The Naughtiest Girl in the School (11 page)

“Ah, but you are a clever little girl!” she said to Elizabeth. “Will you not help this poor little Joan to learn her piece? Always she makes mistakes, and is at the bottom of my class.”

“Yes, I’ll help Joan,” said Elizabeth eagerly. “I can easily teach her the song.”

“You have a good heart,” said Mademoiselle.

Elizabeth went red with pleasure. The other children stared at her. They couldn’t understand this strange girl who was so bad and horrid one week, and so good and helpful the next! Elizabeth helped Joan to learn the song. She and Joan went off to a corner of the garden and Elizabeth sang each line of the song in her clear voice, and made Joan sing it after her. It wasn’t long before Joan knew it perfectly.

“You are very decent to me, Elizabeth,” said Joan gratefully. “I wish I was going to have a birthday cake on my birthday-I’d give you the biggest piece of all!”

“When is your birthday?” asked Elizabeth.

“It’s in two weeks’ time,” said Joan. “And I do hate it so, because I know I shan’t get a single card, and my parents are certain not to remember it. Everyone else seems to have a big cake, and presents and cards.”

“I think it’s a shame,” said Elizabeth warmly. “I shall give you a present, anyhow-that is if only the Meeting will give me my two shillings! I shan’t pour ink on my rug again, anyway-that was an awful waste of two shillings. I could have bought toffees with that. I haven’t had a sweet for ages!”

“I’ll buy some this afternoon and share them with you,” said Joan. “I want most of my money for stamps, but I shall have a few pence over for sweets. It’s a pity you can’t go down to the village with me and choose the sweets. It would be fun to go together.”

“It would,” agreed Elizabeth. “But I’m not going down till I’m allowed to. For one thing I promised Rita I wouldn’t go alone-and for another thing, I’m jolly well not going to have the Meeting taking away my good times anymore!”

They went indoors. On the way they met three of the boys, going out to practice bowling.

“Hallo, Bold Bad Girl!” said one of them. 

Elizabeth went red, and tried to rush at them. But Joan held her arm firmly.

“Don’t take any notice,” she said. “They only want to see you get angry and after all, you do deserve the name, you know!”

The boys went off to the cricket field, grinning. Elizabeth felt very angry. She still had not got used to the good-natured teasing that went on all around her. She wished she could tease back, or laugh, as the other children did.

Miss Ranger was delighted with Elizabeth that week. The little girl really had a fine brain, and was fond of a joke. She could say clever things that made Miss Ranger and the class laugh heartily. She had only to look at a page once or twice and she knew it by heart! She liked her work and did everything well.

 “Elizabeth, you are a lucky little girl,” said Miss Ranger. “Lessons come easily to you, and you should be able to do something fine in the world when you grow up. Whyteleafe School and your parents will be proud of you one day.”

“Whyteleafe School won’t,” said Elizabeth firmly. “I shan’t be here long enough. Half a term is as long as I shall stay, and I may go home before that.”

“Well, we’ll see,” said Miss Ranger. “Anyway, it is a pleasant change to see the other side of you this week, and not the unpleasant rudeness of last week.”

Elizabeth practiced hard at the piano all the week. She wanted to show Mr. Lewis that she could play that duet with Richard! Over and over she played the pages of the music, trying to get the right time, and to play softly and loudly at the proper moments.

One morning she got a letter from her mother enclosing some stamps. “Now that you have to buy your own stamps I thought perhaps it would help you if I sent you some,” wrote her mother. “Then you can spend all your money on the things you like.”

Elizabeth counted the stamps. There were twelve penny ones and twelve ha’penny ones. She divided them in half and went to find Joan.

“Joan! Here are some stamps for you! Now you needn’t spend all your money on them,” said Elizabeth.

“Oh, thanks,” said Joan, delighted. “What a bit of luck! Your mother must be a darling to think of things like that. I’ll go straight down and buy some toffee.”

She did and the two girls sucked it happily after tea that day, as they wandered round the school garden. They came across John Terry busy gardening with his new spade. He showed it to the girls, and they admired it. Elizabeth told John about the garden she had at home.

“You sound as if you knew a lot about gardening,” said John. “Not many girls do. I suppose you wouldn’t like to come and help me sometime, would you, Elizabeth? There’s a lot to do, and in the summer time not many people come and help.”

“I’d love to,” said Elizabeth proudly.

Fancy clever John Terry asking her to help him!

“I’ll come whenever I can.”

“You do look happy, Elizabeth,” said Joan, staring at her friend’s bright eyes. “I don’t believe you want to leave Whyteleafe at all.”

“Well, I do, then,” said Elizabeth, quite fiercely. “I don’t change my mind as quickly as all that! You’ll soon see. I’ll ask Rita to get me sent back home before half term!”

CHAPTER 13

The Third Meeting

The third Meeting came. Everyone went to the gym as before, and took their places. Some of the teachers sat at the back as usual, Rita and William came in last of all and the children rose and stood until their two Judges sat down.

Joan was sitting next to Elizabeth. She was hoping very much that Elizabeth would not say anything silly, and so spoil her week’s good work and behavior. Elizabeth wished the Meeting was over. She was not used to having her behavior discussed and dealt with, and she didn’t like it at all. But she knew that everyone was treated the same, and she saw that it was quite fair.  Money was put into the box. One girl, Eileen, had had a whole pound sent to her by her grandmother, and she put it into the box very proudly. She was glad to feel that she could add so much to the spending money of the school. The two shillings were given out to everyone. Elizabeth took hers gladly- now she would be able to buy some sweets for Joan.

