FullReads

ACT THE FIRST

WHERE IS THE ENEMY?

It was a very hot afternoon, and Hazel, Hilary, and Cecily Jolliffe were sitting under the big cedar on the lawn at The Gables. Each had her racket by her side, and the tennis-court lay, smooth and inviting, close by; but they did not seem inclined to play just then, and there was something in the expression of all three which indicated a common grievance.

‘Well,’ said Hazel, the eldest, who was nearly fourteen, ‘we need not have excited ourselves about the boys’ holidays, if we had only known. They don’t give us much of their society–why, we haven’t had one single game of cricket together yet!’

‘And then to have the impudence to tell us that they didn’t care much about our sort of cricket!’ said Hilary, ‘when I can throw up every bit as far as Jack, and it takes Guy three overs to bowl me! It’s beastly cheek of them.’

‘Hilary!‘ cried Cecily, ‘what would mother say if she heard you talk like that?’

‘Oh, it’s the holidays!’ said Hilary, lazily. ‘Besides, it is a shame! They would have played with us just as they used to, if it hadn’t been for that Clarence Tinling.’

‘Yes,’ Hazel agreed, ‘he hates cricket. I do believe that’s the reason why he invented this silly army, and talked Jack and Guy into giving up everything for it.’

‘They haven’t any will of their own, poor things!’ said Hilary.

‘You forget, Hilary,’ put in Cecily, ‘Tinling is the guest. They ought to give way to him.’

‘Well,’ said Hilary, ‘it’s ridiculous for great boys who have been two terms at school to go marching about with swords and guns. Big babies!’

Perhaps there was a little personal feeling at the bottom of this, for she had offered herself for enlistment, and had been sternly rejected on the ground of her sex.

‘I wish he would go, I know that,’ said Hazel, making a rather vicious little chop at her shoe with her racket; ‘those boys talk about nothing but their stupid army from morning to night. Uncle Lambert says they make him feel quite gunpowdery at lunch. And what do you think is the last thing they’ve done?–put up a great fence all round their tent, and shut themselves up there all day!’

‘Except when they’re sentries and hide,’ put in Hilary; ‘they’re always jumping up somewhere and wanting you to give the countersign. It isn’t like home, these holidays!’

‘Perhaps,’ suggested Cecily, ‘it makes things safer, you know.’

‘Duffer, Cis!’ cried Hilary, contemptuously, for Cecily had appointed herself professional peacemaker to the family, and her efforts were about as successful as such domestic offices ever are.

‘Look out!’ cried Hilary, presently; ‘they’re coming. Don’t let’s take the least notice of them. They hate that more than anything.’

From the shrubbery filed three boys, the first and tallest of whom wore an imposing dragoon’s helmet with a crimson plume, and carried a sabretache and crossbelts, and wore red caps like those of the French army; they carried guns on their shoulders.

‘Halt! ‘Tention! Dis-miss!’ shouted the commanding officer, and the army broke off with admirable precision.

‘Don’t be alarmed,’ said the General considerately to the three girls; ‘the army is only out on fatigue duty.’

‘Then wouldn’t the army like to sit down?’ suggested Hilary, forgetting all about her recent proposal.

‘Ah, you don’t understand,’ said General Tinling with some pity. ‘It’s a military term.’

He was a pale, puffy boy, with reddish hair and freckles, who was evidently fully alive to the dignity of his position.

‘Suppose we let military things alone for a little while,’ said Hazel. ‘We want the army to come and play tennis. You will, won’t you, Jack and Guy? and Cis will umpire–she likes it.’

‘I don’t mind a game,’ said Jack.

‘I’ll play, if you like,’ added Guy; but he had forgotten that the General was a bit of a martinet.