Naughtiest Girl 2: The Naughtiest Girl Again (16 page)

For one thing the girl was healthier-she went out riding and walking with the others, and she even offered to help John, Elizabeth, and Peter in the school garden.

"Good gracious!" said John, "You're the last person I would have thought wanted to help! Are you any good at gardening?"

"Well, no, not much," said Kathleen honestly. Three weeks before she would have boasted untruthfully that she knew everything about gardening, "But, John, I'd like to help a bit. Isn't there anything I can do?"

"You can wheel that rubbish over there to the rubbish-heap," said John. "Then bring back the barrow and fork the next pile of rubbish in. It's really too heavy for Peter to wheel."

Peter was very keen on gardening, and John was delighted to have him, Peter told John how Robert took him riding, and John grew quite interested in hearing about the horses, "I'd really have to try riding myself," he said, "I've never much wanted to. I did when I first came to Whyteleafe, and then somehow I got so interested in gardening that I couldn't think of anything else, But perhaps I'll come to -morrow, Peter."

Peter spoke to Robert, and it was arranged that John, Peter, Robert, Elizabeth, and Kathleen should all go riding together the next morning -and off they all went, galloping over the hilts in the pale winter sunlight. John loved it, "I must come again," he said, when he jumped down from the saddle, "That was fine.

Goodness, Kathleen, what red cheeks you've got! You always used to look so pate!

Coming to help me garden this week-end?"

"Yes, please," said Kathleen, overjoyed at being asked to help someone. She was beginning to find how lovely it was to make friends, and to be a friend. If you offered to help other people, they offered to help you in return, and that was how friendships began-and surety it was the nicest thing in the world to have good friends round you?

"It was quite true what William and Rita said," thought Kathleen to herself. "I envied Jenny and said she was lucky because she had so many friends-and I thought that because I was an unlucky person none of those nice things happened to me. But now that I'm trying to be nicer, nice things happen to me too. It is our own selves that make us lucky or unlucky, it's our own selves that bring us friendship and kindness, I was always groaning and grumbling about everything and thinking I would always be unlucky and wouldn't be able to help it-but as soon as I changed myself, I changed the things that happened, too! What a pity that everyone doesn't know that!"

Elizabeth was working hard at her music, and Mr. Lewis was very pleased with her, She and Richard were once again playing duets, and the big boy loved playing with the quick-fingered little girl. She looked up to Richard and thought he was wonderful.

"Can we play our duets at the school concert again?" asked Elizabeth. "I do want to, Mr. Lewis. Shall we be good enough?"

"Oh, yes," said Mr. Lewis. "Richard is playing his violin, too. Have you heard him play the same piece that is on the gramophone record he got, Elizabeth?"

"No," said Elizabeth. "I haven't, But I'd like to. Please play it to me, Richard."

So Richard was sent to fetch his violin, and the big, dreamy boy played a marvellous piece to his master and to Elizabeth. They both listened, enchanted.

"Oh, that's lovely," sighed Elizabeth, when it was finished, "Oh, I wish I could play like that, Can't I learn to play the violin too, Mr. Lewis?"

"My dear child, you already fill your days too full !" laughed the music-master. "No-stick to the piano."

"But Richard plays the piano too," said Elizabeth, "And the violin!"

"And he doesn't do anything else!" said Mr. Lewis, "But nobody can make him do anything else, so he might as welt work hard at those, No one has ever made Richard pull a weed out of the garden, or ride a horse more than once, or keep even a harmless white mouse! He thinks of nothing but music."

"I'll make him think of something else!" said Elizabeth, "Come and practise with me at lacrosse to -morrow, Richard! You can't think how marvellous it feels to be good enough to play in a match!"

But Richard wouldn't come. He did play games sometimes, but so badly that he was worse than any child in the kindergarten. Not even determined little Elizabeth could make him leave his precious music, and she soon gave it up. Secretly she was very proud to play duets with him.

"One day Richard will be a famous musician and composer," she told Jenny and Joan, "Then I shall be very proud to think that once I played duets with him."

