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Fortunes of Philippa-Angela Brazil · Maggie, A Girl of the Streets

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  Speaker 1: Chapter two of the Fortunes of Philippa by Angela Brasel.
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  Speaker 1: This librivoq'x recording is in the public domain. Chapter two,
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  Speaker 1: My cousins. There's a new foot on the floor, my friend,
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  Speaker 1: and a new face at the door, my friend. I
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  Speaker 1: came to England with the swallows, and I think I
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  Speaker 1: felt as much a bird of passage as they. More
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  Speaker 1: so indeed, for all the young swallows had been reared
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  Speaker 1: under northern skies and were but returning home, while I
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  Speaker 1: was as yet a stranger in a new land. My
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  Speaker 1: uncle met me at Liverpool, where I had a terrible
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  Speaker 1: parting from Madame Montpelier, who had been very good to
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  Speaker 1: me on the voyage, and who seemed my last link
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  Speaker 1: with the past. And we set out at once upon
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  Speaker 1: the long journey to London. I liked my uncle. He
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  Speaker 1: reminded me so much of my father. There was a
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  Speaker 1: merry twinkle in his eye and a kindliness in his
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  Speaker 1: voice which seemed to call for some response. So I
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  Speaker 1: made a desperate effort to check my flowing tears and
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  Speaker 1: take an interest in the various things he pointed out
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  Speaker 1: to me from the wind window of the railway carriage.
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  Speaker 1: The green fields and hedgerows, The picturesque villages and churches,
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  Speaker 1: the smooth rivers, and the quiet pastoral scenery as we
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  Speaker 1: steamed through the Midlands were all new to my wondering eyes.
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  Speaker 1: But to watch them from the fast express as they
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  Speaker 1: appeared to whiz rapidly by, made my head ache, and
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  Speaker 1: I had curled myself up in a corner and subsided
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  Speaker 1: comfortably to sleep long before London was reached. I am
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  Speaker 1: afraid my arrival must have been a bitter disappointment to
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  Speaker 1: my little cousins, of whom the elder ones were waiting
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  Speaker 1: in the hall to welcome me when our cab drove up.
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  Speaker 1: I was so utterly weary with my journey, and I
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  Speaker 1: felt so forlornly shy at the sight of so many
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  Speaker 1: strange faces around me, that forgetting both my manners and
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  Speaker 1: my good intentions, I burst into a flood of tears
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  Speaker 1: and refused all comfort. Better put her to bed, said
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  Speaker 1: my aunt briskly. She's tired out, and it's no use
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  Speaker 1: worrying her. After a thorough night's rest, she'll be more
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  Speaker 1: ready to make friends with us. I was so miserable
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  Speaker 1: that I did not much care what happened to me.
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  Speaker 1: So I submitted with a good grace to be undressed
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  Speaker 1: and to swallow the hot milk which they brought me. Then,
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  Speaker 1: with my father's photograph clasped tightly in my hand, I
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  Speaker 1: cried myself to sleep on that my first night in
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  Speaker 1: my new home. Somehow, with the morning sunshine, life seemed
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  Speaker 1: to wear a different aspect. And instead of telling aunt
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  Speaker 1: Agatha that I could never be happy in England and
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  Speaker 1: begging her to send me straight back to San Carlos
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  Speaker 1: by the very next ship, as I had quite made
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  Speaker 1: up my mind to do the night before, I went
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  Speaker 1: downstairs to breakfast, full of curiosity to make the acquaintance
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  Speaker 1: of my cousins. I had heard them for some time,
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  Speaker 1: as during the last hour the whole upper story of
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  Speaker 1: the house had seemed to be pervaded with the noise
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  Speaker 1: of small, shrill voices, the stamping of feet, the slamming
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  Speaker 1: of doors, and finally the melancholy sound of the minor
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  Speaker 1: scales on the piano, the performer appearing to get into
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  Speaker 1: complications with the sharps and flats, and occasionally to relapse
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  Speaker 1: altogether into the major quy. Aunt Agatha came bustling into
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  Speaker 1: my bedroom as I fastened the last button of my dress.
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  Speaker 1: The voyage had taught me to dispense with Jannita's help,
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  Speaker 1: and she stood and surveyed me with a critical eye.
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  Speaker 1: Her first impression of me had been hardly a fair one,
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  Speaker 1: so I trust that this morning I presented a more
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  Speaker 1: favorable appearance. Yes, she said slowly, you have your father's eyes,
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  Speaker 1: but otherwise you're the image of your mother, the same
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  Speaker 1: slight build and the same light hair and color, which
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  Speaker 1: I remember so well in my poor sister in law.
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  Speaker 1: Dear me, how little I thought when I said good
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  Speaker 1: bye to her that I should never see her again.
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  Speaker 1: You must try to make yourself at home, my dear
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  Speaker 1: among us all. It's hard, I dare say, to settle
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  Speaker 1: down into new ways, but if you'll try your best,
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  Speaker 1: we will do our part, and I hope you'll soon
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  Speaker 1: like England as well as the country you've left behind.
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  Speaker 1: Now come with me and say good morning to your cousins.
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  Speaker 1: There were so many of them, and of such various ages,
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  Speaker 1: that when I entered the nursery, I might have supposed
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  Speaker 1: myself for the moment in an infant school. From Lucy,
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  Speaker 1: the eldest, who was six months older than I to
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  Speaker 1: the baby in long clothes. They descended in a series
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  Speaker 1: of eight little steps, all blue eyed and auburn haired,
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  Speaker 1: all sturdy of limb and lusty of voice, and all
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  Speaker 1: dressed in stout brown holland pinafores warranted to resist the
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  Speaker 1: hardest of wear and tear. I'm sure you'll soon become friends,
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  Speaker 1: said Aunt Agatha, after Lucy, Mary, Edgar, Donald, Frank, Cuthbert, Dorothy,
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  Speaker 1: and the baby had all been duly presented. You're to
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  Speaker 1: have lessons in the schoolroom from miss Masterman. I've spoken
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  Speaker 1: to her about your work. I believe your father mentioned
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  Speaker 1: that you hadn't yet begun either French or music. And Blair,
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  Speaker 1: I should like you to go over her clothes after breakfast.
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  Speaker 1: I must arrange for miss Jenkins to come at once
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  Speaker 1: for a few days sewing. Be sure she drinks plenty
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  Speaker 1: of milk with her porridge, and be careful she doesn't
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  Speaker 1: get into drafts, just at first, as she's accustomed to
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  Speaker 1: a warmer climate. Blair was a power in the household.
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  Speaker 1: She managed her nursery with the tactics of a general,
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  Speaker 1: reducing small rebels to a state of submission with admirable
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  Speaker 1: skill and keeping order among her noisy little crew with
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  Speaker 1: a firm, though just hand. She might not always be
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  Speaker 1: exactly pleasant, but on the whole her moral atmosphere was
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  Speaker 1: like an east wind, bracing, though a little trying at times.
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  Speaker 1: She accepted an addition to her numerous charges with grim philosophy.
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  Speaker 1: You'll soon shake down among the others, she said to me.
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  Speaker 1: Not unkindly it seems queer to you, I dare say,
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  Speaker 1: after living in a foreign country with black servants and
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  Speaker 1: outlandish cookery. But there's everything in habit and with plenty
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  Speaker 1: of lessons to keep you busy, you'll have no time
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  Speaker 1: to fret. Just at first, I certainly found the shaking
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  Speaker 1: down process rather a rough one. It was all so
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  Speaker 1: utterly different from my old life. Accustomed to spend most
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  Speaker 1: of my time with my father, I thought it hard
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  Speaker 1: to be restricted to the nursery and schoolroom, and instead
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  Speaker 1: of being the center of my little world, to be
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  Speaker 1: only one of a flock who were not favored with
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  Speaker 1: many indulgences. My aunt, I am sure, did her very
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  Speaker 1: best for me, according to her lights, and perhaps she
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  Speaker 1: thought that I should settle all the sooner if I
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  Speaker 1: were left judiciously alone. But looking back now upon her upbringing,
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  Speaker 1: I think she might have shown me more tenderness. She
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  Speaker 1: was a tall, handsome woman with a capable manner and
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  Speaker 1: what she called sensible views of life. If she had
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  Speaker 1: ever cherished any allusions, they had long ago worn down
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  Speaker 1: to the level of strict commonplace. Though she loved her
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  Speaker 1: children in her practical, unsentimental way, they were to her
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  Speaker 1: always the children to be ruled and reared, clothed and educated,
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  Speaker 1: but never in any respect her companions. And a friendship
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  Speaker 1: between two people of widely differing ages, such as existed
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  Speaker 1: between my father and myself, was a thing she could
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  Speaker 1: scarcely understand. There were certain well arranged regulations for our
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  Speaker 1: daily life and conduct, and that any allowance should be
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  Speaker 1: made for individual temperament was to her mind neither suitable
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  Speaker 1: nor desirable. She treated me as one of her own,
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  Speaker 1: and that it was possible for me to need more
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  Speaker 1: did not enter into her calculations. But I did need more.
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  Speaker 1: I was a child of extremely warm affections, and though
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  Speaker 1: I could not have expressed the feeling my heart felt
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  Speaker 1: starved upon the very small amount of love and attention
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  Speaker 1: which fell to my share, I tried my best to
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  Speaker 1: be brave and not to fret. But sometimes my homesickness
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  Speaker 1: would gain the upper hand, and I have often wet
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  Speaker 1: my pillow with bitter tears, longing with a yearning that
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  Speaker 1: was almost agony, for one kiss from my father before
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  Speaker 1: I went to sleep with my cousins. I was soon
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  Speaker 1: a favorite tell us again about San Carlos and the
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  Speaker 1: forest and the tree witches and the Gregory Man, said
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  Speaker 1: Edgar and Mary, who listened spellbound to my reminiscences of
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  Speaker 1: Tasso's marvelous stories. And I would sit in the dusk
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  Speaker 1: by the nursery fire, with an audience of eager little
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  Speaker 1: faces around me, putting such horrible realism into my narratives
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  Speaker 1: that Donald brought Blair from her supper by screaming that
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  Speaker 1: the greegrey man was under his bed, while poor Mary
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  Speaker 1: never dared in future to pass the lumber room door
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  Speaker 1: for fear of seeing a grinning goblin pop his head
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  Speaker 1: suddenly out of the darkness. Though we afterwards became the
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  Speaker 1: best of friends, Lucy treated me at first with little
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  Speaker 1: airs of superiority and patronage. I am afraid we began
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  Speaker 1: our acquaintance with a wordy war. You must feel quite
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  Speaker 1: glad to be in a proper English house after living
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  Speaker 1: in that queer foreign place, she remarked, by way of
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  Speaker 1: opening the conversation. No I'm not, I retorted. Our house
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  Speaker 1: at San Carlos is ever so much nicer than this.
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  Speaker 1: It has marble floors and a terrace and a pergola.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what a purgola is, replied Lucy, but
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  Speaker 1: we have a balcony, and that's quite as good. Your
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  Speaker 1: clothes are so funnily made, Blair says, she hardly likes
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  Speaker 1: to take you out. Mother has sent for Miss Jenkins
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  Speaker 1: to make you some new ones. You're going to do
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  Speaker 1: lessons with us every day. I wonder if he'll be
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  Speaker 1: able to learn with me. Can you speak French? No?
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  Speaker 1: But I can speak Spanish. Oh that's no use. Who
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  Speaker 1: wants to talk Spanish? Mother said you had learned it
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  Speaker 1: from the servants, and the sooner you forgot it, the better.
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  Speaker 1: I won't forget it. I shall speak it when I
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  Speaker 1: go back. You're not going back, Yes I am soon,
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  Speaker 1: Father will send for me, I ventured, desperately. No, not,
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  Speaker 1: you're quite grown up, I heard mother tell Miss Masterman,
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  Speaker 1: so just now, She said, your ways were as queer
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  Speaker 1: as your clothes, and you would take a great deal
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  Speaker 1: of training before you were fit to be sent to school.
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  Speaker 1: I will go back. I will speak Spanish, I declared,
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  Speaker 1: in great indignation, while Nita and Tasso can't speak anything else.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder you care to talk to negroes, said Lucy,
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  Speaker 1: tossing back her hair. I like white people myself, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure you needn't boast of having been carried about
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  Speaker 1: by an old black man. The slight to my dear
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  Speaker 1: friends stung me even more than the insult to my
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  Speaker 1: clothes and my manners, and I ended in a storm
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  Speaker 1: of my miserable crying next to my father. I very
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  Speaker 1: truly missed those kind companions of my childhood, and ever
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  Speaker 1: to forget them seemed to me the basest ingratitude. My
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  Speaker 1: new English clothes were of sober colors and serviceable materials.
