Vivian's Lesson

by Elizabeth W. Grierson

‘Oh no, we sha’n’t be dull; it looks a jolly place,’ cried both the boys at once, for they were passionately fond of the sea, and were never at a loss to find occupation when they were within reach of it. ‘Why, we will soon learn to know all about a boat, and we can make a model of one in the winter. We tried to make one once at home, but we had nothing to copy from. But what a road for a carriage! Do you think the man will ever manage to get down with all those boxes?’

‘He is accustomed to it, I expect,’ said Mr Maxwell. See, he has long skids to put on the wheels to keep the coach back. He comes over here three days a week, so he knows the road well. Besides, the Rectory is not very far down; that is it, that big red house among the trees at the top of the main street. Well, I hope that the lady I spoke of has a good tea waiting for us.’

The driver had arranged his skids and climbed up to his seat once more; glancing over his shoulder with a cheery ‘To the Rectory, sir?’ he cracked his whip, and the coach began its lumbering descent. It needed skilful driving; but the man knew what he was about, and in less than five minutes he had turned his horses in at the low wooden gate which led to the Rectory grounds.

‘Hallo! there are quite a lot of people at the door,’ said Ronald in a bewildered voice, and then he gave a shout of glad surprise. ‘Look, Vivi, look!’ he cried. ‘There is father and mother, and Uncle Walter and Aunt Dora, and all the others. Even Isobel, not on a chair at all, but walking about like the rest.’

And there, indeed, they all were, crowding round the coach, with eager greetings helping the boys to jump down, and lifting out their numerous packages.

‘Vivi has comed back to me, mine own Vivi!’ cried little Dorothy, forsaking for once her elder brother in her joy at finding her younger one; while Isobel, taller and thinner than she had been at Christmas-time, and with closely cropped hair, linked her arm in Vivian’s, whispering in delight, ‘Isn’t this jolly? And aren’t you astonished to see us all here? We came to give you a surprise, and we are to stay a whole month. Uncle Jack only arrived this afternoon; but auntie and Dorothy came two days ago, and we came last night. We are living in that white house down there; you can see the chimneys just over the garden wall, and I have left my stupid old chair behind me. The doctor says I do not need it any more.’

Then they all went in to tea, in the low, old-fashioned dining-room, with its mullioned windows which looked out over the sea.

And such a tea it was, to be sure! There was newly baked bread, and fresh boiled eggs, and a great dish of shrimps which the children had caught in the pools that morning; and delicious butter and honey, and a pile of hot girdle cakes, and a round orange-cake, Vivian’s favourite, which Aunt Dora had brought all the way from London with her.

Mrs Armitage sat at the head of the table, and Mr Maxwell at the foot, and it seemed as if every one laughed and talked and ate as they had never laughed and talked and eaten in their lives before.

‘I think I have never been at such a jolly tea-party,’ said Ronald, when at last he had to own that he was satisfied, and could not tackle even a tiny piece more of Aunt Dora’s orange-cake.