Part 11 (2/2)
Miss Chadwick, with her a.s.sistants Miss Carr and Miss Ormrod, brought a new and decidedly breezy element into the school. They spent Sat.u.r.day in reviewing the premises, and on Monday they set to work. The girls, who as yet were only in the position of onlookers, watched the operations, much thrilled. All sorts of interesting things began to arrive: portable hen-houses packed in sections, chicken-coops, rolls of galvanized wire netting, iron stakes, the framework of a greenhouse, and a whole cargo of tools. The three enterprising ladies seemed to have some knowledge of carpentry, and at once began to fit parts together and erect sheds.
Their sensible land costumes excited admiration and envy.
”It's what I mean to do when I grow up,” resolved Magsie. ”Did you see the way Miss Carr ran up that ladder? And she's begun to thatch the roof so neatly. She does it far better than that old man from the village who potters about. I'm just yearning to try my hand at thatching. I wish Miss Carr would let me!”
While they were busy getting the place in order, Miss Chadwick and her a.s.sistants declined all offers of inexperienced help, a.s.suring the girls that they would have their ”jobs” given them later on, when there was time to teach them. This did not at all content the enthusiastic spirits who were burning to throw lessons to the winds and spend their days in mixing putty, lime-was.h.i.+ng hen-houses, and fixing up wire netting. They hung about disconsolately, s.n.a.t.c.hing at such opportunities of a.s.sistance as holding ladders or handing nails.
”You _might_ let me tar the roof of the chicken-coop,” begged Wendy.
”I'd just love to let it all squelch on, and I adore the smell!”
But Miss Carr, who the day before had rashly allowed Diana the use of the lime-wash pail, was firm in her refusal.
”I haven't time to show you how, and I don't want things spoilt. Put down that tar-brush, Wendy! If you get smears on your skirt, you'll never get them off again.”
”I don't see where _we_ come in!” groused Wendy. ”I thought we were to learn agriculture.”
”You won't learn it by dabbing tar on the end of your nose,” laughed Miss Carr.
In the course of a few weeks, however, the preliminary stages were over.
Some fowl-houses and runs were finished, and their feathered occupants arrived and took possession. A consignment of spades, rakes, and hoes was delivered by the carrier, and arranged by the students in the new tool-shed. Miss Carr announced herself ready to begin her course of instruction. To the girls the crowning-point of the preparations was the opening of several large boxes posted from a London shop. They contained twenty land costumes in a.s.sorted sizes. The excitement of trying them on was immense. Twenty little figures in smocks and gaiters went capering about the school, wild with the fun of the new experiment, and feeling themselves enthusiastic ”daughters of the soil”.
”It was A1 of Toddlekins to let us have a 'land uniform'.”
”Couldn't do any decent work without, I should say.”
”I believe Miss Carr insisted on it.”
”Sensible woman!”
”It feels so delightfully business-like.”
”Shall we win green armlets?”
”I'm just dying to start and dig!”
”And I want to climb a tree!”
Miss Chadwick and her students set to work methodically. They gave cla.s.sroom lectures on the principles of agriculture, and practical demonstrations in the garden. The girls learnt the const.i.tuents of soils, and also how to trench; the theory of scientific poultry-raising, and the actual mixing of the food. They prepared plots that would be sown in the spring, cleared and rolled paths, planted bulbs, and divided roots of perennials; they sawed wood, lifted rhubarb, and helped to prepare a mushroom bed. It was all new and exciting, and there was a spice of patriotism mixed up with it. They felt that they were training to be of some service to the community.
”It's fearfully weird,” said Wendy, writing her essay on _Insect Pests_, ”to have to find out whether your insect has a biting or a sucking mouth, so as to know whether you must spray the beastie direct, or apply poison to the plant. I'd feel rather like a dentist examining their jaws.”
”I heard of an editor in America,” laughed Magsie, ”who got his 'answers to correspondents' mixed up, and in reply to 'how to kill a plague of crickets' put 'rub their gums gently with a thimble, and if feverish, administer Perry's Teething Powders'; while to 'Anxious Mother of Twins', he gave the advice: 'Burn tobacco on a hot shovel, and the little pests will hop about and die as dead as door-nails'.”
”You always fix these yarns on America,” pouted Diana. ”It sounds a great deal more like one of your British editors.”
To some of the girls the greatest event of all was the arrival of the horse and trap which Miss Todd had decided to add to her establishment.
Pendlemere was some distance from the station and from Glenbury, the nearest town, and she thought it would be a great convenience to be independent of carriers and able to fetch supplies for themselves.
Diana, keenly interested, was allowed by Miss Ormrod to make the acquaintance of ”Baron”, the pretty chestnut cob, and even to help in his toilet. Diana loved horses, and used the curry-comb with enthusiasm, talking to Baron in what she called ”horse language”--a string of endearing terms that on the whole he seemed to appreciate.
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