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  Speaker 1: They seemed to match my new life, and perhaps my
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  Speaker 1: manners changed with them, for I soon settled down into
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  Speaker 1: the little daily round which was appointed for me. At
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  Speaker 1: first I found the regular lessons somewhat of a trial,
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  Speaker 1: as I had never been accustomed either to learn systematically
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  Speaker 1: or really to apply myself. But miss masterman. Our daily
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  Speaker 1: governess was both a kind and clever teacher. And after
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  Speaker 1: a while I grew so interested in my work that
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  Speaker 1: I easily caught up Lucy, and even began to outstrip
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  Speaker 1: her a little. I fancied. To her chagrin, I wrote
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  Speaker 1: regularly to my father. I have one of these childish
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  Speaker 1: letters by me now, for he treasured them carefully, and
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  Speaker 1: to read it brings back so keenly the remembrance of
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  Speaker 1: those early days, that I shall give it a place
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  Speaker 1: in these pay ages. Here it is exactly as I
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  Speaker 1: wrote it in my most careful round hand, Chestnut Avenue,
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  Speaker 1: June twelfth, My dearest father, I think of you every
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  Speaker 1: day of my life. I have put your photo on
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  Speaker 1: my dressing table, and I kiss it good night and
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  Speaker 1: good morning, as if it were really you. I am
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  Speaker 1: trying very hard to be happy. But my two troubles
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  Speaker 1: are porridge and scales. Porridge is something like the food
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  Speaker 1: Tasso used to mix up for the ducks, only you
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  Speaker 1: eat it hot. Blair says it will make me grow strong,
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  Speaker 1: and I must take what is given me and not
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  Speaker 1: find fault. So I gulp it down, though it nearly
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  Speaker 1: chokes me. Scales are detestable Miss Masterman puts pennies on
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  Speaker 1: the backs of my hands, but I cannot help jerking
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  Speaker 1: my arm when I turn my thumb under, so they
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  Speaker 1: always fall onto the floor, and then she is cross.
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  Speaker 1: I like drawing the best of all my lessons. I
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  Speaker 1: have bought a new paint box with the money you
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  Speaker 1: sent me, and I will try and make pictures for
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  Speaker 1: you of everything I see. There are no orange trees
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  Speaker 1: or coffee plantations. Here we go walks down long streets
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  Speaker 1: with tall houses on both sides, or sometimes in the park,
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  Speaker 1: which I like better, though it is not so nice
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  Speaker 1: as the garden at San Carlos, for you may not
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  Speaker 1: pick the flowers, and there are sparrows instead of humming birds.
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  Speaker 1: I hope Anita does not forget to feed the terrapin
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  Speaker 1: and the green lizard. Give my love to her, and
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  Speaker 1: to Tasso and Pedro and everybody. Aunt Agatha is writing
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  Speaker 1: to you herself, and she will put this letter inside
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  Speaker 1: hers From your loving little daughter, Philip A. Seaton. If
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  Speaker 1: I found my life in London rather hard to bear
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  Speaker 1: at times, I am afraid my attempts to relieve the
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  Speaker 1: monotony of my existence were not always a success. At headquarters.
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  Speaker 1: I had a lively imagination, and my inventive faculty was
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  Speaker 1: continually leading me into planning games which my cousins thought
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  Speaker 1: only too delightful, but which were set down as either
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  Speaker 1: mess or mischief by those in authority. When Aunt Agatha
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  Speaker 1: found us tobogganing down the back staircase in a clothes basket,
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  Speaker 1: she knew at once the instigator of the sport, and
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  Speaker 1: she easily guessed her who had taken the chairs from
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  Speaker 1: the best bedroom to form a menagerie in the nursery.
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  Speaker 1: It was I who conceived the brilliant idea of making
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  Speaker 1: a seaside resort for the dolls, with the aid of
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  Speaker 1: the tea tray full of water and the sand out
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  Speaker 1: of the canaries cage, a most interesting and fascinating pastime
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  Speaker 1: for us, but looked at in a very different light
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  Speaker 1: by Blair when she returned to find the younger children
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  Speaker 1: with sopping pinafores and my miniature ocean slowly wending its
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  Speaker 1: way in trickles over the nursery floor. You get into
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  Speaker 1: mischief the moment my back is turned. I'm sure the
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  Speaker 1: children never thought of doing such things before you came,
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  Speaker 1: she said, severely. I do not suppose they had, for
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  Speaker 1: though they loved a romp, they were not naturally imaginative.
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  Speaker 1: But they immensely enjoyed my ideas and were always ready
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  Speaker 1: to fall in with my schemes, from soap slides on
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  Speaker 1: the attic landing, to the fairy palace which I constructed
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  Speaker 1: in the lumber room out of old lace curtains hung
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  Speaker 1: over towel rails, or the ogre's den in the housemaid's
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  Speaker 1: cupboard under the stairs. I remember well how one after
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  Speaker 1: day noon, when Blair for a wonder was absent, I
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  Speaker 1: seized the golden opportunity to organize a grand game of carnival.
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  Speaker 1: The children's pocket handkerchiefs and silk neckties were collected from
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  Speaker 1: the various draws and hung up as flags on a
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  Speaker 1: string fastened from the gas bracket to the window. All
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  Speaker 1: my little cousins were eager to be maskers, and I
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  Speaker 1: racked my brains to devise costumes for them out of
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  Speaker 1: the very limited materials at my command. Lucy in her
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  Speaker 1: night dress with two sheets of copy book paper fastened
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  Speaker 1: on to her shoulders as wings, made quite a creditable
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  Speaker 1: angel Edgar was an Indian. His face painted in stripes
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  Speaker 1: of red and yellow, some feathers plucked from the dusting
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  Speaker 1: rooms stuck in his curly locks, and the hearth brush
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  Speaker 1: for a tomahawk. Mary, with my best sash draped artistically
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  Speaker 1: over her right shoulder, represented Venus, with Cuthbert for a
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  Speaker 1: cupid Donald in aunt Agatha's furs stolen shamelessly from her bedroom,
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  Speaker 1: rollicked about as a savage, and as I really had
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  Speaker 1: no clothes left for door Dorothy, I blacked her face
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  Speaker 1: with a piece of coal and transformed her into a
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  Speaker 1: little Negro child. I myself was Father Neptune with a
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  Speaker 1: toasting fork for a trident, And as we paraded round
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  Speaker 1: the nursery, pelting each other with pieces of torn up
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  Speaker 1: paper for confetti, I think we rivaled in noise the
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  Speaker 1: wildest carnival I had ever witnessed. At San Carlos. We
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  Speaker 1: were in the very height of our excitement and were
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  Speaker 1: scrambling eagerly for pretended bonbonds, which Lucy was flinging from
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  Speaker 1: an imaginary balcony, when the door was suddenly opened and
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: aunt Agatha entered, ushering in a visitor. This is my
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: little flock, missus Winstanley. She began, then stopped short in
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: utter dismay at the scene of confusion before her. My
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: aunt's sense of humor was not keen. Her orderly nursery
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: and tidy family were her pride, and the sight of
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  Speaker 1: the tumbled heads and crumpled pinafores, the clothes strewn hither
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  Speaker 1: and thither, and the painted and blackened faces of her
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  Speaker 1: ordinarily well behaved darlings was enough to justify her look
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  Speaker 1: of extreme annoyance. She turned at once upon the true offender. Philippa,
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  Speaker 1: what have you been doing with the children, she asked sharply.
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  Speaker 1: No culprit caught red handed could have felt more guilty
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  Speaker 1: or discomfited than I. I gasped out something incoherent about
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  Speaker 1: carnival and burst into tears. But here the visitor saved
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  Speaker 1: the situation. It is very kind of the little ones
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  Speaker 1: to be on fete to welcome us, Missus Seaton, she
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  Speaker 1: said gently. My own children often dress up when they
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  Speaker 1: wished to give me a treat. I have not seen
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  Speaker 1: a carnival since I was last at Nice, and I
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  Speaker 1: don't think any of the maskers were so natural as these.
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  Speaker 1: So this is little Philippa, She continued as she sat
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  Speaker 1: down and drew me quietly to her side. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you will learn to love me some day, for your
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  Speaker 1: mother was my dearest friend, and I could not pass
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  Speaker 1: through London to day without taking the opportunity of coming
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  Speaker 1: to see her only child. She kissed me with a
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  Speaker 1: warmth I had missed since I bade that last goodbye
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  Speaker 1: to my father. There were tears in her eyes, and
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  Speaker 1: strangely moved. I clung to her, crying a little, but
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  Speaker 1: more comforted than I could have found words to tell.
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  Speaker 1: It was thus that I first made acquaintance with one
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  Speaker 1: of the truest friends of my life. End of chapter two,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter five of the Fortunes of Philippa by Angela Brazil.
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  Speaker 1: This Librivaq's recording is in the public domain. Chapter five
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the wind Stanley's Thus fortune's pleasant fruits by friends increased,
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  Speaker 1: Bee the bitter, sharp and sour by friends allayed to
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: thee that when thou dost rejoice, then doubled is thy joy,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and eke in cause of care, the less is thy annoy.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I spent my first holidays at Marshland's, and my joy
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: knew no bounds to have Cathy all to myself, for
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: seven long, glorious weeks seemed the abbe salute summit of
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  Speaker 1: earthly bliss. Missus Winstanley received me like a second daughter,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: and the bluff jolly squire patted me on the head
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  Speaker 1: with kindly welcome. We must show her something of English
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: country life, he declared, Can she sit a pony? We
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: don't grow oranges and bananas here, but the gooseberries are
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  Speaker 1: ripe in the kitchen garden, and they take a good
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: deal of beating. In my opinion, I thought Marshlands was
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  Speaker 1: the most delightful spot I had ever seen. The long, low,
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  Speaker 1: gray stone house, with its mullioned windows and flagged passages,
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  Speaker 1: stood just above the little village of Everton, on the
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  Speaker 1: verge of the moors, where one could catch a glint
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  Speaker 1: of the distant sea and the peaks of the Cumberland Mountains.
