Then for a time both Robert and Elizabeth forgot their quarrel in the interest of something else. Jennifer's white mice made a great disturbance, and Jenny nearly got into serious trouble! Her white mice had a family of nine small baby-mice, most adorable creatures with soft white fur, wobbly noses, pink eyes, and tiny tails. Jenny loved these very much indeed, and it was quite a sight to see the little girl with half a dozen mice running up and down her sleeves.
«Jenny, put them back, the bell's gone», said Elizabeth one morning. «Hurry! You'll be late, and Miss Ranger isn't in a very good temper this morning.»
«Oh, golly, I can't find them all», said Jenny, feeling all over her body for the baby-mice. «Wherever have they gone? Is there one down my back, Elizabeth?»
«Oh, Jenny, how can you let them do that!» cried Elizabeth. «No, there isn't one down your back. They must be all there in the cage now. Do come on. I shan't wait for you if you're a second longer.»
Jenny shut the cage-door carefully and latched it. Then she ran off with Elizabeth, and they arrived in their classroom panting, just as Miss Ranger also arrived.
They took their places. The lesson was geography, and the class were learning about Australia and the big sheep-farms there. Jenny had a seat in the first row just in front of Elizabeth and Joan.
And, in the middle of the lesson, Elizabeth saw the nose of a white mouse peeping out at the back of Jenny's neck! Jenny felt it too. She wriggled, put up her hand and pushed the mouse down. It disappeared.
Elizabeth so badly wanted to giggle that she did not dare to look up at all. When she did look up, she saw the mouse peeping out of Jenny's left sleeve. It looked round at Elizabeth with pink eyes. Then it disappeared again.
Jenny found the mouse very tickly indeed. She wriggled about. She tried to make the mouse go up to her shoulder, where it could be comfortable and go to sleep. But it wasn't at all sleepy. It was a very lively mouse indeed.
It ran all round Jenny, sniffing here and there at shoulder-straps and tapes, and Jenny couldn't stop wriggling.
Miss Ranger noticed her. «Jenny! What in the world is the matter with you this morning? Do sit still.»
«Yes, Miss Ranger», said Jenny. But a second later the mouse went under her left arm-hole, where Jenny really was very ticklish indeed, and the little girl gave a giggle and another wriggle. Miss Ranger looked up.
«Jennifer! You are behaving like a child in the kindergarten! And Elizabeth, what is the matter with you?»
There was nothing the matter with Elizabeth except that she simply could not help laughing at Jenny, because she knew so well why Jenny was wriggling. The mouse popped lis head out of Jenny's neck and stared at Elizabeth and Joan. The two girls tried to stop their giggles, but the more they tried to stop, the worse they got.
«This class is a disgrace this morning», said Miss Ranger impatiently. «Come up here to the board, Jennifer, and point out some things to me on the map. If you can't sit still, perhaps you can stand still!»
Jenny got up and went to the board. The mouse was pleased to find it was having a ride, and it scampered all round Jenny's back. Jenny put her hand behind her and tried to stop it.
«Jenny! What is wrong?» asked Miss Ranger. By this time the whole class knew about Jenny's mouse, and everyone was bending over their books, red in the face, trying their hardest not to giggle. A little squeal came from Kenneth, and Miss Ranger put down her book in despair.
«There is some joke going on», she said. «Well, let me share it. If it's funny, we'll all have a good laugh. If it isn't, we'll get on with the lesson. Now, what's the joke?»
Nobody told her. Jenny looked at the class with pleading eyes, begging them silently not to give her away. The mouse also looked out of Jenny's sleeve. Miss Ranger was really puzzled.
And then the mouse decided to explore the world a bit! So out it ran, jumped on to Miss Ranger's desk, and sat up to wash its whiskers. The class went off into shouts of laughter. Miss Ranger looked down in the greatest astonishment. She had not seen where the mouse had come from. «How did this mouse come here?» she asked.
«It jumped from my sleeve, please, Miss Ranger», said Jenny. «I was playing with my white mice when the bell rang, and I suppose I didn't put them all back into the cage. This one was still up my sleeve.»
«So that's the joke!» said Miss Ranger, beginning to smile. «Well, I agree it's a good joke, and no wonder everyone laughed. But it's not a joke to be repeated, Jenny. It's funny this time – but if it happens a second time, I shan't think it is at all funny. You quite understand that, don't you? White mice are very nice in their cage, but not at all suitable running round people's necks in a class- room.»
«Oh yes, I do understand that, Miss Ranger», said Jenny earnestly. «It was quite an accident. May I put the mouse up my sleeve again?»
«I'd much rather you didn't», said Miss Ranger. «I feel this lesson will not be very successful as long as that mouse is in the room. Take it back to its cage. It will have plenty to tell all its brothers and sisters». So off went Jenny, and the class settled down again. But the laughter had done everyone good, especially Elizabeth. She felt almost her old happy self again after that!
Chapter 7: Kathleen in Trouble
Elizabeth enjoyed the games in the winter term very much indeed. She didn't know which she liked best, hockey or lacrosse! «I almost think I like lacrosse best», she said to Joan. «The catching is such fun.»
«If you go on playing well, you'll be in the next match», said Joan. «I heard Eileen say so!»
«Did you really and truly!» said Elizabeth joyfully. «Oh, I say! Nobody else out of our form has been in a school match yet. If only I could be!»
