CHAPTER V
Ructions
By the end of a few weeks Avelyn began to feel more settled down in hernew quarters at Silverside. The old pupils might regret the formerregime, but she was tolerably satisfied with the new. She was in thefifth form, and found the work not too arduous, and liked Miss Kennedy,her teacher. She had been accustomed to the bustle of a large school,and, though Laura Talbot might rave against the crowded conditions, toAvelyn it was amusing to be in a room crammed full of girls. School is aseparate world of its own, and often a curious one. To outsiders and toits Principal, Silverside might appear as an enterprise that was growingand prospering exceedingly. Its numbers had suddenly more than doubled,it had fresh teachers, and was going to build a cloak-room and agymnasium; nothing could seemingly have more hope of success. Inwardly,however, it was a seething whirl of opposing factions. The old and thenew did not readily amalgamate. The boarders were jealous of theirrights, and would not yield an inch of the privileged position they hadalways been wont to occupy; while the Hawthorners, accustomed to theabsolute democracy of a day school, could not and would not understandwhy boarders should expect to have any privileges at all.
Trouble began on the very second day of term. Adah, in her new capacityof head girl, had pinned a paper on the notice board announcing ageneral meeting of the Dramatic Society for 4.15 in the studio. The oldmembers turned up at the time named, to find a group of Hawthornersalready in possession of the room. Adah, after waiting a minute, glancedat the clock and coughed significantly; then, as this produced noresult, she remarked:
"Won't you be rather late if you're not getting home soon?"
"We don't much mind," returned Annie Broadside easily.
"Well, the fact is, we want to use this room," continued Adah. "We'regoing to have a meeting."
"I know. That's why we've come."
Adah's eyebrows elevated themselves to an astonishing angle.
"You've come to our meeting?" she exclaimed incredulously.
"Certainly we have. Why not?"
Annie asked the question aggressively.
"Because you're not members of the Dramatic."
"But we want to join."
Adah turned to her friends, who stood looking scornfully at theintruders.
"Did you hear that?" she remarked. "They actually want to join theDramatic!"
"Cheek!" murmured Consie, and the others giggled.
"And why shouldn't we join?" flamed Gladys Wilks.
"Why? Because you're day girls, and the Dramatic's only for boarders.That's the reason."
"It's no reason at all," answered Maggie Stuart sharply. "The boardershave no right to monopolize any society. It ought to be free and open tothe whole school."
"But it can't!" snapped Adah. "Surely you can see for yourselves that itwouldn't work. We have all our rehearsals in the evenings, when daygirls couldn't possibly come."
"You could fix them from four to five instead," suggested Annie.
"We're not going to alter our arrangements for anybody," returned Adahtartly.
"The boarders have always run the Dramatic," added Consie. "We'd like tobegin our meeting, please, when we can have the studio to ourselves."
"Oh, very well! Keep your wretched society to yourselves if you want!"yapped Annie; "but I'll tell you this, at any rate, I think it's mostmonstrously unfair. You needn't expect us to help you with any of yourschemes, for we just shan't!"
"Don't excite yourselves--we haven't asked you!" sneered Consiefreezingly as the Hawthorners flounced out of the room.
At first the committee was too agitated to discuss business. It wasablaze with indignation at the impudence of mere day girls aspiring tojoin the select circle.
"How could we let them?" fluttered Joyce Edwards. "To begin with, therewouldn't be enough parts to go round, nor enough costumes. Dear me! weshould have the Juniors expecting to appear on the platform! What next,I wonder? We Seniors have always done the acting, and let the kids andday girls make the audience."
"And we'll go on doing so!" declared Adah. "We're the prefects, andwe'll manage the school affairs as we like, without interference fromanybody."
The decision about the Dramatic was the same as regarded most of theother societies. The boarders kept them jealously to themselves. The daygirls grumbled, even protested indignantly, but they were powerless tomake any change. The four prefects were all boarders, and exercisedtheir newly-granted authority for their own advantage. Miss Thompson hadno idea of the state of affairs. In appointing as school officers girlswho had been with her for some years, she thought she was safeguardingthe tone of Silverside and preserving its traditions intact. She hadcertainly no intention of establishing an oligarchy; yet in effect thatwas what had resulted. The members of the Boarders' League felt pledgedto support one another against all outsiders, and every activity of theschool was in the hands of a clique.
Adah, as head girl, was intensely patronizing. She was puffed up withpride in her new office, and would explain Silverside customs with anairy superiority which aggravated the Hawthorners continually. Theirinjured souls rallied round Annie Broadside. Annie was a born leader.She keenly resented the state of affairs, and meant to show fight. Sheonly waited a suitable opportunity, and at length it came.
For the first few weeks of term the boarders had been busy with variousaffairs on Saturdays, and had contented themselves with an occasionalgame of tennis and croquet. At the beginning of October they suddenlyrealized that the hockey season was beginning. So far hockey, and indeedany organized games, had been only very languidly pursued at Silverside.The smallness of the school had not given a wide choice of champions,and for some years the elder girls had been more interested in botanyand butterfly collecting than in sports.