“Does anyone want anything extra this week?” asked William, rattling the money-box.

Eileen wanted a shilling to get her watch mended, and it was granted at once. Nobody else said anything.

“Nothing else?” asked Rita, looking round.

Elizabeth suddenly found herself standing up. “I don’t expect you will let me have it,” she said, “but I would very much like something-it isn’t only for myself, but it would be nice for everyone else too.”

“What is it you want?” asked Rita.

“Well, there’s a lovely sea-piece that Mr. Lewis plays,” said Elizabeth eagerly. “He says there is a beautiful gramophone record of it, and I would so much like it. I’m sure everybody would love it too. I know I could buy it with my two shillings, but I owe Joan Townsend a lot of sweets, and I’d like to buy her some this week.”

William and Rita looked at the twelve monitors below them at the small table.

“What do you think about it?” Rita asked them. “You might discuss it for a moment.”

The jury discussed it for a few minutes. Then Nora stood up.

“We think the money might be granted to Elizabeth,” said Nora. “We have heard her practicing like anything every morning this week before breakfast, and we think she deserves a reward.”

“An extra two shillings is granted, then,” said William. “Give the money to Elizabeth, Nora.”

Elizabeth was given another two shillings. She was really delighted. She thought the monitors were very decent to have granted her wish. She forgot that she had hated them all last week! The Meeting passed on to complaints and reports. One boy, Peter, was reported for scribbling over one of the cloakroom walls.

“A disgusting habit!” said William severely. “You will spend your next two playtimes cleaning off the scribble with soap and hot water, and then you will buy some yellow distemper from the school stores out of your two shillings, and repaint that bit of wall yourself, I shall come to see it at the end of the week.”

Peter sat down, very red. Never again in his life would he scribble on walls. He was not angry at his punishment for he knew that it was just-he must remove the mess he had made, and make the wall good.

“We all see the walls,” said William, “and we certainly don’t want to see your silly scribbles on them.”

Then there was a report on Harry, who had cheated the week before. Mr. Johns had sent in a written note to William about him. William read it to the Meeting.

“I have to report that Harry is rapidly catching up with the rest of his class in arithmetic,” wrote Mr. Johns. “After another week, he will be as good as the rest. As he will then have no reason to cheat, I propose that at the next Meeting Harry is told he may sit with the others again, and not apart.”

“What about letting Harry sit with the rest of his class this week?” asked one of the monitors. “He’s had a week of sitting apart, and it’s not very nice.”

“No,” said William firmly, “He cheated before because he didn’t know as much as the others-and if we let him go back too soon, he’ll be tempted to cheat again. We don’t want it to become a habit. Harry, next week we hope to put you back in your old seat with the others.”

“Yes, William,” said Harry. He made up his mind to work so hard at his arithmetic that he would be top of the class before the end of the term-then the Meeting, and Mr. Johns, would know he had no reason to cheat at all!

“And now for the Bold Bad Girl, Elizabeth Allen,” said William. Everyone laughed. Elizabeth laughed too. It sounded funny, not horrid, when William called her by those names. “Nora, what report have you to give?”

Nora stood up. “An excellent report,” she said. “Elizabeth has obeyed all the orders of last week’s Meeting, and as far as I know has obeyed them cheerfully and well.”

“Thank you,” said Rita, Nora sat down, Rita opened a note. It was written by Miss Ranger.

“Here is a report to me from Miss Ranger,” said Rita. “This is what she says: ‘It has been a pleasure to have a girl like Elizabeth in my class this week. She has worked well, could easily be top of her class, and has been very helpful to others who cannot work as quickly as she can. She has been as good this week as she was bad last week!” Rita looked up. She smiled her lovely smile at Elizabeth, and William smiled too.

“This is very good, Elizabeth,” said Rita. “I too have noticed a great difference in you this week.”

“Have you?” asked Elizabeth, pleased to think that Rita had taken any notice of her, “Rita, did you notice that my manners were better? Because I’d like you to think that my mother and father have taught me good manners and brought me up properly. I don’t like people to think they haven’t.”

“Well, we take back what we said about your parents being at fault,” said Rita. “But you really must see, Elizabeth, that if a boy or girl is rude or horrid, it often means that their parents are to blame for not having taught them any better.”

“I do see that,” said Elizabeth. “Well, you’ll see my father and mother at half term, and then you’ll know that they couldn’t possibly be nicer.”

“Oh-so you have made up your mind to stay with us, then?” asked Rita, with a sudden smile of amusement. She couldn’t help liking Elizabeth, for the little girl said such funny things, and was so serious about everything.

“Oh no, I haven’t,” said Elizabeth at once. “But I see now that you wouldn’t let me go home if I behave too badly-you’ll only be angry with me and make me stay just to show me I can’t get my own way. But, Rita, if I do try hard to be good, and do everything I ought to, will you please ask Miss Belle and Miss Best to let me go home? They can ask my parents at half term to take me away. My mother wouldn’t want me to stay anywhere where I was unhappy.”

William and Rita looked at Elizabeth in surprise, very puzzled to know what to do with such a strange little girl. Rita spoke to William, and the jury discussed things together too. But nobody could decide anything at all. Rita hammered on to the table and everyone was quiet.