naturally at present the most prominent person at 'the moorings' was miss mitchell. hers was a task which required a combination of a number of very high qualities. it needed force of character and tact, initiative and patience, energy and experience. to reorganise an old school is a far more difficult matter than to start an entirely new one, especially when those responsible for the former régime have not absolutely retired. to a certain extent the misses pollard had given their teacher a free hand, but she realised that at first it would be wise to go slowly and not make the changes too drastic. she did not yet know what stuff she had to work upon, the characters or capacities of her pupils, or their readiness to adopt her ideas. while leading the school, she wished it to be self-developing, that is to say, she thought it better to give the girls a few general directions, and allow them to run their own societies, than to arrange all such matters for them.
"never mind if they make a few mistakes," she said to miss fanny, who held up her hands in horror at some of the names chosen to serve on committees. "if a secretary proves inefficient, the others will very soon call her a 'slacker,' and she will have to reform or resign. it will be a question of public opinion. a girl may shirk her lessons in school and her classmates don't much care, but if she shirks the work she has undertaken to do for a society they will be very indignant. these clubs are an elementary object-lesson in community life, and will teach that each individual must do something for the general good. the girls must 'feel their feet' before they can run; they'll probably have difficulties but they'll learn by experience, and in the meantime they'll be shaping their own traditions."
"ye-es; i suppose you're right," dubiously agreed miss fanny, whose ideal of management was to trust everything in the hands of a few girls whom she knew best and discourage any signs of individuality on the part of the others.
as regards the work of the various forms miss mitchell, helped by her assistant mistress miss barnes, made many innovations. she introduced new subjects and fresh modes of teaching, and fixed a very high standard of efficiency. she expected great concentration, and exacted hard work, especially in the matter of home preparation, but she was an exceedingly interesting teacher and put much enthusiasm into her lessons. she had a theory that no subject was really absorbed unless it was vividly realised by the pupils.
"imagination is half the value of education" was her favourite saying. "a child may reel off a string of facts, but unless it can apply them they are undigested mental food and of no use. what i want to do is to find out how far each girl understands what she has learnt. mere parrot repetition is quite valueless in my opinion, and most public examinations are little better."
miss mitchell's method of testing the knowledge of her pupils was undoubtedly modern. she would teach them certain episodes of history, explaining particularly the characters of the various personages and the motives for their actions, then, instead of a verbal or written catechism on the lesson, she would make the girls act the scene, using their own words, and trying as far as possible to reproduce the atmosphere of the period. free criticism was allowed afterwards, and any anachronisms, such as tea in the times of queen elizabeth, or tobacco during the wars of the roses, were carefully pointed out. most of the girls liked this new method immensely. it encouraged their dramatic instincts, and resembled impromptu theatricals. it was a point of honour to throw themselves thoroughly into the parts, and they would often prepare themselves at home by reading up various points in histories or encyclopaedias. this was exactly what miss mitchell aimed at.
"they're educating themselves!" she explained to miss fanny. "they'll never forget these facts that they have taken the trouble to find out. once a girl has realised the outlook of mary queen of scots or elizabeth, and has learnt to impersonate her without glaring mistakes, she has the keynote to the history of the times. when she has spoken to 'darnley,' 'black both-well,' 'rizzio,' 'john knox,' or to 'bacon,' 'raleigh,' 'essex,' and 'sidney,' she has turned mere names into real personages, and will be no more likely to confuse them than to mix up her friends. by supplying her own dialogue she shows exactly how much she knows of the character, and i am able to judge how far the lesson has been assimilated. fifteen years hence i venture to think scottish mary or queen elizabeth will still be vivid remembrances to her; but would she be able to tell the date of the battle of pinkie? and would it be of very vital importance whether she did or not? in my opinion to grasp the main motives of history and to follow the evolution of the british nation is far more necessary than memorising dates. of course, a few must be insisted on, or there would be no means of relative comparison, but these few, accurately learnt, are better than a number repeated glibly without any particular conception of their importance."
in the teaching of geography miss mitchell also put her theories into action. as taught in many schools she thought it was a wearisome subject.
