Part 45 (1/2)

”But what is the meaning of it?”

The question was on her lips when her ear caught the note of a voice-- Nuncey's voice--and these words, low, and yet distinct--

”At the call 'Attention!' the whole body and head must be held erect, the chin slightly dropped, chest well open, shoulders square to the front, eyes looking straight forward. The arms must hang easily, with fingers and thumbs straight, close to one another and touching the thighs; the feet turned out at right angles or nearly. Now, please--'Tention!”--(a pause)--”You break my heart, you do! Eyes, I said, looking _straight forward_; and the weight of the body ought to rest on the front part of the foot--not tilted back on your heels and looking like a china cat in a thunderstorm. Now try again, that's a dear!”

Hester gazed around wildly at Calvin, who was twisting himself in silent contortions of mirth.

”Take a peep!” he gasped. ”She's courting Archelaus Libby, and teaching him to look like a man.”

”You odious child!” Hester, ashamed of her life to have been trapped into eavesdropping, and yet doubting her ears, strode past the edge of the rick and into full view.

Nuncey drew back with a cry.

”Hester Marvin!”

Hester's eyes travelled past her and rested on Archelaus. He, rigid at attention, caught and held there spellbound, merely rolled a pair of agonized eyes.

”Nuncey! Archelaus! What on earth are you two doing?”

”Learnin' him to be a Volunteer, be sure!” answered Nuncey, her face the colour of a peony. After an instant she dropped her eyes, her cheeks confessing the truth.

”But--but why?” Hester stared from one to the other.

”If he'd only be like other men!” protested Nuncey.

Hester ran to her with a happy laugh. ”But you wouldn't wish him like other men!”

”I do, and I don't.” Nuncey eluded her embrace, having caught the sound of ribald laughter on the other side of the rick. Darting around, she was in time to catch Master Calvin two cuffs, right and left, upon the ears.

He broke for the gate and she pursued, but presently returned breathless.

”'Tis wonderful to me,” she said, eyeing Archelaus critically and sternly, ”how ever I come to listen to him. But he softened me by talking about _you_. He's a deal more clever than he seems, and I believe at this moment he likes you best.”

”I don't!” said Archelaus firmly; ”begging your pardon, Miss Marvin.”

”I am sure you don't,” laughed Hester.

”Well, anyway, I'll have to tell father now,” said Nuncey; ”for that imp of a boy will be putting it all round the parish.”

But here Archelaus a.s.serted himself. ”That's my business,” he said quietly. ”It isn't any man's 'yes' or 'no' I'm afraid of, Miss Marvin, having stood up to _her_.”

CHAPTER XXVI.

MESSENGERS.

In Cornwall, they say, the cuckoo brings a gale of wind with him; and of all gales in the year this is the one most dreaded by gardeners and cidermen, for it catches the fruit trees in the height of their blossoming season, and in its short rage wrecks a whole year's promise.

Such a gale overtook the _Virtuous Lady_, homeward bound, in mid-Atlantic.

For two days and a night she ran before it; but this of course is a seaman's phrase, and actually, fast as the wind hurled her forward, she lagged back against it until she wallowed in its wake, and her crew gave thanks and crept below to their bunks, too dog-weary to put off their sodden clothes.

The gale pa.s.sed on and struck our south-western coast, devastating the orchards of Cornwall and Devon and carpeting them with unborn fruit-- _dulcis vitae ex-sortes_. Amid this unthrifty waste and hard by, off Berry Head, the schooner _One-and-All_ foundered and went down, not prematurely.