VII.
_HURRAH FOR THE HOLIDAYS!_
And yet, however pleasant lessons might be, there is no doubt thatholidays were pleasant things, too. Saturday afternoons were alwayswelcome, and all the weeks through we were planning what we would dowhen they came. Of course these plans were sometimes upset by a rainyday; but, even then, what with battledore and shuttlecock, painting andspinning tops, we contrived to make out the time very happily.
And before us all the while was the bright, pleasant prospect of thelong summer holidays.
Every now and then during these happy months the thought of home cameacross me, and sometimes one of mamma's letters would have in it so muchabout Bobby and his play, and his prattle about Sissy's coming back,that I grew a little home-sick and looked wistfully into grandmamma'sface as she read the letter. This would always make her say: "You don'twant to go home, little one? Aren't you very happy here with Lottie andthe boys? And you are getting on so nicely with your books, too; mammais so pleased to have you with so many little schoolfellows, and kindMiss Grant to teach you! And we are going to have all kinds of pleasanttreats in the holidays. No, no, we must keep you another month or two!Perhaps we will send you home when the cold weather comes!" So I ranaway again to make plans with Lottie about all the many things that mustbe done the very first day of no lessons.
Then came the last time of history, and the last dreadful sums, and thelast copy written, and the last hard French words learnt, and then,happiest of all, the last putting away of books and cleaning of slates!It almost makes me take that long breath for joy even now only toremember that happy day.
"And don't you think I'm the happiest of us all?" said Miss Grant; "I amthe only one really going home for the holidays!"
Which remark was a great relief to my little mind, for I had been afraidwe must seem a great deal too glad that she was going. Now I couldventure on my very loudest "hurrah," which, after all, was but a feebleimitation of the boys' loud cheers.
You know, anticipation is the best part of every pleasure; in easierwords, everything looks brighter before it comes than when it _is_ come.I think that was very nearly the happiest day of my whole year atBeecham, when I sat on the floor watching the last things put into MissGrant's box, and chattering away about the happy days coming. You see,for a long time I had got up every morning with the thought of how manygood marks I should get, and of how those hard letters and figures wereto be made, and though I had made many a brave fight and won many adelightful victory over the books, yet it _was_ very nice to think thatto-morrow I should awake with the holiday feeling instead.
And the next morning did really come, though we thought it never would,and we made a very long meal of breakfast, being not quite sure what wasto come next.
It was a funny day, that first day! Grandmamma and Uncle Hugh went awayearly for a long drive, and all sorts of business at the end of it; andwe knew they would not be home till ever so late. It was very hot--oh,so _very_ hot! We could not go into the sun at all, but Susette and Janesent us out of the nursery very soon, that we might not disturb baby'smidday sleep by our holiday fun. The school-room, of course, we avoided;so, after a little hesitation, we went out into the shade to play.
UP TO THE MOON!]
And, first of all, we thought of the swing as the best thing to be done,and for half an hour it _was_ most delightful! Don't you know thepleasant feeling it is, just up at the very highest point, when youare not _quite_ sure whether you are frightened or not? Don't you know?And you laugh a little anxiously, and are very glad to find yourselfsafely down again. Oh, it was very good fun for _a little while_! OnlyHarry came to swing us, and he was so fond of seeing your feet up intothe branches, that you never could be quite sure that he would not sendyou head-over-heels. Lottie was very brave, but I could not quite standit, so I stood by and watched; and when they asked me to have anothertry, I said, "No, thank you." I think Alick saw that I was a little redand uncomfortable, for he asked me to come and play on the lawn. We ranaway, taking a last look at the two elder ones. It was not suchboisterous play that we had, we two together, yet I think we enjoyed itvery much, half-talking, half-playing. We were very good friends, andthe morning went very quickly. When the dinner-bell rang, we agreed thatwe would start off together as soon as we could for the apple-orchard atthe top of the hill, where we were not likely to be disturbed.
That hot July afternoon, how well I remember it! All among the longgrass we lay, looking up at the little, young apples overhead, and nowand then setting our teeth in the sour middles of those that had fallen.But we were a little afraid of the effects of these unripe, bulletthings, so we did no more than taste them. Then my eight-year-old cousinbegan to say me long pages of poetry, and when he had exhausted hisstores, he astonished me by the funny, learned sound of his Latindeclensions.
"You know, Sissy," he said, "I mean to be a very learned man some day,and know twelve or fourteen languages, I think. I shall not be contenttill I know more than anybody else. It will be nice to be wiser thanpapa. He's ever so clever, you see; but then, of course, new things willbe found out every year, and sons must always get a-head of theirfathers, or else the world would stand still, you see."
I didn't quite see, but I pretended to. Alick had been very confidentiallately, and I knew what a sore spot there was in his heart making himtalk like this. Hadn't he confided to me with a fierce, red heat on hisforehead how his father had told him he wasn't "half a boy," because hehad turned giddy climbing a high tree? "But papa always says when Harrybangs his head about, that he doesn't believe there can be any brainsbehind such a skull as his. I dare say that is the difference betweenus."
So said the young scholar with all the satisfaction possible, and Ibelieved in him with all my heart.
HOLIDAY TIME.]
However, even he grew tired of wise talk, and proposed a game with thefallen apples. How we pelted each other, how we laughed, and, oh, howhot we did get at last! Then off came hats and jackets, and were leftbehind under the trees while we went to rest ourselves in a piece ofopen shade, thrown by that large barn where, by and by, the apples wouldbe stored away; and this was the moment which I seized to get his adviceas to a new toy I had lately bought to send to Bobbie. It was one ofthose wooden soldiers whose arms and legs are to go by means of astring; but the string, you know, is always getting hitched. This wasthe case now, and it tasked all Alick's wonderful brains to set itright. How my back and arm did ache as I held it up for him, lying flaton the grass, to twitch, and pull, and contrive, and, at last, toconquer! That happy moment had just come when there was a sound ofwheels in the road near us. One minute more, and Uncle Hugh's voice washeard calling us, and the carriage stopped to take us up. What grand,glorious news we were told as we drove home, two hatless, jacketless,sun-burnt children, I must not tell you this time.