neolithic race who once hunted on these self-same fells. Thegirls crowded round the cromlech curiously. It was large enough for fourof them to sit underneath, and several crammed in as an experiment.

  "Was it an altar?" asked Stuart.

  "The altar theory is exploded now," said Miss Todd. "It is generallyrecognized that they were burial-places of great chiefs. The body wouldbe placed inside, with stone weapons and drinking-cups, and any otherarticles the man had loved when he was alive. Then a great heap ofstones and earth would be piled over and round it, to keep out thewolves which were the terror of early man. The weather, and perhapsfarmers, have taken away the mound, and laid bare the cromlech; butlook! here is one that is almost in its natural position."

  The girls turned, and saw close by a rocky mound that jutted from amongthe crags. In its side was a small opening, just large enough to squeezethrough. Miss Todd had brought candle and matches, and personallyconducted relays of girls into the chamber within. They went curiouslyor timorously as the case might be.

  "Is there a skeleton inside? I don't know whether I _dare_," shiveredTattie. "It's like going into a grave, and I'm scared to death."

  "Don't be silly!" said Geraldine, who, with Loveday and Hilary, wasmaking her exit. "There's nothing inside it. It's only like a cave."

  "You're sure bogeys won't catch my legs?"

  "Stop outside, if you're afraid."

  "It's like a fairy-tale, and going into the gnome's hill," flutteredMagsie.

  Everybody was determined to have a peep, and even Tattie mustered upsufficient courage to screw through the narrow portal, though shesquealed in the process, and clung tightly to Magsie's hand. Diana andWendy were among the last to effect the investigation. By that time thepiece of candle was guttering out, and Miss Todd, tired of actingshow-woman, returned to the open air, and gave marching orders.

  Diana and Wendy, rather fascinated with the "Goblin Hole", as theycalled it, lingered, poking their noses inside the entrance.

  "I didn't go in," said a voice behind them. Turning, they saw Sadie'sface, interested, and half-regretful.

  "Then you've lost your luck," said Diana decisively. "If you go in andturn round three times inside, you can have a wish, and it's bound tocome true. You'd better do it. You've just time."

  "In the dark?" hesitated Sadie.

  "Quick! Go on!" urged her companions, standing back to make way for her."Here are the matches."

  Sadie struck a match, and cautiously ventured forward. The moment shewas well inside Diana motioned to Wendy, and, catching up a piece ofwood that lay on the ground, tilted it like a door across the entrance,and piled some stones against it. Then the pair fled. They heard anagonized shriek behind them, but they turned deaf ears to it.

  They were half-way down the heathery hill-side when a very ruffled andindignant Sadie overtook them.

  "Hallo! I thought you'd gone to live with the goblins," exclaimed Dianacheerfully.

  "You're a pair of BEASTS!" exploded Sadie.

  "Don't mench! What kind of beasts, please? Young gazelles or kittens?"

  "Pigs would be more like it!" snapped Sadie. "To think of shutting me upalone in that bogey-hole! I might have lost my reason."

  "Didn't fancy you'd go stark staring mad as fast as all that," chuckledDiana. "It didn't take you very long to push that door down."

  "If we see any symptoms of insanity cropping out in you, we'll know thereason," added Wendy smartly.

  "And you see it's been very good for you to know what it feels like tobe left behind," rubbed in Diana. "You never told us about that gipsytrail dodge. Tit for tat's my motto."

  "I think you're the two horridest girls in the school! I sha'n't speakto you again. You may consider yourselves funny, but no one else does,"said Sadie witheringly, as she flounced away to hang on to Geraldine'sarm, and pour her woes into the head girl's not too willing ear.

  It was a good hour's walk from the cromlechs to Birk Water, the lakewhere they intended to pick the rushes. The path was the merest track,and the tramp through the heather and over rough and rugged stones welljustified the thick footgear upon which Miss Todd had insisted. BirkWater was a lovely little mountain tarn lying under the shadow of FoxFell, a smooth, grassy eminence down which hurried a noisy stream. Theyfound a sheltered place in the sunshine on the bank, and sat down to eattheir lunch. Hard-boiled eggs and cheese sandwiches tasted delicious inthe open air, and for a special treat there was an apple apiece. Innormal times the supply of apples was liberal, but this year the crophad failed, and they were rare dainties.

  "I sympathize with Eve," said Wendy, munching blissfully. "It must havebeen a very great temptation, especially with 'knowledge' thrown in.Just think of being able to eat an apple that would teach you all yourdates and French verbs."

  "There weren't any dates then, unless they counted the geologicalperiods; and the Tower of Babel came later, so the French languagewasn't invented," objected Tattie.

  "Oh! don't be so literal-minded. I never meant that Eve sat at a deskand wrote exercises. I'm only telling you I like apples."

  "Well, so do I, and yours is a bigger one than mine."

  "It won't be long, don't you worry yourself. It's getting 'small bydegrees and beautifully less'."

  The slopes of the hill were slightly marshy, and grew a crop ofremarkably tall and fine rushes. They were much easier to gather thanthose on the borders of the lake. The girls had brought knives, and,when lunch had vanished to the last crumb, they dispersed up thehill-side to reap their rush harvest.

  "If they're not all wanted for the church, I vote we ask Miss Todd tolet us put some down on the schoolroom floor," said Diana, hacking awaycheerfully. "I'd just admire to know what they feel like under one'sfeet. It would take one back about five centuries."

  "Spiffing! We'll ask her! Get as many as you can carry, and tell theothers. They'd be far more interesting than linoleum. Think of beingable to swish one's toes about in them. I hope the church won't want toomany."

  "It oughtn't to claim more than its tithe. I suppose it's entitled to atenth of every harvest, if we stick strictly to the old customs," smiledLoveday, whose arms were already filled with a sheaf of green andorange.

  On the open side of the fell the wind blew strongly, and it was astruggle to toil upwards. The school tacked instead towards thesheltered bank of the stream, and with one accord broke into Scotchsongs. Geraldine, in a full contralto, was singing "Green grow therashes, O". Betty Blane's chirpy voice proclaimed "I'm ower young tomarry yet",--a self-evident proposition, as she was only thirteen.Stuart and Loveday were crooning "Flowers of the Forest" as a kind ofsoprano dirge, which was drowned by a chorus of juniors roaring "AuldLang Syne".

  "We twa hae paidled i' the burn Frae mornin' sun till dine",

  chanted Diana after them. "And that's just what I want to do. I've neverhad a chance yet to 'paidle' in a British burn."

  "You won't to-day, then," said Geraldine, who chanced to overh
ear, andstopped her singing to interpolate a remark. "Shoes and stockings aren'tallowed off, except in the summer term."

  "Green grow the rashes, O! Green grow the rashes, O! The sweetest hours that e'er I spent Were spent among the lassies, O!"

  Diana stood frowning as Geraldine passed along, carolling at the pitchof her voice.

  "What nonsense!" she growled. "Who made such a silly old rule? I'm notgoing to keep it."

  "It's quite as warm to-day as it sometimes is in summer," agreed Wendy.

  "I believe it's only 'swank' on Geraldine's part, because she's headprefect. I _shall_ paddle! Just because she said I mustn't. Come on,Wendy! Let's scoot into this hollow and enjoy ourselves. Geraldine makesme feel real bad when she bosses. I want to go and break all the rules Ican."