A harum-scarum schoolgirl

by Angela Brazil

  CHAPTER XVIII

  Diana's Foundling

  There was very little doubt in the minds of Miss Todd and of othermistresses at Pendlemere Abbey that Diana was a spoilt child. Herparents, far away in Paris, made up for their enforced absence bysending her a larger assortment of presents than usually falls to thelot of a schoolgirl. She had practically everything that she could want,and a great many things beside. There was one subject, however, uponwhich she had coaxed her father for a long time. In every letter she hadwritten lately she had assured him that life was not liveable in thesummer term without a pony. Diana had a passion for horses. She hadridden much in America, and her ideal of happiness was to be onponyback. She was occasionally allowed to mount Baron, but, as Miss Toddwould not permit her to take him into the lanes alone, she had toconfine her gallops to the paddock, which she considered very poorsport. She thought the matter over till she evolved an idea; then sheconfided it to Miss Carr. Miss Carr was also an enthusiast about horses,and was secretly longing to ride Baron. Diana's scheme was that sheshould ask her father to allow her to hire a pony for the rest of theterm, have it stabled at the farm near, and go with Miss Carr for rides.When she made up her mind to a thing she was apt to press the subjecthotly. A series of such very urgent letters went to Paris that Mr.Hewlitt yielded, and wrote to Miss Todd asking her to be so kind as toarrange the matter. Very fortunately for Diana the idea appealed to MissTodd; she wished to encourage riding amongst her girls, and was quitewilling to allow the experiment to be tried. She commissioned Mr.Greenhalgh, a neighbouring farmer, to procure a suitable mount for ayoung lady of fourteen, and to take charge of it in his stable. Dianahad to wait a week, in great impatience, while he made enquiries andinterviewed horse-dealers; then one red-letter afternoon she was takenby Miss Todd to the farm, and introduced to the prettiest possiblelittle white pony. "Lady" was getting on in years, but still had somespirit left in her, and she was accustomed to the saddle. Her owner,considering that she needed a rest, was glad to hire her out for suchlight work. Diana flung her arms round the pony's neck, and at oncebegan the process of making love to her, cementing the new friendshipwith several lumps of sugar which she had brought in her pocket.

  Then began a series of perfectly delightful rides. Miss Carr and Dianawould start out after tea, and explore all the bridle-roads in theneighbourhood. Sometimes they would go up on the moors, and enjoy acanter over the soft grass, or ride alongside the beautiful little lakesthat lay like gems among the hills. Diana did not much mind where theywent, so long as she could be upon Lady's back. Her new possessionnaturally aroused wild longing in the breasts of a considerable numberof her schoolfellows. If it had been possible Miss Todd would havearranged for a riding-master to bring horses to Pendlemere and givelessons to some of the girls, but matters had not yet adjustedthemselves sufficiently after the war for such an ambitious scheme asthat, so she did the next best thing, hired a second pony, and sentcertain girls, whose parents wished them to learn riding, out in relays.These elect few were regarded as favourites of fortune, but they wereobliged to take their luck in turns. They could only have one ride aweek each, and that was not nearly enough to content them. They wantedat least two.

  "If Miss Todd could hire another pony," sighed Wendy, "that would meanwe each got in a second lesson a week."

  "Mr. Greenhalgh has tried, and says he can't hear of one anywhere,"lamented Tattie. "Horses are scarce since the war, and ponies seemparticularly wanted in the summer. It's very difficult to getriding-ponies."

  "Glad I secured Lady," chuckled Diana.

  "I think it's very mean of you to keep Lady all to yourself," retortedSadie, airing a grievance. "Why can't you let her be the second schoolpony, and take your turn with the rest of us? It would be far fairer."

  "Give up Lady? Well, I like that! Coolest idea I've ever heard! Why, Ithought of the whole thing, and wrote to Dad, and she was hiredspecially for me. _Your_ riding lessons were only a copy of my idea. Geta third pony if you can, but I guess I'm not going to give up Lady toanybody. Why should I? Dad said she was to be mine."

  "It's not sporty of you, though," grumbled Sadie. "You know perfectlywell we _can't_ get a third pony, and everybody in the school is sayinghow hard it is for you to monopolize one entirely to yourself. There aresix other girls who'd be glad to learn riding if they could get amount."

  "Then let them write home to their fathers to send them ponies."

  "As if they could! But their fathers would let them take lessons ifthere were a school pony for them. I know that for a fact."

  "Well, they shan't have mine, at any rate," rapped out Diana defiantly."You just needn't think it, so there!"

