Chapter VI: The Winner of the Prize

Aunt Marian found it very difficult to decide who was to have the prize; for though many had brought home very sorry portions of fruit, others had clearly gathered with a right good-will, and two of the company had so well filled their cans, that not only was the fruit quite up to the rim but it was piled up in the centre as well, so as to make the vessel carry as much as possible.

Aunt Marian was reduced at last to weighing the cans, and thus testing to an ounce who had gathered the most; and in this manner the question was at once and definitely set at rest, for one can weighed a whole pound more than the others. And this can, having been held up for general inspection, was claimed by Fred, who was consequently proclaimed the winner of the prize, and the king of the afternoon revels.

All the company shouted and cheered, and loud huzzas sounded through the housekeeper's room, as Fred, blushing over head and ears, came forward at Aunt Marian's request.

"I had two prizes prepared," she said, in a pleasant voice, "in case any two cans had proved of the same exact weight, and my little friend Kathleen bade fair, I thought, until I weighed the two vessels, to have claimed the second one; but the difference of a whole pound in weight must, of course, be a decisive proof of victory. So, Master Frederick Malcomson, allow me to present to you, in the name of the illustrious jam-picking and preserving company, this bow, arrow, and quiver, made of the best wood, well seasoned, and with these padded guards for your arms and fingers. They have only just arrived from London; and the case in which you are to keep them is over there on the side-table in the window."

Again the shout rose loud and long, and again Fred blushed until the hot tears actually stood in his eyes; but so confused was he that he uttered no word of thanks, but simply took the gift out of his aunt's hand, and walked away towards the door.

"Before you go, Fred," said Aunt Marian, "I have a few more words to say." Fred turned back, and the blush having died out of his face, it now looked almost deadly white. "To-morrow I am going to give you all another chance of winning the second prize."

"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted a chorus of voices.

"The cook is going to make all the preserves this afternoon, or at least a great part of them, and to-morrow morning she will finish the remainder, so that after luncheon all will be ready for the various pots to be covered. In this I am again going to claim all your assistance; and whoever should have neatly covered the largest number of pots by the time the first gong sounds for dinner, shall have a prize fully as handsome as the one given to-day; and if there should be more than one winner, a prize of the same value shall be given to each."

Once more the vaulted roof of the housekeeper's room rang with acclamations; and Aunt Marian having added that of course no one need enter into the competition who did not like the occupation, left the room with her fingers tightly pressed over her ears, that she might not hear the deafening shouts of her grateful and admiring guests.

Having once taken possession of the housekeeper's room, the children proceeded to have all kinds of fun and jollification. They induced the good-natured old dame to give them raisins and figs, and nuts and almonds; they ducked for apples, and played blind-man's-buff, prisoners' base, family coach, &c., until the housekeeper's patience began to flag, when one of the party espying a bottle of spirits of wine in one of the multitudinous presses around the room, he proceeded to take it down, and having fetched some salt from the kitchen, he proposed to make a ghost. This suggestion was hailed with acclamation; so, pouring the spirits of wine over a large dish full of salt, he set fire to it, and having got possession of a long white table-cloth, and a carpet-twig, he enveloped himself in the cloth, and raising it to an immense height by the stick and the head of the twig, which was also secured within the cloth, he seized on the burning dish, the lurid fumes of which gave him the most supernatural appearance, and, followed by all the rest of the party on tip-toe, he suddenly burst open the door of the still-room, and with a loud yell displayed himself to the maid who was at work inside.

The trick was perhaps a trifle too successful, as the unfortunate girl went off into a violent fit of hysterics, and Aunt Marian had finally to be summoned; at which suggestion the whole party instantly dispersed, and, dropping the twig and cloth in their flight, hurried away to the garrets of the Hall, where a sort of gloomy and unfurnished room offered them a good space for expanding and exercising their hilarious spirits.

It was not till the gong sounded the half hour before dinner that the riots upstairs ended, and the noisy troop came clattering down, each turning off aside to their own rooms on the various corridors to dress and to make themselves tidy and neat for dinner; while Harry and Fred, quite out of breath, hurried to their room also, for they were nearly tired out with all the racing and chasing of the day, and they wanted to have ten minutes' rest before they began the arduous work of dressing. But Kathleen, whose toilet was more a work of art, and who found it difficult enough to put on all her clothes without the assistance she usually received at home, went straight to her own room, and began the tedious task of rearranging her hair, which had become sadly tossed in the romping and fun upstairs.

The door, however, between the two rooms stood slightly ajar; and presently Kathleen heard, to her dismay, the following colloquy taking place between the two brothers:--

"I say, Fred," cried Harry, who had evidently just approached the dressing-table to smooth his hair,--"I say, Fred, here's a note addressed to you pinned on the pin-cushion. What a rum idea! I wonder who it can be from?"

"A note for me!" cried Fred, springing up from the bed on which he had been lounging. "Why, who on earth could have written to me? It's some trick some of the fellows have been playing off on me. Here, chuck it across to me, Harry."

