Five Little Peppers at School

by Margaret Sidney

  XIII THE PICNIC

  The four barges were to leave the "Salisbury School" at preciselyhalf-past eight o'clock the next morning. Miss Salisbury was always veryparticular about being prompt, so woe be to any girl who might be late!There was great scurrying, therefore, to and fro in the homes of the dayscholars. And the girls hurried off with maids behind carrying theirbaskets; or, as the case might be, big family carriages filled withgroups of girls collected among those of a set; or in little ponycarriages. All this made the thoroughfares adjacent to the "SalisburySchool" extremely busy places indeed.

  Mother Fisher sent Polly's basket over to the school, at an early hour,Polly preferring to walk, several of the girls having called for her. Sothey all, with Jasper, who was going as far as the corner with them, setout amidst a chatter of merry nonsense.

  "Oh girls, I _am_ so glad we are going to the Glen!" exclaimed Polly,for about the fiftieth time.

  "So am I," cried all the others in a chorus.

  "Why, you haven't ever been to any other place for your picnic, haveyou, Polly?" cried Jasper, with a laugh.

  "No," said Polly, "we never have. But suppose Miss Salisbury had decidedto try some other spot this year; oh, just suppose it, Jasper!" and herrosy color died down on her cheek. "It would have been just too dreadfulfor anything."

  "We couldn't have had our picnic in any other place," declared RoseHarding; "it wouldn't be the same unless it was at the Glen."

  "Dear old Glen!" cried Polly impulsively. "Jasper, it's too bad you boyscan't all come to our picnics."

  "I know it. It would be no end jolly if we only could," said Jasperregretfully, to whom it was a great grief that the picnic couldn't takein the two schools.

  "Yes," said Polly, with a sigh, "it would, Jasper. But Miss Salisburynever will in all this world let the boys' school join."

  "No, I suppose not," said Jasper, stifling his longing; "well, you musttell me about it to-night, the same as always, Polly."

  "Yes, I will, Jasper," promised Polly. So he turned the corner, to go tohis school. But presently he heard rapid footsteps back of him. "OhJasper," cried Polly, flushed and panting, as he whirled about, "tellPhronsie I won't forget the little fern-roots. Be sure, Jasper."

  "All right; I will," said Jasper. "Dear me! do hurry back, Polly. You'llbe late."

  "Oh no, there are oceans of time," said Polly, with a little laugh."I've the tin case in my picnic basket, Jasper, so they will keep allfresh and nice."

  "Yes; do hurry back," begged Jasper. So Polly, with a merry nod, racedoff to the corner where the girls were drawn up in a knot, impatientlywaiting for her.

  Every bit of the fuss and parade in getting the big company started--forall the scholars went to the annual picnic--was a special delight to thegirls. The only trouble was that the seats were not all end ones, whilethe favorite places up by the driver were necessarily few in eachvehicle.

  "Come on, Polly," screamed Alexia. Everybody had agreed that she shouldhave one of these choice positions because of her lame arm, which Dr.Fisher had said must be carried in its sling this day. So there she was,calling lustily for Polly Pepper, and beating the cushion impatientlywith her well hand. "Oh, _do_ hurry up!"

  Polly, down on the ground in a swarm of girls, shook her head. "No," herlips said softly, so that no one but Alexia, who was leaning over forthat purpose, could possibly hear, "ask Cathie."

  "Oh bother!" exclaimed Alexia, with a frown. Then she smothered it upwith a "Come, Polly," very persuasively.

  "Can't," said Polly; "I'm going back here." And she moved down to theend of the barge.

  "Then I'm going back too." Alexia gave a frantic dive to get down fromthe barge.

  Miss Salisbury saw it; and as she had planned to give Alexia just thatvery pleasure of riding on the front seat, she was naturally somewhatdisturbed. "No, no, my dear," seeing Alexia's efforts to get down, "staywhere you are."

