CHAPTER III
Virtue Not Always Rewarded
It was not to be expected that such an occurrence could be passedentirely over, but then again it is difficult to punish sevenchildren at the same time. At first Captain Woolcot had requestedEsther to ask Miss Marsh, the governess, to give them all tenFrench verbs to learn; but, as Judy pointed out, the Generaland Baby and Bunty and Nell had not arrived at the dignity ofFrench verbs yet, so such a punishment would be iniquitous.The sentence therefore had not been quite decided upon as yet,and everyone felt in an uncomfortable state of suspense.
"Your father says you're a disgraceful tribe," said the youngstepmother slowly, sitting down on the nursery rocking-chaira day later. She had on a trailing morning wrapper of whitemuslin with cherry ribbons, but there was a pin doing dutyfor a button in one or two places and the lace was hangingoff a bit at the sleeve.
"Meg, dear, you're very untidy, you know, and Judy's absolutelyhopeless."
Meg was attired in an unbecoming green cashmere, with the elbowsout and the plush torn off in several places, while Judy'sexceedingly scant and faded pink zephyr had rents in severalplaces, and the colour was hardly to be seen for fruit-stains.
Meg coloured a little. "I know, Esther, and I'd like to benicely-dressed as well as anyone, but it really isn't worthmending these old things."
She picked up her book about the elegant girls who weredisturbing her serenity and went over to the armchair with it.
"Well, Judy, you go and sew up those rents, and put some buttonson your frock." Esther spoke with unusual determination.
Judy's eyes snapped and sparkled.
"'Is that a dagger that I see before me, the handle to my hand?Come, let me grasp it,'" she said saucily, snatching one of thepins from Esther's dress, fastening her own with it, and droppinga curtsey.
Esther reddened a little now.
"That's the General, Judy: he always pulls the buttons off mywrappers when I play with him. But I'm forgetting. Children,I have bad news for you."
There was a breathless silence. Everyone crowded round her knees.
"Sentence has been proclaimed," said Judy dramatically: "let usshave our heads and don sackcloth."
"Your father says he cannot allow such conduct to go unpunished,especially as you have all been unusually tiresome lately;therefore: you are all--"
"To be taken away and hanged by the neck until we are dead!"
"Be quiet, Judy. I have tried my best to beg you off, but itonly makes him more vexed. He says you are the untidiest, mostunruly lot of children in Sydney, and he will punish you each timeyou do anything, and--"
"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
"Oh, shut up, Judy! Can't you let us hear?" Pip put his handover her mouth and held her by the hair while Esther told thenews.
"None of you are to go to the pantomime. The seats were taken forThursday night, and now, you very foolish children, you will allhave to stay at home."
There was a perfect howl of dismay for a minute or two. They hadall been looking forward to this treat for nearly a month, and thedisappointment was a really bitter one to them all.
"Oh, I say, Esther, that's too bad, really! All the fellows atschool have been." Pip's handsome face flushed angrily. "And forsuch a little thing, too!"
"Just because you had roast fowl for dinner," said Judy, in ahalf-choked voice. "Oh, Esther, why couldn't you have had cow,or horse, or hippopotamus--anything but roast fowl?"
"Couldn't you get round him, Esther?" Meg looked anxiously ather.
"Dear Esther, do!"
"Oh, you sweet, beautiful Essie, do try!"
They clung round her eagerly. Baby flung her arms round her neckand nearly choked her; Nell stroked her cheek; Pip patted herback, and besought her to "be a good fellow"; Bunty buried hisnose in her back hair and wept a silent tear; Meg clasped her handin an access of unhappiness; the General gave a series of delightedsqueaks; and Judy in her wretchedness smacked him for his pains.
Esther would do her best, beg as she had never done before, coax,beseech, wheedle, threaten; and they let her go at last with thatassurance.
"Only I'd advise you all to be preternaturally good and quietall day," she said, looking back from the doorway. "That wouldhave most effect with him, and he is going to be at home all day."
GOOD! It was absolutely painful to witness the virtue of thosechildren for the rest of the day.
It was holiday-time, and Miss Marsh was away, but not once didthe sound of quarrelling, or laughing, or crying fly downto the lower regions.
"'Citizens of Rome, the eyes of the world are upon you!'"Judy had said solemnly, and all had promised so to conductthemselves that their father's heart could not fail to be melted.
Pip put on his school jacket, brushed his hair, took a pile ofschool books, and proceeded to the study where his father waswriting letters, and where he was allowed to do his home-lessons.
"Well, what do you want?" said the Captain, with a frown. "No,it's no good coming to the about that pup, sir--I won't have youkeep it."