"you don't want to knock into a child's head the names of the capes and bays of africa or the population of canada, but you want to give it some conception of the different countries on the face of god's earth. instead of making it learn the exports of italy, show it pictures of the orange groves and of gathering the olives, and it will name you the exports for itself. geography ought to be as interesting as a game."
and so indeed she contrived to make it. she had brought a magic lantern to school with her, and used it for most of her lessons, arranging thick curtains to darken the windows. she had a selection of good slides showing many different countries, and when her pupils were somewhat accustomed to these she would test their knowledge by exhibiting one and asking them where it was, whether in a hot or cold country, what kind of people lived in such a place, what fruits, flowers, and animals would be found there, and for what reasons british traders went to it. if the girls made mistakes she would show them again the particular slides relating to the place, explaining where they had been wrong, and taking them, by means of the eye, on a short foreign tour.
"imagine you're there and you'll feel quite travellers!" she would say. "now on this slide you notice a little pathway up the hill among some trees. if you could walk up that path what would you be likely to find? what language would the people, whom you met, speak? and how would they be dressed?"
geography on these lines became very attractive, and, as in the case of the history lessons, the girls eagerly looked out all kinds of points in books of reference so as to come to class armed with information about the birds, flowers, or native customs of some particular country. by visualising the place, imagining themselves to be there, and relating all they saw, they created such vivid mental pictures that they could almost believe they had spent the hour really in africa or south america, as the case might be.
"you'd know what clothes to take with you to india or canada at any rate," said miss mitchell, "and what sort of a life you must be prepared to live there. before the term is over i think you'll realise what british women are doing all over the globe. climatic conditions have an immense effect upon people and ought to be properly understood. the knowledge of these is the foundation of the brotherhood of races."
it was not only in history and geography that miss mitchell made innovations. french also was to be on a different method. it had always been a successful subject at 'the moorings,' though it had developed along old-fashioned lines. mademoiselle chavasse, however, had left, and the new mademoiselle came from a very up-to-date school of languages in london. she taught largely by the oral system, making her pupils repeat words and build them into sentences, like babies learning to talk. she used english as little as possible, trying to make them catch ideas in french without the medium of translation. thus, in a beginners' class she would hold up a book and say, "le livre," then placing it on the table or under the table would extend her sentence to show the use of the prepositions. the girls soon began to grasp the method, and learnt to reply in french to simple questions asked them, and were given by degrees a larger vocabulary and encouraged to try to express themselves, however imperfectly, in the foreign tongue. she also instituted french games, and set the whole school singing, "qui passe ce chemin si tard?" or "sur le pont d'avignon," while several of the fifth form who could write letters in french were put into correspondence with schoolgirls in france.
miss pollard and miss fanny, who had gasped a little at some of the drastic changes, were pleased with the improvement in the teaching of french, and still more so with the innovations with regard to music. this had been a very special subject at st. cyprian's college, where miss mitchell had been educated, and she was anxious to introduce some of the leading features. her theory was that most girls learn to play the piano, a few practise the violin, but hardly any are taught to understand and appreciate music, apart from their own often unskilful performances. she arranged, therefore, to hold a weekly class at which a short lecture would be given on the works of some famous composers, with musical illustrations. a few of the selections could be played by the pupils themselves or by miss fanny, and others could be rendered by a gramophone. the main object was to make the girls familiar with the best compositions and cultivate their musical taste.
"constant listening is the only way to learn appreciation," said miss mitchell. "you form a taste for literature by reading the best authors, not by trying to write poetry yourself! learning an instrument is a good training, but certainly only a part of music—to understand it and criticise it is quite another matter."
so all the school, including even the little girls, met to listen to the masterpieces of beethoven, chopin, or schubert, and were encouraged to note particular points and to discuss them intelligently.
"at the end of the term," said miss mitchell, "we'll have a concert, just among ourselves, and then i hope some of you will surprise me. you must all practise hard, because it will be a great honour to be asked to play on that particular afternoon."
in revising the curriculum of 'the moorings' upon these very modern lines, miss mitchell did not neglect the athletic side. the school did not yet possess a gymnasium, but there were classes for drill and calisthenics, and games were compulsory.