  "Oh dear me!" Alexia craned her long neck around the side of thevehicle, to spy Polly's movements. "I don't want to be mewed up here,"she cried discontentedly. But Miss Salisbury, feeling well satisfiedwith her plan for making Alexia happy, had moved off. And the babel andtumult waged so high, over the placing of the big company, all the girlschattering and laughing at once, that Alexia, call as she might, beganto despair of attracting Polly's attention, or Cathie's either for thatmatter.

  "You better set down," said the driver, an old man whom Miss Salisburyemployed every year to superintend the business, "and make yourselfcomfortable."

  "But I'm not in the least comfortable," said Alexia passionately, "and Idon't want to be up here. I want to get down."

  "But you can't,"--the old man seemed to fairly enjoy herdismay,--"'cause she, you know," pointing a short square thumb over hisshoulder in the direction of Miss Salisbury, "told ye to set still. Soye better set."

  But Alexia craned her neck yet more, and called insistently, "Polly--oh,Polly!"

  Miss Anstice looked up from the bevy of girls she was settling inanother barge. "Alexia Rhys," she said severely, "you must be quiet; itis impossible to get started unless all you girls are going to betractable and obedient."

  "Miss Anstice,"--Alexia formed a sudden bold resolve,--"please comehere. I want you very much," she said sweetly.

  Miss Anstice, pleased to be wanted very much, or indeed at all, left herwork, and went over to the front barge where Alexia was raging inwardly.

  "Miss Anstice, I need Polly Pepper up next to me," said Alexia, "oh, somuch. She knows all about my arm, you know; her father fixed it for me.Will you please have her come up here? Then if I should feel worse, shecould help me."

  Miss Anstice peered here and there in her nearsighted fashion. "I don'tsee Polly Pepper," she said.

  "There she is; there she is," cried Alexia, trembling in every limb, forher plan could not be said to be a complete success yet, and pointingeagerly to the end of her barge; "she's the fourth from the door, MissAnstice. Oh, how lovely you are!"

  Miss Anstice, quite overcome to be told she was lovely, and especiallyby Alexia, who had previously given her no reason to suppose that sheentertained any such opinion, went with great satisfaction down thelength of the barge, and standing on her tiptoes, said veryimportantly, "Polly Pepper, I want to place you differently."

  So Polly, quite puzzled, but very obedient, crawled out from her seat,where she was wedged in between two girls not of her set, who had beenperfectly radiant at their good fortune, and clambering down the steps,was, almost before she knew it, installed up on the front row, byAlexia's side.

  "Oh Polly, what richness!" exclaimed that individual in smotheredaccents, as Miss Anstice stepped off in much importance, and huggingPolly. "I'm so glad my sling is on, for I never'd gotten you up herewithout the old thing," and she giggled as she told the story.

  "Oh Alexia!" exclaimed Polly, quite shocked.

  "Well, I may get a relapse in it, you don't know," said Alexia coolly,"so you really ought to be up here. Oh my goodness me! I forgot thisman," she brought up suddenly. "Do you suppose he'll tell?" She peeredaround anxiously past Polly.

  "Ef you'll set still, I won't tell that teacher," said the old man witha twinkle in his eye, "but ef you get to carryin' on, as I should thinkyou could ef you set out to, I'll up an' give the whole thing to her."

  "Oh, I'll sit as still as a mouse," promised Alexia. "Oh Polly, isn't hea horrible old thing!" in a stage whisper under cover of the noise goingon around them.

  "Hush," said Polly.

  "Well, I'm not going to hush," cried Alexia recklessly; "I'm going tohave a good time at the picnic to-day, and do just everything I want to,so there, Polly Pepper!"

  "Very well," said Polly, "then when we get to the Glen, I shall go offwith the other girls, Alexia," which had the desired effect. Alexiacurled up into her corner, and hanging to Polly Pepper's arm, was justlike a mouse for quiet. And off they went; the old man's whip goingcrack--_snap_! as he led the way with a grand flourish, as much betterthan his efforts of former
years, as was possible!

  The road led through winding, woodsy paths, redolent of sweet fern; thegirls never tired of its delights, exclaiming at all the sights andsounds of country life at all such moments as were not filled to thebrim with the songs that ran over from their happy hearts. So on and upthey went to the Glen, a precipitous ravine some fifteen miles out fromthe city.

