[Ill.u.s.tration: "HE FIRST SET TO WORK TO MAKE A SPIRAL STAIRCASE UP THE TREE."]
Naturally Sky Cottage, like Rome, was not built in a day, and though Archie worked at it pretty constantly, it was November before the roof was on and he considered the building complete. The question of decorations was much discussed, for while Father suggested hanging the walls with sacking, and Lilian voted for garlanding them with wild flowers, both ideas were rejected, the one as too prosaic and the other as not sufficiently durable, and it was not until Peggy conceived the brilliant thought of lining their dwelling with moss that a satisfactory solution was arrived at.
So off went the little party to the woods, with a couple of sacks and a coil of rope, to tear up the vivid green sheets which covered the rocks like carpets of velvet.
"All the thickest and best is on the other side of the stream, beyond where we had our picnic in the summer," said Peggy, leading the way with the proud air of a pioneer. "If only we can manage to cross, for the water is rather full to-day," she added, with a lively remembrance of her former dipping.
They found an unexpected help, however, for a recent storm had blown down a large oak, which now stretched itself very conveniently over the stream like a bridge, and by the aid of its branches it was quite easy to hop across and climb up the bank at the other side. The woods were thick here and damp, and the moss was of such superior quality that it fully justified the extra labour involved in fetching it. They pulled it up in pieces a yard or more square, and crammed it into the sacks, tying the mouths with rope, so as to be able to drag them along, for the moss was full of moisture, and the bags were dreadfully heavy. They were rather at a loss how to convey their spoils over the bridge. Bobby suggested floating them down the stream, but, as Lilian pointed out, they would promptly sink to the bottom; so in the end Archie hoisted a sack upon his back, and, with Lilian to steady it behind, managed to stagger across in safety, coming back for the other when the first had been successfully landed.
It was hard work b.u.mping the sacks over the rough, uneven ground, but they got them home at last, safely conveyed to Sky Cottage, and emptied out on to the platform. They were all busily engaged within the hut, nailing sheets of moss over the wattled walls, when a curious squeaking noise began to attract Peggy"s attention.
"What"s that?" she inquired, pausing with the hammer suspended in her hand.
"A bird, most likely," replied Lilian, with her mouth full of nails.
"No, it isn"t," said Peggy, going out to investigate. "It seems to come from the moss at my feet. Archie, do come and look! Whatever can it be?"
The noise grew louder and louder, so that it resembled the squealing of a kitten, and all four began to turn over the moss with eager fingers, till, with a cry, Archie drew out a small round ball of dried gra.s.s, about the size of Bobby"s fist, from which issued such crescendo squeaks that there could be no mistake as to the locality of the sound. The little ball was so beautifully made and so neatly rounded that there was not the slightest aperture to be seen, and Archie turned it over and over in his hand in some perplexity.
"What can it be?" cried Peggy.
"Do open it!" piped Bobby.
"Oh, _do_ be careful! Suppose it"s a viper!" shrieked Lilian.
"You goose! Vipers don"t squeal, at any rate," said Archie, whose friendship had reached a degree of intimacy that was distinctly brotherly; and gingerly pulling asunder the neatly-woven gra.s.s, he disclosed to view a plump yellow dormouse, whom they had evidently disturbed in his winter quarters.
The little fellow lay flat on his back in the midst of his snug little nest. He had not taken the trouble to open his eyes, but his paws were crossed, and his pink mouth was open, giving vent to loud disapproval of the b.u.mpings to which he had been rudely subjected unawares.
"My! ain"t he cunning?" said Archie, stroking the soft fur with his finger, while the others crowded round to look. "And so clean, too; he looks as if you had just loaned him new from a store, and he"s as fat as b.u.t.ter. He"s been feeding up for this, I reckon. What shall I do with him?"
"Oh! can"t we keep him for a pet?" implored Peggy, with an eye on the ever-increasing menagerie. "We could get nuts and acorns and things for him, and I"ve no doubt he would eat corn, too."
