CHAPTER VII
Gipsy takes her Fling
WHEN the novelty of her introduction to Briarcroft had somewhat faded,and the excitement of the Lower School mutiny had subsided, Gipsy beganto find the life more than a trifle dull. She had an adventuroustemperament, and her roving life had given her a taste for constantchange and variety, so the prim regime of the English boarding schoolseemed to her monotonous in the extreme. She chafed against theconfinement and the regularity of the well-ordered arrangements.
"I feel as if I were shut up in a box!" she declared. "How can you allgo on every day so contentedly with this 'prunes and prism' business?When I was at school up-country in Australia the mistress used to noticewhen we got restless, and take us for a day's camp into the bush. Theday girls would bring horses for us boarders to use (everybody rides outthere), and off we'd go, each with our picnic basket on our saddle, andhave the very jolliest good time you could imagine. It worked off ourspirits, and we'd come back to lessons as fresh as daisies and as meekas lambs."
"You get hockey here," objected Dilys, who generally stood up forBriarcroft institutions.
"Not enough of it," sighed Gipsy. "I like hockey, but it's nothing to aday's riding."
"Did your headmistress ride too?" enquired Lennie.
"Rather! Miss Yorke was Colonial born, and could have sat a kangaroo, Ishould think! She was a different article from Poppie, I assure you."
"Can't imagine Poppie controlling a fiery steed," giggled the girls.
"I should like to see you on horseback, Gipsy," said Hetty.
"I'd be only too glad to accommodate you, my dear, if you'd provide thegee-gee. I can tell you I'm just yearning for a canter."
"Nothing but a clothes horse here," remarked Dilys facetiously.
"Or the colt in the meadow beyond the hockey field," said Lennie.
"The colt! Of course I'd forgotten the colt!" exclaimed Gipsyrapturously.
"You'd never sit that wild thing! You'd have to ride him bareback. Evenyour wonderful cleverness can't do everything, I suppose!" said Gladyssarcastically.
"I can ride bareback," returned Gipsy. "It's nearly as easy as with asaddle."
"I'd like to see you catch him first."
"That's perfectly possible--he wears a halter. Do you dare me to do it?How many chocolates will you give me if I do?"
"A dozen, and a whole boxful if you ride him round the field."
"Then I'll show you a little prairie practice this afternoon. I haven'tlived in the Colonies for nothing!"
"Don't, Gipsy, don't! It's too dangerous!" besought Hetty and Lennie.
"She won't really--it's all brag!" sneered Gladys.
"Is it indeed, Miss Gladys Merriman? Just wait till this afternoon, andI'll undeceive you."
"I'll wait to buy the box of chocolates, though," sniggered Gladys.
None of the girls really believed that Gipsy was in earnest, yet theysallied forth to the hockey field that afternoon with a certain amusedanticipation. The news had been spread abroad in the Lower School, sothe Juniors had assembled ten minutes in advance of their ordinary timeon the chance of witnessing what Hetty called "the circus-riding". Thehockey ground was divided from the meadow by a strong wooden paling, onthe farther side of which the colt, a shaggy, ungroomed, raw-bonedspecimen of horse-flesh, was feeding.
"It is as frisky as--well, as a colt!" said Mary Parsons. "You'd betternot try to catch that creature, Gipsy."
"It'll pretty soon kick her off if she does!" said Alice O'Connor."Well, Gipsy? Going to turn tail at the last minute? You'd best givein!"
"Rather not!" returned Gipsy. "When I'm dared to do a thing, I do it--orhave a good try, at any rate. If I'm not galloping round the field inten minutes, you may count me done. Hetty, you keep time!" And withoutstopping to listen to any more remonstrances, she climbed over thepalings.
