"I know better than you do what you"ll eat," said Mother. "You"ll be hungry enough by this evening I can tell you, not getting any dinner."
Pin"s face fell at this prospect. "Oh, mother, won"t she really get any dinner?" she asked: and to her soft little heart going to school began to seem one of the blackest experiences life held.
"Why, she"ll be in the train, stupid, "ow can she?" said Sarah. "Do you think trains give you dinners?"
"Oh, mother, please cut ever such a lot!" begged Pin sniffing valiantly.
Laura began to feel somewhat moved herself at this solicitude, and choked down a lump in her throat with a gulp of tea. But when Pin had gone with Sarah to pick some nectarines, Mother"s face grew stern, and Laura"s emotion pa.s.sed.
"I feel more troubled about you than I can say, Laura. I don"t know how you"ll ever get on in life--you"re so disobedient and self-willed. It would serve you very well right, I"m sure, for not coming this morning, if I didn"t give you a penny of pocket-money to take to school."
Laura had heard this threat before, and thought it wiser not to reply.
Gobbling up the rest of her breakfast she slipped away.
With the other children at her heels she made a round of the garden, bidding good-bye to things and places. There were the two summer-houses in which she had played house; in which she had cooked and eaten and slept. There was the tall fir-tree with the rung-like branches by which she had been accustomed to climb to the very tree-top; there was the wilderness of bamboo and cane where she had been Crusoe; the ancient, broadleaved cactus on which she had scratched their names and drawn their portraits; here, the high aloe that had such a mysterious charm for you, because you never knew when the hundred years might expire and the aloe burst into flower. Here again was the old fig tree with the rounded, polished boughs, from which, seated as in a cradle, she had played Juliet to Pin"s Romeo, and vice versa--but oftenest Juliet: for though Laura greatly preferred to be the ardent lover at the foot, Pin was but a poor climber, and, as she clung trembling to her branch, needed so much prompting in her lines--even then to repeat them with such feeble emphasis--that Laura invariably lost patience with her and the love-scene ended in a squabble. Pa.s.sing behind a wooden fence which was a tangle of pa.s.sion-flower, she opened the door of the fowl-house, and out strutted the mother-hen followed by her pretty brood. Laura had given each of the chicks a name, and she now took Napoleon and Garibaldi up in her hand and laid her cheek against their downy b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the younger children following her movements in respectful silence. Between the bars of the rabbit hutch she thrust enough greenstuff to last the two little occupants for days; and everywhere she went she was accompanied by a legless magpie, which, in spite of its infirmity, hopped cheerily and quickly on its stumps. Laura had rescued it and reared it; it followed her like a dog; and she was only less devoted to it than she had been to a native bear which died under her hands.
"Now listen, children," she said as she rose from her knees before the hutch. "If you don"t look well after Maggy and the bunnies, I don"t know what I"ll do. The chicks"ll be all right. Sarah"ll take care of them, "cause of the eggs. But Maggy and the bunnies don"t have eggs, and if they"re not fed, or if Frank treads on Maggy again, then they"ll die. Now if you let them die, I don"t know what I"ll do to you! Yes, I do: I"ll send the devil to you at night when the room"s dark, before you go to sleep.--So there!"
"How can you if you"re not here?" asked Leppie.
Pin, however, who believed in ghosts and apparitions with all her fearful little heart, promised tremulously never, never to forget; but Laura was not satisfied until each of them in turn had repeated, in a low voice, with the appropriate gestures, the sacred secret, and forbidden formula:
Is my finger wet?
Is my finger dry?
G.o.d"ll strike me dead, If I tell a lie.
Then Sarah"s voice was heard calling, and the boys went out into the road to watch for the coach. Laura"s dressing proved a lengthy business, and was accomplished amid bustle, and scolding, and little peace-making words from Pin; for in her hurry that morning Laura had forgotten to put on the clean linen Mother had laid beside the bed, and consequently had now to strip to the skin.
The boys announced the coming of the coach with shrill cries, and simultaneously the rumble of wheels was heard. Sarah came from the kitchen drying her hands, and Pin began to cry.
"Now, shut up, res"vor!" said Sarah roughly: her own eyes were moist.