"I guess he"ll want to sleep now right away till spring, like our grizzlies do in the fall."
"Let"s wrap him up again," said Lilian. "I"m sure he"ll catch cold, poor dear! and we"ll put him in a snug corner of the orchard, where we can look at him now and then, and in the spring perhaps he"ll wake up."
As this seemed the most humane suggestion, Master Dormouse was tucked up in bed once more, and, still protesting, was carried to a sunny bank under an apple-tree, and stowed away under a protecting clump of leaves, where his plaintive voice gradually subsided, and he settled down for five months of oblivion, to ignore the winter frosts and storms until the April sunshine should tempt him out of his lair.
The moss lining to Sky Cottage was a great success, Archie arranged willow withs in a neat pattern over it, to keep it from falling down, and everyone agreed that it looked charming. Furnishing was the next consideration, and the attics and lumber-room at the Abbey were ransacked for any treasures they might afford. A few broken chairs, and a rickety gate-legged table were soon mended by Archie"s clever fingers.
Lilian hunted out an old piece of carpet and a tablecloth, and the place looked so comfortable that the children, fired by Archie"s accounts of the log-cabins in the Rocky Mountains, longed to put in a cooking-stove and emigrate there altogether. They decided to have quite a garden on the platform next spring, and to grow seeds in pots, and persuade nasturtiums and canary-creepers to climb up the walls, and they made a beginning by hauling up a box of soil, and planting some ivy, which they hoped in time would cover the whole roof.
Peggy and Bobby would have been quite content to go on adding a nail here or a shelf there, and further making improvements, but Archie, now that the chief work was over, found his interest cooling, and having got hold of a book on "Balloons and Air-Ships," proposed no less daring a scheme than that he should construct a flying machine, and start it from the platform. Father, however, getting to hear of the project, forbade it so emphatically that the disgusted aeronaut was obliged to give way, and consoled himself by constructing a fire-balloon out of gay strips of pink and green tissue-paper, which, ignited by methylated spirits, was to be set off with great effect on Peggy"s birthday.
As some slight amends for his disappointment, Lilian proposed that they should have a grand housewarming at Sky Cottage on Sat.u.r.day afternoon, and invite Father to tea in the sanctum. The rest giving a hearty and vigorous approval, she set to work to bake cakes in honour of the occasion, preserving such a halo of mystery round her cookery that the others were consumed with curiosity, and felt ready for any surprises.
There were a great many preparations to be made when the eventful afternoon arrived. The hut had to be swept and dusted, late flowers to be gleaned from the garden to decorate the tea-table, cups and saucers packed up and conveyed in baskets, together with the little tin kettle and the methylated spirit lamp, as they could scarcely light a fire on the platform like they did for picnic teas in the woods. Archie hung up a j.a.panese lantern in the doorway, and fixed a Union-Jack on one side, and the star-spangled banner of the United States on the other, and Peggy found enough Michaelmas daisies and white asters to put a wreath all round the railing of the veranda, which rather suggested harvest decorations, but looked very festive all the same.
They had brought a clean tablecloth from the kitchen drawer, and set the table quite artistically, with a jam-pot full of flowers in the centre, and little plates full of cakes grouped round it. Lilian put out a very tempting looking selection of rock-buns and ginger-nuts, and Archie produced a tin of real Scotch shortbread and some macaroons, a contribution from his aunt; so with bread-and-b.u.t.ter, and a pot of the newly-made blackberry jam, there was quite a n.o.ble display. But Lilian had kept her surprise in the background, and it was only when all was ready that she opened a basket, and proudly drew out her masterpiece, a substantial-looking cake, with a cut-paper frill, and white icing on the top, on which in pink sugary letters were inscribed the words: "Success to Sky Cottage!" Certainly some of the capitals were a little staggery, and the "y" had strayed into the pink border round the edge, but it was felt to be a triumph of culinary art all the same, and gave quite a grace to the table.
At the last minute Father had been obliged to send his regrets and apologies, for the veterinary surgeon had arrived to doctor a sick horse, and he could not possibly leave the stables, so the tea-party must perforce begin without him, for the days were growing short now, and there was no time to spare.
