CHAPTER IX
Diana's English Christmas
Diana had fondly hoped that the armistice meant an immediate declarationof peace, that her father and mother would return post-haste fromFrance, take her away from Pendlemere, and cross at once to America, sothat they might spend Christmas in their own home. To her immensedisappointment, nothing so nice happened. The peace conferences werelengthy. Mr. and Mrs. Hewlitt remained in Paris, and did not even speakof booking passages to New York. They wrote instead to make arrangementsfor Diana's holidays in England. It was at first decided that she shouldspend the time with her cousins, the Burritts, but influenza broke outso badly at Petteridge Court that all in a hurry the plans had to bechanged. It ended in Diana passing Christmas with the Flemings atPendlemere Vicarage. So far she had scarcely realized Meg and ElsieFleming. They came to school daily, and she had seen them among thejuniors, and remarked that they were "sweet kids". She was now to meetthem at nearer acquaintance, and not only Meg and Elsie, but Monty,Neale, and Roger as well.
They were an interesting and lively family, and after a preliminaryhalf-hour of painful politeness, they thawed over schoolroom tea, andadopted her into their midst. Monty, the eldest, was an eccentric,clever lad in spectacles, fond of making scientific and chemicalexperiments, which generally ended in odours that caused the others tohold their noses and open the schoolroom windows, top and bottom. He hada philosophical mind and a love of argument, and would thrash outquestions for the sheer fun of debate in a growling sort of tone thatwas not really bad-tempered, only put on.
Neale, six months older than Diana, was a bright, jolly-looking boy,with a freckled nose and chestnut hair that rather stood on end. Asregards book-learning, the less said about his attainments the better,and he had an unpleasant half-hour in his father's study, explainingdetails of his school report; but in all practical matters he was aheadof Monty. He was a thorough young pickle, up to endless pranks, anddetermined not to let time hang heavy on his hands during the holidays.
Roger, the youngest, a smart little chap of nine, followed in the wakeof his brothers, poking interfering fingers into Monty's chemicalmesses, or acting scout for Neale's escapades. At the end of twelvehours Diana felt that she knew them perfectly, and had shaken down intoa place of her own amongst them.
Six young people home for the holidays are apt to turn a house upsidedown, and it was fortunate for Mrs. Fleming that she had an easy-goingand happy-go-lucky disposition, and could view with comparativeequanimity the chaos that reigned in the schoolroom. To Diana it wasdelightful; she preferred a floor littered with shavings, a table spreadwith paints, plasticine modelling-clay, and other descriptions of mess,and chairs encumbered with books and papers, to the neatest, tidiestroom where everything you want is put away out of reach in cupboards.
"When I heard I was coming to the Vicarage, I thought: 'My, I guess Iwon't have to bounce there!' But you're a real set of sports," sheassured her new friends.
"Well, I don't think we're exactly what you'd call prim and proper,"chuckled Meg.
There were still a few days before Christmas, and the energies of thewhole family were focused on decorations. There were not many people inthe village with leisure to help, so most of the work fell upon theFlemings. They tramped down to the church, bearing great armfuls ofevergreens, strings of holly-berries, and texts cut out in paperletters. The girls sat in a pew and twisted garlands of yew and laurel,which the boys, with the aid of a short ladder, fastened round thepillars. Mrs. Fleming was fitting panels of cotton wool on to thepulpit, and sprinkling them with artificial frost.
"We ought to have lots of flags about the place this Christmas," saidMonty, "to make it a sort of victory celebration as well. I'll put twoor three over the organ, and stick some round the monuments. What I'dlike would be to see our huge Union Jack hanging down over that blankwall there."
"Well, why don't you put it?" enquired Diana, looking up from herwreath-twisting.
"All very well, madam, but how am I going to get it there? That's alittle detail which escapes your feminine observation. Please to notethe height of our ladder and the height of that wall, and compare thedifference."
"I'd get up on to that passage and fix it," nodding to the triforium.
"Would you, indeed, Miss America? I rather think I see you toddlingalong there, with a drop of thirty feet below you."
"Do you dare me to?"
"You're brave enough down here in a pew, but I don't believe any girlwould have the head for that. Women aren't steeple-jacks!"
"You needn't speak so scornfully. There may be a few steeple-jenniesamong them!"
"No fear," laughed Monty, turning away.