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  Speaker 1: Behind lay the home farm with the granaries in stables
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  Speaker 1: and orchards, and in front was a sweet old fashioned
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  Speaker 1: garden with archways of climbing roses and borders of closely
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  Speaker 1: clipped box I see the roof of the arbor has
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  Speaker 1: fallen in, said Cathy, as we wandered round on a
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  Speaker 1: tour of exploration. After breakfast the morning. Edward will be
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: dreadfully disappointed about it. He made it himself last holidays,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and I thought at the time it wasn't strong enough,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: for we have such high winds here. Dick's badger has escaped.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Caxton stupidly left the stable door open, and of course
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: it took the opportunity to run away and is probably
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: back in the woods by now. I don't know how
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  Speaker 1: we shall break the news to him. It seemed that
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the boys were expected home that afternoon, so at Cathy's suggestion,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: we set to work to make a few preparations for
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: their arrival. We had better clean out all the animals
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and brush their coats. She said, I'm afraid the ferret
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: has got terribly savage again. George begged Caxton to be
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  Speaker 1: sure and handle it every day so that it should
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  Speaker 1: keep tame, But he says he is afraid to touch it.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Don't you try, Philip a deer look at it now.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I certainly did not feel inclined to put in my
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: hand and fondle the creature. Its sharp red eyes gleamed
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  Speaker 1: so viciously at me from among the straw, and I
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: much preferred the black Angola ra abbit with fur as
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: soft as silk, which submitted to caresses with the utmost
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: stolidity and impassiveness. I expect George will bring his white
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: mice home with him, continued Cathy. He has eight of
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: them at school. He kept them in a box behind
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the window curtains in his bedroom, and the other boys
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: had twelve brown ones in a dormouse. It was a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: dead secret for weeks, but at last the second master
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: discovered it. He said they smelled, and he hunted all
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: round the bedroom until he found them. At first he
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: threatened to drown them, but afterwards he repented and said
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the boys might keep them in a shed outside until
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: the end of the term, and then they must take
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: them home and never bring them back to school again.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: George kept anwte once too. He had it in his
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: water jug for several days till it escaped and he
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: couldn't find it anywhere. It turned up in one of
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the other boy's beds when the housemaid was doing the rooms,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and frightened her nearly into a fit, for she thought
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: it was a serpent. Does Dick have pets, I asked,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Not of that kind. He generally has heaps of caterpillars,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and chrysalids which are turning into moths and butterflies for
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  Speaker 1: his collection. He likes birds eggs too, but such a
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: dreadful accident happened last holidays that he'll have to begin
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  Speaker 1: all over again. How was that? Well, you see, they
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: were all in a splendid big box with little divisions,
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  Speaker 1: which he had made on purpose. He put the box
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  Speaker 1: inside the lid and laid it on the top of
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  Speaker 1: the schoolroom bookcase. Then he forgot he had left it
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  Speaker 1: in that way, and thought the box was lying shut
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: on the upside down. So he reached up and turned
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  Speaker 1: it over, and all the eggs came tumbling out, and
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  Speaker 1: more than half of them were smashed. It will take
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: him a long time to get so many together again.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Does Edward collect oh stamps and postcards and that kind
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: of thing. He's fond of reading, and it's dreadfully hard
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to get him away from a book. We have to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: pinch him sometimes before he will listen. Shall we wash
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  Speaker 1: the dogs and take them down to the station to
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: meet the boys. I was willing to assist in any project,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: so we spent the rest of the morning in a
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  Speaker 1: moist and exciting struggle with a Pomeranian, a fox terrier
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: and two poodle pups. They looked beautiful as the results
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: of our efforts, and as we stood that afternoon on
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the station platform holding them by their leashes, we felt
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  Speaker 1: they made a most impressive array. There goes the signal
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and here comes the train, said Cathy. Keep Max tight, Phil.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: We'll stay by the ticket office where they can see us.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: First thing, But we had not calculated upon the joy
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: of the dogs at seeing their masters again. The moment
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: they appeared, there was a wild rush. All the strings
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: seemed to get mixed together, and we greeted the boys
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: in the midst of a medley of barking, whining, and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: yelping which resembled bedlam. Oh, I say, keep those beasts off,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: drawled Edward. They wear a fellow out. We dragged the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: dogs away, and I saw a tall boy of sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: much too smart for a schoolboy, who brushed the marks
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  Speaker 1: of the pomeranian's paws from his coat sleeve with tender consideration.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: At that stage of his existence, Edward was a dandee.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: He fiddled over his necktie, his collars were never altogether
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  Speaker 1: to his satisfaction. He was particular about the cut of
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: his coat and the fit of his boots, and effect
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: an air of general boredom and used upness, which he
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: fondly imagined to be the height of manly dignity. We've
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: lost our luggage, announced Dick cheerfully. He was a jolly,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: merry looking boy of fourteen. But I've got a glorious
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: specimen of the poplar hawk moth. It was actually blown
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: in through the carriage window, and I caught it on
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  Speaker 1: the back of the Babe's neck. Would you like to
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: see it, George? Otherwise? The Babe, as he was nicknamed
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: by his brothers, appeared to be the youngest of the family.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: He had the eight white mice loose in one pocket
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and a box containing two hermit crabs in the other,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: which seemed to cause him some anxiety. They're such beggars
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: for fighting, he explained, and I don't want them to
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: kill each other before I get them home to the aquarium.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: He inquired tenderly about the ferret. Beastly shame they've let
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: it get savage, he said. But one of our fellows
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: is going to send me a fox cub if the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: governor will only let me keep it. Where's the mater
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: hasn't she come down to the station I had never
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  Speaker 1: lived before. Among a family of schoolboys, and their rollicking ways,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: their slaying, their endless chaff, their jokes, and the thrilling
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  Speaker 1: stories they told of their numerous adventures were altogether a
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  Speaker 1: new experience for me, being a visitor. They treated me
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  Speaker 1: at first with a certain amount of ceremony, but finding
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  Speaker 1: that I was ready to climb fences, clay hare and hounds,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: ride fish, or tramp miles over the heathery moors, they
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  Speaker 1: voted me a jolly sort of girl, and included me
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: in the bosom of the family circle. We thought, as
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you'd lived abroad, you'd perhaps go about shaking out your
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: skirts and holding up a parasol and shriek if you
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: saw a cow, said George, who had tested my courage
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  Speaker 1: by springing at me from behind corners, letting a bat
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  Speaker 1: loosen my bedroom, and locking me into the dark jam cupboard,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: all of which ordeals I had borne with heroism. She
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  Speaker 1: can't be troubled with nerves. If she can stand the
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  Speaker 1: babe's little diversions. It may here's a fellow quite limp
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  Speaker 1: to look at him this hot weather. Why don't you
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  Speaker 1: give her a book and a debt chair in the garden,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and leave her in peace, said Edward, his suggestions for
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: my entertainment being based on his own ideals of enjoyment.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: With Dick, I soon won golden opinions, as I took
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  Speaker 1: an interest in the bird's eggs, and would consent to
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  Speaker 1: carry the wriggling caterpillars and slimy snails which he collected
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  Speaker 1: on our walks, or to fill my pockets with stones
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  Speaker 1: and other specimens for the museum. This museum was a
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: large cabinet with glass doors, which filled one entire end
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: of the schoolroom at Marshland's. It held a very miscellaneous
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: assortment of treasures, to which both Cathy and the boys
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: were constantly adding, sometimes with rather more zeal than discretion.
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  Speaker 1: I shall never forget how Dick put the hornet's nest there.
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  Speaker 1: I've smoked it thoroughly with brown paper, he said, and
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  Speaker 1: the grubs are as dead as door nails, so you
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  Speaker 1: needn't be at all afraid of it. But I fear
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the brown paper could not have been strong enough after all.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: A few days afterwards, we were sitting at tea in
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  Speaker 1: the schoolroom when a peculiarly irritated. Buzzing noise began to
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  Speaker 1: resound from the region of the cabinet, and Edward, who
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: was giving us an imitation of his classical master's stately
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: style on speech day, suddenly ducked his head in a
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: most undignified fashion, and, seizing the bread knife, made a
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: frantic cut into the air. It's a hornet, he exclaimed.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Just see the size of it. Take care, Kathy, the
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  Speaker 1: brute's going into your hair. Look out. If there isn't
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  Speaker 1: another of them. We jumped up in a hurry. There
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: was not only another, but more and more and more,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And like the oysters in the Ballad of the Walrus
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and the Carpenter, they came up so thick and fast
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: that for the moment it seemed to us as if
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the whole room were full of yellow stripes and buzzing wings.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: I am not brave where wasps are concerned, And I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: am afraid. My strong mindedness went to the winds, and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: I shrieked like any bread and butter. Miss At least
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: George assured me so. Afterwards, Kathy had the presence of
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: mind to fling her dress over her head while the
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: boys made a valiant though fruitless effort to slay those
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: with the immediate reach, and we beat an ignominious retreat,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: leaving our tea cooling upon the table, and the hornets
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: in clear possession of the schoolroom. The question of how
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: to get rid of them presented some difficulty, it being
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: an unequal match to war with wasps, But in the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: end a tray full of burning sulfur was thrust through
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the door and allowed to smolder for some hours, after
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: which we were at length able to enter in safety
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and sweep up the bodies of our victims in triumph
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: from the floor. Somehow, poor Dick's experiments did not always
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: turn out very happily, In spite of the best intentions
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: on his part. Fired by an article in a boy's magazine,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: he once volunteered to stuff a dead bullfinch which Cathy
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: had found in the garden, and after a long operation
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: of skinning and drying, he produced it in the school
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: room with great pride. Doesn't it look a little fatter
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: on one side than on the other, suggested Kathy, doubtfully,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: surveying the bullfinch, which was wired upon a twig, as
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: no burden real life had ever perched. Nonsense, said Dick,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: pinching his specimen to send the stuffing straight. It's just
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: exactly as if it were pecking it a bud. Look
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: at its eyes. I made them out of two black
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: headed pins I took from the mater's bonnet. I don't
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: think it's tail looks quite natural, said Kathy. It seems
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: somehow to stick up like a wren's. Well, if you're
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: going to find fault, answered Dick indignantly, just try and
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: do one yourself, that's all. It's jolly difficult, I can
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: tell you, and I've taken no end of trouble over it.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Oh I'm not finding fault, said Kathy hastily. I think
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: it's ever so nice, and you're a dear boy to
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: do it for me. We might bend the tail down
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: a little, so that's better. Now it looks splendid, and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: will give it a front place in the collection, all right,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: said Dick, somewhat mollified. But you girls seem to think
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: these things are as easy as eating cakes. It takes
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: practice even to skin a sparrow, as you'd soon find
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: out if you'd ever tried your hand at it. The
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Bullfinch was duly placed in the museum where it looked
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: very well. Not long after, however, we began to notice
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: a most peculiar odor in the schoolroom. It's the flowers,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: said Kathy, sniffing at a vase and throwing the water
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: out of the window. They always get nasty if you
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: leave them too long. It smells to me more like
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: a dead mouse, I declared, perhaps one may have had
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: a funeral inside the wall, and dropping on my knees,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: I crept round the room, sending the skirting boards like
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: a pointer. In spite of my efforts, I was not
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: able to fix the spot, and as Kathy turned out
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: a potful of sour paste which we had forgotten in
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the cupboard, and found a pile of stale mushrooms in
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the pocket of George's coat, which was hanging behind the door,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: we came to the conclusion that it might be either
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of these. But the odor did not improve, and by
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: the next day it had become almost unbearable. Even the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: boys perceived it, and that is saying something. We all
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: went round the room, sniffing in every corner and trying
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: to find the cause of a fence, till at length
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Edward flung open the door of the cabinet. It's your
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: beastly bullfinch, he declared. Take the wretched thing away. It's
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: only half cured and smells like a tan yard. Whoo.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: Poor Dick was rather crestfallen, especially as Edward made it
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: a subject of chaff for many days, and he grew
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: so happy about it that for some time we did
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: not dare to mention either birds or the collection in
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: his presence. He came home one day, however, bubbling over
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: with laughter. I've a ripping museum joke for you, he said,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: beats your old bullfinch into fits. What's that? We inquired why.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: I was down the village with the Governor this morning,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: and we dropped into old missus Granger's. I was telling
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: her a yarn or two about the babes, crocodile's egg
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: and so on, And she turned round to a drawer
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and fished out a piece of pink coral. If you
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: like things from foreign parts, says she, I'll give you this.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: My sailor's son brought it home from Singapore on his
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: last voyage. I've heard his coral is all full of insects,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: but I've boiled this piece well in a saucepan. So
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I reckon it'll be clean enough. Now boiled, we exclaimed, Yes,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: boiled to kill the insects. Don't you see your imaginative faculties,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: my dear fellow, are considerable, said Edward. But you won't
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: get me to swallow that fact. All the same, said Dick.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: You ask the governor. You're jealous, old Chap, because you
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: can't glean up humor yourself in the village. The yokels
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: are so taken up with stirring at your last new
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: tie or your immaculate collar, that you don't get a
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: word out of them. There was old Jacob Linkfield, now
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: who But at this point of the story Edward went
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: for Dick and chased him out of the house and
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: down to the stackyard. He could occasionally stir his long
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: legs when he considered the cheek of the younger ones
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: grew beyond bounds, and once he was moved, they deemed
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: it prudent to flee before him. You must not think, however,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: that we spent the whole of our time at Marshlands
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: with the boys. They were frequently out with their father
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: upon some shooting or fishing expedition, and Cathy and I
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: would potter about the gardener in the fields with the mater,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: only too delight to have the chance of getting her
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: quite to ourselves. A sweeter or truer gentlewoman than dear