"You don"t see Miss Laura be such a silly-billy. Anyone "ud think you was goin", not "er."
The ramshackle old vehicle, one of Cobb"s Royal Mail Coaches, big-bodied, lumbering, scarlet, pulled by two stout horses, drew up before the door, and the driver climbed down from his seat.
"Now good day to you, ma"am, good day, miss"--this to Sarah who, picking up the box, handed it to him to be strapped on under the ap.r.o.n.
"Well, well, and so the little girl"s goin" to school, is she? My, but time flies! Well do I remember the day ma"am, when I drove you all across for the first time. These children wasn"t big enough then to git up and down be thimselves. Now I warrant you they can--just look at "em, will you?--But my! Ain"t you ashamed of yourself"--he spoke to Pin--"pipin" your eye like that? Why, you"ll flood the road if you don"t hould on.--Yes, yes, ma"am, bless you, I"ll look after her, and put her inter the train wid me own han"s. Don"t you be oneasy. The Lord he cares for the widder and the orphun, and if He don"t, why Patrick O"Donnell does."
This was O"Donnell"s standing joke; he uttered it with a loud chuckle.
While speaking he had let down the steps and helped the three children up--they were to ride with Laura to the outskirts of the township. The little boys giggled excitedly at his a.s.sertion that the horses would not be equal to the weight. Only Pin wept on, in undiminished grief.
"Now, Miss Laura."
"Now, Laura. Good-bye, darling. And do try and be good. And be sure you write once a week. And tell me everything. Whether you are happy--and if you get enough to eat--and if you have enough blankets on your bed.
And remember always to change your boots if you get your feet wet. And don"t lean out of the window in the train."
For some time past Laura had had need of all her self-control, not to cry before the children. As the hour drew near it had grown harder and harder; while dressing, she had resorted to counting the number of times the profile of a Roman emperor appeared in the flowers on the wallpaper. Now the worst moment of all was come--the moment of good-bye. She did not look at Pin, but she heard her tireless, snuffly weeping, and set her own lips tight.
"Yes, mother ... no, mother," she answered shortly, "I"ll be all right.
Good-bye." She could not, however, restrain a kind of dry sob, which jumped up her throat.
When she was in the coach Sarah, whom she had forgotten climbed up to kiss her; and there was some joking between O"Donnell and the servant while the steps were being folded and put away. Laura did not smile; her thin little face was very pale. Mother"s heart went out to her in a pity which she did not know how to express.
"Don"t forget your sandwiches. And when you"re alone, feel in the pocket of your ulster and you"ll find something nice. Good-bye, darling."
"Good-bye ... good-bye."
The driver had mounted to his seat, he unwound the reins cried "Get up!" to the two burly horses, the vehicle was set in motion and trundled down the main street. Until it turned the corner by the Shire Gardens, Laura let her handkerchief fly from the window. Sarah waved hers; then wiped her eyes and l.u.s.tily blew her nose. Mother only sighed.
"It was all she could do to keep up," she said as much to herself as to Sarah. "I do hope she"ll be all right. She seems such a child to be sending off like this. Yet what else could I do? To a State School, I"ve always said it, my children shall never go--not if I have to beg the money to send them elsewhere."
But she sighed again, in spite of the energy of her words, and stood gazing at the place where the coach had disappeared. She was still a comparatively young woman, and straight of body; but trouble, poverty and night-watches had scored many lines on her forehead.
"Don"t you worry," said Sarah. "Miss Laura"ll be all right. She"s just a bit too clever--brains for two, that"s what it is. An" children WILL grow up an" get big ... an" change their feathers." She spoke absently, drawing her metaphor from a brood of chickens which had strayed across the road, and was now trying to mount the wooden verandah--"Shooh! Get away with you!"
"I know that. But Laura--The other children have never given me a moment"s worry. But Laura"s different. I seem to get less and less able to manage her. If only her father had been alive to help!"
"I"m sure no father livin" could do more than you for those blessed children," said Sarah with impatience. "You think of nothin" else. It "ud be a great deal better if you took more care o" yourself. You sit up nights an" don"t get no proper sleep slavin" away at that blessed embroid"ry an" stuff, so as Miss Laura can get off to school an" to "er books. An" then you want to worry over "er as well.--She"ll be all right. Miss Laura"s like peas. You"ve got to get "em outer the pod--they"re in there sure enough. An" b"sides I guess school"ll knock all the nonsense out of "er."