It was a merry, not to say boisterous, party, for Archie was in one of his funniest moods, and told "tall" Yankee stories till the children nearly rolled off their seats with laughter, and Lilian went on pouring into her overflowing cup till the tray was swimming with tea. The cake looked such a work of art that, as Mrs. Squeers remarked of her Yorkshire pie, it seemed "quite a pity to cut into it"; but, seizing the knife, Peggy boldly severed the "s" and the "u," and with Aunt Helen"s wedding festivities fresh in their memories, the company drank the health of Sky Cottage in tea, clinking their cups together over the table in imitation of old Squire Henley.
They were in the very midst of one of Archie"s most comical adventures, when a shout was heard underneath the tree, and going out on to the veranda, they beheld Nancy struggling timorously up the staircase, her evident anxiety to make some communication overcoming her natural abhorrence of such an airy structure.
"Oh, Miss Lilian," she panted, "if there isn"t Mrs. Davenport just arrived in her pony-shay, and she"s put it up in the yard, and says she"s sure you"ll give her a cup of tea! So I left her sittin" in the drawing-room lookin" at the photo-alb.u.ms, and rushed off to tell you she"s here!"
"_What_ a nuisance!" groaned Lilian, who was not generally inhospitably disposed. "Run back, Nancy, quick, and be getting some tea ready, and I"ll follow you! I must bring these cakes; they"re the only ones we have!"
She bundled the remains of the feast into her basket, and had just descended the stairs, escorted by the sympathizing Peggy and Bobby, when round the corner of the large haystack suddenly loomed the tall figure and black alpaca skirts of Mrs. Davenport, who, finding herself left longer in the drawing-room than she appreciated, had sallied forth in search of her hostess. She stopped short now, quite thunderstruck at the vision before her.
"What do I see?" she exclaimed. "What mad folly is this? Really, Lilian, I am astonished that you countenance such wild proceedings! Peggy I knew was a sad tomboy, but I thought you, at least, were the sensible member of the family, and would try to train the younger ones into more civilized habits. I had heard from Miss Forster that that very indulged and unmanageable nephew of hers had been making some sort of place in a tree at the Abbey, but I never imagined so much as this. Sheer waste of good time, I call it; and a boy who can expend so much energy as to raise such a construction must be only shamming ill-health, and would be far better packed off to school. I shall tell his aunt so the next time I see her, and I don"t care who hears me!" she added, catching sight of a grinning face on the veranda, for Archie had stolen out to see the fun, and overflowed in such gurgles of delight at this sally that Lilian trembled for the result.
"You had better come down, Archibald," said Mrs. Davenport in her most majestic voice. But Master Archie evidently thought discretion the better part of valour, for he dived through the doorway like a rabbit into a burrow, his overwrought feelings so far overcoming him that he exploded into a tremendous c.o.c.k-crow as he sought the friendly shelter of Sky Cottage.
An embarra.s.sing silence followed, broken at last by Lilian, who asked Mrs. Davenport if she would not like to return to the house. Peggy and Bobby tried, as Archie expressed it, to "do a slope," but in vain, for, saying she had not seen them for a long time, and should like to talk to them, their unwelcome visitor took the dismayed pair into custody like a female policeman, and whirled them sternly along before her.
It really was too bad that Mrs. Davenport, instead of coming upon a Wednesday or Thursday, when all would have been neatness and order, and Nancy in her best black dress and muslin ap.r.o.n, should have chosen this particular Sat.u.r.day afternoon, when there was no fire in the drawing-room, a pile of mending on the dining-room table, and all the family in somewhat dishevelled array.
"But she always does manage to catch us, somehow," lamented Lilian afterwards. "She calls it "taking us just as we are," but then we _aren"t_ generally in a muddle like this, so it doesn"t seem quite fair.
She ought to come sometimes when we are tidy, to see both sides."