"I came to study, sir," said Pip mildly. "I feel I'm a bitbackward with my mathematics, so I won't waste all the holidays,when I'm costing you so much in school fees."
The Captain gave a little gasp and looked hard at Pip; but theboy's face was so unsmiling and earnest that he was disarmed,and actually congratulated himself that his eldest son was atlast seeing the error of his ways.
"There are those sets of problems in that drawer that I did whenI was at school," he said graciously. "If they are of any useto you, you can get them out."
"Thanks awfully--they will be a great help," said Pip gratefully.
He examined them with admiration plainly depicted upon his face.
"How very clearly and correctly you worked, Father," he saidwith a sigh. "I wonder if ever I'll get as good as this! Howold were you, Father, when you did them?"
"About your age," said the Captain, picking up the papers.
He examined them with his head on one side. He was rather proudof them, seeing he had utterly forgotten now how to work decimalfractions, and could not have done a quadratic equation to save hislife.
"Still, I don't think you need be quite discouraged, Pip. I wasrather beyond the other boys in my class in these subjects, Iremember. We can't all excel in the same thing, and I'm glad tosee you are beginning to realize the importance of work."
"Yes, Father."
Meg had betaken herself to the drawing-room, and was sitting on thefloor before the music canterbury with scissors, thimble, and aroll of narrow blue ribbon on her knee, and all her father's songs,that he so often complained were falling to pieces, spread outbefore her.
He saw her once as he passed the door, and looked surprised andpleased.
"Thank you, Margaret: they wanted it badly. I am glad you canmake yourself useful, after all," he said.
"Yes, Father."
Meg stitched on industriously.
He went back to his study, where Pip's head was at a studious,absorbed angle, and pyramids of books and sheaves of paper wereon the table. He wrote two more letters, and there came a littleknock at the door.
"Come in," he called; and there entered Nell.
She was carrying very carefully a little tray covered with asnow-white doyley, and on it were a glass of milk and a plateof mulberries. She placed it before him.
"I thought perhaps you would like a little lunch, Father," shesaid gently; and Pip was seized with a sudden coughing fit.
"My DEAR child!" he said.
He looked at it very thoughtfully.
"The last glass of milk I had, Nellie, was when I was Pip's age,and was Barlow's fag at Rugby. It made me ill, and I have nevertouched it since."
"But this won't hurt you. You will drink this?" She gave him oneof her most beautiful looks.
"I would as soon drink the water the maids wash up in, my child."He took a mulberry, ate it, and made a wry face. "They'
re notfit to eat."
"After you've eaten about six you don't notice they're sour,"she said eagerly. But he pushed them away.
"I'll take your word for it." Then he looked at her curiously."What made you think of bringing me anything, Nellie? I don'tever remember you doing so before."
"I thought you might be hungry writing here so long," she saidgently; and Pip choked again badly, and she withdrew.
Outside in the blazing sunshine Judy was mowing the lawn.
They only kept one man, and, as his time was so taken up with thehorses and stable work generally, the garden was allowed to fallinto neglect. More than once the Captain had spoken vexedly ofthe untidy lawns, and said he was ashamed for visitors to come tothe house.
So Judy, brimming over with zeal, armed herself with an abnormallylarge scythe, and set to work on the long, long grass.
"Good heavens, Helen! you'll cut your legs off!" called herfather, in an agitated tone.
He had stepped out on to the front veranda for a mild cigar afterthe mulberry just as she brought her scythe round with anadmirable sweep and decapitated a whole army of yellow-helmeteddandelions.
She turned and gave him a beautiful smile. "Oh, no, Father!--why,I'm quite a dab at mowing."
She gave it another alarming but truly scientific sweep.
"See that--and th-a-at--and tha-a-a-at!"
"Th-a-at" carried off a fragment of her dress, and "tha-a-a-at"switched off the top of a rose-bush; but there are details toeverything, of course.
"Accidents WILL happen, even to the best regulated grass-cutters,"she said composedly, and raising the scythe for a fresh circle.
"Stop immediately, Helen! Why ever can't you go and play quietlywith your doll, and not do things like this?" said her fatherirascibly.
"An' I was afther doin' it just to pleasure him," she said,apparently addressing the dandelions.
"Well, it won't 'pleasure him' to have to provide you with corklegs and re-stock the garden," he said dryly: "Put it down."
"Sure, an' it's illigence itsilf this side: you wouldn't beafther leaving half undone, like a man with only one cheek shaved."
Judy affected an Irish brogue at some occult reason of her own.
"Sure an' if ye'd jist stip down and examine it yirself, it'squite aisy ye'd be in yer moind."