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: missus Winstanley, it has never been my good fortune to meet.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: She took me to her kind heart at once, and
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: gave me for the first time in my life that
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: mothering which I had so sadly lacked. I have hindered
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: that my aunt did not make too much of me.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Even her own children did not run to her with
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: their joys and sorrows, and I had never been accustomed
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: to think of her as in any sense a possible companion.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Missus Wynn Stanley, on the other hand, was the most
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: delightful of comrades. She had not forgotten in the very
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: least what it felt like to be young. She could
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: sympathize in all our amusements. Indeed, I think she enjoyed
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: a picnic tea in the woods or a scramble for
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: blackberries fully as much as we did ourselves. But she
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: contrived at the same time to make us interested in
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: those intellectual pleasures which were the great source of her life.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Under her guiding hand I made my first efforts at sketching.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: She taught me the names of the trees and the
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: flowers of which before I was lamentably ignorant, And a
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: walk to see a crumlin or a stone circle upon
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: the moors was an opportunity for such delightful stories about
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: the early dwellers in our lands that I became a
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: lover of antiquities on the spot. I feel I can
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: never be grateful enough to her for giving me in
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: my childhood that taste for natural history, which has been
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: such a joy to me in my after life. She
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: taught us to use our eyes and to see the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: beauty in each leaf and flower and every common thing
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: around us. At her suggestion, Kathy and I each began
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: a nature note book, in which we recorded all the plants, birds,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: animals or insects we met with during our rambles, drawing
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: and painting as many of them as we could. It
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: will form a kind of naturalist calendar, she said. You
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: must put the dates to all your fines, and in
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: years to come the books will prove very interesting. Never
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: mind whether the sketches are good or bad. Persevere and
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: you will soon begin to improve. And the very effort
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: to copy a flower or a butterfly will impress its
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: shape and color upon your minds in a way which
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: nothing else could do. We waxed very enthusiastic over these
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: note books, and there was quite a keen competition between
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: us as to which should contain the most records. As
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: we kept them for several years. We naturally had different
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: entries during the holidays we spent apart, And while I
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: was able to sketch gorgeous sea and enemies and madrepores
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: which I found upon the shores of South Country watering places,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Cathy would exult over the coral cups or bird's nest
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: fungi for which she searched the woods in winter. Somehow,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: after my friendship with the wind Stanleys, I realized that
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: in some subtle way, the bond between my father and
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: myself grew and strengthened. In the years which I had
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: spent at my aunt's. Though I had never ceased to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: love him, we had seemed, in a very slight degree
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: to have drifted apart. But since my visit to Marshlands,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: all the old spirit of comradeship returned, and I felt
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: he was even more to me than he had ever
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: been before. I think I must have unconsciously expressed this
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: feeling in my letters, for in his, too, I began
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to notice a change. He he wrote back to me
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: more fully and freely, not as to a child, but
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: as to a friend, telling me his hopes and his difficulties,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and the little details of his lonely days, and asking
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: almost wistfully for a full record of all my doings.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: His gratitude to my kind friends knew no limit. Yet
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I think all the same he felt it hard that
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: he should miss those years of my life when I
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: was receiving my most vivid impressions, and that he must
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: leave to others the care he would so gladly have
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: bestowed upon me himself. End of chapter five, Chapter six
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: of the Fortunes of Philippa. This LibriVox recording is in
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: the public domain. The Fortunes of Philippa, Chapter six Mischief
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: The celebrated doctor Johnson is said to have advocated the
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: theory when you meet a boy, beat him for either
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: he has been in mischief, or he is at present
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: in mischief, or he is about to get into mischief.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: In the case of the two younger win Stanley boys,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I fear this axiom was only too true, since they
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: sometimes allowed their love of fun to lead them into
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: rather questionable undertakings, and I do not think their neighbors
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: altogether appreciated the many jokes and escapades with which they
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: sought to enliven the holidays. There resided in the village
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: high Street a certain elderly bachelor, a retired sea captain
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: of somewhat autocratic manners and a very great idea of
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: his own importance. Dick and George had once ventured into
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: his garden in quest of a runaway puppy, and had
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: been met with such a storm of wrath from the
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: fiery old gentleman, who threatened to prosecute them for trespassing,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: that they had carried on a kind of feud with
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: him ever since. On the captain's side, I have no
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: doubt there were many reasonable grounds of complaint, But the boys,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, considered themselves to have just cause
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: of grievance. Their enemy had been seen deliberately to wipe
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: off the treacling mixture which they had smeared upon the
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: trees to attract moths, though the said trees were situated
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: on the public highway and not on his private property.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: He had put an impassable fence of barbed wire round
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: the particular field where specimens of the clift in blue
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: might occasionally be captured, and he had clipped his brambly hedge,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: allowing the prickles purposely to fall and remain in the
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: cinder path below, though he knew it was the short
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: cut by which they bicycled from Marshlands to the railway station.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Hoped we should puncture our tires, no doubt, said Dick indignantly.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: By sheer good luck, I saw them in time, and
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: we carried our machines the whole length of the lane.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: But it was a sneaking trick to play, and we'll
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: be even with him. We owe him a good long
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: score now, and I have it in my mind to
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: just jolly well pay him out. Needless to say, neither
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: mister nor missus Winstanley were aware of these fell designs
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: against old Captain Vernon, with whom they had always managed
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: to keep on excellent terms of neighborly good will, and
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: knowing full well that their schemes would be promptly forbidden
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: if they ventured to divulge them. The boys seized the
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: opportunity when the Mater and the Governor were out at
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: a dinner party, to carry into execution their plan of revenge.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Edward declined altogether to be a party to the deed.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Beastly bad form, I call it, he yawned. You don't
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: catch me leaving a decent arm chair to go ragging
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: an antiquated old fossil of a sea captain. As for
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: you two girls, I suppose you can do as you like,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: but don't let the Mater catch you at it, that's all.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: And stretching out his long legs on a second chair,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: he took up a copy of Punch and resigned himself
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: to ease and comfort. That's all jolly well for the
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: fifth form, said Dick. But it's a little too good
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: for us, chaps. We're off now, and if Kathy and
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Phil liked to join the show, they can, and if
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: they don't, they may stop at home and hem dusters.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: It was extremely naughty of us, but we wanted so
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: much to see what happened, so we thought if we
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: followed the boys at a discreet distance, we should not
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: be exactly aiding and a betting, and yet we should
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: come in for a full share of all that went on.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: It was a dark evening, with only a fitful gleam
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: from a watery moon, which occasionally showed itself behind the
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: driving clouds, and the unlighted village streets seemed quiet and deserted.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: The captain lived in the end house of an old
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: fashioned red brick terrace. Though he had a good garden
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: at the side and back, his front door and the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: bow window of his dining room were flushed with the road,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: and by flattening our noses against the glass, we were
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: able to peep through a crevice in the red curtains
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: and watch him as he sat in a particularly easy
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: arm chair with a cigar between his lips and a
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: newspaper in his hand. Looks much too comfortable, muttered Dick.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Just wait till I'm ready, and we'll make him sit up.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: He had been cautiously fastening a piece of cobbler's wax
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: to the center of the window frame. This wax had
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: a hole in it through which a long piece of
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: string was threaded, having a button at the end, and
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: it was so arranged that the button should hang down
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: over the glass, while Dick, standing under cover of the
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: trees on the opposite side of the road, held to
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: the other end of the string in his hand. Are
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: you well out of sight? He whispered, don't give the
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: thing away by flapping your skirts about and giggling. Now,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: mom's the word, and you'll see some sport. He pulled
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the string, and the button tapped smartly upon the window.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: It evidently had some effect, for the red curtains were
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: drawn aside, and the captain peered out inquiringly into the darkness. Unearthed,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: whispered George, but Dick gave him a severe pinch for silence,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: and pulled the cord again. Rap tap sounded the button
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: on the pane. This time our foe threw open the sash, and,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: thrusting out his head, glanced up and down the street,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: muttering something we could not catch. We could see him
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: very plainly, his red face and long white whiskers outlined
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: against the lamp light of the room behind, and we
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: could hear his peculiar husky wheeze as he fumbled with
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the curtain and thrust aside a small table which stood
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: in his way. I hope he won't catch cold. I
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: whispered to Cathy, feeling just a little compunction when I
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: heard the old man's cough. Perhaps she did too, for
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: she squeezed my hand. But we were in for it now,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: as we did not dare to move an inch for
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: fear of betraying the boys. Not finding anybody outside, the
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Captain evidently thought he must be mistaken. He closed the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: window again, carefully drew the red curtains, and no doubt
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: returned once more to the enjoyment of his paper and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: his cigar. Loosing his string, Dick crept across the road
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: and giving a sudden, sharp bang on the window frame.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: He at the same moment dropped a number of pieces
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: of glass, which he had brought with him, and which
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: fell on the pavement with a resounding crash. Thinking no
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: doubt that his pains were smashed to atoms, Captain Vernon
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: appeared again in great wrath and utter mystification when he
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: found that, after all, no visible damage had been done.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: He opened the front door this time and came a
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: few steps into the street, narrowly missing Dick, who had
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: rushed back to his point of vantage opposite. He picked
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: up a piece of the broken glass, examined it by
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: the aid of his hall lamp, peered up and down
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: once more into the darkness, and finally went in, slamming
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: the door after him. It's my turn now, whispered George.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Just watch me bait the badger. Haven't you done enough?
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Whispered Kathy. It seems rather too bad, and the poor
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: old man is getting so cross. Oh do stop, George,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: I implored. I know you'll be caught. We're not half
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: quits yet, returned George grimly. You girls always want to
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: spoil things by hanging back. I wish we had left
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: you at home with Edward. Keep quiet now you're here.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: At any rate, He had a coil of rope with him, and,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: moving with extreme caution, he fastened one end of it
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: to the Captain's door handle, and the other end to
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: the door handle of the next house, which was only
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: a few feet lower down the street. Then, seizing the knockers,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: he beat a terrific tattoo on both doors and fled.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: He had hardly gained our sheltering trees before the Captain
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: appeared on the threshold, uttering some very uncomplimentary remarks, varied
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: by perfect explosions of coughing. As the rope had been
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: allowed to hang rather loosely. He was just able to
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: open his door, But at that identical instant his neighbor
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: also desired to investigate matters, with the effect that no
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: sooner did he open his door than it drew the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: rope so tightly that the captain's door was banged too,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: with great violence. In a fury of rage, he pulled
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: it open again, which had the result of shutting his neighbors.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: And for a few moments the two doors opened and
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: closed as if they were worked by a wire. It
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: really looked very funny, and in spite of our guilty consciences,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: we nearly choked ourselves with trying to laugh noiselessly. I
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: think a faint giggle must have escaped us, or perhaps
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the victims of our practical joke suspected that somebody was
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: trying to play a trick upon them. At any rate,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: both doors were hastily slammed hard, and all was silence.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Good old babe, whispered Dick, when he had recovered his breath.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Your dodge went even better than mine. But I say,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: we can't leave our apparatus over there. We must manage
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: to fetch it Somehow they slipped across the road again,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Dick to remove his lump of bees wax and the button,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: and George to untie the rope. But they had counted
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: without their host. The captain had evidently scented the plot
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: and was waiting for them, for from the bedroom casement
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: above descended a perfect deluge of water, as though the
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: whole contents of a bath had been suddenly emptied onto
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the pavement below. Almost blinded for the moment and drenched
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: to the skin, the boys beat a gasping retree, while
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: such extraordinary sounds of mixed chuckling and coughing proceeded from
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: the open window, as to lead us to suppose that
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: the old man was exulting in his triumph. We capped
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: this adventurer dead secret. Cathy and I felt rather ashamed
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: of ourselves, and as Edward had hinted, we knew missus
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Winstanley would have been greatly annoyed if she had discovered
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: that we had made use of her absence to play
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: such very questionable pranks, especially in the village where we
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: might so easily have been seen and recognized. Whether the
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: captain suspected us, we could not tell if he did.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: He said nothing to the Squire, probably thinking that on
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: the whole he had had the best of it, and
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: that as he could not prove us to be the culprits,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: it was wiser not to push his advantage too far.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: The next event in the feud was really a very
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: innocent one on our part. Even the boys on this
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: occasion were quite guiltless of any evil intent, and I
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: think the fault lay with the old captain's hot temper.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: It was a most lovely September afternoon, and we decided
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: that nothing would be nicer than to take our kettle
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: and tea things, and, after a ramble round in search
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: of blackberriese to picnic in any suitable spot where we
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: might happen to find ourselves when the pangs of hunger
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: assailed us, Always allowing that George doesn't insist upon getting
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: hungry before four o'clock, said Kathy, he'll have to wait
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: if he does, and don't let him carry that basket,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: or you'll find the cake half gone. You take it,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Philip a deer and give him the kettle instead. Fibbs
