The Madcap of the School Part 6

"When does she expect us to do it, I should like to know?" raged Morvyth. "There's not a moment to spare in prep., so I suppose it will have to come out of our so-called recreation! Look here, I call this the very limit!"

"Sat.u.r.day afternoon's no holiday when we've got to go prowling round a wretched Roman camp!" mourned Valentine. "What do I care about ancient earthworks? If they were modern trenches, now, with soldiers in them, it would be something like! There'll be nothing to see except some mounds. I suppose we shall have to stand round and listen while she holds forth, and look 'intelligent' and 'interested'."

"I don't know whether she's going to hold forth herself," said Aveline. "I hear she's invited several people from an archaeological society to meet us there, and probably one of them will do the spouting--some wheezy old gentleman with a bald head, or an elderly lady in a waterproof and spectacles. One knows the sort!"

"Oh, good biz!" exclaimed Raymonde. "If visitors are coming, Gibbie'll have to talk to them, and she won't have so much time to look after us. She's welcome to the bald old boys! Let her have half a dozen if she wants!"

"You forget you've got to listen to them."

"Oh, I'll listen! At least I'll look serious and politely absorbed.

That's all that's expected."

"In the meantime we've these wretched notes to copy," groused Katherine.

"Have we? I don't think so! I've got an idea. Maudie Heywood's sure to make a most beautiful copperplate copy; we'll borrow hers, and just skim them over to get a kind of general acquaintance with the subject, sufficient to show 'intelligent interest'. Gibbie won't be able to question us with those other people there."

"But suppose she asks beforehand to see our notes?"

"I've thought of that. We'll each copy out the first page, and stick some old exercise sheets behind it. She'll never find out."

The Mystic Seven looked at their leader in admiration. They considered that on such occasions her resourcefulness amounted to genius. They followed her advice, and copied the front page only of the notes, placing underneath some portions of Latin translation or historical essay. Aveline underlined her t.i.tle with red ink, Morvyth ruled a neat margin, and Fauvette tied her sheets together with a piece of the blue baby ribbon which she used for threading through her underclothes. On the outside, at any rate, their copies looked most presentable.

It was only the Fifth Form who were accorded the privilege of the ramble. They were Miss Gibbs's special charge this term, Miss Beasley devoting herself to the Sixth, and Mademoiselle looking after the Juniors. The Fifth hardly appreciated receiving the lion's share of Miss Gibbs's attention. They complained that she tried all her educational experiments upon them. They were ready, however, the whole ten of them, on Sat.u.r.day afternoon, clad in the neat school uniform, brown serge skirt, khaki blouse, scarlet tie, and burnt-straw hat.

Miss Gibbs viewed them with approval. Each had slung over her shoulders a vasculum for botanical or other specimens, and each carried in her hand a copy of the notes. They looked business-like, healthy, well trained, and alert with intelligence, altogether an excellent advertis.e.m.e.nt for the school and its modern methods.

The camp was about a two-mile walk from the Grange, so the Form had at least the satisfaction of obtaining exercise. As Valentine had prophesied, it consisted of some mounds in the middle of a field, where, to Fauvette's infinite discomposure, some cows were grazing.

The members of the Archaeological Society had already arrived, and came forward to greet Miss Gibbs. There was a large stout gentleman, with a grey moustache and bushy overhanging eyebrows; also a little thin gentleman with a pointed beard and an argumentative voice; a tall lady with a high colour, who carried a guide-book, and a short-sighted younger man, who was trying to spread out an ordnance map. These seemed to be the princ.i.p.al members of the party, though there were a few stragglers.

"Professor Edwards--my girls!" said Miss Gibbs, introducing the Form _en bloc_ to the leader for the afternoon.

The stout gentleman smiled blandly, and murmured some suitable remark about the value of acquiring antiquarian tastes while still young.

"I had perhaps better read my short paper before we inspect the remains," he added.

"Goody! He surely isn't going to disinter any dead Romans to show us, is he?" whispered Katherine.

"Bunk.u.m!" replied Ardiune. "Nothing as thrilling as that, don't you fear!"

Miss Gibbs smiled encouragingly to the Form, and beckoned them to draw nearer. They arranged themselves in a respectful semicircle, with attentive eyes fixed on the lecturer, and copies of notes rather conspicuously flaunted.

He discoursed exhaustively on the subject of Roman camps in general, and the girls listened with receptive faces, but minds wandering upon more modern themes. Morvyth was speculating whether it would be possible to purchase chocolates on the way home, Fauvette was planning her next party frock, and Aveline was wondering whether there would be jam or honey for tea that day.

"Before I ask you to take a personal survey of the earthworks,"

concluded the Professor, "I should like to have Miss Gibbs's opinion as to the exact position of the entrance and the approximate date of construction. She has, I know, made a study of this branch of archaeology."

"My ideas are embodied in my notes," purred Miss Gibbs. "Perhaps you would not mind reading the paragraph. I lent them a short time ago to Mrs. Gladwin."

Professor Edwards turned expectantly; but the tall lady, who a moment before had been at his elbow, had strayed away, papers in hand, and was not available for reference.

"My girls all have copies of the notes. Pa.s.s yours, Ardiune," smiled the mistress.

The luckless Ardiune blushed scarlet, but dared not disobey.

