Great Northern? The Postscript

Mrs Callum showed her platform ticket and walked down the grimy platform as the train from Scotland pulled in. She peered into every carriage, then she saw them, Dick and Dorothea, her two children who had been sailing with their friends, the Swallows and the Amazons, round the coast of Scotland, on an old Norwegian pilot cutter, skippered by the Amazons' Uncle Jim. Dick stepped down on to the platform. Dorothea handed him one, then another, small suitcase, then followed him down on to the platform, taking her case from Dick. "Dick! Dorothea! Hey, hello, you two!" called their mother. She kissed them. "Have you got your tickets? Have you had a lovely time? You must be tired."

"Hello, Mother," said Dick. "Yes, we saw a bird called…"

"Come along now," their mother rushed them past the ticket collector at the barrier, where they surrendered their tickets.

"Mother, Dick took some photographs," said Dorothea.

"I look forward to seeing your snaps. Taxi!" called Mrs Callum waving her hand insistently towards the cab at the head of the rank. She shepherded Dick, Dorothea and their luggage into the taxi. "Weymouth Street, please," she said to the driver in his little compartment, open to the weather, and climbed into body of the cab with the children.

"Mother," began Dorothea again, "Dick took some photographs,"

"It's getting late," said Mrs Callum, "but there still seem to be shops open. I think it might rain. I hope tomorrow will be fine. There's so much to do. Oh, here we are. Run and open the door, Dot. How much do I owe you, driver?"

Dick and Dorothea had had an amazing holiday with their friends, but that did not prevent them from getting that warm feeling generated by returning to your own home. "You must both be in need of a bath," said Mrs Callum, "Dick, you go and have your bath first. I asked Edith to make some soup and prepare sandwiches for you. Dot, dear, pop into the kitchen and ask her to heat the soup up."

Dick and Dorothea, freshly out of their baths, dressed in pyjamas and dressing gowns, sipped the hot soup and ate cheese and tomato and egg mixed with salad cream sandwiches. "I want to hear all about your sailing trip."

"It all turned out rather exciting," said Dorothea, "Dick spotted some birds, which don't usually nest as far south as Scotland and…"

"Did he, now? Now, it's off to bed with the both of you. We've a busy day tomorrow. You both need new vests before term begins."

The next morning the Callum family was sitting having breakfast in their dining room. Dorothea looked at the table, carefully laid with the Callums' pretty, but to Dorothea's mind, slightly old fashioned, bone china. There were matching cups, saucers, lidded bowl for the marmalade and a butter dish with a butter knife. Dorothea thought how lovely it looked, but so very different from meals aboard the Sea Bear. Susan and Peggy had kept the crew well-fed. Dorothea reflected a bit on the difference between what was proper and respectable and what was essential. As they started on their bacon and eggs, Professor Callum said, "Mary, why don't we ever have kedgeree for breakfast these days?"

"Well, Edith isn't very confident about making it, so I thought I'd leave it a bit before I ordered it."

"Edith?" said Professor Callum.

"Edith is the new maid we've had for the last five or six months, Charles," said Mrs Callum with the air of someone trying to be patient.

Professor Callum took a piece of toast, which was already quite cool, from the toast rack. He put some butter and some marmalade on the side of his plate. As he put marmalade on to his toast, he said, "There's something wrong with this marmalade."

"Charles, there's nothing wrong with the marmalade. It's just that it's some that Edith made herself. I think it's a good idea to acknowledge servants' talents, such as they are. It makes for a good atmosphere."

"Well, I'm sure you know best about dealing with staff, but I expect Oxford marmalade as usual for breakfast in my own home."

"Father, on our holiday Dick spotted some birds…" Both Dick and Dorothea were keen to tell their parents about seeing Great Northern Divers nesting on a Scottish loch and Dorothea thought changing the subject might avert any more unnecessary discussion about the merits of kedgeree and Oxford marmalade, but, having finished his breakfast, Professor Callum donned his coat and hat and left for the university where he worked.

Dick went to his room and methodically started collecting together and checking the chemicals and equipment he needed to develop his photographs of nesting Great Northern Divers. Mrs Callum called out, "Dick, Dot, hats and coats on. We've got to go out and buy those new vests. I think we'll go to Selfridges." Dick was resigning himself to postponing the developing to the afternoon when his mother said, "This afternoon we're going to have tea with Auntie Doris."

"Mother," said Dick, "I was hoping to develop my photographs this afternoon."

"Dick, dear, you know full well that there is very little of the holidays left after your long trip and you always go to tea with Auntie Doris every holiday. She looks forward to it and makes us very welcome. Come along, now."

It was a tedious morning shopping in Selfridges, but, at least, they managed to buy vests which Mrs Callum thought were suitable. In the afternoon they visited Auntie Doris, of whom Dick and Dorothea were both genuinely fond. However, they were both preoccupied with the need to develop Dick's photographs. On returning from Auntie Doris's, Mrs Callum sat Dick and Dorothea down to write thank-you letters to 'kind Mr Turner'. Dorothea's letter was long. Dick's was brief, but polite and to the point.

"I'll try and get the photographs developed," said Dick to Dorothea, "but, I'm not sure what's the correct procedure after that, to let people know that the books are wrong about Great Northerns. I'll try and ask Father."

"Yes," said Dorothea, "ask Father. It would probably be a good idea to write down the dates and places. Perhaps you should write to the authors of the books. How would we get their addresses?"

"I don't know," said Dick, "perhaps there is a recognised procedure for when scientific theories are proved wrong."

"Perhaps you're expected to put advertisements in newspapers, but how would we know which papers the books' authors read? And, it would cost money."