Silverside had had a hockey team, and had occasionally played a match,though it could not pride itself on its record of goals. The presentprefects had never distinguished themselves remarkably at athletics, butthey were sufficiently enthusiastic to wish the school to win successes.They called a boarders' meeting to discuss matters.
"We ought to have a splendid games club this term," smiled Adahcomplacently. "There should be several sets of hockey going on in thesame afternoon."
"There isn't room in the field for more than one," ventured LauraTalbot.
"Then we must take a larger field," decreed Consie. "With so many newsubscriptions we can easily afford it."
"Ninety-five girls instead of only thirty-six in a school make adifference," admitted Irma Ridley.
"The treasurer will have quite a nice little sum in hand," chuckledIsobel Norris.
"I want the school to begin and make a name for itself," said Adah. "Idon't want to say anything against Jessie Carew and Maggie Stephens,last year, but really we all know they were slackers."
"Silverside must buck up!" agreed the others.
"You, Laura, and Janet, and Ethelberga have the makings of good playersin you," murmured Adah reflectively, "and of course Consie and myself,and perhaps Joyce."
"What about the Hawthorners?" asked Isobel.
"We shall have to include them, of course."
"Couldn't get up the teams without them, I'm afraid," sniggered MinnieSelburn.
Adah stared hard at Minnie, who straightened her face and sat upstiffly.
"In the matter of hockey, of course, everybody in the school, whetherday girl or boarder, will be invited to join," continued Adah.
"Some of those Hawthorners are jolly good," ventured Mona Bardsley.
"They won ever so many matches last year, I believe," added AliceWebster.
"Whom did they play?" asked Adah quickly.
"I don't know."
"I do," said Avelyn, speaking for the first time. "It was WorkingtonLadies' College, Mirton High School, Redlands County School, andHarlingden Ladies' Team, and they beat them all, except Harlingden, andthat was a draw."
Adah was rapidly scribbling some entries in her notebook.
"We'll challenge Workingto
n Ladies' College," she announced. "I wantedus to do it last year, but we decided our team wasn't strong enough.I'll write to their secretary to-night and make a fixture. It would be atremendous triumph for Silverside to beat Workington. They've rather areputation."
"The old school's going to forge ahead!" smiled Consie.
"We'll ask Miss Thompson to speak about hiring that larger field," saidIsobel. "We'd better secure it at once, in case the farmer should let itto anybody else."
Next day Adah pinned up a notice, announcing that hockey would begin onthe following Saturday afternoon, and asking all girls to sign theirnames as members of the games club, and to pay their subscriptions tothe treasurer. She watched the day girls come and surge round the noticeboard, then she ran upstairs to her form room. She considered that shewas performing her duties admirably as head of the school.
Meantime, downstairs, a ferment was going on that would have surprisedher. The grumblings and dissatisfaction increased till a whisper beganto circulate.
"Annie Broadside says, don't sign or do anything yet, but let the 'OldHawthorners' League' meet on the common this afternoon at 4.15. Passthis on, and all turn up."
The boarders could not understand why, that afternoon, the day girlsscuttled away so promptly at four o'clock, and seemed in such a frantichurry to get on their boots and be gone. As a rule they loitered aboutin an annoying fashion, and were seldom clear of the premises tillhalf-past four. The prefects ventured the opinion that Silverside ruleswere at last beginning to be properly kept. They would have beenimmensely electrified if they could have seen what was really happening.
Not far from the house was a small common, which most of the girls werebound to pass on their way to and from school. To-day, instead of goinghome they trooped here. There was an old tree stump at one side, andAnnie, scrambling to the top of it, and holding on by a branch, made itserve as an orator's platform from which to address her audience, whichstood below. She first of all looked round critically.
"Are we all here?" she began.
Several voices replied:
"All who could come."
"Some girls had to catch trains."
"And the Potters had music lessons."
"And Trissie Marsh had to go to the dentist's."
"But they sympathize. They'd have come if they could."
"I'm glad to hear that," continued Annie. "I like to know I have yoursympathy. Are we all old Hawthorners?"
"Yes, yes!"
"And no spies among us?"
"Certainly not!"
"Then I can speak freely. I want to say, what I'm sure we all think,that we're perfectly disgusted with the way those boarders have beenbehaving. They speak as if the school existed for them, and them alone.Some societies we aren't allowed to join at all, and those that we maybelong to are kept well in their own hands, because they appointthemselves as presidents, and secretaries, and treasurers, and membersof committee. We simply haven't a look in anywhere. Now, I ask you, isthis fair?"
"Not at all!" howled the girls.
"We're exactly in the position of serfs, and it's monstrous. What righthave those boarders to rule over us?"
"None!"
"It's quite time we showed our spirit. I've been wondering for a longtime how we could checkmate them, and now I see my way clear. They'regoing to start the hockey season."
"Yes!"
"Who do you think will make all the arrangements and be captains of theteams? Boarders or day girls?"
"Why, boarders, of course."
"And who are the best players; who are going to win the goals?"
"_We_ are!"
"Of course, we are; everybody knows that! But the boarders would takeall the credit, and talk about _their_ successes. The very idea makes meill! Why should we play for _them_?"