"The pa.s.sage occurs about the middle," prompted Miss Gibbs, as the Professor fumbled with the pages. "May I find it for you? Why, surely there must be some mistake! This is French! Valentine, your copy, child!"

With an even more crimson countenance Valentine tendered her ma.n.u.script, which consisted of last week's essay on Comets. Miss Gibbs, with a growing tightness round her lips, inspected Raymonde's extracts from Chaucer, and Katherine's translation of Virgil, before Aveline had the presence of mind to hand up Maudie Heywood's copy. It is unwise for a mistress to show temper before visitors, and Miss Gibbs, with admirable self-control, mastered her feelings and read the paragraph calmly. During the discussion which followed, the girls availed themselves of an invitation from the short-sighted gentleman to inspect the earthworks, and thankfully fled to the farthest limits of the field. They knew, of course, that it was only putting off the evil hour, and further events justified their forebodings. Miss Gibbs preserved an ominous silence on the way home, and after tea summoned the Form to their cla.s.s-room, where she went into exhaustive details of the whole business.

"I'm disgusted with you--utterly disgusted!" she declared. "It seems of little use to spend time in attempting to give you intellectual interests. Those girls who did not copy the notes will stay in now and write them. I shall look at them all at eight o'clock."

"It means a good solid hour's work," whispered Raymonde to Ardiune.

"Tennis is off to-night. Strafe the old camp! I wish the Romans had never lived!"

CHAPTER VI

A Midnight Scare

Miss Gibbs's plans for the enlargement of her pupils' minds ran over a wide range of subjects from archaeology to ambulance. As they expressed it, she was always springing some fresh surprise upon them. Like bees, they were expected to sip mental honey from many intellectual flowers.

They had dabbled in chemistry till Ardiune spilt acid down Miss Gibbs's dress, after which the experiments suddenly stopped. They had collected fruits and seed-vessels, had studied animalculae through the microscope, and modelled fungi in plasticine. Stencilling, illuminating, painting, and marqueterie each had a brief turn, and were superseded by raffia-plaiting and poker-work. Miss Beasley suggested tentatively that it might be better to concentrate on a single subject, but Miss Gibbs, who loved arguments about education, was well prepared to defend her line of action.

"There is always a danger in specialization," she replied. "You can't tell how a girl's tastes will run till you give her an opportunity of proving them. My theory is, let them try each separate craft, and then choose their own hobbies. One will take naturally to oil-painting, another may find clay or gesso her means of artistic expression. Some minds delight in pure Greek outline, while others revel in the intricacies of Celtic ornament. Again, a girl with no aesthetic sense may be enraptured with the wonders of the microscope, and those who find a difficulty in mastering the technical terms of botany may yet excel in the extent of their collections of specimens. Who would have imagined that Veronica Terry would develop an interest in geology? I had always considered her a remarkably dull child, but her fossils formed the nucleus of the school museum. I have hopes at present that one or two of my girls are developing tastes that will last them for life."

It was one of Miss Gibbs's pet theories that not only should her pupils have the opportunity of sampling arts, handicrafts, and scientific pursuits, but that they should in every respect cultivate a wide mental horizon. She was fond of suggesting emergencies to them, and asking how they would act in special circ.u.mstances.

"Imagine yourself left a widow," she had once propounded, "with three small children to support, and a capital of only three hundred pounds.

How would you employ this sum to the best advantage, so as to provide some future means of subsistence for yourself and family?"

The opinions of the Form had been interesting, and had varied from poultry farming to the establishment of a boarding-house or the setting up of tea-rooms. The most original suggestion, however, was contributed by Fauvette, and, while it outraged Miss Gibbs's sense of propriety, caused infinite hilarity in the Form.

"If I were left a widow," she wrote, "I should get the children into orphanages, or persuade rich friends to adopt them. Then I would spend the three hundred pounds in buying new clothes and staying at the best hotels, and try to get married again to somebody who could provide for me better."

Among the flights of fancy in which the Fifth Form were forced to indulge were a railway collision, a fire, a bicycle accident, an escape of gas, the swallowing of poison, the bursting of the kitchen boiler, a case of choking, and an infectious epidemic. On the whole they rather enjoyed the fun of airing their views, and when asked to propose fresh topics had suggested such startling catastrophes as "A German Invasion," "A Revolution," "A Volcanic Eruption," "A Famine,"

and "A Zeppelin Raid."

Rejecting the first four, Miss Gibbs had chosen the last for discussion, and for fully ten minutes the Form, in imagination, dwelt in an atmosphere of explosives. They clutched their few valuables that were within reach, donned dressing-gowns and bedroom slippers, each seized a blanket, and all descended to the cellars with the utmost dispatch of which they were capable, while bombs came crashing through the roof, and the walls of the house tottered to ruin.

"I shall never dare to go to sleep again!" shivered Fauvette, appalled at the mental picture presented to her.

"Are the Zepps likely to come, Miss Gibbs?" enquired Ardiune.

"Not so likely at this time of year as in winter. Still, of course, one never can tell," replied the mistress, anxious to justify the usefulness of her emergency lessons. "It is wise to know what to do.

We ought all to adopt the Boy Scouts' motto--'Be Prepared'."

"And suppose we ever do hear dreadful noises in the middle of the night?" said Raymonde, gazing with solemn, awestruck eyes at the teacher.

"Then you must make for the cellar without delay," replied Miss Gibbs emphatically.