There was to be a play at the school concert. The children in Elizabeth's form were to write one themselves, and they spent a long time thinking it out, When at last they had worked out the plot, there came the labour of writing it, 73

Jenny and Kathleen proved to be unexpectedly good at this. Jenny could manage conversation very well, and Kathleen had a good imagination and thought of all kinds of things. Before the week was out, the two were writing out the play together, with helpful and unhelpful remarks from the other members of the class.

It amused Elizabeth to see the two heads bent over the paper. "It's just as funny to see Jenny and Kathleen like that as it was to see me and Robert," she thought, "How silly we are when we quarrel! Well-I'll never quarrel again!"

It was a pity she said that, for she broke her word to hers elf the very next day! She quarrelled with John!

They had built a big rubbish-heap, and John had said they would light it the next time they had an hour or two to spare. But when Elizabeth went to find John in the garden to light the fire, he wasn't there, "Oh, bother!" thought the little girl. "I did so want to see the bonfire burning! Well-if John doesn't come in the next few minutes I'll light it myself. He won't mind!"

But she knew that he would mind, really, for although he trusted Elizabeth in a great many ways, things such as lighting bonfires he always did himself, Elizabeth fetched a box of matches. She struck one andheld it to some paper she had pushed into the heart of the rubbish-heap. It caught fire-and in a trice the bonfire was burning furiously! What a blaze it made! Blue smoke streamed out from it and flew over the shed nearby.

Elizabeth danced round happily. This was marvellous!

How silly John was to be late!

And then she suddenly noticed something! The wind was blowing the flames of the bonfire near the shed!

"Gracious! I hope the shed won't catch fire!" cried Elizabeth in alarm. "Oh, my goodness-I believe it will!

John! John! Quick, where are you?"

John was coming down the path at that moment, He saw the flames of the bonfire at the bottom of the garden, and hurried to see what was happening. When he saw that the red tongues were actually licking the wood-shed, he had a terrible fright.

"Elizabeth! Get the hose out with me!" he cried. Together the two children unrolled the hose and hastily fitted it to the garden-tap. John turned on the tap and the water gushed out of the hose, The boy turned it on the bonfire, In a few minutes the fire was out and only dense black smoke came from the very heart of it. John threw down the hose and turned off the tap.

"What in the world did you light the bonfire for?" he said angrily. "What an idiot you are! Don't you know by now that I'm head of the school garden? You might have burnt down the shed!"

"Don't talk to me like that!" cried Elizabeth, firing up at once. "You said you were going to light it-and it would have happened just the same if you had, wouldn't it!"

"My dear Elizabeth, I'm not quite so foolish as to light a bonfire just there, with the wind blowing the flames straight towards the shed," said John furiously. "Have a little sense! I didn't dream of lighting it to-day! And you've no business to. Now we've ruined the bonfire and I meant it to be such a beauty. You're a real nuisance, and I don't want you in the garden any more!"

"Oh!" cried Elizabeth, with tears in her eyes. "You hateful boy! After all I've done in the garden and all the 74

help I've given you!"

"You shouldn't have done it for me," said John. "You should have done it for the garden and for the school. Go away, Elizabeth. I don't feel as if I want to talk to you any more."

"Well, I'll certainly never come and help in the garden again!" shouted Elizabeth, and off she marched in a great rage.

But half an hour later a little voice spoke inside her head. "You said you weren't going to quarrel with anyone any more, And you have already! After all, John was right to be cross. You might have burnt down the shed and all his precious tools and everything-and you've spoilt the lovely bonfire he wanted to light."

And a voice was speaking inside John's head too, "Elizabeth didn't mean it, She was just silly, not bad. She's as disappointed as you are about the bonfire. And you know you do want her help in the garden. Suppose she takes you at your word and doesn't come any more? That wouldn't be very nice!"

"I'll go and find her," thought John. And the same thought came to Elizabeth, "I'll go and find John."

So they met round the corner of the garden path, each looking rather ashamed. They held out their hands, "Sorry I was piggy to you," said John.

"And I'm sorry I was too," said Elizabeth, "Oh, John, I said to myself to-day that I'd never quarrel with anyone any more-and I've gone and done it again!"

