MONITRESS MERLE

CONTENTS

I. A LAST BATHE

II. A SCHOOL BALLOT

III. THE NEW MONITRESS

IV. CHAGMOUTH FOLK

V. MISS MITCHELL, B.A.

VI. FISHERMAIDENS

VII. MUSICAL STARS

VIII. YULE-TIDE

IX. FACING THE FOOTLIGHTS

X. THE MUMPS

XI. BAMBERTON FERRY

XII. FIFTH FORM JUSTICE

XIII. "THE KITTIWAKE"

XIV. THE HAUNTED TREE

XV. LEAVE-TAKINGS

XVI. THE TADPOLE CLUB

XVII. THE FOURTH OF JULY

XVIII. LOVE-IN-A-MIST


CHAPTER I

A Last Bathe


The warm, mellow September sunshine was streaming over the irregular
roofs and twisted chimneys of the little town of Chagmouth, and was
glinting on the water in the harbour, and sending gleaming, straggling,
silver lines over the deep reflections of the shipping moored by the side
of the jetty. The rising tide, lapping slowly and gently in from the
ocean, was floating the boats beached on the shingle, and was gradually
driving back the crowd of barefooted children who had ventured out in
search of mussels, and was sending them, shrieking with mirth, scampering
up the seaweed-covered steps that led to the fish market. On the crag-top
above the town the corn had been cut, and harvesters were busy laying the
sheaves together in stooks. The yellow fields shone in the afternoon
light as if the hill were crowned with gold.

Walking along the narrow cobbled path that led past the harbour and up on
to the cliff, Mavis and Merle looked at the scene around with that sense
of rejoicing proprietorship with which we are wont to revisit the pet
place of our adoption. It was two whole months since they had been in
Chagmouth, and as they both considered the little town to be the absolute
hub of the universe it was really a great event to find themselves once
more in its familiar streets. They had spent the summer holidays with
their father and mother in the north, and had come back to Durracombe
just in time for the reopening of school. On this first Saturday after
their return to Devonshire they had motored with Uncle David to his
branch surgery at Chagmouth, and were looking forward to several hours of
amusement while he visited his patients at the sanatorium.