THE ADVENTUROUS SEVEN
CHAPTER I
The Great Idea
The village schoolroom was packed as full as it would hold, and the airwas so thick that, as Sylvia said, it could almost be scooped up with aspoon. The lecturer was stout and perspiring freely, but he meant to dohis duty at all costs, and he rose to the occasion with tremendousvigour, declaiming in really fine style:
"It is a poor man's paradise, and there is no place on the face of thisearth to rival it. You reach it by a pleasure cruise across summer seas,to find it has the finest scenery your eyes have ever beheld and aclimate that is not to be beaten."
"Hear, hear!" shouted Rumple, clapping vigorously. He had led theapplause from the very beginning of the lecture, only it was a littleawkward for the lecturer that he mostly broke into the middle of asentence instead of waiting for a pause, as a more judicious personmight have done.
"Encore!" yelled Billykins, forgetting for the moment that it was not aconcert, and, as the lecture had already lasted for upwards of an hourand a half, it might have proved a little tedious to some of theaudience if it had been repeated from the very beginning.
The rows of people sitting in the seats behind broke into a wild uproarof stamping, thumping, and clapping which lasted for nearly fiveminutes, and, of course, raised more dust to thicken the atmosphere.
The pause gave the lecturer time to recover his breath and wipe some ofthe perspiration from his face; it also made him rather cross, for hehad somehow got the idea that he was being laughed at, which was quitewrong, because all seven of the Plumsteads, from Nealie down to Ducky,thought that he was doing very well indeed.
"If you don't believe what I say," concluded the lecturer, "just comeout to New South Wales and see for yourselves if I have not told you theplain, unvarnished truth; and I repeat what I have said before, thatalthough it is no place for the idle rich, for the man or the woman whowants to work it is not to be beaten."
It was at this moment that Nealie leaned forward to whisper to Rupert,who sat on the other side of Don and Billykins:
"Would it not be lovely for us all to go? Just think how we could helpdear Father, and he would not be lonely any more."
"Rather!" ejaculated Rupert, making a noise which was first cousin to awhistle; then he passed the whisper on to Sylvia and Rumple, and thatwas how the great idea started.
When the lecture was over they all crowded forward to speak to thelecturer, explaining in a rather incoherent fashion the reason of theirkeen interest in what he had been saying, and their hard and fastintention to emigrate as soon as possible.
"Our father lives in New South Wales; but most likely you have met him,"said Nealie, whose knowledge of Australian geography was rather vague,and who supposed that, as the lecturer came from Sydney, he would mostprobably know everyone who lived in the country known as New SouthWales.
"I can't remember him offhand, young lady, but perhaps if you tell mehis name I may recollect whether I have met him," said the lecturer,smiling at her in a genial fashion.
"He is Dr. Plumstead, and he is very clever," said Nealie, giving herhead the proud little tilt which it always took on when she spoke of herfather. She was very much of a child, despite her nineteen years, andshe never seemed able to understand that her father was not at the topof his profession.
"Father is very much like Rumple, only, of course, bigger," broke inBillykins, who could never be reduced to silence for many minutestogether nor yet be thrust into the background.
But Rumple blushed furiously at being dragged into notice in such a way,and, turning his head abruptly, gave the lecturer no chance of comparinghis face with those of possible acquaintances on the other side of theworld.
"Most likely I have met him. I see so many people, far too many to beable to recall their names at will," said the lecturer; but then thevicar came up to claim his attention and the seven could get no furtherchance to talk to him.
They set off home then; and as it was so dark, and a drizzling rain wasfalling, Nealie took Ducky on her back, while Sylvia and Rumple helpedRupert, who was lame, leaving Don and Billykins to bring up the rear.
The nearest way was down through Boughlee Wood, but this route was notto be thought of in the dark. It was not even wise to take the short cutacross Kennel Hill, so they tramped along the hard road, splashingthrough the puddles and talking like a set of magpies about thelecture, the lecturer, and their own determination to emigrate at once.
"No one wants us here, and there is nothing to do except get intomischief," said Sylvia, with a sigh.
"Father will be glad to have us, of course, and we will make him so veryhappy!" cried Nealie, and then Ducky leaned forward to kiss her on thenose, hugging her so tightly that it was quite wonderful she was notchoked.
"But how are we to get to Australia?" panted Rupert, who was finding thepace rather trying.
"We must ask Mr. Runciman to let us have the money," said Nealie. "Ishould think that he would be glad to do it, for then he will get rid ofus, don't you see? And he is always grumbling about our being such adreadful expense."