Diana said nothing more, but as she went on with her wreath her thoughtswere as busy as her fingers. She was more silent than usual at lunch,and slipped away quickly afterwards, leaving the family talking roundthe fire. First, she ran upstairs to the corner of the upper landing,where she knew the big Union Jack was kept. She rolled it into a tightbundle, tucked it under her arm, then tore off to the church. She foundherself alone there, for none of the other decorators had returned. Itwas exactly the opportunity she wanted. The bunch of keys was hanging inthe big door. She pulled them out, and carried them to the tiny door bythe chancel steps. This she unlocked and flung open, disclosing a steep,winding stair. Almost on her hands and knees Diana scrambled up, and up,and up till she reached the triforium, the narrow stone gallery that ranround the church under the clerestory windows. The first few yards weresafely protected with arches, pillars, and a balustrade, but after thatcame a stretch of about twenty feet with no parapet at all. The gallerywas only twenty-four inches wide; on the one side was the wall, on theother a sheer drop of about thirty feet. Diana paused, and set herteeth. She did not dare to walk it, but she knelt down and crawled alongtill she reached the next piece of balustrade. Then she unrolled herUnion Jack, and, tying it by its cords to the pillars, arranged it sothat it hung down into the church and covered the exact spot of blankwall that Monty had indicated. She had just finished when she heardfootsteps in the porch. Not wanting to be caught by the Vicar, she beganto crawl back in the same way as she had come. Perhaps the sense thatsomeone might be watching her from below unnerved her, for the returnjourney seemed far worse than the outward one had done. She did notventure to look down, but kept her eyes on the wall. Half-way she wassuddenly seized with a horrible paroxysm of dizziness. For a moment ortwo she lay flat, too frightened to move, while her giddy head seemed tobe spinning round. With a supreme effort she mastered the sensation, andcrawled on, inch by inch, till she once again reached safety. Withrather tottering knees she came down the winding staircase, and throughthe small door to the chancel steps. Mrs. Fleming, Meg, Monty, and Nealewere standing by the lectern when she appeared. Mrs. Fleming was whiteas chalk; the others were staring open-mouthed, with a queer strainedlook in their eyes.
"Well, I've done it, you see!" said Diana jauntily.
The Flemings gazed at her without speaking. Monty went and locked thedoor of the staircase and put the keys in his pocket. The silence wasembarrassing.
"I think it looks very nice hanging there," declared Diana, nodding ather Union Jack.
"My dear," said Mrs. Fleming in a shaky voice, "if you knew what Isuffered when I saw you creeping along the triforium you couldn't speakso lightly. It isn't right to risk your life in this fashion."
Diana tried to carry the matter off airily, but the boys were grumpy andwould not speak. Meg kept looking at her with a peculiar expression, asif she were recovering from a shock. Altogether, Diana felt that herdeed of daring had fallen very flat. She was annoyed that no onecongratulated her upon it. She considered that for a girl of fourteen itwas rather a record. Monty would not be able to sneer at "Miss America"again. She strolled in a casual way past the font which he wasdecorating, and made a final effort to wring from him the appreciationshe craved.
"There _are_ some steeple-jennies in the world!" she remarked, staringupwards at th
e clerestory.
Monty picked up another piece of holly, placed it deliberately inposition, and then turned his spectacles on Diana.
"And there are more jenny-asses in it too than I should have expected!"he answered pointedly.
When Diana had undressed that evening Mrs. Fleming came into her room tosay good-night, and sat down for a minute on the edge of her bed.
"Have you thought, dear," she said, "what it would have meant to Mr.Fleming and me to have been obliged to write to your father and motherand tell them you were lying dead, or, worse still, a cripple with abroken spine; and what your father's and mother's feelings would havebeen at the news?"
Diana turned her face away.
"Thoughtlessness can sometimes amount to heartlessness in its lack ofconsideration for others."
"Monty dared me to do it."
"He never dreamed you actually would. Besides, are you going to do everyidiotic, silly thing that every foolish person says you dare not? Ithought you were more sensible, Diana! Remember, we are responsible foryou during the holidays, and I wish to return you whole to your parents.We use every reasonable precaution to take care of you, but I can'tcalculate on safeguarding you as if you were a baby of three."
Diana drummed her fingers on the pillow. Mrs. Fleming waited a moment,then tried a different tack.
"I'm not very strong, Diana. My heart is weak, and I'm afraid for somedays I shall feel the effect of the shock you gave me this afternoon. Idon't believe you're the kind of girl who'd deliberately want to make meill."
Diana wriggled round, but her head was bent down.
"Remember that we care about you, dear. It would grieve us very much ifthe slightest little accident were to happen to you. We want you to havejolly holidays here, and to go back to school safe and well, with, Ihope, a happy remembrance of the Vicarage."
Two soft arms were thrown round Mrs. Fleming's neck.
"I'd do anything for _you_, though I hate to be a molly-coddle!"whispered Diana. "I'm most fearfully sorry if I've really made you feelill!"
* * * * *
The decoration of the church was only one of the incidents of Christmas;there were other things to be done before the festival arrived. TheFlemings liked to preserve old traditions, and finding that theirlittle American guest was very keen on all the details of a genuineBritish Yule-tide, they did their best to satisfy her. Mrs. Fleming usedthe cherished half-pound of currants--which in the war-time shortage ofdried fruits was all the grocer could send her--to make the frumenty andspiced cakes that from time immemorial had been eaten in that northerndistrict to celebrate the feast of the Nativity. A Yule-log was sawn andplaced upon the dining-room fire, and a huge bough of mistletoe hung upin the hall.
"We ought to have the Waits to make it just perfect!" said Diana.
"I believe some of the choir used to go round carol singing once," saidMeg, "but it's been given up. The mothers said the girls caught cold,and they stayed out too late, so it was put a stop to. It's a pity in away. Mrs. James was saying only the other day that she quite missedthem, and so did Mrs. Holmes. They both said Christmas wasn't what itused to be."