"You always will!" said John, with a laugh. "But it won't matter if only you will make it up quickly. Come on and do some digging. It will do us both good."

Off they went together, the best of friends. It takes more than a quarrel to break up a real friendship, doesn't it!

A THRILL FOR JOAN.

Two months of the Christmas term had already gone by. Seven School Meetings had been held, and the eighth was to be held on the next Friday night. A new monitor had to be chosen, because one of the old ones, a boy called George, had the flu, and was in the San. for a week or two.

"How are new monitors chosen?" asked Robert. "Nobody new has been chosen since I came at the beginning of the term, I thought monitors were only chosen for a month-but we've had the same ones for two months."

"Yes, because they're so good we don't want to change them," said Joan. "We can change them at the end of each month if we want to-but there's no point in changing them if we are satisfied. I think all our monitors are awfully good."

"So do I," said Elizabeth, "I once thought it must be awful to be a monitor and have to keep all the rules and see that the others did too-but now I've changed my mind. I think it's rather nice to be trusted so much, and to have people coming to you for help and advice."

"Well, the people who matter in this world are the ones who can be really trusted and who are willing to help anyone in trouble," said Jenny. "We get good training for that at Whyteleafe! One day I'd like to be a monitor-but like you, Elizabeth, I know I never shall be!"

"Well, nobody's answered my question yet," said Robert patiently.

"What was it?" asked Elizabeth,

"I asked how new monitors are chosen," said Robert. "Do we choose them-or do the Jury-or the Judges-or who?"

"Well, the whole School chooses them first," said John. "We each write down the name of one we think we would like as monitor, and then the slips of paper are folded and passed up to the Jury.

"What next?" asked Robert.

"The Jury undo them and see which three children have the most votes," said John.

"They vote for whichever of those three they think would be best. Then their votes are passed up to William and Rita-and the two Judges decide which child is to be made a new monitor,"

"I see," said Robert. "It seems very fair. Everyone has a say in the matter, That's what I like so much about Whyteleafe-we all have a say in things."

"I can't quite think who to vote for," said Jenny, "I'll have to think hard."

"So will I," said Joan thoughtfully. "It is such an honour to be chosen. The one we choose must really be worthy of it."

"Can I walk with you when we go for our Nature Ramble this afternoon?" asked Kathleen, "Elizabeth can't go~-she's got an extra music practice with Richard,"

"All right," said Joan, "But don't be late. I'm leading the ramble, you know, and you must be on time if you want to start off with me."

Kathleen was very punctual, and the two set off together with their notebooks, followed by the rest of the children who were interested in Nature work, They were to find blossoming ivy, the last insect feast of the season, and to list and draw all the insects feasting on the nectar in the green blossoms, It was fun to wander down the lanes together and over the fields. The pale winter sun shone down and the sky was the faint blue of a harebell. The trees were all bare except the firs and the pines, and the frost still glittered under the hedges.

Kathleen hummed a little song to herself as she looked about for the blossoms of the ivy. Joan looked at her, "It's funny how people change," she said, "Last term I saw Elizabeth change from a horrid, naughty girl to a kind and good one. 11 felt myself change from somebody lonely and shy to somebody quite different. I've seen Robert change-and now you're changing too under my very eyes!"

"Yes, I know," said Kathleen, "But there's one way I haven't changed, Joan, I'm still a coward!"

"How do you mean?" asked Joan, surprised. "Are you frightened of cows, or something?"

"No, of course not," said Kathleen. "I'm frightened of what people think! That's much worse than cows! Nobody but you and Jenny and Nora and Elizabeth know that it was I who pla yed those horrid tricks-oh, and Rita and William, of course. And I know quite well that if it had been you or Jenny or Elizabeth you would all have been brave enough to get up in front of the whole School at a Meeting and say it was you!"

"Well, of course," said Joan. "Why not? You know quite well that the School would think well of you for owning up, and not so badly of you for doing the tricks. But if it leaks out that you did do them and didn't own up, why then, we should think much 76

worse of you, and you'd think worse of yourself too! It's just a question of making up your mind to do it, Everybody has plenty of courage -only they don't always use it."