"I doubt its being a trick, for it's uncommonly like Aunt Marian's handwriting; ain't it? In fact, I'm sure it is; for I know her F's and M's as well as I know my own. What can she want to write to you for, Fred, when you are in the house and nothing to do but speak to you?"

"I am sure I don't know," replied Fred, who had now evidently got possession of the letter, for Kathleen could hear the crackling of the note-paper as he opened out its folds; and then there followed a prolonged silence, which was ultimately broken by Harry.

"Well, Fred, will you never have done reading that stuff? What is it about?"

"It's simply the greatest piece of humbug I ever heard of in my life," said Fred in a husky voice, which evidently betokened both vexation and dismay. "Because I put five or six stones at the bottom of my can, to keep the cabbage-leaves in their places, she says I have not fairly won the prize, and that Kathleen ought to have it instead of me."

At this Kathleen drew a sharp breath of surprise, and her lace flushed with the sudden distress of the moment, while she hesitated painfully whether to go in and disclaim any wish to rob Fred of his prize, or to risk the chance of Fred's anger at her appearance. Harry, however, broke in on her thoughts with another question.

"And why on earth did you not tell Aunt Marian the stones were in your can, Fred, when you knew she was going to weigh it? I think it was a trifle shabby, I must say."

"Who cares what you think? But it's just the image of you to come down on a fellow when he's in a fix."

"Why, what fix are you in?"

"Simply this, that Aunt Marian says if I put the stones in without thinking of the probability that the fruit might have to be weighed, she will allow me to keep the bow and arrow for myself; but that if I can't answer this question with a clear conscience--'clear conscience,'--rubbish! interpolated Fred angrily--"she would rather I put them back in the boudoir where she could find them, and that no more would be said to me on the subject; but that in any case she thinks Kathleen ought to get a prize, as, without the stones, her can weighed half a pound more than mine."

"Well, I must say that sounds as fair as fair can be," cried Harry, when his brother had ended his complaint. "Of course, if you didn't put the stones in on purpose, it's all right; and if you did, why, it was simply cheating, and you have no right whatever to the prize."

"I'd like to see how you make that out," cried Fred hotly.

"Why, just this way: When you put the stones in your can this morning, did it come into your head that the fruit might be weighed afterwards, or not?"

"That's a simply absurd question. How can I tell what came into my head? I might have thought a thousand things and never remembered them afterwards."

"But did you recollect, when you saw Aunt Marian taking the cans into the larder to be weighed, that you had put the stones into yours?"

"Well, suppose I did; what then?"

"Why, there is no more to be said about it If you did know the stones were in it, and yet made no remark, it was simply cheating and nothing else."

"Oh, what a wonderfully honest fellow you are, to be sure! You did not offer to put some of your own raspberries into Kathleen's can this morning, did you? because you did not care about the prize yourself, and you wanted her to have it. That would have been 'as fair as fair could be,' of course; but to help to fill mine with stones is cheating."

"I know I was wrong," cried Harry, speaking confusedly in his turn.

"Oh yes! of course you can say that now."

"I knew it then, and confessed it too, when Kathleen said she would not do it; and, what's more, unless you had been hiding somewhere you could never have heard what we said. I had a pretty sharp guess before now who it was helped himself out of my can of rasps, but now I know it."

"Oh, boys!" cried Kathleen, opening the door with tearful eyes, and flushed, anxious face. "The gong will sound in a moment, and you will not be dressed; and as to the prize--indeed--indeed, Fred, I don't want it, and I would much rather you had it."

"Don't say that to him; he ought to put it back," cried Harry hurriedly, dragging on his evening jacket; but before Fred could utter his indignant reply, the gong did sound, and there was no time for more words.

The three children all looked uncomfortable and nervous enough when they entered the dining-room; while heavy tears of wounded pride shone far back in Fred's eyes; but in the general clatter and bustle of the meal, their appearance attracted little attention.

Aunt Marian said nothing to Fred, but immediately after dinner she went out by the far door leading into her boudoir, and remained away some time. When she returned, she seemed, Kathleen thought, rather distressed and unhappy; but, with her usual good-nature, she immediately set about entertaining and amusing her guests, and, according to the morning's agreement, made Fred the director and promoter of all the fun.

Fred, however, was not in his customary spirits, and Harry was decidedly out of sorts, so the evening flagged a little, and the games had not their usual zest for the company. Thus all seemed equally glad when the revels were pronounced over for the night, and that the time for bed had come.

Kathleen, on whose eyelashes the tears had been hanging all the evening, slipped up nearly the first, and hid herself in the darkness of her own room, that she might cry out the trouble that was oppressing her. But when she did at length light her candle, and had set it down on the table, quite a sharp cry burst from her lips; for there, almost under her very fingers, lay a spacious parcel directed to herself, with "First Prize" printed on its cover in large letters.

Poor Kathleen! At another time her heart would have throbbed with ecstatic joy at the sight of the beautiful rosewood desk, completely and elaborately furnished with every sort of handsome writing materials; but as it was, she only closed the lid with a sob, and wished with all her heart that the day's trial had ended, as it had promised to do in the forenoon, in Fred's victory and triumph instead of his discomfiture and disgrace.