"Oh, I hope they won"t be too hard on her," said Mother in quick alarm.--"Shut the side gate, will you. Those children have left it open again.--And, Sarah, I think we"ll turn out the drawing-room."
Sarah grunted to herself as she went to close the gate. This had not entered into her scheme of work for the day, and her cooking was still undone. But she did not gainsay her mistress, as she otherwise would have made no scruple of doing; for she knew that nothing was more helpful to the latter in a crisis than hard, manual work. Besides, Sarah herself had a sneaking weakness for what she called "dra"in"-room days". For the drawing-room was the storehouse of what treasures had remained over from a past prosperity. It was crowded with bric-a-brac and ornament; and as her mistress took these objects up one by one, to dust and polish them, she would, if she were in a good humour, tell Sarah where and how they had been bought, or describe the places they had originally come from: so that Sarah, pausing broom in hand to listen, had with time gathered some vague ideas of a country like "Inja", for example, whence came the little silver "paG.o.dy", and the expressionless bra.s.s G.o.d who squatted vacantly and at ease.
III.
As long as the coach rolled down the main street Laura sat bolt upright at the window. In fancy she heard people telling one another that this was little Miss Rambotham going to school. She was particularly glad that just as they went past the Commercial Hotel, Miss Perrotet, the landlord"s red-haired daughter, should put her fuzzy head out of the window--for Miss Perrotet had also been to boarding-school, and thought very highly of herself in consequence, though it had only been for a year, to finish. At the National Bank the manager"s wife waved a friendly hand to the children, and at the Royal Mail Hotel where they drew up for pa.s.sengers or commissions, Mrs. Paget, the stout landlady, came out, smoothing down her black satin ap.r.o.n.
"Well, I"m sure I wonder your ma likes sendin" you off so alone."
The ride had comforted Pin a little; but when they had pa.s.sed the chief stores and the flour-mill, and were come to a part of the road where the houses were fewer, her tears broke out afresh. The very last house was left behind, the high machinery of the claims came into view, the watery flats where Chinamen were for ever rocking washdirt in cradles; and O"Donnell dismounted and opened the door. He lifted the three out one by one, shaking his head in humorous dismay at Pin, and as little Frank showed sighs of beginning, too, by puckering up his face and [P.22] doubling up his body, the kindly man tried to make them laugh by asking if he had the stomach-ache. Laura had one more glimpse of the children standing hand in hand--even in her trouble Pin did not forget her charges--then a sharp bend in the road hid them from her sight.
She was alone in the capacious body of the coach, alone, and the proud excitement of parting was over. The staunchly repressed tears welled up with a gush, and flinging herself down across the seat she cried bitterly. It was not a childishly irresponsible grief like Pin"s: it was more pa.s.sionate, and went deeper; and her overloaded feelings were soon relieved. But as she was not used to crying, she missed the moment at which she might have checked herself, and went on shedding tears after they had become a luxury.
"Why, goodness gracious, what"s this?" cried a loud, cheerful and astonished voice, and a fat, rosy face beamed in on Laura. "Why, here"s a little girl in here, cryin" fit to break "er heart. Come, come, my dear, what"s the matter? Don"t cry like that, now don"t."
The coach had stopped, the door opened and a stout woman climbed in, bearing a big basket, and followed by a young man with straw-coloured whiskers. Laura sat up like a dart and pulled her hat straight, crimson with mortification at being discovered in such a plight. She had instantly curbed her tears, but she could not disguise the fact that she had red eyes and a swollen nose--that she was in short what Sarah called "all bunged up". She made no reply to the newcomer"s exclamations, but sat clutching her handkerchief and staring out of the window. The woman"s good-natured curiosity, however, was not to be done.
"You poor little thing, you!" she persisted. "Wherever are you goin", my dear, so alone?"
"I"m going to boarding-school," said Laura, and shot a glance at the couple opposite.
"To boardin"-school? Peter! D"you hear?--Why, whatever"s your ma thinkin" of to send such a little chick as you to boardin"-school? ...
and so alone, too."