She had brought some bread with her, and she walked very gently towardsthe colt, holding out her bait, and making a series of chirruping soundscalculated to win its confidence. The rough little creature paused inits task of tearing the grass, and eyed her doubtfully. It had beenpetted, however, by the boys at the farm to which it belonged (a fact ofwhich Gipsy was well aware when she accepted Gladys's challenge), andhad a marked partiality for such dainties as bread, sugar, and carrots.Though Gipsy was a stranger, it evidently considered she was familiarwith horse language, and encouraged by her chirrups it advancedcautiously, rolling its eyes a little, and sniffing suspiciously. Gipsystood still, and without moving a muscle let it come quite near andinspect her. She held the bread on the palm of her left hand; her righthand was ready for action when necessary.
The row of girls leaning over the palings watched in dead silence.Summoning up its courage, the colt stretched out its nose to take thetempting bread. Gipsy let it get the coveted morsel well within itslips, then seized the halter with her left hand and the long chestnutmane with her right, and with a sudden agile bound and scramble flungherself across its back. It was so quickly and neatly done that thebystanders held their breath with admiration. Gipsy's horsemanship wasevidently no idle boast, if she could perform so difficult a feat ofgymnastics with such comparative ease. Meantime the colt, astonished andenraged at finding a burden on its back, was trying buck-jumping, andGipsy had to cling to mane and halter to keep her seat. At this criticalmoment the Seniors and the mistresses arrived on the scene. MissPoppleton's amazement and horror at finding one of her pupils mounted onthe back of an unbroken colt were almost too great for words.
"Stop her! Stop her!" she gasped wildly. "Oh, for pity's sake, somebodystop her!"
But as it was certainly in nobody's power to stop her, Gipsy had to takethe consequences of her own foolhardy act. The colt, after an amount ofkicking and plunging, stood for an instant stockstill, then, rolling itseyes, set off at a furious gallop round the meadow. That Gipsy managedto stick on to its back even she herself afterwards confessed was almosta miracle, but she kept her seat somehow. Up and down the field fled hersteed in furious career, till, tired of galloping, it changed itstactics and stood still and kicked, when Gipsy seized the opportunity ofsliding to the ground. She just escaped its hoofs as, relieved of herweight, it scampered off to the farthest limit of the boundary fence.Very dishevelled and rather bruised and shaky, she picked herself upfrom the muddy spot where she had fallen, and limped back to thepalings. The girls cheered. They couldn't help themselves, even thoughMiss Poppleton was present.
"She's as good as a cowboy!" exclaimed Lennie.
"Or a circus rider!" added Hetty proudly.
"Well done, Gipsy!"
"Bravo!"
Miss Poppleton, however, did not share the popular enthusiasm, andreceived her adventurous pupil with a scolding instead ofcongratulations.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Gipsy Latimer," she said sternly."It's a mercy you were not killed. Understand once for all that I forbidsuch mad proceedings. If you have hurt your leg you had better goindoors. The sooner you learn that these are not Briarcroft ways, thebetter. This is a school for young ladies, not young hoydens!"
Slightly abashed, Gipsy beat a retreat to the house, where Miss Edith,who had been an agitated spectator from the linen-room window, bathedthe wounded leg, put arnica on the bruises, and comforted the sufferer,while she proffered good advice.
"It was very naughty of you, you know, Gipsy dear!" she said in herkind-hearted, deprecating manner. "I don't know anything about riding,but it looked most dangerous, and of course, if Miss Poppleton said itwas wrong, it was wrong. My sister is always right. Please rememberthat. Why, child, you're all trembling! I'll make you a cup of Bovril,and you must lie down on your bed for an hour. And promise me faithfullyyou'll never do such a foolish, silly, mad thing again! We want to handyou over to your father in good health when he comes to fetch you, andhe'd blame us if you were hurt."
"He knows me only too well," twinkled Gipsy. "But there--I'll promiseanything you like, dear Miss Edith! Yes, the bruises feel better no
w,and the Bovril would be delicious. And you're a darling! Let me give youone hug, and I'll lie down like a monument of patience, though I don'tfeel the least scrap ill."
