Part 8 (2/2)
”I can't think how you managed it!”
”I nearly screamed when you reached the middle!”
”It felt worse coming back than going,” said Diana, brus.h.i.+ng her skirt, which had suffered considerably. ”Somehow I minded it more. Well, it's over now! We'd better be getting on, hadn't we?”
”Yes, indeed; the others will think we're lost,” agreed Geraldine.
The t-r-r-ee-ee of the whistle was sounding from the far distance, so the girls made a spurt and hurried along to catch up the rest of the party. Geraldine, in virtue of her office as head prefect, briefly explained to Miss Todd the cause of the delay.
”I shouldn't have let you do it, Diana, if I had been there,” said the Princ.i.p.al. ”But I've no doubt the little boy's mother is blessing you.
We should have had to take him to Pendlemere with us, and have sent somebody from the village to take him home. There would have been no other way. Remember, though, that I'm responsible for you to your parents, and I really can't allow these harum-scarum tricks. Suppose there had been an accident!”
”Dad knows me, and he wouldn't have blamed you,” said Diana cheerily.
”He says I'm like a cat with nine lives, or a bad halfpenny that always turns up again. I've done worse things than this.”
”Then you won't do them while you're at this school,” returned Miss Todd firmly, motioning her to walk along in front with Geraldine.
On Monday afternoon, with the aid of some ribbons, the girls made their rushes into pretty little sheaves. They plaited bands for them, and twisted them securely. Miss Todd, much interested, superintended their operations.
”You may pick some flowers from the garden to-morrow, and put garlands round them,” she suggested. ”We're reviving a most ancient custom that dates back to the early days of Christianity in Britain. Pope Gregory IV recommended that on the anniversaries of the dedication of churches wrested from the Pagans, the converts should build themselves huts with the boughs of trees round their churches, and celebrate the day with feasting. The rush-bearing is probably the last relic of that ancient ceremony. At one time there was always a village feast in connection with it, though it degenerated at last into a sort of rustic saturnalia, and had to be suppressed.”
”Old customs are very interesting,” said Diana, staring at the Princ.i.p.al with wide-open, steady eyes.
”I'm glad you find them so.”
”It's nice to see them _all_ kept up. If we have the rush-bearing to-morrow, oughtn't we--just to revive an old ceremony--to have the feast as well?”
A rustle pa.s.sed over the school at Diana's temerity. Miss Todd returned the steady gaze, then the corners of her mouth twitched.
”You've stated the case very accurately. As a matter of fact, I have ordered seed-cake and scones, and have invited the Vicarage people to tea.”
CHAPTER VI
French Leave
The sheaves of rushes were duly carried into the church, and stacked artistically in the deep window-sills, where they gave somewhat the effect of a harvest festival. The girls were eager to lay bundles of them in the particular pews occupied by the school, but the verger, who looked askance at the whole business, and whose wife was hovering about with a broom to sweep up bits, vetoed the suggestion so emphatically that the Vicar, wavering with a strong balance towards ancient custom, hastily and regretfully decided in the negative. Neither would Miss Todd allow them to be strewn upon the schoolroom floor, although Diana ventured to suggest the advisability of practical study of mediaeval methods.
”There are some things best left to imagination,” replied the Princ.i.p.al dryly. ”For instance, there would be no need to dispense with forks, and let you hold mutton bones with your fingers at dinner, in order to demonstrate fourteenth-century manners, nor to bleed you every time you had a toothache, to test ancient practices of medicine. If you're so very anxious to skip a few hundred years, I have, in an old Herbal, a prescription to cure 'swimming in ye heade and such like phantasies'. It consists mainly of pounded snail-sh.e.l.ls, mixed with boiled tansy and snippings from the hair of an unbaptized infant born between Easter and Michaelmas. Any one who wishes has my permission to try it.”
”No, thank you!” said Diana, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up her mouth. ”Unless,” she added hopefully, ”I might go out and gather the tansy. We saw some growing on the way to Fox Fell.”
”There's a fine clump at the bottom of the garden, so you needn't go out of bounds to get it,” replied Miss Todd, glancing at her pupil with eyes that clearly saw through all subterfuges.
The Princ.i.p.al was determined that Diana and Wendy, having deliberately broken a rule, should suffer the just consequences, and she did not intend to remit one jot or t.i.ttle of the punishment she had inflicted.
”Bounds” at Pendlemere were sufficiently extensive to allow ample exercise, and any farther excursions must be deferred till the end of the appointed fortnight.
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