  When the barges finally drew up with another grand flourish at theentrance, a smooth grassy plateau shaded by oaks and drooping elms, theysimply poured out a stream of girls from each conveyance; the old manand his companion drivers laughing to see them tumble out. "Pretty quickwork, eh, Bill?" said old man Kimball, "no screaming for first placesnow."

  "It's the same beautiful, dear old Glen!" exclaimed Polly, with kindlingeyes and dancing feet. "Oh Alexia, come on!" and seizing the well hand,they spun round and round, unable to keep still, having plenty ofcompany, all the other girls following suit.

  Polly looked at her little watch. "In five minutes we must stop. It'llbe time to get the flowers."

  "Oh, can we?" cried Alexia. "Misery me! I'm so tired cooped up in thatbarge, I feel stiff as a jointed doll, Polly Pepper."

  "Well, I don't," said Polly, dancing away for dear life. "Oh Alexia,when Miss Salisbury gives the signal to explore, won't it be just fun!"

  "I should say," cried Alexia, unable to find words that would justexpress the case.

  There was always one routine to be observed in the annual picnic of the"Salisbury School," and no one thought for a moment of deviating fromit. The maids collected the baskets taken from the wagons, and set themin a cool, shady place among the rocks just within the Glen. The girlsran hither and thither to collect flowers and ferns to drape MissSalisbury's seat of honor, and one as near like it as possible for MissAnstice. These were big crevices in the rocks, that were as comfortableas chairs, and having backs to them in the shape of boulders, they weretruly luxurious. Indeed, Miss Salisbury had declared, when the seatswere discovered by Polly Pepper at the first picnic after she joined the"Salisbury School," that she never sat in one more comfortable; and shewas so pleased when she was led to it and inducted therein, allflower-trimmed with little vines trailing off, and arching over herhead.

  "Why, my dears!" she exclaimed, quite overcome. "Oh, how pretty! and howdid you think of it?"

  "It was Polly Pepper who thought of it," said a parlor boarder. AndPolly, blushing rosy red, a new girl as she was, was led up, and MissSalisbury set a kiss on her round cheek. Polly never forgot how happyshe was that day.

  And afterward, when the girls were busy in various little groups, MissSalisbury had beckoned Polly to her side where she reposed on herthrone; for it was beautiful and stately enough for one, and quiteworthy of royalty itself.

  "Polly," said Miss Salisbury, in quite a low tone only fitted forPolly's ear, "do you think you could find a seat, like this beautifulone of mine, for sister? I should really enjoy it so very much more ifsister had one also and she would prize the attention very much, Polly,from you girls."

  So Polly, fired with the laudable desire to find one exactly like MissSalisbury's very own, for "sister," at last was just so fortunate. Sothat was also flower-trimmed, with trailing vines to finish it off with.And every year, the first thing the girls did after dancing around a bitto rest their feet after the long drive, was to set to work to collectthe vines and ferns, and decorate the two stone seats.

  Then with quite a good deal of pomp and ceremony, the girls escorted thetwo teachers to their thrones, unpacked the little bag of books andmagazines, and arranged some cushions and shawls about them. And thenMiss Salisbury always said with a sweet smile, "Thank you, my dears."And Miss Anstice said the same; although, try as hard as she would, hersmile never could be sweet like Miss Salisbury's. And then off the girlswould go to "exploring," as they called rambling in the Glen, theunder-teachers taking them in charge.

  And now Polly Pepper ran to her hamper, which she saw in a pile wherethe baskets had been heaped by the maids. "There it is," pointing to thetag sticking up; "oh, help me,--not you, Alexia," as Alexia ran up asusual, to help forward any undertaking Polly Pepper might have in mind."Dear me! you might almost kill your arm."

  "This old arm," cried Alexia,--"I'm sick and tired of it."

  "Well, you better take care of it," cried Polly gaily, "and then itwon't be an old arm, but it will be as good as brand new, Alexia. Oh,one of the other girls, do come and help me."