While the Seniors, with whom Gipsy was out of favour, viewed herescapade with lofty contempt as a madcap proceeding, the Juniorsregarded her as an even greater heroine than before. Gladys Merrimanredeemed her promise, and brought the box of chocolates she had offered,and Gipsy with strictest impartiality handed them round the Form tillthey were finished.
Gipsy had certainly established her record for horse-breaking, andthough, according to Miss Poppleton, it was scarcely a lady-likeaccomplishment, there was hardly anyone in the Lower School who did notadmire her prowess.
"You're like the girl in the cinematograph who tracks the villain to hismountain retreat, or finds the hero, bound with cords, lying in thebrushwood, and then rides off post-haste to inform the sheriff. Shealways catches a wild-looking horse, and gallops full speed!" laughedDilys.
"I wish we'd a cinema camera!" sighed Hetty. "We might have taken somegorgeous records this afternoon for the Photographic Society. No oneeven got a snapshot."
"Your own faults, not mine! You should have brought your cameras!"returned Gipsy.
"We never thought you'd really do it."
"Is that so? Well, when I allow to do any special thing, I guess Iadmire to see it through!"
"Oh, you Yankee!" roared the others.
Though the girls laughed at her Americanisms and Colonial ways, andoften teased her about them, Gipsy continued as great a favourite asever, she took all the banter so good-temperedly, and returned it sosmartly. There was always a delightful uncertainty also as to what shewould do next, and the prospect of an exciting interlude by "YankeeDoodle", as she was nicknamed, was felt decidedly to relieve themonotony of the ordinary Briarcroft atmosphere. Not that Gipsy reallyever meant to behave badly; but, accustomed as she was to thefree-and-easy conduct of her up-country Colonial schools, she found italmost impossible to realize that what would have been tolerated therewith a smile was in her new surroundings counted a heinous crime. Thesilence rules and the orderly march in step from classroom to lecturehall filled her with dismay. She appeared to expect to be allowed totear about the passages, talking at top speed, even in school hours, andmany were the admonitions she incurred from indignant monitresses.
"A fine model you are for the Lower School!" said Doreen Tristramsarcastically one day. "Can't even walk decently in line, and pranceabout for all the world like a monkey tied to a barrel piano!"
Doreen had taken the defection of the Juniors much to heart, and couldnot forgive the leader of the opposition.
"Thanks! I wasn't aware my movements were so original!" retorted Gipsy."There's method in my madness this time, though. I was trying to dodgeMiss White, and dash upstairs to get my _Hamlet_. I've forgotten thewretched thing, and if I go to class without a book, Poppie--h'm! I meanMiss Poppleton" (as Doreen's eyebrows went up)--"will want to know thereason why."
"I expect she will," returned Doreen dryly. "And serve you right too,for forgetting! No, I shall not allow you to go and fetch it. I'm hereto keep order, not to help you out of scrapes."
The Upper Fourth, under Doreen's superintendence, had just filed fromits own classroom to attend a Shakespeare lecture by the Principal. Thegirls were a few minutes early, and in consequence were drawn up like asmall regiment in the corridor to wait until a previous class was overand they could enter the lecture hall. Waiting is often dull work, andGipsy had considered herself a public benefactor in seeking to enliventhe tedium of her form mates. Doreen's notions on the subject ofdiscipline did not appeal to her.
"But I can't go to the Shakespeare lesson without my _Hamlet_," sheremonstrated. "Suppose I'm asked to read?"
"You should have thought of that before!" snapped Doreen. "Be quiet,Gipsy Latimer; if you speak another word I shall report you!"
Gipsy refrained from further unavailing speech, but her active brain wasby no means silenced. I do not think anybody but herself would havedreamed of doing what followed. The outer door of the corridor wasstanding open, and when the monitress's back was for the moment turned,Gipsy slipped out into the playground. On the opposite side of thequadrangle stood the open window of her classroom, ten feet or so abovethe ground. The wall of that part of the house was thickly covered withivy, and in less time than it takes to tell it she was scrambling upwith as much agility as the monkey to which Doreen had unfeelinglycompared her. A few girls who happened to be standing near the door andwitnessed her achievement gasped audibly, but I verily believe Gipsywould have been back before she was missed, had not Maude Helmofficiously chirped out:
"Oh, I say! Look at Yankee Doodle!"