Once established in an armchair by the dining-room fire, Mrs. Davenport took off her gloves, untied her veil, and enjoyed herself thoroughly.
She catechized Lilian freely about her housekeeping arrangements, hoped Nancy did her duty, and did not neglect to sweep out corners, told Bobby that his irrepressible curls looked girlish, and his hair ought to be cropped close every week, plied Peggy with embarra.s.sing questions on the subject of fine needlework and stocking-darning, and drank four cups of tea in the meantime, with the air of one conferring a favour thereby.
"I hear you see a good deal of Miss Forster"s nephew," she remarked, her eye wandering round the room, and taking in the pile of untidy music scattered about on the window-seat and Father"s dirty shooting-boots under the sofa.
"I suppose we do," said Lilian meekly, wondering privately where Archie was, and if he would go home without saying good-bye.
"Not a very suitable companion for any of you, I consider. Young people in America are brought up to have far too good an opinion of themselves, and this lad is no exception. I was not at all pleased with his manner when I met him at the Willows," frowning slightly at the remembrance; for Archie"s cool and elaborately courteous treatment of her criticisms on that occasion had completely baffled her.
But luckily the growing dusk reminded Mrs. Davenport that country lanes were unpleasant to drive along in the dark, so drawing on her gloves she routed her groom, a small, depressed-looking boy, out of the harness-room, where he was retailing his grievances to the awe-stricken Joe, and tucked her black skirts safely into her pony-carriage, a.s.suring the children that it should not be long before she looked them up again, as she had promised their aunt to keep an eye on them after they were left alone. Half-way down the drive she met Mr. Vaughan, and stopped to give him some good advice as to the general upbringing of his family, even suggesting that Peggy--for a yearly consideration--should be transplanted to Pendlefield Rectory, to share the studies and maternal care of the five little Davenports, a proposal which he declined with a haste that was perhaps more emphatic than polite.
With a sigh of relief Lilian had adjourned with Peggy to the kitchen to help Nancy to wash up, when the back-door was softly pushed ajar.
"Is she gone?" said a cautious voice, and a fluffy red head appeared in the opening, only followed by the rest of Archie"s body on the full a.s.surance of the entire retreat of the enemy. "I thought I should have died with laughing," announced that youth, sitting down easily among the crockery on the table. "My stars! Isn"t she a terror? I shall have to keep clear of the Willows every afternoon next week, for I know she"ll make a point of calling and telling poor Aunt Mary her candid opinion of me. What a mercy we live at Gorswen instead of Pendlefield! Think of exchanging the Rector for _her_ and little crushed Mr. Davenport! If she came to live any nearer than four miles away, I declare I would pack my boxes and beg to be sent off to school!"
CHAPTER XVII
DAME ELEANOR"S GHOST
"What see you there That hath so cowarded and chased your blood Out of appearance?"
The weather, which had been beautifully fine and mild for the time of year during October and the first half of November, kept up for Peggy"s birthday on the twenty-first. By good luck that important occasion fell on a Sat.u.r.day, so there was no tiresome school to interfere with the festivities. As the Vaughan family was more rich in goodwill than in coin of the realm, the presents were mostly of a kind which I am afraid either Maud Middleton or Phyllis and Marjorie Norton would have scorned, but to Peggy they gave the utmost satisfaction. There was the much-longed-for guinea-pig from Father, which had been smuggled up in a hamper, and kept with elaborate care in a remote portion of the barn (a secret which Bobby found the utmost difficulty in preserving); a nightdress case worked by Lilian"s neat fingers; a cork frame from Bobby, made under Archie"s supervision; a round pink-and-white wool mat, which Nancy had crocheted at odd times during the evenings; and a little mug from Joe, with a Welshwoman in a tall hat on one side, and "A present from Llandrindod" on the other, bought on a visit to the famous wells which he had paid in company with the church choir. Archie came up during the morning bearing a pretty writing-case, an offering from himself and Miss Forster, while a parcel had arrived from India, containing the loveliest carved sandal-wood box, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, to show that Aunt Helen had not forgotten her little niece.