  One afternoon it was Wendy's turn for the school pony. She and Diana andMiss Carr rode away together down the road to Chapelrigg. It was agloriously fine day. Wild roses starred the hedgerows, and the beautifulblue speedwell bordered the lanes. Larks were singing, and, though thecuckoo had changed his tune, blackbirds still fluted in the coppices.

  They had come out on an errand--not a particularly romantic one, as ithappened, only to pay a bill for Miss Todd at a farm-house a few milesaway. If the errand was prosaic the farm and its surroundings lookedattractive; it stood on a hill with a beautiful group of birch-treesbehind it, and a small stream came rippling down at the bottom of thegarden. The path from the high road was blocked by a cart left standingwith a load of straw, so it would be impossible to ride the horses up tothe door. The three riders dismounted, and Miss Carr, tying Baron to thefence, said she would walk up the lane and pay the bill while the girlswaited for her in the road. Allowing Lady and Topsy to crop the grass inthe hedge bottom, Diana and Wendy sat on the bank lazily enjoyingthemselves. It was very pleasant that afternoon to be alive. In thatnorthern district although summer came late she made up for it by theextreme beauty with which she clothed the landscape; the view from thehill-side was like one of Turner's pictures.

  As the girls sat chatting, watching the ponies, and idly pluckingflowers, they heard footsteps coming along the road, and presently awoman carrying a baby appeared round the corner. She was young and darkand gipsy-looking, and wore large ear-rings and a red cottonhandkerchief knotted loosely round her brown throat. She stopped at thesight of Diana and Wendy and the ponies, and seemed to consider amoment. Then she walked boldly up to them, looked keenly in their faces,and evidently chose Diana.

  "Could you do me a kindness, miss?" she asked. "I've to go up to thefarm for a basket. I don't want to carry the baby with me; she's soheavy. If I leave her here on the grass would you keep an eye on hertill I come back? I shan't be gone five minutes."

  Now Diana was fond of babies, and the little dark-eyed specimen, wrappedup in the plaid shawl, was pretty and attractive and fairly clean. Foranswer she held out her arms, received baby, shawl, and feeding-bottleon to her knee, and constituted herself temporary nurse.

  "She'll be good till I come back," said the woman, turning up the lanethat led to the farm.

  The small person with the brown eyes was probably accustomed to behanded about. She did not jib at strangers, as might have been expected,but accepted the situation quite amiably. She gurgled in response toDiana's advances, and allowed herself to be amused. Perhaps the vicinityof horses was familiar to her, and she felt at home. Diana, hugging heron her knee, freed her from the folds of the shawl and allowed her tokick happily. She was certainly a fascinating little mortal.

  In the course of about ten minutes Miss Carr, who had been having achat at the farm about gardening prospects, returned leisurely down thelane, and was electrified to find Diana sitting by the roadside nursinga baby.

  "I didn't see any gipsy woman come up to the farm," she said, in answerto the girls' explanations. "You'd better go, Wendy, and see if you canfind her, and tell her to come at once and fetch her baby."

  So Wendy went up the lane to the farm, and asked at the front door andthe back door, and looked round the stack-yard and the buildings, butthere was never a trace of the gips
y girl. A little boy playing by thepond, however, declared that he had seen a woman crossing the field andclimbing over the fence on to the road. Wendy returned with this report.Miss Carr looked annoyed.

  "We must go along the road, then, and follow her. We can't wait heretill she chooses to come back."

  So Diana carried the baby, and Wendy led Lady and Topsy, and Miss Carr,with an anxious wrinkle between her eyebrows, followed with Baron in thedirection that the small boy had pointed out. They walked a mile, andenquired at cottages and from passers-by, and from men working in thefields, but nobody had seen the gipsy woman. Then they went back to thetrysting-place to see if she had returned, but she was not there. Theyasked again at the farm, and went back to the cottages, and Miss Carrbegged to leave the baby there, because its mother would be sure toenquire for it and find it. The occupants of the cottages, however,shook their heads, and were not at all prepared to accept theresponsibility. Neither were the people at the farm. They utterlyrefused to take it in. Then Diana realized that it is one thing to offerto nurse a baby, and quite another to get rid of it again. What werethey to do?

  "We can't dump the poor mite down by the roadside and leave it," saidMiss Carr distractedly. "Whatever _can_ have become of its mother?"