The Captain hid a slight smile in his moustache. The little girllooked so comical, standing there in her short old pink frock, abroken-brimmed hat on her tangle of dark curls, her eyessparkling, her face flushed, the great scythe in her hands, and thesaucy words on her lips.
He came down and examined it: it was done excellently well, likemost of the things miss Judy attempted--mischief always included:and her little black-stockinged legs were still in a good state ofpreservation.
"Hum! Well, you can finish it then, as Pat's busy. How did youlearn to mow, young lady of wonderful accomplishments?" (he lookedat her questioningly); "and what made you set yourself such a task?"
Judy gave her curls a quick push off her hot forehead.
"(A) Faix, it was inborn in me," she answered instantly; "and (B)--sure, and don't I lo-o-ove you and delaight to plaize you?"
He went in again slowly, thoughtfully. Judy always mystifiedhim. He understood her the least of any of his children, andsometimes the thought of her worried him. At present she was onlya sharp, clever, and frequently impertinent child; but he feltshe was utterly different from the other six, and it gave himan aggrieved kind of feeling when he thought about it, which wasnot very often.
He remembered her own mother had often said she trembled forJudy's future. That restless fire of hers that shone out of herdancing eyes, and glowed scarlet on her cheeks in excitement, andlent amazing energy and activity to her young, lithe body, wouldeither make a noble, daring, brilliant woman of her, or else shewould be shipwrecked on rocks the others would never come to, andit would flame up higher and higher and consume her.
"Be careful of Judy" had been almost the last words of the anxiousmother when, in the light that comes when the world's is going out,she had seen with terrible clearness the stones and briars in theway of that particular pair of small, eager feet.
And she had died, and Judy was stumbling right amongst them now,and her father could not "be careful" of her because heabsolutely did not know how.
As he went up the veranda steps again and through the hall, he waswishing almost prayerfully she had not been cast in so different amould from the others, wishing he could stamp out that strangeflame in her that made him so uneasy at times. He gave a greatpuff at his cigar, and sighed profoundly; then he turned on hisheel and went off toward the stables to forget it all.
The man was away, exercising one of the horses in the long paddock;but there was something stirring in the harness-room, so he wentin.
There was a little, dripping wet figure standing over a greatbucket, and dipping something in and out with charming vigour.At the sound of his footsteps, Baby turned round and lifted aperspiring little face to his.
"I'se washing the kitsies for you, and Flibberty-Gibbet," she saidbeamingly.
He took a horrified step forward.
There were two favourite kittens of his, shivering, miserable,up to their necks in a lather of soapy water; and Flibberty-Gibbet,the beautiful little fox terrier he had just bought for his wife,chained to a post, also wet, miserable, and woebegone, alsoundergoing the cleansing process, and being scrubbed andswilled till his very reason was tottering.
"They'se SO clean and nicey--no horrid ole fleas 'n them now.AREN't you glad? You can let Flibberty go on your bed now, andKitsy Blackeye is--"
Poor Baby never finished her speech. She had a confused idea ofhearing a little "swear-word" from her father, of being shaken ina most ungentle fashion and put outside the stable, while theunfortunate animals were dried and treated with great consideration.
But the worst was yet to come, and the results were so exceedinglybad that the young Woolcots determined never again to assume virtuesthat they had not.
Bunty, of course, desired to help the cause as strongly as theothers, and to that end his first action was to go into hisbedroom and perform startling ablutions with his face, neck, andhands. Then he took his soap-shiny countenance and red, muchbescrubbed hands downstairs, and sunned himself under hisfather's very nose, hoping to attract favourable comment.
But he was bidden irritably "go and play," and saw he wouldhave to find fresh means of appeasement.
He wandered into the study, with vague thoughts of tidyingthe tidy bookshelves; but Pip was there, surrounded with booksand whittling a stick for a catapult, so he went out again.Then he climbed the stairs and explored his father's bedroomand dressing-room. In the latter there was a wide field for hisoperations. A full-dress uniform was lying across a chair, and itstruck Bunty the gold buttons were looking less bright than theyshould, so he spent a harmless quarter of an hour in polishingthem up. Next, he burnished some spurs, which also was harmless.Then he cast about for fresh employment.
There was quite a colony of dusty boots in one corner of theroom, and there was a great bottle of black, treacly lookingvarnish on the mantelpiece. Bunty conceived the brilliant idea ofcleaning the whole lot and standing them in a neat row to meet hisfather's delighted eyes. He found a handkerchief on the floor, ofsuperfine cambric, though dirty, poured upon it a liberal allowanceof varnish, and attacked the first pair.