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: said George, I wouldn't touch the tuck. I'll carry them
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: both if you like, and Kathy satchel as well, here
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: sling it over my back. Now I call this returning
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: good for evil, Madam Catherine, when you've just been slanging
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: me so hard, poor old babe, said Kathy soothingly. You see,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: when people earn a bad name, it is apt to stick.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: But to console you, we'll let you choose where we
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: shall go this afternoon. Only make up your mind quickly,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: for we are all ready in waiting, all right, said
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: George promptly. Up to the common and round by the
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: oak wood. There's a stream there where we can get
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: water for the kettle, and I know a place to
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: camp in. That's just a one. We set off without
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: further delay, and scrambled up the hill side on to
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the heathery common, where the blackberries were already ripening fast
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: on the low brambles. It took a considerable time to
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: fill the large milk can which we had brought for
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the purpose, although there worth four pairs of hands hard
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: at work, and I don't really think a very great
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: many had gone into our mouths. In spite of the
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: suspicious stains round George's lips. Hullo, it's after half past three,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: cried Dick at last, looking at his watch. If we
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: want to get to the oak wood and then light
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: a fire and boil the kettle, it will take us
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: all our time to get tea by four o'clock, I
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: can tell you so. Mounting the stile into the lane,
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: we set off in the other direction down the hill,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: and by climbing a steep wall, found ourselves at last
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: in a pretty little wood carpeted with soft green grass
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: and with a clear stream running through the midst Here's
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: the place, said George, pointing to a kind of natural arbor,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: formed partly by the bank and partly by the roots
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: of a huge oak tree, the branches of which stretched
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: far overhead and made a green roof with their interlacing leaves.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: I found it out once when I came here alone,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: and I put these logs inside for seats. It makes
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: a ripping summer house. And I made up my mind
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: we would have tea here some day. Well, what do
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: you say to it? We were all enthusiastic in our approval,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: and Kathy and I set to work at once to
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: lay out the tea, while the boys collected sticks for
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the fire and filled the kettle. At the brook. The
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: thought that we were trespassing never entered into our heads.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: The wind Stanleys knew all the farmers and the landowners
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: about Everton, and were accustomed to go where they pleased
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: without thinking of asking leave. Being country bred, they could
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: be trusted not to trample on springing crops, disturb young pheasants,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: or in any way do injury to other people's property.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: We were quite unaware, also, that the plantation belonged to
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: old Captain Vernon. I am not sure whether the knowledge
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: would not have added a zest to our enjoyment, And
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: though we knew he owned a considerable amount of land
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: in the district, we imagined this particular wood to be
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: part of the preserve of a neighboring squire with whom
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: the boys were on very friendly terms, and who had
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: often taken them for a day's grouse shooting on the moors.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: Kathy and I arranged the teacups most artistically, laying flowers
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: and fronds of fern between them. With the cakes and
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: the bread and butter piled up in graceful pyramids in
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: the center, it looked very tempting, and we all waited
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: with some impatience for the kettle to boil, but it
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: was a case of the watched part, for the stick's
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: being rather damp, the fire gave out more smoke than heat,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: in spite of Dick's desperate efforts to fan it with
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: a piece of newspaper. I'll fetch some bracken. They've been
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: cutting it lower down, he declared, that'll be dry enough
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: at any rate, and ought to help it a little.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Get up, George, you lazybones, and bestow yourself, or we
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: shan't have any tea to night. The boys were not
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: long in bringing back a large pile of withered ferns,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: and stoked the fire to so much good purpose that
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: the kettle was soon boiling briskly. Cathy had the tea
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: ready in the pot, and Dick was in the very
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: act of pouring in the water when we suddenly heard
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: a tremendous crashing a little higher up in the wood.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: And whom should we see bearing down furiously upon us,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: his red face redder than ever with rage, and his
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: long white whiskers waving in the wind. But the captain,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: followed by his equally crusty old gardener. What are you
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: doing here, you young scoundrels? He roared, flourishing his riding
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: whip as he ran, and interspersing his words with gusts
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: of coughing. I'll teach you to trespass on my property,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: burning my wood and spoiling my grass. Boys or girls,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: you're one as bad as another, and I'll spare none
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: of you. Come on, Johnson, we'll give them a lesson.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Whether he would actually have done so, or whether he
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: only meant to frighten us, I cannot tell. But he
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: did not get the opportunity for dropping the kettle. Dick
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: seized my hand and dragged me down the hill at
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: such a breakneck speed that I could scarcely keep on
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: my feet, while George and Cattle raced behind as if
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: they were possessed of seven lead boots. With the old
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: captain's angry shouts ringing in our ears, we scrambled somehow
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: over the fence at the bottom of the wood, and
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: never stopped running till we were quite a long way
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: up the high road and within a safe distance of marshlands. Again,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: of course, we weren't in the very least in a
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: funk for ourselves, explained Dick afterwards. If it had only
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: been the babe in myself we'd have stayed and tackled
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: them both and enjoyed the fun. But I thought the
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: old madman was going for you girls, and the best
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: thing to do was to clear out of his way
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: as quick as we could. Is he gorging on our
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: tea and cakes? I wonder it would be like his cheek.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he'll annex the teacups too while he's about it.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: But the captain was honest as regarded our property. That
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: same evening, the old gardener arrived at the back door,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: and with an imperturbable countenance, handed our baskets to the
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: astonished cook, stalking away without uttering a word, in spite
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: of the many questions she hurled at his head. After this,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: the boys declared it was war to the knife. They
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: had not intended to do any harm in the wood,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: and therefore they argued the captain's action was quite unjustifiable,
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: and as he had shown intentions of not confining the
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: use of his riding whip to his own sex, he
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: had forfeited all claim to be treated as a gentleman,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: and his conduct must be repaid with interest. This time
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: they did not take Cathy and Me into their confidence beforehand,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: though from various dark hints. We imagined they must have
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: some scheme of revenge brewing in their minds. They came
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: home one evening brimming over with satisfaction. Done him at last,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: chuckled Dick. It was the babe's idea, too, not mine,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: so I won't take the credit of it. You know,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: the old duffer has a gorgeous pear tree at the
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: end of his garden. Well, we just stood in the
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: lane outside with our catapults and shot pellets into the
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: pears as hard as we could go. We've been wiring
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: into them all the afternoon. Fancy they'll taste a little
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: gritty when he comes to eat them. Too bad, not
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: at all serves the old beggar right. Kathy and I, however,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: felt somewhat uneasy, thinking the boys had gone rather too far.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: If the captain finds out who has done it, said Cathy,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: and complains to father, they'll get in the most dreadful row.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: He can be terribly angry over some of their scrapes.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: We waited rather anxiously for further developments, and they were
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: not long in coming. On the very next day, a
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: large basket of pears was delivered at marshlands by the
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: old gardener, with Captain Vernon's compliments. How very kind of him,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: said unsuspecting Missus winn Stanley. He has never sent us
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: a present before. They are finer than anything we have
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: been able to grow for ourselves. The pears were brought
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: in at dessert, and remarkably ripe and luscious they appeared.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: I thought the boys looked a little conscious when they
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: saw them placed upon the table, but they hid their
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: feelings under a mask of would be unconcern. These are
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: some of Captain Vernon's pears, my dear, said Missus winn Stanley,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: passing the dish to the Squire. He sent such a
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: polite message saying he thought we should like to taste them.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: They must be his early bergamots, said mister Winstanley, choosing
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: a particularly fine one and slicing it. I know he's
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: very proud of them, and boasts that he can beat
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: all the gardens round. Hullo, what's this? It looks as
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: if the pear were riddled with shot. Perhaps they're the seeds.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: They often look black when they're ripe, suggested George Hastily.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: He and Dick were eating apples and Cathy and I
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: had also declined the offer delicacy seeds. You don't find
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: pips made of lead. I tell you they're pellets, though
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: how they came inside the pear I can't imagine. Hand
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: me the dish and I'll try another. The next was
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: in like condition, and missus Winstanley's and Edward's plates told
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: the same story. There's something queer about this, said the squire,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: cutting into his third pair. Then suddenly catching sight of
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: the air of elaborate nonchalance which the boys were rather overdoing,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: You young rascals, he wrote, I verily believe this is
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: your handiwork. I will draw a veil over the explanations
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: which followed to Dick and George. They proved extremely unpleasant,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: as mister Winstanley was really angry. He had little patience
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: with practical jokes, and especially disliked to give any cause
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: of offense to his neighbors. So he insisted upon marching
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: both the boys off then and there to make their
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: apologies to Captain Vernon. And if he likes to horsewhip you,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: he may do so, he declared, and I'll stand by
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: and watch it done, and say you deserve it. For
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of mischievous young jackanapes. To the great surprise
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: of all concerned. However, the old captain turned up trumps.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Bursting into a roar of laughter, he declared he had
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: had the best of the joke, shook the boys warmly
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: by the hand, and proclaimed an amnesty. He even did more.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Next day, he sent us a beautiful basketful of his
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: best wall apricots as a peace offering and permission to
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: pick blackberries in his fields if we chose. It's ever
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: so decent of the old chap said George. We certainly
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: did rag him rather hard. But I've promised to catch
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: the moles in his garden. I'm a capital hand at
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: setting mole traps, And he says, if I like to
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: come and scather the birds from his autumn peas, he'll
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: lend me an air gun and I can blaze away
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: all day if I want. It was a very satisfactory
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: conclusion to the feud, and I think the boys were
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: glad it had ended thus, for by the next holidays,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the poor old captain's cough no longer resounded through the village.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: His garden knew him no more, and other and younger
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: faces looked out from his red cut and windows, end
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: of chapter six, Chapter nine of the Fortunes of Philippa
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: by Angela Brazil. This Librivax recording is in the public domain.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine A hard time. I have not that alacrity
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: of spirit nor cheer of mind that I was wont
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: to have. Time seemed to pass very rapidly away, and
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: I could scarcely realize it when I found I had
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: been more than a year at the Hollies. I was
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: now a tall girl of thirteen, with a considerable idea
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: of the dignity of my age, and much resented any
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: one alluding to me as a child. My aunt thought
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: me greatly improved, and spoke in warm praise of Missus
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: Marshall's system of education, while as for me, my life
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: at San Carlos seemed such a past tale that it
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: was difficult to believe I had ever been the forlorn
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: little stranger who had landed in England with so many
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: doubts and fears only three years ago. You must not think, however,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: that I had entirely forgotten my home and the dear
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: old friends of my childhood. I still sent warm messages
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: to Janita and Tasso and the other members of our household,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: though I could no longer speak their language, and I
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: liked to hear accounts of them in my father's letters.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: While I believe on their part, they all looked forward
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: to seeing their little Signorina one day in their midst again.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: It was perhaps only natural, after all, that my new
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: life should, in some measure erase the old one from
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: my mind. It was what my father had desired, and
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: if I were beginning to think that England were far
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: more to me than the country I had left, he
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: would be the first to rejoice over my altered views.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: So far from feeling any danger of my affection for
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: him being weakened, he knew that my change of opinions
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: only tightened at the bond between us. Since the older
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: and wiser I grew so much, the more would I
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: be able to appreciate him and enjoy his companionship when
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: we should meet again. I was now in the third
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: form at school, as I had been moved up with Blanche,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: Janet and Cathy, and found myself the youngest in a
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: class which had a reputation both for quick wits and
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: hard work. Miss Percy was our teacher, and though in
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: many respects an excellent one. She was a woman of
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: narrow sympathies and strict discipline, very different from kindly Miss Buller,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: who had always tried to make the rough paths of
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: learning as smooth as possible for our stumbling feet. Another
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: disagreeable point of my promotion was that I had Earnestine's
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: sorts for a class mate, and however much I might
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: dislike her, I must perforce be thrown continually into her society.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: As you may imagine, she did not welcome my advent,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: giving me to understand that she considered me an intruder
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: among girls who were all older than myself, and that
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: my advancement was only due to missus Marshall's partiality. Lucy
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: had remained behind in the upper fourth. Never a very
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: clever girl. She had little ambition and was quite content
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: if she could scrape along without incurring any specially severe
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: reproof from her teachers. Though I loved her as my cousin,
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: I felt she occupied quite a different place in my
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: heart from my darling Cathy. It is perhaps only possible
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: to have one very dearest friend. And while Cathy seemed
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: to win all my love and admiration, and to appeal
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: to everything that was highest and best in me. Lucy's
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: tastes were based so much on the lines of aunt
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: Agatha that I found and we had little in common.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: I saw less of her now than ever for Mary
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: having come to the Hollies this term, Missus Marshall had
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: arranged for the sisters to sleep together, while to my
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: great delight I was allowed to share a vacant bedroom
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: with Kathy. We moved our household goods into our new
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: quarters with much noise and chattering. My case of South
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: American butterflies was accorded the place of honor over the
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: chimney piece, together with the portrait of my father. The