  No answer was forthcoming to her question, and matters were urgent. Shedecided that the only thing to be done was to take the baby with them toPendlemere, leaving messages at the farm and the cottages for the motherto follow on and claim it. Naturally it made a great sensation in theschool when Diana arrived holding her foundling in her arms. Miss Carrexplained at full length to Miss Todd, who was utterly aghast, butconsented to take in the small stranger till it was claimed. MissChadwick, who had studied hygiene at the Agricultural College, and hadonce assisted at a creche, constituted herself head nurse, mixed abottle, and left Miss Ormrod to feed the fowls while she sat in arocking-chair and soothed the foundling to sleep.

  "Surely the mother'll turn up before dark," she said.

  But nobody turned up, and Miss Chadwick, who had had to guess at thebaby's age and requirements, and had mixed too strong a bottle, spent awakeful night patting her small guest on the back and endeavouring tostill her wails. Next morning Miss Todd reported the matter at thepolice station, enquiries were made, and it was ascertained that a girlanswering to the description given had been in the company of a band ofhawkers, but had disappeared and left no trace of her whereabouts. Thebaby was not hers, but belonged to a woman who had just been arrested ona serious charge and taken to Glenbury jail; the hawkers with whom shehad associated disclaimed all responsibility for the child.

  "The only thing to be done is to send it to the Union," said the policesergeant.

  But by that time the school in general, and Diana in particular, hadfallen in love with the poor little baby. They raged at the idea ofsending it to the workhouse. They had borrowed clothes for it; and,nicely bathed and dressed and recovered from its fit of indigestion, itlooked a sweet thing, and was ready to make friends with anybody andeverybody.

  "Bless her, she _shan't_ go the workhouse!" declared Diana, kissing thesmall fist that clung round her finger.

  There was a wild idea among the girls that the foundling might be keptas a "school baby".

  "We're taught gardening, and poultry-keeping, and bee-keeping," saidWendy quite seriously, "so why not the care of children? We could learnto bathe her, and mix her bottle, and do heaps of things for her."

  Miss Todd, however, thought otherwise. Theoretical hygiene of infantswas all very well as part of the curriculum, but the practical side ofit was disturbing to the school. Miss Chadwick had other duties besidesthat of nursing a baby. Rows of plants needed attention, and youngchickens claimed her care.

  "If the mother gets a heavy sentence," said Miss Todd, "I think thechild would be received into a 'Home for Destitute Children'. In themeantime----"

  "_Not_ the workhouse!" pleaded Diana. "Isn't there anybody in thevillage who'd take her in?"

  "Mrs. Jones would have her, but she would charge twelve and sixpence aweek; nobody will take in a baby for less now."

  "What's that in dollars? About three, isn't it? Dad will fix that upeasily. I'll write to him to-night. It's as good as settled."

  "Diana," said Miss Todd emphatically, "I shall _not_ allow you to writeto your father and ask him for anything more. If you care to give upyour pocket-money for the baby's sake that's another matter; but you'regetting into a bad habit of expecting your father to pay for every whimthat comes into your head. It's cheap charity to suggest somethingthat's to cost _you_ nothing. You want to have all the credit of thegenerosity at your father's expense."

  Diana flushed up to her hair, and down over her neck.

  "Do you think me a slacker?" she asked.

  "Yes; in this respect I certainly do. If you were prepared to denyyourself anything it would be different, but you're not. You like tocall the child _your_ foundling, but personally you've done nothing forher. It's Miss Chadwick who's had the wakeful nights."

  Diana did not urge in self-defence that she would willingly have takenthe baby to bed with her if she had been allowed; she knew it wasuseless to offer arguments or excuses. She was busy thinking. MissTodd's reproaches stung her like a whip. She would let the school seethat she was not the pampered, spoilt darling that they imagined. Onthat score she was determined. Sacrifices! She was quite prepared tomake sacrifices if they were necessary. Nobody should again have thechance of telling her that she did her generosity at other people'sexpense. An idea swept through her mind, and she set her teeth.

  "Does it cost more than twelve and six a week to keep Lady?" she asked.

  "Considerably more; though I don't suppose you've ever concernedyourself about the cost," returned Miss Todd sarcastically.

  "Might I hand Lady over to the school for the rest of the term, then,and pay for the baby instead? I'd square it up with Father. He wouldn'tmind about the riding when I explained."

  Miss Todd looked Diana squarely in the face. Pupil and mistress met eachother's eyes. The Principal's voice softened when she spoke.

  "Yes; if you like to do this, Diana, I could arrange it. We want anotherschool pony. You could take your turn with Lady once a week, the same asthe other girls. By the end of the term we should know whether the'Home' would receive the baby. Meantime, Mrs. Jones would take good careof her."

  "Then I guess it's fixed," said Diana rather hoarsely.