  "What do you want, Polly?" cried some of the girls, racing up to her.

  "I want to get out my hamper," said Polly, pointing to the tag stickingup "high and dry" amid a stack of baskets. "My tin botany case is init; I must get the ferns I promised to bring home to Phronsie."

  "You stand away, all of ye." The old man Kimball, his horses out of theshafts, and well taken care of, now drew near, and swept off with hisample hand the bunch of girls. "Which one is't? Oh, that ere one withthe tag," answering his own question. "Well, now, I'll git that for youjest as easy as rolling off a log. One--two--three--there she comes!"

  And, one, two, three, and here she did come! And in a trice Polly hadthe cover up, and out flew the little green tin botany case; and withinit being an iron spoon and little trowel, off flew Polly on happy feetto unearth the treasures that were to beautify Phronsie's little garden;a bunch of girls following to see the operation.

  The magazine fell idly to the lap of Miss Salisbury. She sat dreamilyback, resting her head against the boulder. "Sister," she said softly,"this is a happy custom we have started. I trust nothing will everprevent our holding our annual picnic."

  "Yes," said Miss Anstice absently. She was very much interested in astory she had begun, and she hated to have Miss Salisbury say a word.Although she had on a stiff, immaculate white gown (for on such afestival as the annual picnic, she always dressed in white), still shewas not in the same sweet temper that the principal was enjoying, andshe held her thumb and finger in the place.

  "Yes, the picnic is very good," she said, feeling that something wasexpected of her, "if we didn't get worms and bugs crawling over thetablecloth."

  "Oh sister!" exclaimed Miss Salisbury, quite shocked; "it is no time tothink of worms and bugs, I'm sure, on such a beautiful occasion asthis."

  "Still, they are here," said Miss Anstice; "there is one now," lookingdown at the hem of her gown. "_Ugh!_ go right away," slapping her bookat it. Then her thumb and finger flew out, and she lost her place, andthe bug ran away, and she added somewhat tartly, "For my own taste, Ishould really prefer a festival in the schoolroom."

  When it came to spreading the feast, not one of the maids was allowed toserve. They could unpack the hampers, and hand the dishes and eatablesto the girls, and run, and wait, and tend. But no one but the Salisburygirls must lay the snowy cloth, dress it up with flowers, with littleknots at the corners, concealing the big stones that kept the tableclothfrom flapping in any chance wind. And then they all took turns insetting the feast forth, and arranging all the goodies. And some one hadto make the coffee, with a little coterie to help her. The crotchedsticks were always there just as they had left them where they hung thekettle over the stone oven. And old man Kimball set one of the youngerdrivers to make the fire--and a rousing good one it was--where theyroasted their corn and potatoes. And another one brought up the waterfrom the spring that bubbled up clear and cold in the rocky ravine, sowhen all was ready it was a feast fit for a king, or rather the queenand her royal subjects.

  And then Miss Salisbury and "sister" were escorted with all appropriateceremonies down from their stone thrones,--and one had the head and theother the foot of the feast spread on the grass,--to sit on a stonedraped with a shawl, and to be waited on lovingly by the girls, whothrew themselves down on the ground, surrounding the snowy cloth. Andthey sat two or three rows deep; and those in the front row had to passthe things, of course, to the back-row girls.

  "Oh, you're spilling jelly-cake crumbs all down my back," proclaimedAlexia, with a shudder. "Rose Harding,"
looking at the girl just back ofher, "can't you eat over your own lap, pray tell?"

  "Well, give me your seat then," suggested Rose, with another good bitefrom the crumbly piece in her hand, "if you don't like what the back-rowgirls do."

  "No, I'm not going to," said Alexia, "catch me! but you needn't eat allover my hair. Ugh! there goes another," and she squirmed so she knockedoff the things in her neighbor's as well as her own lap.

  "Oh dear me! Keep your feet to yourself, Alexia Rhys," said theneighbor; "there goes my egg in all the dirt--and I'd just gotten itshelled."