Naturally the monitress did look, and fled into the courtyard in pursuitof the runaway. Her outraged face, upturned from below, greeted Gipsy asthat irrepressible damsel reappeared at the window waving her _Hamlet_in triumph.
"Gipsy Latimer, go back down the stairs!" commanded Doreen.
"No, thanks! It's shorter this way, and saves time," returned Gipsy,dropping her book first, then swinging herself out of the window. Shecame down the ivy quite easily, picked up her _Hamlet_, smoothed itscover, which had suffered in the fall, and flitted back to her place inthe corridor, just as the lecture room door opened to let out the ThirdForm and admit the Upper Fourth. Doreen followed grimly.
"You needn't think you're going to play these tricks with impunity," shesaid. "You'll report yourself to-morrow at the monitresses' meeting atfour o'clock. We'll see what the head of the school has to say to you!"
"Delighted, I'm sure! I've got my _Hamlet_, anyhow," chuckled naughtyGipsy, as she disappeared into the lecture hall.
On this occasion I am afraid she was not altogether innocent of cause ofoffence, and had taken a distinct pleasure in defying Doreen. Perhapsshe thought, on maturer consideration, that she had gone a trifle toofar, for she turned up at the monitresses' meeting with a countenancesobered down to the requirements of so solemn a convocation.
"Gipsy Latimer, you are here to report yourself for insubordination,"began Helen Roper with dignity. "Do you realize that monitresses areofficers in this school, and that their authority is only second to thatof the mistresses?"
Gipsy took a clean handkerchief from her pocket, and, unfolding itostentatiously, blinked hard.
"I realize it now," she answered, with a something in her voice thatmight have been either laughter or tears; "I'm afraid I was veryignorant before."
Helen glared at her suspiciously. Was that a twinkle in the dark eyes?But no; Gipsy was looking grave in the extreme.
"The monitresses must be obeyed," continued the head of the school."Every girl at Briarcroft knows that, and anyone who deliberatelydisobeys incurs the penalty of being reported to Miss Poppleton."
The corners of Gipsy's mouth were drooping; her face had assumed anexpression of abject penitence.
"Please don't do that to me!" she pleaded humbly. "Remember how badlyI've been brought up! If I'd been at Briarcroft all the time, instead ofother schools, and had had the advantage of the monitresses, I mighthave been different."
"I expect you would," said Helen freezingly. "And you'll please toremember that now you're here, you'll have to conform to our standards."
"I know I'm a heathen. I'll be only too grateful to be taught better,"murmured the subdued voice that was so strangely unlike Gipsy's usualsprightly tones.
Lena Morris turned away to hide a smile. She was possessed of a strongsense of humour, and moreover had a sneaking liking for Gipsy.
"Mind you do as you're told next time, then," commanded Helen. "I'llexcuse you this once, but if it happens again, I warn you that I shallsend you straight to Miss Poppleton. You may think yourself very luckyto be let off so easily. You can go now."
Gipsy's big brown eyes looked like two wells absolutely overflowing withgratitude and humility.
"Thanks so very immensely much! It's far more than I deserve!" shesighed, and, fl
aunting the clean handkerchief, beat a hasty retreat.
The monitresses would have been edified if they could have seen the wardance she executed in the passage as soon as the door was shut.
"Couldn't have kept my face a moment longer!" she choked to one or twofriends who were waiting for her. "Oh, you should have seen me as thepenitent! I think I did the thing rather neatly."
"You mad hatter! I wonder Helen didn't see you were shamming," saidHetty.
"No, no! She's been improving my mind and showing me the path I ought towalk in. How would you like me if I turned out a first-class prig?"