"Mr. Runciman is horrid!" burst out Ducky, giving Nealie another hug. "Ijust hate him when he says nasty things to you, Nealie."
"Of course we are an expense to him, especially when dear Father is notable to send enough money to keep us, and we have all got such bigappetites," said Nealie, with a sigh.
"I am hungry now, dreadfully hungry," put in Billykins from the rear.
"Shall we go to see Mr. Runciman to-morrow?" asked Rumple.
"We can't manage to get back before dark, I am afraid, and Mrs. Puffinmakes such a fuss if we are out after dark; just as if anyone would wantto run away with the seven of us," returned Nealie in a scornful tone.
"We can go in the morning, for the vicar is going to a DiocesanConference, and he has given us a holiday. He told me about itto-night," said Rupert.
"That will be lovely. Then we will have Aunt Judith's chair for you andDucky, it will be just a jolly jaunt for us; only we must be at ThePaddock early, to catch Mr. Runciman before he goes out," said Nealie.
"I would rather walk----" began Ducky, with a touch of petulance in hervoice, but Nealie stopped her quickly with a whisper:
"You must ride, darling, or Rupert won't have the chair, and a long walkdoes take it out of him so badly you know."
"If we have the chair, Don and I will be the horses, and we will go downCoombe Lane at a gallop," said Billykins, with a festive prance.
"That will be perfectly lovely, only Rupert will have to hold me tightlyor I shall be tossed out at the turn, and I might damage my nose again,"replied Ducky, with a gleeful chuckle.
By this time they had reached Beechleigh, and turning short across thegreen by the pond they tramped in at the gate of the funny little housewhere their great-aunt, Miss Judith Webber, had lived and died, andwhich was the only home they had known since Ducky was a tiny babe.
Mrs. Puffin, a lean little widow of mouldy aspect, opened the door tolet them in and exclaimed loudly to see how damp they were.
"Now you will all be catching colds, and I shall have to nurse you," shesaid in a woebegone tone, as she felt them all round. "If you must goout in the wet in this fashion, why can't you take umbrellas?"
"Because we haven't got them," answered Nealie, with a laugh. She mostlylaughed about their limitations, because it made them just a littleeasier to bear. "The little boys had the last umbrella that we possessto play at Bedouin tents with on Tuesday, and they had a sad accidentand broke three of its ribs, poor thing. But we shall not catch cold,Mrs. Puffin, because we are all going straight to bed."
"But I am hungry," protested Billykins.
"I know, and so am I; but we will all have a big piece of seed cake whenwe get into bed, and go to sleep to dream of big bowls of steamingporridge with brown sugar on the top," said Nealie; and the visionproved so alluring that all seven trooped up the dark stairs and crowdedinto the small bedrooms, feeling quite cheerf
ul in spite of tiredlimbs, hunger, and the discomfort of damp clothes.
But their voices hushed, and a wistful look crept into their faces, asthey passed the door leading into Aunt Judith's empty bedroom. The oldlady had loved them so dearly, and they had given her love for love inunstinted measure, so that now she was dead there was an awful blank intheir hearts and their lives.
Being very tired and very healthy, however, they went to sleep directlythey tumbled into bed; indeed Ducky could not keep awake long enough toeat her cake, so Nealie laid it on the chair by the little girl's bedfor her to find when she opened her eyes in the morning.
Sleep was longer in coming to Nealie than to the others. She was olderthan they were, and had been mother to them so long that she was apt tobe thinking out ways and means when she ought to have been asleep.
It would be too utterly delightful to go out to Australia and live withher father. It was nearly seven years since she had seen him, and herheart was always aching at the thought of his lonely exile.
If only Mr. Runciman would consent to their going! But would he?
"Well, it is of no use to worry and to wonder; we must just wait andsee. But I think when all seven of us go marching into that splendidlibrary of his at The Paddock, he will be so dismayed to see what a lotof us there are, that he will be quite ready to take the very shortestway of getting rid of the bother of looking after us," she said toherself, with a soft little laugh which rippled through the dark roomand even made itself heard in the other room across the passage wherethe four boys were sleeping; and Rupert, who had been having bad dreamsbecause his lame foot was hurting rather badly, smiled in his uneasyslumber and straightway drifted off into a more profound repose, fromwhich he did not wake until the misty September dawning crept over thewide plantations of beech and larch for which Beechleigh was famous.