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: brush which Cathy had won at the Everton Meet, hung
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: proudly over her washstand. My views of San Carlos were
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: distributed about the walls, while photos of Marshlands and the
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Winstanley family in every conceivable position adorned our chests of
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: drawers and dressing table. I feel as if we were
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: relations now you have come to share my room, said Kathy.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: I've always longed for a younger sister, so I'm going
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: to adopt you, Philip had dear, and try to believe
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: that you're really and truly mine. You haven't any mother
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: of your own, so I shall put my mother's photo
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the dressing table, that she may
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: belonged to us both. She has always called you her
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: second little daughter. I found the work in my new
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: class taxed my exertions to the uttermost. Missus Marshall had
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: a very high standard as to what should be required
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: from girls of our age, and it was only with
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: the greatest difficulty I was able to keep up to it.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Without Cathy's help, I must most certainly have failed. She
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: was a true friend in need. She would patiently go
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: over my preparation with me, explaining different rules, repeating dates
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: and vocabularies again and again to fix them in my memory,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: or showing me so clearly and concisely the reasons for
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: the various problems in mathematics that I felt I could
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: learn more easily from her than from our teachers. My
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: one haunting fear was that Missus Marshall should consider me
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: below the level of the class and should send me
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: down again into the fourth For to be thus banished
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: from Cathy seemed the worst that fate could hold in
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: store for me. Never very robust, I worked far beyond
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: my strength, and the continual strain began at Lofe to
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: tell upon my health. I grew thin and pale. I
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: was troubled with a perpetual headache, and I sometimes indulged
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: in unreasonable fits of crying, which incurred the severer proof
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: of Miss Percy, who had no sympathy with nerves. I
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: can't help it, I can't, Indeed, I confide it to Cathy.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: After one of these outbreaks. My head feels so chock
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: full of facts I sometimes think it won't hold any more.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: When I look at my book, the letters seem to
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: dance before my eyes, and I mix up mathematics with
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: history and want to talk German. In the French class,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: tell missus Marshall and ask her to knock something off,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: suggested Cathy. No, no, she would only say the class
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: was too difficult for me and send me down. And
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: unless I can stay up here with you in Janet,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: life simply isn't worth living. Never mind, I'll manage to
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: worry on somehow, if only Miss Percy would let me alone. Unfortunately,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: that was exactly what Miss Percy would not do. She
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: had taken it into her head that I was hysterical,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: and that my whims and fancies must not, on any
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: account be humored. I daresay she thought she was only
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: doing her duty, but she harried me continually. An untied
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: hair ribbon, a blot on my exercise, an inkstain on
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: my finger, or an awkward attitude in class were occasions
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: for instant and severe fault. Finding no doubt they were
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: all little defects which called for amendment. But she made
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: the mistake of dealing with them too hardly. I believe
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: if people would only realize it, that overwork and ill
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: health are often responsible for many tiresome habits and growing girls.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: It was certainly so in my case. I sat crooked
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: because my back ached. I lulled on my desk because
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: I was really tired. I fidgeted from sheer nervousness when
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: I felt Miss Percy's eye upon me, and when having
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: brought down all the vials of her wrath upon my head,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: I ended by bursting into tears. It was hard to
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: be accused of temper or sullenness when I felt I
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: would have given the whole world for a kind word.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: I think we all suffered much from the deadly sameness
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: of our life. In the summer time, we were allowed
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: a considerable amount of leisure, which we spent in the
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: garden at croquet, tennis or archery. But during the winter
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: months the play hours were greatly curtailed and extra classes added,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: while the only exercise we took was a short daily
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: crocodile walk with hockey for an hour on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Girls who are not boarders do not feel this lack
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: of variety. The walk to and from school, and above all,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: the different subjects which are discussed at home make a
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: change of thought and a wholesome break. But the monotony
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: of spending week after week meeting no one except teachers
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: and companions, discussing nothing but school topics, never seeing a
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: newspaper or a magazine, or hearing what is going on
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: in the outside world, is apt to have a rather
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: depressing influence upon some dispositions. The teachers, seeing us all
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: day long, were inclined to worry too much over our
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: small faults, while we, on our side, having little else
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: to distract our minds, we'll want to magnify our woes.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: Out of all just proportion, miss Percy's nagging only seemed
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: to make my faults the worse. I never seem able
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: to please her, I grumbled one day at breakfast time.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: If I say my lessons correctly, she tells me, I'm
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: twitching my hands or wrinkling my forehead. And then if
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: I try to think about my hands my forehead, the
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: lessons go right out of my mind. So I'm wrong
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: either way. It seems no use trying. She's horribly mean,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: sighed Janet, who suffered at times herself. My exercise was
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: quite right yesterday, but she made me copy it all
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: out again just because I had four mistakes in spelling.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: It was really too bad. I could forgive her the exercises,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: said Millicent, if she'd only make stronger coffee. This cup
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: of mine is simply dishwater. I wish missus Marshall would
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: come down again at breakfast time. It used to be
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: ever so much better when she poured out. Let us
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: get up around Robin and beg her to come, laughed Cathy.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: We could say we'd missed her charming conversation. Quietly, quietly,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: said Miss Percy from the other end of the table,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: For Cathy had raised her voice above the low undertone
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: in which we had been speaking. We might ask her
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: to give coffee as the next conversation topic, said Janet,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: and then Millicent could announce that she liked it strong
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: as her intelligent remark. It's the chickery I object to,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: said Millicent. I loathe the smell of it. I'm sure
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: it oughtn't to have any in aught it. Phil certainly not,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: I replied. I wish you could have tasted the coffee
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: we used to have at San Carlos. You'd never forget it.
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: It came from our own plantations, and Pedro used to
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: roast it and grind it just before he poured the
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: water on. I've often watched him make it. That was
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: really worth calling coffee. Pity, we can't import him over
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: here to give the cook a lesson, said Janet. But
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: I expect there's something in the quality. And how much
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: you put in the pot. Will you have another cup? Milly? No,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: thank you. One is enough of this brew. Here comes
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: the bread and butter place. I hope it'll all be
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: finished before it comes to me, for I don't want
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: any more. Among many rules at the Hollies, there was
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: a lure that nothing must be left upon the table,
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: and the bread and butter was always severely passed round
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: till the plate was empty. On this particular day, I
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: was not hungry, and when the last piece was offered
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: to me, I promptly declined it. Cathy quickly and quietly
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: handed it on to Janet, who was in the very
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: act of taking it, when Miss Percy's voice bade her pause.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: Did I notice you refuse that piece of bread and
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: butter Philip's seaton, she asked, Yes, Miss Percy, I replied,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: And why I'm not hungry, I said nervously, But you
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: know the rule I suppose I do. Then why did
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: you not take it? I've had enough, Miss Percy, I
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: blurted out. I simply can't eat any more. She looked
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: at me with infinite scorn. Cannot eat any more, then
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: you must have been greedy if you find it absolutely
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: impossible to finish even in this little piece. I will
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: not urge you after such a plea, but I think
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: you may well be ashamed of your excuse. I felt
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: keenly the injustice of the suggestion, but I was powerless
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: to retort. It was but a sample of her methods
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: in training us, and to have answered back would have
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: been an offense, liable to be visited with heavy punishment.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: So far from overeating myself, I generally had little appetite
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: for breakfast and made the merest apology for a meal.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: As a result of this, by eleven o'clock recreation I
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: would find I was wildly hungry, but as we had
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: no lunch at the Hollies, I was obliged to wait
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: until the one o'clock dinner, by which time I was
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: almost faint for want of food. How often have I
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: evaded Miss Percy's sharp eye, and, dodging down the back staircase,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: have begged a piece of bread or a hot potato
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: from the sympathetic cook, to be eaten surreptitiously behind my
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: pocket handkerchief. In the playground, I have even bribed the
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: housemaid to buy me biscuits and smuggle them into my locker,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: incurring thereby both the risk of her dismissal and my
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: own disgrace. For it was one of the strictest rules
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: of the school that the girls should obtain no private supplies.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: It is, i suppose, almost impossible for any mistress, however conscientious,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: to give to forty different pupils the same care and
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: attention as they would receive at home. I am sure
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: missus Marshall thought she took every precaution to secure our health,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: and if I had been definitely ill or in pain,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: she would have been kindness itself. But it is so
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: difficult sometimes to tell whether a girl is really ailing
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: or only shirking her work, that unless we complain of
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: special symptoms, no notice was taken of our general condition.
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: So my pale cheeks and increased latitude passed without comment.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: I felt the meaning of the old adage a sound
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: mind in a sound body. I found myself worrying most
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: absurdly over trifles which would not have distressed me to
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: nearly such an extent if I had been able to
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: distract my thoughts. After all, school is one's little world,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: and a bad mark, an unjust reproof, or a quarrel
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: with a compatis at the time, seem as overwhelming troubles
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: as any we may encounter in after life. Matters went
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: on from bad to worse. In my struggles to keep
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: up to the standard of my class, I began the
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: foolish habit of smuggling my books into my bedroom that
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: I might take a last glance at my lessons before
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: I got into bed, and I would lie repeating French
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: verbs or German grammatical rules to myself long after the
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: gas and the passage had been turned out. It was
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: but a natural consequence that I could not sleep. Night
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: after night, I have tossed and turned, trying first one
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: side of my pillow and then the other to cool
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: my burning head, counting the strokes as the clock struck midnight,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: and feeling as if the dead silence of the house
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: grew almost unbearable. There is perhaps nothing so lonely as
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: to lie awake while others sleep. The darkness of the
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: room oppressed me. It was terrible to open my eyes
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: and see nothing but blackness around me, out of which
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: my imagination would conjure up ghostly figures stealing around my bed.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: Had I dared, I would have begged for a night light,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: but I knew full well that such fancies would meet
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: with scant sympathy. At Miss Percy's ears, the sound of
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Kathy's quiet breathing made me feel as though she were
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: miles away, but I was not selfish enough to wake
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: her up to console me in my misery, And after
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: tossing about for hours, I would at last fall asleep
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: to find the unwelcome bell ringing in my ears. Before
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: I seemed out of my first troubled dream. I woke
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: up one morning after a restless night such as this,
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: feeling limp and irritable, and very unable to cope with
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: the world in general. There was a tiresome rule at
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: the Holly's that before we left our rooms, we must
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: take each sheet and blankets separately off our beds, fold
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: them and place them in a neat pile upon a chair.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: It's a stupid custom, said Cathy, grumbling for the hundredth time,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: as she struggled to get the four corners of her
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: Coverlet even I can't imagine why we shouldn't turn the
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: clothes over the end of the bed as we do
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: at home, they would add, just as well, or better.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: There's the bell ringing now, and I haven't my collar on.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: Be quick, Phil, let me help you to tie your hair.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: We must simply fly, or we shall both be late.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: I had absolutely no time to arrange my bed. I
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: seized the sheets and blankets altogether, and rolling them in
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: one untidy bundle, I flung them upon a chair. I
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: did not even look to see if the room were
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: in order. But buttoning my dress as I went, I
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: tore down the passage just in time to slip into
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: the dining room behind Cathy. As Missus Marshall opened the
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Bible to read prayers, we began lessons immediately after breakfast.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: The whole school assembled first in the large class room
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: for call over, and I had taken my place and
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: was arranging my books in order giving a last desperate
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: glance at the dates in my history and the troublesome
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: genealogy of the House of Stuart. We rose and curtseyed
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: when Miss Percy entered, and she bowed and wished us
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: good morning, in accordance with the formal etiquette which we
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: practiced at the Hollies. But instead of seating herself as usual,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: she placed a few things which I could not see,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: upon the chair, and advanced the little forward with an
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: air of more than usual gravity upon her face. Philip A. Seaton,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: she said impressively, I feel that I have borne long
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: enough with your careless and shiftless ways. For some time now.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: I have made every effort to help you to cure
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: yourself of many bad habits, But instead of seeing any improvement,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: it appears to me that you allow yourself to neglect
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: even the ordinary rules of the school. This morning I
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: visited your bedroom. I found your bed clothes in utter confusion,
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: upon a chair, your nail brush evidently unused, your comb
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: left full of hairs upon the dressing table, a pair
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: of boots, a slipper, and a shoehorn lying upon the floor,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: while this bag full of cotton reels was flung under
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: your washstand. I am determined that for once I will
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: teach you a lesson, and I shall pin these articles
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: on to your back, in the hope that by showing
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: your disgrace to the whole school, I may help you
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: to remember to be more neat and orderly in the future.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: Come here, In much fear and trembling, I approached her.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: She turned to the chair, where it would have been
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: ludicrous if it had not all been so horribly solemn.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: My comb, my boots, my slipper, my shoehorn, and my
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: bag of cottons lay piled in a tragic little heap.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: She fastened them securely on to my dress with safety pins,
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: till I looked like a gipsy peddler or an old
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: clothes woman, and bade me return to my place. Burning
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: with indignation, I sat down. All my pride was wounded,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: and the tears came swimming into my eyes. I felt