"It couldn't be done. Come along, you wild gipsy thing! Do you want themonitresses to come out and catch you? You'll get into a really bigscrape some day if you're not careful."
"Some people are born wise and proper, and some are born otherwise. I'mone of the otherwise! It's my misfortune, not my fault," laughed Gipsy,as Lennie and Hetty dragged her forcibly away.
Gipsy's wild spirits were undoubtedly liable to lead her beyond thebounds of propriety, and both mistresses and monitresses were inclined,justly or unjustly, to suspect that she was at the bottom of anymischief that cropped up in the school. One incident, though shrouded inmystery, was generally laid by Miss Poppleton as a sin to her charge. Inthe upper corridor, not very far from Gipsy's dormitory, hung a longchain which sounded a fire bell. The boarders at Briarcroft wereinstructed in fire drill, though a night summons was generally onlygiven in summertime, as Miss Poppleton was afraid of the girls catchingcold. Gipsy had read the printed card of "Directions in case of Fire",and had examined the chute with intense interest.
"I'd just love to go sliding down it out of our bedroom window," sheexclaimed. "It would be almost as much fun as toboganning."
"Rather freezing work on these sharp nights. There was ice on thepuddles this morning," said Dilys. "No fire-drill practice for me, thankyou! I prefer to stop snug in bed."
"You've no spirit of adventure in you," returned Gipsy.
"I've got sound common sense instead, and that's what you don't possess,Yankee Doodle!"
"All the same, that summons is going to come off, by hook or by crook!"said Gipsy to herself. "It would be a kindness to the school to give ita chance to see whether it's prepared for emergencies. Gipsy Latimer, Iguess you'll have to be the philanthropist! But you've no need to flauntyour noble deed. 'Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame', infact."
If Gipsy, before she went to bed that night, contrived to tie a longpiece of string to the bell chain in the passage, and to secure theother end to her bedpost, she did not blazon the fact abroad, and thestring was so neatly laid against the edges of skirting board and undermats that nobody happened to notice it. At 3 a.m., when the whole ofBriarcroft was wrapped in deepest slumbers, there suddenly came thegreat _clang-clang_ of the fire bell, resounding and echoing through thequiet house. Everybody woke in a hurry, and the head of each dormitoryat once switched on the electric light and assumed command. Thewell-trained girls dipped their towels in water and put them over theirmouths, threw the red blankets from their beds round their shoulders,and lined up along the corridor. Miss Lindsay was already there, andgave the command to march, and away trooped the boarders downstairs andout of the front door on to the lawn, where they ranged themselves to becounted. The light streaming through the front door revealed a strangesight--all the girls in night gear, with their scarlet blankets trailingon the ground. The juveniles were clasping dolls and other treasures,and some of the others had caught up big sponges in their confusion. Thewhole exit had only taken about a hundred seconds from the sounding ofthe bell, and if Gipsy was last, and clutched a roll of string in herhand, nobody remarked the circumstance.
There followed a hurried enquiry among the mistresses as to thewhereabouts of the fire, and the discovery that no fire existed. MissPoppleton hastily gave the order to return, and the boarders troopedback shivering to the dormitories, not a little disconcerted to havebeen disturbed for nothing on a chilly night in November. The Principalmade every enquiry next day as to the source of the alarm, but she coulddiscover nothing. Dilys Fenton was able to assure her that when she hadswitched on the light in No. 3 Dormitory Gipsy Latimer had been asleep,and she had been obliged to shake her violently to awaken her, so it wasquite impossible that Gipsy could be responsible for the practical joke.The occurrence made a great excitement among the boarders. For daysthey talked of scarcely anything else.
"It was over too soon, and they didn't use the chute after all," saidGipsy disconsolately.
"Gipsy! you never--you couldn't-- Oh, surely----!"
But Gipsy's brown eyes looked such absolute mirrors of innocence thateven Hetty's suspicions were laid to rest.
The Leader of the Lower School: A Tale of School Life Page 10