"Why, indeed?"
"We're not obliged to. Our Saturdays are our own, and nobody can make uscome and play hockey if we don't want. I vote we just say we won't jointheir old games club. Let's start a rival one of our own."
"Yes, yes! Oh, do let us!"
"We'll call it 'The Old Hawthorners' Hockey Club', and we'll hire ourold ground and wear our old colours, and play matches of our own, andlet those conceited Silversiders go to Jericho."
Annie's daring suggestion met with a chorus of applause. TheHawthorners, made to feel unwelcome in their new school, clungdesperately to their old traditions. They had had an excellent hockeyrecord in past years, and felt confident that they could raise a teamsufficiently strong to challenge their former rivals to matches.
"Will you elect Gladys as secretary?" asked Annie. "That's all right.And Maggie as treasurer? Then give in your names, and bring yoursubscriptions to-morrow, and I'll go this very night and see aboutgetting our old field. It belongs to Mr. Gardner, and my father knowshim quite well, so I'm sure we shall manage it. If not, we'll hireanother field."
"Or play on the common," declared the girls as they crowded round GladysWilks, giving in their names.
Adah Gartley had kept her word and written immediately to the secretaryof Workington Ladies' College, who had replied by return of post,arranging a match for a date in November. She showed the letter withmuch satisfaction to the boarders after breakfast.
"By the by, have those day girls paid their subscriptions yet to theGames Club?" she asked suddenly.
"Not one of them," answered Isobel.
"The blighters! And hockey begins to-morrow. Isn't it just like daygirls? I must talk to them about it at eleven o'clock 'break'."
The day girls were busy consuming packets of lunch when Adah, glass ofmilk and piece of bread and butter in hand, strolled amongst them, benton her mission.
"Look here, you slackers! D'you know you've never paid your half-crownsyet? Can't admit anybody to the hockey field who hasn't given in hersubscription--that's one of the traditions of Silverside."
"Is it?" said Annie Broadside casually. "I can't see that it concernsus."
"You'll see to-morrow when you get to the field. A nice littledisappointment it will be for you to find you're not allowed to play."
Annie took a big bite of oatcake and gulped it.
"Suppose we don't want to play?"
"Not want to play!" Adah's expression was one of sheer incredulity.
"Why should we? You boarders have taken up all the other societies, soyou may have the hockey as well. We don't want to intrude on yourprivileges, thanks!"
"But I say," blustered Adah, "you _must_ play! We've got to win matchesand keep up the credit of the school."
"Keep it up yourselves!" put in Gladys sarcastically. "You've rubbed itinto us hard enough that it's only you who understand the schooltraditions, and we're nothing but outsiders!"
"But you're keen on hockey! Surely you want to play?" Adah was making adesperate effort to curb her temper and be conciliatory.
"Certainly we do, but we're going to have a club to ourselves."
"You can't here!"
"We don't mean to try. It's an 'Old Hawthorners' Club', and nothing todo with Silverside."
"But you mustn't! You shan't go ratting like this!" exploded Adah,scarlet with indignation.
"Don't get excited!" said Annie politely. "There's nothing to preventus. Our Saturdays are our own, and nobody can compel us to come toschool and play hockey if we don't want."
"You miserable blighters!"
"There! Keep a civil tongue, please. I thought the traditions ofSilverside didn't run to slang. Perhaps you'd like to arrange a matchwith us: 'The Old Hawthorners' versus 'Silverside Boarders'? Gladys isour secretary, and will book it."
"I shall do nothing of the sort!" choked Adah, beating as dignified aretreat as she could.
It was certainly a terrible blow for the prefects. They had countedentirely on the strength of the day girls in arranging teams. To bedeserted in this fashion meant the ruin of the hockey season. They wereaghast at the bad news.
"I wonder if Miss Thompson can refuse the larger field?" speculatedJoyce.
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"We certainly can't afford to hire it with the subscriptions we've got,"mourned Isobel.
"And it's not the slightest use our trying a match with Workington, forwe should only get a jolly good licking," announced Consie. "We don'twant to court disaster."
"I shall write to the secretary to-night," said Adah bitterly, "and tellher we've been obliged to make other arrangements. Those day girls arethe absolute limit!"
"Don't you think," ventured Isobel, "that perhaps you've been a littlehigh-handed? If you'd tried to conciliate them, now----"
"Conciliate!" echoed Adah scornfully. "Really, Isobel, what next? If youthink I'm going to truckle to day girls, you're much mistaken."
"I'm afraid we're making a good many mistakes," murmured Isobel, but toolow for her friend to overhear her.
The three other prefects certainly laid the blame of this occurrence onAdah, and considered that, if they had conducted the negotiations in herplace, they would have been able to manage the refractory Hawthorners.Though they always loyally supported their head girl, they were quiteaware that her overbearing manners gave offence. They sometimes sufferedfrom her themselves. She had so thoroughly established herself asleader, however, that it was not possible to break away from her rule.She had been longer than any other girl at Silverside, and thus stoodfor the old traditions. Whether these in the end were going to prove thebest for the school was a matter that admitted of some debate.