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: she had no right to treat me. Thus there were
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: certain fair and recognized penalties for neglected duties at which
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: I should not have rebelled. But to be made a
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: laughing stock for the whole school was out of all
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: proportion to my offense. I could see the amused smile
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: with which Ernestine's Salt nudged her companion, and knew how
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: unmercifully she would tease me afterwards. And the thought that
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: I must spend the entire morning with these absurd things
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: dangling on my back was almost more than my spirit
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: could brook. I got back my tears sufficiently to answer
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: present when my name was called, and sat fighting with
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: my face and trying not to feel that every girl
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: in the room was looking at me. There was a
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: slight tug at my dress behind, and Cathy cautiously thrust
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: a tiny scrap of paper into my hand. I managed
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: to read it unobserved. She's the hatefulest thing that ever was.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: It ran, but never mind. Don't let her think you care.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: I scrunched up the paper and held up my head.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: After all, why should I care? I had committed no
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: very desperate sin, and I knew that nearly every one
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: must be secretly in sympathy with me. I would brave
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: it out and show Miss Percy that though she might
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: inflict any punishment she chose, she was not able to
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: crush my spirit entirely. As to Ernestine's salt, I would
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: defy her sneer as she might. It was unfortunate for
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: me that my first lesson of the day should be
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: with Miss Percy, with the wretched boots and bobbins sticking
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: in to me whenever I attempted to lean back in
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: my seat, I felt in anything but a docile or
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: tractable frame of mind. And though she certainly would not
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: have allowed it, I do not think she herself was
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: in the best of tempers. She corrected Janet sharply for stooping,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: reduced Milicent to the very verge of tears, and even
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: found fault with Cathy's beautifully neat and tidy exercise. We
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: were learning the geography of India, a large map of
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: which hung over the blackboard, and in the course of
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: the lesson, we were each required in turned to indicate
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: the positions of certain rivers and cities of the Punjab.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: I was sitting in class next to Ernestine's salt, and
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: as I rose hastily up to step forward and take
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: the pointer, she suddenly put out her foot, as if
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: by chance, exactly at the moment when I passed her.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: I tripped, made a desperate effort to save myself, caught
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: wildly at the easel, and fell, sending blackboard, map, pegs,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: pointer and all with a horrible crash on to the floor.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: There was dead silence in the room. As I picked
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: myself up. Miss Percy raised the fallen easel and the
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: torn man and looked at me with white lips. What
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: is the meaning of this, Philip has Seaton, she asked.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: I couldn't help it, I answered, rather sullenly. I am afraid.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: I I believe I tripped. No other girl has tripped.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: You are either irredeemably awkward, or have caused this accident
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: by deliberate intention. I very much fear it is the latter.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: You've no right to say so, I burst out, defiantly,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: roused out of all discipline by her tone. I've told
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: you I couldn't help it. And if you can't believe
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: my word, I should like you to take me to
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: missus Marshall. You shall certainly go to missus Marshall when
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: she is at liberty, replied Miss Percy in freezing tones.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I am not going to interrupt
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: the lesson on your behalf. You will stand there by
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: the door, holding the broken pointer in your hand till
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: the class is over. I do not think Miss Percy
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: was altogether happy at that moment, but I am sure
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: she was not so miserable as I. I knew well
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: I had done wrong to answer her so rudely, and
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: the sense of my own shortcomings, added to the feeling
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: of hot wrath against her injustice and unkindness, made it
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: the most horribly difficult thing in the world to stand
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: there the target for all eyes. My head ached as
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: if it would burst, and I rested my weary weight,
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: first on one foot and then on another. Each minute
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: felt hours to me. As the lessons slowly dragged along.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: I pressed my trembling hands together and tried with a
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: desperate effort to keep my eyes steadily fixed on the
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: clock over the chimney piece. But somehow the figures all
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: seemed at once to be mixed together. The room swam
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: before me in a kind of blur. I heard Miss
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: Percy's voice as if it were a very long way off,
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: asking me something I could not hear, and then all
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: was utter darkness. When I came to myself, I was
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: lying on the sofa in the library. Missus Marshall was
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: bending over me, bathing my head with eau de cologne,
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: and Miss Buller was fanning me with a palm leaf screen.
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: Are you better, my dear, asked Missus Marshall, anxiously. Don't
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: try to get up, Drink the glass of water and
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: lie down again. What happened? I asked? How did I
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: come here? You fainted in the class room, but you
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: must not talk about it now. I wish you to
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: rest for a while, and then Miss Buller shall bring
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: you some beef tea. I don't want any, thank you,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: I said, trying to raise myself a little. But my
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: head swam so strangely, and I felt so giddy and
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: queer that I was glad to sink back again upon
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: the sofa cushions. I think we had better put you
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: to bed, said Missus Marshall, adding in an undertone to
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: Miss Buller, if she is not better by this evening,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: I shall certainly send for the doctor. I was not
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: better by the evening. My hands were burning hot, and
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: my head felt so unusually light that I could scarcely
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: recognize the many people who seemed to come in and
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: out of my room. I knew that when I asked
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: for water, Miss Buller was always ready with the glass
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: in her hand. I thought once that Cathy was sobbing
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: quietly behind the curtain of my bed, and I am
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: certain that missus Marshall never left me all night. It
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: is a decided case of nervous breakdown due to overwork.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: I heard the doctor saying, you must keep her very quiet,
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: and I will see her again in the morning. There
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: were no more lessons for me that term. As soon
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: as I was well enough to travel, Aunt Agatha took
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: me herself for a fortnight to Brighton, where the RESTful,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: uneventful days and the invigorating sea breezes soon brought back
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: the roses to my cheeks and gave me untroubled sleep
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: and peaceful dreams at night. I think this episode, and
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: something which the doctor had said, must have caused missus
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: Marshall seriously to reconsider the rules of the school and
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: the hours of our work. She was a sensible woman,
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: most conscientious over our well being, and ever ready to
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: adopt new ideas if she believed them to be better
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: than the old ones. When I returned to school at
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the next term, I found that our
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: timetable was completely changed. The hours of work were considerably relaxed,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: and instead of the stupid walks up and down the
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: high road, we were taken almost daily rambles over the
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: hills or in the beautiful woods by the river. Miss
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: Percy had mysteriously disappeared, and her place was filled by
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: a new teacher who was fond of natural history, and
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: who encouraged us to find specimens of stones, leaves or flowers,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: explaining them with so much enthusiasm that the stupidest girl
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: could not fail to be interested. The new scheme answered well,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: the extra time given to outdoor recreation was not wasted,
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: for we went back to our books with fresh zeal
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: and I think we really got through as much work
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: as we had done before, if not in the actual
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: number of pages learnt at any rate, in the amount
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: we remembered afterwards end of chapter nine, Chapter ten of
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: the Fortunes of Philippa by Angela Brazil. This LibriVox recording
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Chapter ten A picnic and
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: an adventure beneath the trees. We'll have one day of
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: frolicsome employment, and birds shall sing and wind shall blow
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: to help us to enjoyment. The changed conditions at the Hollies,
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: added to my long Christmas holiday, had completely brought me
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: back to my usual health and high spirits, and I
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: soon found the ordinary work of the class to be
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: well within my capacities. Now that Miss Percy's continual nagging
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: was removed, I felt a different girl and began to
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: enjoy thoroughly my school life once more. Miss Hope, our
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: new mistress, was one of those bright, sunny souls who
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: seem able to bring the very best out of all
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: those who are near them. She made few rules, trusting
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: much to our sense of honor and good feeling, and
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: so well did we respond to her kindness that there
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: was soon quite a different tone in the class, For
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: the thought of grieving her would deter us from wrong
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: doing far more easily than all Miss Percy's threats of punishment.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: She had no favorites, but I think that Cathy and I,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: as being more interested than the others in the botany
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: and natural history, which were her special subjects, came in
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: for an extra share of her affection, and I know
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: we both worshiped her with that depth of devotion which
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: schoolgirls are ever ready to offer to a teacher whom
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: they really respect and love. As the summer came on,
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: with the long light days, we were taken out more
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: frequently for expeditions over the delightful Derbyshire moors. These Saturday
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: afternoon rambles were looked forward to throughout the whole week,
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: and we would return from them with such red cheeks
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: and hearty appetites that I think Missus Marshall was amply
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: satisfied with the result of her new regulations. We all
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: felt at a decided innovation when she proposed a picnic
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: instead of the usual mild garden party with which we
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: had been accustomed to celebrate her birthday on the first
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: of June. It's to be a real genuine, grown up
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: kind of picnic, too, said Janet, not just going for
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: a walk and taking milk and biscuits with you. There
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: are to be five wagonettes, and we are to drive
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: all the way to Redburn and have tea at a
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: farm on the side of the scar. There's a glorious
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: little wood there, said Cathy, where lilies of the valley
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: grow wild. Miss Hope says she believes they'll just be
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: in flower. It will be perfectly delightful if we find them.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: Missus Thompson at the farm makes the most splendid girdle
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: cakes put in millicent. I know because I went there
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: once before when mother took her Sunday school treat, and
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: they were absolutely delicious. You eat them hot out of
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: the oven with loads of honey. I hope it will
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: be fine tomorrow, I said. I suppose we shall go
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: another day if it rains. But a thing never seems
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: quite the same if it is put off fine, of
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: course it will be fine, said Janet. The sky is
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: as clear as it can be, and the moon is new,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: and the little soldier is standing at his door in
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: the barometer in my bedroom, and the cattle are grazing
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: up hill, and the pimpernel is out by the gate,
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: and Miss Buller's hair is in curl, and the midges
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: are biting horribly. So if you can profes I rain
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: after that, Miss Philippa, you don't know the English club,
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: That's all I can say. I never profesy till I know,
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: I replied, laughing. But I think after such a list
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: of good omens, the weather could hardly, for shame disappoint us.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: Though I can't give the English climate much of a character.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: After all, Janet was right, for the first of June
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: proved to be a glorious day, bright and clear, with
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: a cloudless sky and a fresh wind blowing down from
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: the moors punctually. At half past one, the wagonettes drove
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: up to the door, and with much excitement we packed
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: ourselves into them, Cathy and I after a scramble, with
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: Janet securing the coveted seats next to our dear Miss Hope.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: It was an eight mile drive through the most charming scenery.
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: The white limestone road first followed the river bank, amid
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: beautiful woods, green with all the wealth of early summer
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: foliage and literally carpeted with bluebells, while on the far
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: side of the river rose steep cliffs covered from base
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: to summit with oak trees, the pinky brown of their
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: opening leaves making a rich contrast to the dark pines
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: which interspersed them here and there. Leaving the woods behind us,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: we wound slowly up the steep slope between rough stone
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: walls or banks of grass and firs. The great, bare
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: rolling hills stretched out before us, where the sheep were
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: cropping the short sweet grass that grew between the clumps
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: of sedge and rushes, and the larks were singing loudly
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: and joyfully as they rose from their nests among the heather.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: Redburn proved to be a quaint little old world graystone village,
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: set in a dip amongst the moors, where it might
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: receive some slight shelter from the bitter north wind which
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: blew from the hills in winter time. We rattled through
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: its steep cobbled streets, making a brief pause at the church,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: where some ancient stone coffins and carved choir stalls were
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: to be seen, and then on again over the mountain
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: side till we finally drew up in the farm yard
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: of Ingledoo Grange, where Missus Thompson, the farmer's wife, in
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: a clean print dress and snowy apron, was waiting to
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: receive us with many smiles and words of welcome. I'm
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: fain glad it's turned out a fine day for ye
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: that I am, she said, You'll be nigh clemmed after
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: your drive, I take it, and more than ready for
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: your teas. I won't be above a few minutes and
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: mash in the pots. But if you care to take
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: a turn round the garden whilst the cakes is are
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: getting out of the oven, ye can go where you like.
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: We certainly agreed with her that the fresh Moorland air
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: had given a keen edge to our appetites, and she
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: hastened to finish her preparations while we prowled about the
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: sweet old garden, where the little june roses hung white
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: over the rustic porch, and the peacocks on the lawn
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: below were spreading their glorious tails to the sunshine. We
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: had tea at long tables in a great farm kitchen,
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: the high roof of which had black oak rafters arched
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: like those of a church, while the flagged floor was
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: strewn with the finest white sand. Everything was as neat
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: and clean as constant scrubbing and scouring could make it.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: The oak furniture shone with polishing on a fine old
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: dresser was spread out a goodly array of blue willow
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: pattern china, while the brightest of copper saucepans and pewter
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: pots adorned the plain whitewashed walls. Milicent had certainly not
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: overstated the quality of the cakes, nor the freshness of
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: the large brown eggs, nor the sweetness of the honey
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: with its delicious flavor of Moorland heather, nor the dark
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: barley bread, nor the rich cream which Missus Marshall poured
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: into our teacups with a lavish hand. It was a
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: real old fashioned farm house tea, and we did justice
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: to it with such ample country appetites that I think
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: even Missus Thompson was satisfied that we had enjoyed ourselves.
