The Stokesley Secret | Page 8

"but I do not engage to let
you off any. I think having so good a use to put your money to should
make you more careful against forfeiting it."
"Yes," said Johnnie disconsolately.
"Well, I never get fined," cried Hal joyfully.
"Except for running up stairs in dirty shoes," said Sam.
"Oh! there's no dirt now."
"Let me see, what are the fines?" said Miss Fosbrook.
"Here's the list," said Susan; and sighing, she said, "I'm afraid I shall
never do it! If Bessie only would help!"
The fines of the Stokesley schoolroom were these for delinquencies--
each value a farthing -
For being dressed later than eight o'clock. For hair not properly brushed.
For coming to lessons later than five minutes after ten. For dirty hands.
For being turned back twice with any lesson. For elbows on the table.
For foolish crying. For unnecessary words in lesson-time. For running

up stairs in wet shoes. For leaving things about.
Each of these bits of misbehaviour caused the forfeit of a farthing out
of the weekly allowance. Susan looked very gloomy over them; but Hal
exclaimed, "Never mind, Susie; we'll do it all without you, never fear!"
"And now," said Sam, "I vote we have some fun in the garden."
Some readers may be disposed to doubt, after this specimen, whether
the young Merrifields could be really young ladies and gentlemen; but
indeed their birth might make them so; for there had been Squire
Merrifields at Stokesley as long as Stokesley had been a parish, and
those qualities of honour and good breeding that mark the gentleman
had not been wanting to the elder members of the family. The father of
these children was a captain in the navy, and till within the last six
years the children had lived near Plymouth; but when he inherited the
estate they came thither, and David and the two little ones had been
born at Stokesley. The property was not large; and as Captain
Merrifield was far from rich, it took much management to give all this
tribe of boys and girls a good education, as well as plenty of bread and
butter, mutton, and apple-pudding. There was very little money left to
be spent upon ornament, or upon pleasuring; so they were brought up
to the most homely dress suited to their station, and were left entirely to
the country enjoyments that spring up of themselves. Company was
seldom seen, for Papa and Mamma had little time or means for visiting;
and a few morning calls and a little dining out was all they did; which
tended to make the young ones more shy and homely, more free and
rude, more inclined to love their own ways and despise those of other
people, than if they had seen more of the world. They were a happy,
healthy set of children, not faulty in essentials, but, it must be
confessed, a little wild, rough and uncivil, in spite of the code of fines.

CHAPTER II
.

Mrs. Merrifield had taught her children herself, till Samuel and Henry
began going to the Curate for a couple of hours every day, to be
prepared for school. Lessons were always rather a scramble; so many
people coming to speak to her, and so many interruptions from the

nursery; and then came a time when Mamma always was tired, and
Papa used to come out and scold if the noises grew very loud indeed,
and was vexed if the children gave Mamma any trouble of any kind.
Next they were told they were to have a governess--a sort of piece of
finery which the little savages had always despised--and thereupon
came Miss Fosbrook; but before she had been a week in the house
Mamma was quite ill and in her bed-room, and Papa looked graver than
he had ever done before; and Mr. Braddon, the doctor, came very often:
and at last Susan was called into Mamma's room, and it was explained
to her that Mamma was thought so ill, that she must go to be under a
London doctor, and would be away, she could not tell how long; so that
meantime the children must all be left to Miss Fosbrook, with many
many injunctions to be good and obedient, for hearing that they were
going on well would be poor Mamma's only comfort.
It was three days since Captain and Mrs. Merrifield had gone; and Miss
Fosbrook stood at the window, gazing at the bright young green of the
horse-chestnut trees, and thinking many various thoughts in the lull that
the children had left when they rushed out of doors.
She thought herself quite alone, and stood, sometimes smiling over the
odd ways of her charges, and at what they put her in mind of,