A bright polish rewarded him, for they were patent leather ones;but the next and the next and the next would not shine, howeverhard he rubbed. There was a step on the stair, the firm, well-knownstep of his father, and he paused a moment with a look ofconscious virtue on his small shiny face.
But it fled all at once, and a look of horror replaced it. He hadstuck the bottle on a great armchair for convenience, as he wassitting on the floor, and now he noticed it had fallen on its sideand a black, horrid stream was issuing from its neck.
And it was the chair with the uniform on, and one of
the sleeveswas soaked with the stuff, and the beautiful white shirt thatlay there, too, waiting for a button, was sticky, horrible!Bunty gave a wild, terrified look round the room for some placeto efface himself, but there were no sheltering corners or curtains,and there was not time to get into the bedroom and under the bed.Near the window was a large-sized medicine chest, and in despairBunty crushed himself into it, his legs huddled up, his headbetween his knees, and an ominous rattle of displaced bottlesin his ears. The next minute his father was in the room.
"Great Heavens! God bless my soul!" he said, and Bunty shiveredfrom head to foot.
Then he said a lot of things very quickly--"foreign language" asJudy called it; kicked something over, and shouted "Esther!" in aterrifying tone. But Esther was down in one of the paddocks withthe General, so there was no reply.
More foreign language, more stomping about.
Bunty's teeth chattered noisily; he put up his hand to holdhis mouth together, and the cupboard, overbalanced, fell rightover, precipitating its occupant right at his father's feet,and the bottles everywhere.
"I didn't--I haven't--'twasn't me--'twasn't my fault!" hehowled, backing towards the door. "Hoo--yah--boo-hoo-ooo!Esther--boo--yah--Judy--oh--oh--h! oh--oh--h--h--h--h!"As might be expected, his father had picked up a strap thatlay conveniently near, and was giving his son a very fairtaste of it.
"Oh--h--h--h! o--o--h! o--o--h! ah--h--h! 'twasn't me--'twasn't myfault--its Pip and Judy--oh--h--h--h! hoo--the pant'mime! boo-hoo!ah--h--h--h--you're killing me! hoo-boo! I was only d--doin'it--oh--hoo--ah--h--h! d--oin' it to p--please--boo--oo--oo! top--please you!"
His father paused with uplifted strap. "And that's why allthe others are behaving in so strange a fashion? Just for meto take them to the pantomime?"
Bunty wriggled himself free. "Boo--hoo--yes! but not me--Ididn't--I never--true's faith--oh-h-h-hoo-yah! it wasn't myfault, it's all the others--boo--hoo--hoo! hit them the rest."
He got three more smart cuts, and then fled howling and yellingto the nursery, where he fell on the floor and kicked and rolledabout as if he were half killed.
"You sn--n--n--n--neaks!" he sobbed, addressing the others,who had flown from all parts at his noisy outcry, "you m-m--meanp--p--p--pigs! I h--hadn't n--n--no fo--o--ow-l, and I'veh--h--had all the b--b--b--beating! y--you s--s--sn--n-neaks!oh--h--h--h! ah--h--h--h! oh--h--h--h! oh--h--h-h! I'm b--b--bleedingall over, I kno--o--o--ow!"
They couldn't help laughing a bit; Bunty was always soirresistibly comic when he was hurt ever so little; but stillthey comforted him as well as they could, and tried to find outwhat had happened.
Esther came in presently, looking very worried. "Well?" theysaid in a breath.
"You really are the most exasperating children," she saidvexedly.
"But the pantomime--quick, Esther--have you asked him?" theycried impatiently.
"The pantomime! He says he would rather make it worth Mr.Rignold's while to take it off the boards than that one of youshould catch a glimpse of it--and it serves you very well right!Meg, for goodness' sake give Baby some dry clothes--just lookat her; and, Judy, if you have any feeling for me, take offthat frock. Bunty, you wicked boy, I'll call your father ifyou don't stop that noise. Nell, take the scissors from theGeneral, he'll poke his eyes out, bless him."
The young stepmother leaned back in her chair and looked roundher tragically. She had never seen her husband so thoroughlyangered, and her beautiful lips quivered when she remembered howhe had seemed to blame her for it all.
Meg hadn't moved; the water was trickling slowly off Baby'sclothes and making a pool on the floor, Bunty was still givingvent to spasmodic boos and hoos, Judy was whistling stormily,and the General, mulcted of the scissors, was licking his ownmuddy shoe all over with his dear little red tongue.
A sob rose in her throat, two tears welled up in her eyes andfell down her smooth, lovely cheeks. "Seven of you, and I'm onlytwenty!" she said pitifully. "Oh! it's too bad--oh dear! itis too bad."