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: We dispersed afterwards in little groups for a ramble round
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: the fields and in the pretty shady wood which lay
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: at the foot of the dell lilies of the valley.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: Said Missus Thompson, in response to our eager enquiries. Aye,
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: there's a many of them down in yon Klow. We
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: call them snow bubs. Here. Ye can pluck till you're
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: tired if you've a mind. Come along, Phil, cried Cathy,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: and we started down the path between the springing corn
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: running for pure joy of the fresh air and sunshine,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: and snatching as we passed at the lacy flowers of
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: the wild cornell, which hung over the hedgerow like masses
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: of snow. A broad brook flowed through the little glade,
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: and on either side, under the shade of the overhanging trees,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: grew the lilies of the valley in such sweet profusion
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: that the whole air seemed full of their delicious perfume.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: We ran here and there, half wild with delight, burying
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: our noses in the fragrant blossoms and picking until our
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: hands were full. Aren't they glorious? Said I? Simply perfect,
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: said Cathy. I want to sniff them all up, said Janet,
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: who with a few other girls had followed us. The
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: fourth class are coming down the hill, said Ernestine. They'll
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: have to be quick or they won't find any left.
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: There are plenty on the other side of the water,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: I said, if we could only manage to get over,
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: I should like to pick up particularly nice bunch for missus.
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: Marshall and I looked doubtfully at the trunk of a
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: tree which had been laid across the brook to serve
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: as a rough kind of bridge. There had been some
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: attempt at a hand rail for a long pole swung
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: from two ropes tied to the trees on either side,
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: but it was of such a very shaky and insecure
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: description that it would be barely sufficient to steady one's
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: self by in the crossing. It doesn't look at all safe,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: declared Janet. You won't catch me trying such a perilous path.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: For all the flowers in the world, I think I
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: shall venture, I said. The lilies look so much finer
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: over there. Only mind you don't shake the pole while
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: I'm crossing. It's unsteady enough as it is. The round
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: tree trunk did not make a very firm foothold, and
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: the swinging hand rail felt the most insecure of supports.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: When I started on to the bridge, I went along
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: with great caution, one step, trying to balance myself steadily,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: and not to think of the rushing water below. Very good,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: very good, indeed, called Kathy from the bank. Don't hurry,
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: keep steady, you're half way over, cried Janet. It looks
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: easy enough. I shall come too, exclaimed Ernestine. She seized
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: the handrail as if to follow me, but the sudden
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: touch on the shaking pole was too much for my
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: frail balance. The rail swayed violently and swung away out
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: of my clutching grasp. My foot slipped, and with a
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: shriek of terror, I found myself flung into the stream below.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: Luckily it was neither deep nor dangerous, but even half
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: a yard of water is quite enough to get very
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: wet in, and I was a moist and draggled object
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: by the time I had struggled back to dry land.
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: It's all your fault, Ernestine, I cried wrathfully as I
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: regained the bank. I told you not to shake the handrail,
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: and you knew it would upset me. You're the meanest
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: thing in the Worldernstine's salt, declared Cathy her cheeks Crimson
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: with indignation as she tried to wring the water from
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: my dripping skirts. Don't speak to me. I never intend
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: to be friends with you again. You did it on purpose,
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: began Janet. I know you did. You're always playing sneaking
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: tricks on Philippa when you think no one will find
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: you out. You needn't think you're going to stay here
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: with us, said Blanche Greenwood hotly because we don't want you.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: We didn't ask you to come, and you may go
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: away and walk by yourself. I've no wish to stay
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: with you, I'm sure, replied Ernestine, with equal temper. I
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: would rather have your room than your company. I've picked
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: all the lilies I want, so you're welcome to any
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: that are left, so far as I'm concerned, if that's
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: why you wish to get rid of me. And with
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: this parting shot, she took her flowers and walked slowly
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: away in the opposite direction to that in which we
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: had come, by a small path that led from the
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: wood up on to the moor beyond. You're terribly wet, Phil,
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: your boots are simply squelching with water. I don't know
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: what Missus Marshall will say, said Cathy, as she hurried
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: me back to the farm as fast as possible to
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: be dried somewhat. To my relief, neither Missus Marshall nor
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: any of the teachers was there like ourselves. They were
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: all trying to make the best of the fine afternoon
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: out of doors. Dearie me, who'd have thought of you
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: falling into that bit of a brook? Said Missus Thompson aghast,
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: as I walked into the kitchen in my moist skirts.
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: We must get you out of those wet things, honey.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: I've some clothes of my lizzies as would fit you,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: while your own is at the fire. Lizzie's skirt was
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: decidedly too short for me, and Lizzie's boots were equally
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: large and roomy. Her stockings, moreover, were of thick home
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: knitted worsted, very hot and uncomfortable. But I was grateful
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: for anything in the circumstances, and would I believe have
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: worn a pair of sabots if they had been offered
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: to me. We shall just have time for a walk, Cathy,
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: after all, I said, It can't be very late yet,
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: and we don't start home until six o'clock. Let us
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: go up that through the glen that led on to
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: the moors. Nay, don't go there, called out Missus Thompson,
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: who happened to overhear my remark. Just as we left
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: the house. There's a bull up on yon moor as
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: isn't safe at all. It do run, folks. Sometimes. I
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: thought she'd been with the rest when I warned y'all
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: keep in our own fields, and ye'll be right enough.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: But don't go rome in far away. Never mind, said Cathy.
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: We'll go back to the wood at any rate and
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: pick some more lilies, if there are any left. We
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: wandered slowly down the lane, gathering the dog violets from
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: the banks, and having an unsuccessful hunt for birds nests
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: in the hedge. The girls were all gone from the glen,
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: only a few dropped flowers remaining to show where they
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: had been, and Kathy and I sauntered to the little
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: bridge to take a look at the scene of my catastrophe.
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: You see how the handrail shakes about, I said, as
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: I swung it out with a touch, and directly Ernestine
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: took hold of it. Oh, Kathy, I never thought of
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: Ernestine before. Don't you remember she went up the path
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: towards the moon. She can't know that the bull is there,
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: and she's gone quite alone. Let us run after her,
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: said Kathy. Perhaps, after all, she mayn't have walked very far,
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: and we shall be in time to warn her. Quick quick,
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: I cried, missus. Thompson said the bull was so dangerous. Oh,
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: we must stop her. We raced as fast as my
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: heavy country boots would allow. Along the narrow path through
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: the wood and over the stile into the meadow beyond,
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: calling Ernestine as we ran, but hearing no reply to
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: our shouts. Among the deep clover and up the steep
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: hill side, we panted, following the plain direction of the path,
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: till clambering over the irregular stepths which led across the
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: high stone wall, we found ourselves on the open moor.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: At last. Oh, look, look, cried Kathy, grasping my arm.
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: There it is, and she pointed as she spoke to
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: the summit of a small hill close by, where outlined
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: against the blue sky beyond, rose the enormous form of
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: the great black bull, which stood there, pawing the ground
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: impatiently and tossing his giant horns as though he were
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: warning trespasses to beware of venturing upon his domains. Slightly
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: lowered down among the firs in the heather, and only
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: about three hundred yards away from us, we could distinguish
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: Ernestine's blue dress and the flutter of the red ribbon
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: in her hat. She was walking slowly along, stooping every
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: now and then to pick a flower, or pausing to
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: look at the scene around her, and evidently utterly unconscious
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: of the huge monster which was grazing on the hill
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: side above her. We called wildly to her, but the
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: wind was in the opposite direction and she could not
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: hear us. We must save her, Cathy, I cried, Perhaps
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: the bull won't see us. Let us follow her quietly
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: and tell her to come back before it's too late.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: But the bull had seen her already, and with a low,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: roaring noise, it began to move slowly down the side
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: of the hill, snuffing the air as it went. Roused
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: at last by the sound, Ernestine turned round. For one moment,
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: she stood almost fixed to the spot with horror. Then
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: with a wild shriek of fear, she flung down her
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: flowers and ran back as fast as she could in
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: the direction of the stile over the wall. Stop stop,
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: don't run, It will be sure to follow you, shouted Kathy.
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: But even if Ernestine heard her, I doubt if she
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: would have had the self control to stay her flying footsteps.
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: It was too late, for with a loud bellow, the
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: great animal was rushing madly after her down the slope.
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: It seemed impossible that she could reach the wall in time.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: There was only a moment in which to save her.
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: But I had read in books that a bull always
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: charges blindly and quick as thought, I pulled off my
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: jacket and dashed forward. Run Ernestine, Run, I cried, Run, Kathy.
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: The stile, the stile. It was almost upon her. But
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: even as it put down its head to charge, I
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: flung my jacket over its horns, and, taking advantage of
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: the few seconds of delay thus gained. I fled on
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: wings of terror after the others to the stile. How
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: I scrambled over I can never remember. I know I
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: fell on Kathy and Ernestine at the bottom. We all
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: lay there for a few moments, nearly dead with fright,
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: imagining that the bull would leap after us. But the
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: wall was high and the stile very steep, and though
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: we could hear its angry mutterings within a few feet
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: of us, it was not able to clear so great
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: an obstacle. Let us get away, cried Ernestine. Oh, it's terrible,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: terrible to think that dreadful beast is still so near us.
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: She made an effort to rise, then, groaning with pain,
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: she sank back on to the ground and buried her
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: face in her hands. I can't walk, she moaned, I've
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: broken my foot. Go girls and leave me. If I
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: have to die, I must what nonsense, said Cathy. You're
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: not going to die yet. I expect you twisted your
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: ankle when you fell. You're quite safe here, for the
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: bull can't leap a six foot wall or climb up
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: crooked stone steps. We'll go for help, and mister Thompson
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: and one of the men must come to carry you
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: back to the farm. You go, Cathy, I said, and
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: I'll stay with Ernestine. She'd feel dreadfully frightened to be
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: left here all alone with the bull close by, although
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: it can't get at us now. If you run all
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: the way, you'll very soon be back with help. Cathy
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: started off at once at a brisk trot, and we
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: watched her as she hurried down the clover fields in
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: the meadow and disappeared into the wood below. I turned
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: to Ernestine, who still sat under the wall where she
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: had fallen, white to the lips and trembling all over
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: with pain. I'm afraid your foot's hurting you very much,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: I said. Let me take your boot off and I'll
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: get some water to bathe it for you. I was
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: obliged to cut both her boot lace and her stocking
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: with my penknife, for her ankle was already so swollen
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: that she could scarcely bear to have it touched. I
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: soaked my handkerchief in a little pool of water and
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: bound up the foot as carefully as I could. Don't cry,
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: I said, they'll soon be here with help, and you
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: can lie on the carriage seat and keep your foot
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: up all the way home. Does it hurt you very dreadfully?
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: It does hurt, but it isn't that sobbed Ernestine. You've
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: saved my life, Philippa, and I've been so horribly nasty
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: to you ever since you came to school. I meant
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: to shake that handrail to day and send you into
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: the brook. It wasn't an accident at all. I stroked
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: her hand softly. I don't think you'd do it again,
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: I said, it's all right about the bull. Don't let
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: us talk of it now. I want to put another
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: bandage on your poor foot, but I will talk of it,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: she said. I've been most disgustingly mean. I'll be very
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: different to you afterwards if you'll be friends with me,
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: will you? Of course I will, I said, heartily, and
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: I put my arms round her neck and kissed her.
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: Mister Thompson soon arrived with a couple of strong farm men,
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: and between them they carried my poor groaning schoolmate back
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: to the farm, where Missus Marshall was waiting, full of
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: a alarm at the chapter of accidents which had happened.
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: It was a painful journey home for Ernestine, and it
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: was many weeks before her sprained ankle would allow her
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: to walk or to take any part in our school
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: games again. I think I was able to make the
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: dull hours she had perforce to spend on her sofa
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: pass a little more brightly for her, and she was
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: grateful to me beyond words. No don't, I said, when
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: she tried once to stammer out her thanks. We've forgotten
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: all that old time. It's no use remembering bygones. We're
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: going to start afresh now, and we'll all give you
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: ever such a jolly welcome when you're well enough to
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: come into school again. And so my last trouble at
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: the Holly's had passed away, for Miss Percy's hard discipline
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: had resolved itself into the genial sway of Miss Hope,
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: and Ernestine's sort who had been the one stormy element
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: in my class, now wrote herself upon the list of
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: my friends, end of chapter ten.