"a good thing too!" commented merle. "some of the girls are fearful slackers! they've never been accustomed to stir themselves. maude carey hardly knows how to run. i believe she thinks it's unladylike! and nesta would shirk if she could. those kids need a fearful amount of coaching. i shall have my work cut out with them."
merle, owing to her enthusiasm for sports, had been chosen as games captain, and was doing her best to cultivate a proper enthusiasm for hockey in the school. in this matter she had the full co-operation of the new mistress. merle liked miss mitchell, whose cheery, breezy, practical ways particularly appealed to her. merle was not given to violent affections, especially for teachers, so this attraction was almost a matter of first love. she, who had never minded blame at school, found herself caring tremendously for praise in class. it raised the standard of her work enormously. she could do very well if she tried. she had always poked fun at girls who took much trouble over home lessons, and had been accustomed to leave her own till the last possible moment. it was certainly a new phase to find her getting out her books immediately after tea, or practising for half an hour before breakfast. she was ready to do anything to win notice from miss mitchell, and was decidedly jealous that iva and nesta, being boarders, were able to see more of her, and thus establish a greater intimacy. merle always wanted to 'go one better' than the other monitresses. the status of all four was exactly equal, and so far there was no head girl at 'the moorings.' merle had indeed taken a most prominent part at the general meeting of the school, but though she might be the unacknowledged leader, that gave her no increased authority. sometimes her excess of zeal led to ructions. miss mitchell had strongly urged the necessity of improving the games, and particularly of training the juniors to play hockey properly. merle seized upon them at every opportunity and made them practise. one afternoon, as everybody filed out at four o'clock, she captured her recruits and began some instruction. but unfortunately it happened that winnie and joyce, who were her aptest pupils, were wanted by nesta for schemes of her own, and she came and called them in.
"can't spare them now!" objected merle briefly.
"sorry! but they'll have to come!"
"not if their games captain wants them!"
"i'm their hostel monitress!"
"miss mitchell asked me to see to the hockey!"
"then you must get day-girls to stay for your practice. i've instructions to see that all the boarders come straight back to the hostel after school!"
merle gave way with a very bad grace. she felt that nesta was interfering out of sheer officiousness.
"what a jack-in-office!" she grumbled under her breath. "i believe those boarders may do anything they like until tea-time. nesta needn't plume herself upon being prime favourite with miss mitchell. she may whisk joyce and winnie off now and spoil our practice, but i'll be even with her in some other way!"
in talking about the various school institutions, miss mitchell mentioned one day that there ought to be a general record of the various societies and their officers, and the work which they had undertaken to do.
"it should be kept in the study so as to be available any time for reference," she said. "it would be a far simpler method than having to ask the secretaries for particulars."
this gave merle an idea. she said nothing to her fellow-monitresses, but she at once began to compile the list which miss mitchell wanted. she was determined to do it beautifully. her handwriting was not remarkably good, so she decided to type it. there was a little typewriter in uncle david's consulting-room, which he allowed her to use, and though she was so far from being an adept at it that it actually took her longer than using pen and ink, she thought the result would justify the trouble. she meant to stitch the sheets together and fasten them inside a cardboard cover, decorated with an artistic design. she set to work upon it with much energy and enthusiasm.
she was leaving school one afternoon when muriel burnitt ran up to her.
"by the by, merle! can you give me the names of the committee of the
nature club? i can't just remember them all."
"what d'you want them for?" asked merle suspiciously.
"oh, to write out for miss mitchell! she was asking for a list the other day."
"fay macleod is secretary of the nature club. she'd be able to tell you exactly," temporised merle.
"so she would! i'll ask her to-morrow."
merle went home with her head in a whirl. it was quite evident that muriel had hit upon exactly the same idea as herself, and intended to present miss mitchell with a full record of the societies.
"only, hers will probably be written in an exercise-book and not be half as nice as mine! she mustn't forestall me, though! however artistic my list is, it will fall very flat if muriel gives hers in first. i've got to finish it somehow to-night and take it to school to-morrow morning. that's certain!"
when merle made up her mind about anything, nothing could move her. directly she got home she set to work upon the book-back, and toiled away at it, utterly ignoring her preparation. in vain mavis urged the claims of latin verbs and shakespeare recitation.
"i shan't stop till i've finished this!" declared merle stubbornly. "not if i sit up all night over it. bother the old 'merchant of venice' and beastly latin verbs! i'll glance through them at breakfast-time and trust to luck. surely miss mitchell will understand when she knows how busy i've been over this! i shall give it to her before nine o'clock."
"can't i help you? i've finished my prep."
"no, thanks! i want it to be entirely my own work."
merle was not so clever at drawing as mavis, but she contrived to turn out a very pretty cover all the same. she illuminated 'the moorings' in large letters upon it, and painted a picture of a boat moored to a jetty below, as being an appropriate design. she stitched the typed sheets, fastened the whole together, and tied it with a piece of saxe-blue ribbon (saxe was emphatically miss mitchell's pet colour), then she printed upon the back of it, 'with much love from your affectionate pupil merle ramsay.' she sat up over it long after mavis and aunt nellie had gone to bed, and, indeed, finished it hurriedly under the eyes of jessop, who was waiting to turn out the gas.
