Part 31 (1/2)
”Saint Catherine of Siena, of course,” said Prissy, for whom there was no other of the name; ”so I came to you, and I want you to let Tom and Jane have the cottage, and Jane can take up the sixpences in a little bra.s.s plate like the one Mr. Burnham gets from the churchwardens on Sunday. And, oh! but I would just love to help her.
May I sometimes, father?”
”Well,” said her father, laughing, ”there is perhaps something in what you say; but I don't think the Provost and Magistrates would ever agree. Now run away and play, and I will see what can be done.”
But all the same Prissy did not go and play, and it was not Mr. Picton Smith who saw what could be done. On the afternoon of the same day the Provost of the good town of Edam entered the Council Chamber wiping his face and panting vigorously. He was a stout man of much good humour when not crossed in temper, the leading chemist and druggist in the town, and as the proprietor of more houses and less education than any man in Edam, of very great influence among the councillors.
”Well, billies,” he cried jovially, ”what do you think? There's a la.s.s has keep'd me from the meetin' of this council for a full half-hour.”
”A la.s.s!” answered the senior bailie, still more hilariously, ”that's surely less than proper. I will be compelled to inform Mrs. Lamont of the fact.”
”Oh, it was a la.s.sie of twelve or thirteen,” answered the Provost. ”So none of your insinuations, Bailie Tawse, and I'll thank you. She had a most astonis.h.i.+ng tale to tell. It appears she is Picton Smith's la.s.sie from Windy Standard; and she says to me, says she, 'Provost, do you want to have the tourist folk that come to Edam admitted to the castle?' says she. 'Of course,' says I, 'that is what the law-plea is about. That dust is no settled yet.' 'Then,' says she, brisk as if she was hiring me at Yedam fair, 'suppose my father was willing to let ye charge a sixpence for admission, would you pay a capable man his wages summer and winter to look after it--a man that my father would approve of?' 'Aye,' says I, 'the council would be blythe and proud to do that'--me thinking of my sister's son Peter that was injured by a lamp-post falling against him last New Year's night as he was coming hame frae the Blue Bell. 'Then,' says she, 'I think it can be managed.
My father will put Tom Cannon in the lodge at the white bridge. You will pay him ten s.h.i.+llings in the week for his wife looking after the gate and taking the parties over the castle.' 'His wife,' says I; 'Tom is no married that ever I heard.' 'No,' says she, 'but he will be very quick if he gets the lodge.' Then I thocht that somebody had put her up to all this, and I questioned her tightly. But no--certes, she is a clever la.s.s. I verily believe if I had said the word she would hae comed along here to the council meeting and faced the pack o' ye. But I said to her that she might gang her ways hame, and that I would put the matter before the council mysel'!”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”'THEN,' SAID PRISSY, 'I THINK IT CAN BE MANAGED.'”]
The Provost, who had been walking up and down all the time and wiping his brow, finally plumped solidly into his chair. There was a mighty discussion--in which, as usual, many epithets were bandied about; but finally it was unanimously agreed that, if the offer were put on a firm and legal basis and the interdict withdrawn, the ”Smith's La.s.sie”
compromise, as it was called for brevity, might be none such a bad solution of the difficulty for all parties.
Thus by the wise thought and brave heart of a girl was the great controversy ended. And now the tourist and holiday-maker, each after his kind, pa.s.ses his sixpence into the slot of a clicking gate, instead of depositing it in the brazen offertory salver, which had been the desire of Prissy's heart.
”For,” said one of the councillors generously, when the plate was proposed, ”how do we know that Mrs. Cannon might not keep every second sixpence for herself--or maybe send it up to Mr. Smith? We all know that she was long a servant in his house. No, no, honesty is honesty--but it's better when well looked after. Let us have a patent 'clicker.' I have used one attached to my till for years, and found it of great utility in the bacon-and-ham trade.”
But the change made no difference to Hugh John and no difference to Toady Lion; for they came and went to the castle by the stepping-stones, and Cissy Carter took that way too, leaping as nimbly as any of them from stone to stone.
On the Sunday after this was finally arranged, Mr. Burnham gave out his text:--
”Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of G.o.d.”
And this is the way he ended his sermon: ”There is one here to-day whom I might without offence or flattery call a true child of G.o.d. I will not say who that is; but this I will say, that I, for one, would rather be such a peacemaker, and have a right to be called by that other name, than be general of the greatest army in the world.”
”I think he must mean the Provost--or else my father,” said Prissy to herself, looking reverently up to where, in the front row of the upper seats, the local chief magistrate sat, mopping his head with a red spotted handkerchief, and sunning himself in the somewhat sultry beams of his own greatness.
As for Hugh John, he declared that for a man who could row in a college boat, and who wors.h.i.+pped an old blue coat hung up in a gla.s.s case, Mr. Burnham said more drivelling things than any man alive or dead.
And Toady Lion said nothing. He was only wondering all through the service whether he could catch a fly without his father seeing him.--He found that he could not. After this failure he remembered that he had a brandy ball only half sucked in his left trousers'
pocket. He got it out with some difficulty. It had stuck fast to the seams, and finally came away somewhat mixed up with twine, sealing wax, and a little bit of pitch wrapped in leather. But as soon as he got down to it the brandy ball proved itself thoroughly satisfactory, and the various flavours developed in the process of sucking kept Toady Lion awake till the blessed ”Amen” released the black-coated throng.
Toady Lion's grat.i.tude was almost an entire thanksgiving service of itself.
As he came out through the crowded porch, he put his hand into his father's, and with a portentous yawn piped out in his shrillest voice, ”Oh, I is so tired.”
The smile which ran round the late wors.h.i.+ppers showed that Toady Lion had voiced the sentiments of many of Mr. Burnham's congregation.
At this moment Mr. Burnham himself came out of the vestry just in time to hear the boy's frank expression of opinion.