The pupils of Diana's eyes were growing large and round and shining, asthey always did when her fertile mind was evolving new ideas. She seizedMeg's arm.
"Oh, I've got such a brain-wave!" she confided. "Look here! Whyshouldn't we be Waits? We've learnt all those Christmas carols atschool. Let's go round and sing them. It would be ripping fun!"
The idea appealed to Meg and Elsie, and, rather to the astonishment ofthe girls, the boys also took it up with enthusiasm, and volunteeredtheir assistance. They enlisted the help of the village schoolmistress,and some of the most tuneful among her pupils, and all on the spur ofthe moment made up their company.
"What always spoils carol singing," said Monty sententiously, "is thateverybody's generally so beastly out of tune. They don't seem able tokeep the pitch without a harmonium."
"Pity we can't carry a harmonium with us!"
"Why shouldn't we?" suggested Neale. "I don't mean I'm going to haul thething on my back, so you needn't grin. I've a better notion than that.We'll see if the Blackwoods will lend us a cart. Put the harmoniuminside, hang up a lantern to see by, and there you are, with a movableconcert platform ready to take round where we like."
The others looked at Neale with admiration. It was such a very brainyidea, they wondered they had never thought of it for themselves. Timewas short, as the performance was to be that evening, so they dispersedto make their arrangements. Ted Blackwood, a member of the church choir,agreed to bring his father's cart.
"I'll take t'owd mare," he grinned. "Shoo's steady, and won't bolt whenth' harmonium starts. Aye, I've a big stable lantern as 'ull do too."
Here indeed was an excitement for a young American visitor. Diana couldhardly wait till tea was over and darkness fell. Fortunately it was afine evening, with a hint of frost in the air, so the expedition wouldnot be damped by rain. Mrs. Fleming insisted upon all the party beingvery warmly clad, and brought out an old picture of "The Waits" todemonstrate that the use of mufflers was an integral part of theceremony. Diana, to her delight, was lent a Red Ridinghood cloak ofMeg's, clad in which she felt that she had stepped back at least threecenturies, and was walking in the days of the Stuarts.
"I might be one of the pilgrims in the _Mayflower_!" she exclaimed."What would Dad give to see me? I wish you were coming too," she addedto Mrs. Fleming.
"I'm too busy, child, to-night," said Mrs. Fleming, kissing the roguishlittle face framed in the red hood. "Enjoy yourselves, chicks! And,Diana,"--with a warning finger held up--"_don't_, please, do anythingdesperately amazing!"
"I'll be an absolute model of mild mediaeval maidenhood," promised thatdamsel, with twinkling eyes.
They went first to the Blackwoods' farm, then, when Ted had harnessed"t'owd mare", they proceeded with the cart to the schoolhouse, and,after a good deal of heaving and hauling, lifted in the harmonium and astool for Miss Simpson, the schoolmistress, to sit upon while sheplayed. The rest of the party having joined them, they jogged along tothe first house on their list, that of Mrs. Holmes at the Old GrangeFarm. They drew up the cart outside the door, placed lanterns on theharmonium, and saw Miss Simpson settled at the instrument--a matter ofsome difficulty, as the cart sloped, and the stool was inclined to slideaway. Ted held the old mare by the bridle, in case the music mightrevive her youthful spirits and cause her to bolt. The others groupedthemselves round the cart. Miss Simpson struck up, and through the keennight air rang out the cheerful strains of "Christians, awake!" TheHolmes family opened the door in quite a state of excitement, andlistened with much appreciation while "Good King Wenceslas", "The FirstNowell", and other old carols were sung. They insisted on bringing theparty indoors for slices of Yule cake, and would have given them hotcoffee as well, but Monty, who wished to visit other houses, declaredthey had not time to wait while it was made. So they tramped on to theJames's farm, where they had an equally hearty reception, and wereregaled with cocoa, currant bread, and cheese.
It was a unique experience, trudging along country lanes with a cart andlanterns, with hoar-frost under foot, and a few stars winking in a mistysky, then standing in the cold night air to sing their carols. Dianafelt that she could never forget it, and that the shrill voice of littleJack Greenhalgh warbling
"Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Nowell! Born is the King of Israel!"
would always be associated with her idea of Christmas.
She had her fill of old-world customs, for she was allowed, by specialfavour, to go into the belfry and help for one brief minute to pull abell. And after service on Christmas morning she stood in the churchporch and watched the distribution of the "roth shillings", which, inaccordance with the terms of an old charity, were handed over to "twelveworthy widows resident within the bounds of the parish". She helped inthe afternoon at the schools, where a big tea-party and Christmas-treewere given to the children of the village,
and joined nobly in the gamesthat were played afterwards, tearing round at "Drop the Handkerchief",or pulling at "Oranges and Lemons", with unflagging energy.
"Have you had a nice Christmas Day, childie, away from all your ownpeople?" asked Mrs. Fleming, holding Diana's face between her hands asshe said good-night, and looking at her critically for signs ofhome-sickness.
But Diana's eyes were without a suspicion of moisture, and her voice wasabsolutely cheerful as she answered:
"Yes, thanks; just topping!"