"can't i just look over my latin?" implored merle.
"not a word!" declared the old servant. "put those books away, miss merle, and go upstairs. we'll be having you with brain-fever at this rate! i don't approve of all these home lessons. why can't they teach you what they want to in school, i should like to know? that's what teachers are paid for, isn't it? i've no patience with this continual writing in the evenings. a nice bit of sewing would be more to my mind. you've not done more than an inch of that crochet pattern i taught you. being monitress is all very well, i daresay, but i'm not going to let you sit up till midnight, my dearie, over your books. not if i have to go myself to miss pollard, and tell her my mind about it."
merle had meant to wake up a little earlier and run through her preparation, but she was sleepier than usual next morning, and had to be roused by mavis. she opened her eyes most unwillingly.
"i never heard jessop bring the hot water. it can't be half-past seven!
oh, bother! i'd give all the world to be left quiet in bed! go away!"
"all right! stop in bed, and let muriel give her list to miss mitchell!" said mavis.
whereupon merle groaned, sat up, and began to pull on her stockings.
"guess i'll take the wind out of muriel's sails!" she murmured.
the list was beautifully wrapped up in a sheet of new tissue-paper, and merle carried it proudly to school. miss mitchell was generally in the study from about 8.45 till 9 o'clock, so there would be nice time to present it before call-over. on this particular morning, however, as fate would have it, the study was unoccupied. merle peeped in many times, went to the hostel, asked the boarders if they had seen miss mitchell, but was utterly unable to find her. she seemed to have mysteriously disappeared, and only walked in, from no one knew where, just in time to take the register. the fifth form marched away to its classroom, and merle's offering, for the present, was obliged to be consigned to the recesses of her desk.
latin was the first lesson, and as far as she was concerned it was a dismal failure. miss mitchell looked surprised at her ghastly mistakes, and one or two of the girls glanced at each other. merle was hot and flustered at the close of the hour, and closed her books with relief. she hoped to manage a little better in 'the merchant of venice,' which was at least an english subject. the girls were supposed to learn the notes, and were questioned upon them and upon the meaning of the passages, and she trusted to native wit and successful guessing to supply her answers. the teacher, however, very soon grasped the fact that merle knew nothing about the lesson, asked her to recite, and found that she broke down at the end of three lines.
"you're absolutely unprepared!" said miss mitchell scathingly. "a nice example for a monitress to set to the rest of the form! come to the study at eleven, and report yourself! i'm astonished at you, merle!"
a very depressed and humiliated monitress entered the study at 'interval' to receive her scolding.
"i can't understand you! you have been doing so well. why have you suddenly slacked off?" asked her inquisitor, who believed in getting to the bottom of things if a girl shirked her work.
merle, who was too much upset even to mention her reason, and who had left the offering inside her desk, said nothing, and only looked unutterably miserable. matters, therefore, were at rather a deadlock, when there was a tap at the door and mavis entered bearing the precious parcel.
"miss mitchell, please! in case merle won't tell, i've brought this. she sat up fearfully late last night doing it for you, and that's why she didn't do her prep. please excuse me for coming in!" and mavis bolted in much confusion.
miss mitchell unwrapped the parcel and looked critically at its contents.
"it's very kind of you to have made this for me, merle," she said, in a gentler voice. "i only wish it hadn't been at the expense of your preparation. i like the monitresses to do all they can for the school, but they must remember their own work comes first, and that they have to set an example to the rest. don't let a thing like this happen again! i thought you would have had more discretion. the list could have waited a day or two. i was not in such a hurry for it as all that. it was kindly meant, but a little excess of zeal, wasn't it? thank you for it all the same! there! i'll put it on my desk so that it will be always ready if i want to refer to it. now run along, or you won't have time to eat your lunch before the bell rings."
merle, hurrying to the dressing-room, inwardly congratulated herself.
"i got jolly well out of a bad business!" she thought. "miss mitchell wasn't very cross after all, and she liked the list! i've got mine in before muriel's anyway, and it's going to stay on her desk, so she'll always have something of mine right under her eyes. she fingered that saxe-blue ribbon rather lovingly! it exactly matches her sports coat! i'll make her a calendar for christmas and put the same kind of ribbon to hang it up by. but i don't mean to tell a single soul, in case muriel goes and does the same! miss mitchell is my property, not hers!"