  "All the easier for the bugs," observed Alexia sweetly; "see, they'realready appropriating it. And I guess you'd kick and wriggle if some oneput jelly cake down your back," returning to her grievance,--"slippery,slimy jelly cake," twisting again at the remembrance.

  "Well, you needn't kick the things out of my lap. I didn't put the jellycake down your back," retorted the neighbor, beginning to shell hersecond egg.

  Oh dear! was ever anything quite so good in all this world as that feastat the "Salisbury picnic!"

  "I didn't suppose those baskets could bring out so much, nor suchperfectly delicious things," sighed Polly Pepper, in an interval of restbefore attacking one of Philena's chocolate cakes.

  "Polly, Polly Pepper," called a girl opposite, "give me one of yourlittle lemon tarts. You did bring 'em this year, didn't you?" anxiously.

  "Yes, indeed," answered Polly; "why, where are they?" peering up anddown the festal, not "board," but tablecloth.

  "Don't tell me they are gone," cried the girl, leaning over to look forherself.

  "I'm afraid they are," said Polly; "oh, I'm so sorry, Agatha!"

  "You should have spoken before, my child," said a parlor boarder, whohad eaten only three of Mrs. Fisher's tarts, and adjusting hereyeglasses.

  "Why, I've only just gotten through eating bread and butter," saidAgatha. "I can't eat cake until that's done."

  "A foolish waste of time," observed the parlor boarder; "bread andbutter is for every day; cake and custards and flummery for highholidays," she added with quite an air.

  "Hush up, do," cried Alexia, who had small respect for the parlorboarders and their graces, "and eat what you like, Penelope. I'm goingto ransack this table for a tart for you, Agatha."

  She sent keen, bird-like glances all up and down the length of thetablecloth. "Yes, no--yes, it is." She pounced upon a lemon tart hidingunder a spray of sweet fern, and handed it in triumph across. "There youare, Agatha! now don't say I never did anything for you."

  "Oh, how sweet!" cried Agatha, burying her teeth in the flaky tart.

  "I should think it was sour," observed Amy Garrett; "lemons usuallyare."

  "Don't try to be clever, Amy child," said Alexia, "it isn't expected ata picnic."

  "It's never expected where you are," retorted Amy sharply.

  "Oh dear, dear! that's pretty good," cried Alexia, nowise disconcerted,as she loved a joke just as much at herself as at the expense of anyone else, while the others burst into a merry laugh.

  "There's one good thing about Alexia Rhys," the "Salisbury girls" hadalways said, "she can take any amount of chaff, and not stick her fingerin her eye and whimper."

  So now she smiled serenely. "Oh dear, dear! I wish I could eat somemore," she said. "I haven't tasted your orange jelly, Clem, nor as muchas looked at your French sandwiches, Silvia. What is the reason one caneat so very little at a picnic, I wonder?" She drew a long breath, andregarded them all with a very injured expression.

  "Hear that, girls!" cried Silvia; "isn't that rich, when Alexia has beeneating every blessed minute just as fast as she could!"

  "I suppose that is what we all have been doing," observed Alexiaplacidly.

  Miss Salisbury had been a happy observer of all the fun and nonsensegoing on around her, and renewing her youth when she had dearly lovedpicnics; but it was not so with Miss Anstice. At the foot of the festaltablecloth, she had been viewing from the corners of her eyes theinroads of various specimens of the insect creation and several otherperipatetic creatures that seemed to belong to no particular species butto a new order of beings originated for this very occasion. She had heldherself in bravely, although eating little, being much too busy inkeeping watch of these intruders, who all seemed bent on running overher food and her person, to hide in all conceivable folds of her whitegown. And she was now congratulating herself on the end of the feast,which about this time should be somewhere in sight, when a goggle-eyedbug, at least so it seemed to her distraught vision, pranced with agilesteps directly for her lap, to disappear at once. And it got on to hernerves.

  "Oh--_ow_! Take it off." Miss Anstice let her plate fly, and skipped toher feet. But looking out for the goggle-eyed bug, she thought of littleelse, and stepped into some more of the jelly cake--slipped, andprecipitated herself into the middle of the feast.