"Galileo got into awful trouble for saying that the then current theories about planets were wrong. We must ask Father," said Dick.

At supper, Dick again broached the subject of his photographs of Great Northerns with his father, but Professor Callum was only bothered about the whereabouts of a bottle of red ink, which he needed for refilling his fountain pen to mark essays. He was convinced that Edith, whom he referred to as 'that girl' although she was a middle-aged woman, had spilt or mislaid it.

The next morning was a whirl of packing Dick's school trunk and signing his school health certificate. Lunch was early and hurried. Mrs Callum and Dorothea accompanied Dick to the station. Mrs Callum saw him into a seat. "Goodbye, I'll write soon," she said. Realising it was necessary to be tactful because there were several other boys, who attended the same boarding school as Dick on the train, she surreptitiously blew him a kiss from the platform. "Bye, bye, have a good term," called Dorothea. All three of them waved and the train pulled out of the station.

Over their afternoon tea, Mrs Callum said, "I've been meaning to mention to you, Dot. Your father and I have been worrying about your arithmetic report. We've arranged, that unless your marks improve, you're going to have some coaching. You've got to take Common Entrance, you know. I've found a very nice lady who lives in this block. She was some sort of scientist before she was married. Now her husband's away a lot, so she's lonely and, between you and me, I don't think he provides for her properly. She'll be glad of a little bit of money of her own. Her name's Mrs Jemmerling."

Dorothea did not know what to say. That evening Dorothea was packing her satchel because she was returning to her day-school the next day. She wrote a long letter to Dick and pleased her father by finding his red ink in the process. It had been placed towards the back of his desk to be out of harm's way. She was very quiet and went to bed with a heavy heart thinking about what to do about the Great Northerns and the identity of her new arithmetic coach.

When Dorothea got home from school she went straight into the kitchen because it was her mother's bridge afternoon. "Shall I take your tea into the dining room or do you want to drink it here?" asked Edith.

"I'll drink it here," said Dorothea, sitting down at the kitchen table. Edith poured out a cup of tea for each of them and put bread, butter, jam and a plate of biscuits on the table. The kitchen was her domain, so Edith felt entitled to sit down for a cup of tea with Dorothea.

As Dorothea was spreading butter on a slice of bread Edith said, "Miss Dorothea, you don't seem to be your usual self."

"Oh, Edith, Mother wants me to have arithmetic coaching. I get so muddled up with men digging ditches in so many hours and what if there were different number of men. All I want to do is write stories about why the men are digging ditches and hoping the weather is all right for them." Dorothea thought it was too complicated to also tell Edith her worries about Mrs Jemmerling. "And, when we were in Scotland, Dick took photographs of birds to prove that the books are wrong and we don't know what to do with the photographs."

"Can't your father help you about the photographs?"

"I expect he could, but he won't listen."

"If your father would know what to do, then I expect his secretary knows too. Do you know her?"

"Edith! What a good idea. I met Miss Higgins at Christmas time. I'll go and ask her."

"Now, Miss Dorothea, let's look at your arithmetic homework."

Dorothea showed her the arithmetic book. She was surprised when Edith said, "Tell me the names of a couple of your friends – girls."

"Titty and Peggy," said Dorothea.

"Let's re-write this question," said Edith, "if Titty and Peggy take three hours to hem the curtains, how long would it take Titty, Peggy and Dot? If they were paid 9d an hour, how much would each earn?"

"Oh, I see now. Titty and Peggy do six hours work altogether. If I help them, we only need to do two hours work each. We'd get 1/6 each. Thank you, thank you, Edith."

Dorothea cheered up and resolved to visit Miss Higgins after school the next day.

Miss Higgins was sitting behind a large typewriter. "Hello, Dorothea," she said with surprise, when Dorothea walked in. Dorothea explained that she and Dick wanted to know what scientists do when they think they can prove other scientists wrong. She told Miss Higgins about Dick's photographs of Great Northern Divers nesting in Scotland, contrary to what the bird books said. Miss Higgins seemed to know at once what had to be done. "You want to get an article published in a learned journal." Dorothea had never heard the word 'learned' pronounced learned, with the stress on the last syllable before, but she thought Miss Higgins must know. "I'll find out from my friend, a secretary in the zoology department, which journal would be appropriate for you." She unhooked the earpiece of her candlestick type telephone, "Zoology department, please," she said to the switchboard operator. It was obvious that it was her friend who answered in the zoology department. They had a brief chat about students whom they appeared to think were badly behaved. Then Miss Higgins asked about journals. Miss Higgins wrote the name of the journal down with, as Dorothea observed, a very sharp pencil, on a page of her spiral bound notebook. She tore the page out, handed it to Dorothea and explained to her where to find the library.

Dorothea made her way up and down corridors and staircases and found the library. She told a rather suspicious librarian what she wanted. When she eventually told the librarian that she was Professor Callum's daughter, the librarian was happy to tell her where the journals were and explained that she would have to look at the journal in the library and make notes about any information she wanted.

'Dear Dot,

Thank you for finding out the details and address of the zoological journal. I sent them an account of seeing the Great Northerns and my photographs (a chap here and I developed them together). The editor says they are going publish my article, so everyone will know about Great Northerns sometimes nesting in Scotland.

It sounds as though you've had a narrow escape with your possible arithmetic coach.

S, A & Ds for ever,

Dick'

The End

Author's note: 'Great Northern?' is vague about what time of year the Sea Bear's expedition took place. Great Northern Divers usually nest in term time. I have been similarly imprecise about season despite ensuring that the Ds have suitable vests. JMM