Somebody else in the form was extremely good at lacrosse too – and that was Robert! He had never played the game before, but he was very quick on his feet, and could catch marvellously. The game was played with a hard rubber ball which had to be thrown from one player's net to another, caught, and sent hurtling at the goal-net. The job of the other side was to knock the ball away, or make the player who had the ball toss it to someone else, when the enemy might perhaps be able to get it. As soon as Robert saw that Elizabeth was becoming good enough to play in a school match, he made up his mind that he would be better than she was, and take her place in the match.
He knew that only one person would be chosen from their form, for only one was lacking in the numbers that made up the team. What sport it would be if he could play better than Elizabeth! So that was another thing for him to do – practise catching the ball whenever he could get someone to throw to him. But he wouldn't let Elizabeth guess that he was trying to he better than she was – no, he would let her think he wasn't trying very hard, else she would begin to practise as well. In the meantime, school life went on much as usual. Elizabeth began to work very hard with John in the school garden. They cut down all the old summer flowers, and piled them in heaps on the place where they had their bonfires. They dug over the beds, and made themselves very hot and tired but very happy. They each made out plans for the spring and gave them to each other, and John actually said that Elizabeth's plan was better than his.
«It's not very much better», said John, looking at the two plans carefully, «but I do like one or two of your ideas very much, Elizabeth. For instance, your idea of having crocuses growing in the grass on that bank over there is lovely.»
«Well, your idea of having rambler roses over that ugly old shed is lovely too», said Elizabeth. «I say, John, won't it look marvellous!»
«I wonder if the School Meeting will allow us extra money this week for the crocus corms», said John. «We should want about five hundred crocuses to make any sort of a show. Let's ask, shall we?»
«Well, you'd better ask, not me», said Elizabeth, her face going sulky. «You know what happened at the last Meeting, John. It was horrid to me.»
«No, it wasn't, Elizabeth», said John, leaning on his spade and looking at Elizabeth across the trench he was diggi
ng. «I think the Meeting was quite fair. Don't be silly. You can be such a sensible girl, and yet you're such an idiot sometimes.»
«I shan't help you in the garden if you call me an idiot», said Elizabeth.
«All right», said John. «I'll get Jenny. She's jolly good.» But Elizabeth did not walk away in a rage as she felt inclined to do. She took up her spade and began to dig so hard that the earth simply flew into the air. She wasn't going to let Jennifer take her place!
John burst out laughing. «Elizabeth! You'll dig down to Australia if you're not careful! And really I'd rather you didn't cover me with earth whilst you're doing it». Elizabeth looked up and laughed too. «That's better!» said John. «You'll get a face like Kathleen Peters if you aren't careful!»
«I hope not!» said Elizabeth. «That's another person I don't like, John. She's so quarrelsome, and she seems to think we are always saying or thinking nasty things about her – and honestly, we just don't bother about her half the time.»
«Well, don't start making an enemy of her too», said John, beginning to dig again. «Friends are better than enemies, Elizabeth, old thing, so make those instead.»
«Well, nobody could make a friend of Kathleen!» said Elizabeth. «Honestly they couldn't, John. You're not in her form, so you don't know what a tiresome person she is.»
It was quite true that Kathleen was tiresome. She was always grumbling about something, and she spent the whole of her two shillings each week on sweets, which she never shared with anyone else. «No wonder she's spotty!» giggled Belinda unkindly. «She's eating sweets all the time – and her mother sends her heaps too, only she never tells us, in case we might expect her to share them. Let her keep them! I don't want any!»
Kathleen was not only tiresome with the boys and girls, always trying to quarrel, and accusing them of saying nasty things about her, but she was always in trouble with the mistresses and masters too. If anyone found fault with her, she would argue back and try to make out that she was right.
Mam'zelle was not so patient with her as were the others. When Kathleen dared to say that Mam'zelle hadn't told her what home-work to do the day before, the hot- tempered French mistress flared up at once.
«And now, this Kathleen again!» she cried, wagging her hands at the ceiling. «She thinks I am a goose, a cuckoo, a donkey! She thinks I do not know how to give homework! She thinks I am not fit to teach French to her!» This was really rather funny, and the class sat up, enjoying the fun. When Mam'zelle got cross it was marvellous!
«But, Mam'zelle», said foolish Kathleen, who simply would not stop arguing with anyone, «you did say...»
«Ah! I did say something then!» cried Mam'zelle. «Truly, you think I did say something? Ah, my Kathleen, that is so, so kind of you! Perhaps if you think a little harder you will remember that I did give you some homework to do – though, of course, that is no reason why you should do it»
«But you DIDN'T give me any», said Kathleen.
Belinda nudged her. «Shut up, Kathleen», she said. «You were given some – but you didn't write down want you had to do.»
«Belinda! It is not necessary that you should interfere», said Mam'zelle. «Ah, this class! It will turn my hair white as snow!» Mam'zelle had hair as dark as a raven's wing, and the class did not feel that anything would turn it white. They sat staring from Mam'zelle to Kathleen, wondering what was going to happen next. It ended in Kathleen being sent by herself to the common-room to do the home-work she had not done. “That girl will drive me mad” thought Mam'zelle to herself, “with her spots and her greasy hair and her pale face. How she whines!”
The other mistresses were not quite so impatient, and Miss Ranger was really rather worried about Kathleen. The girl always looked so miserable – which, of course, was no wonder, because she was always arguing or quarrelling with someone.
Jennifer Harris enjoyed the scene with Mam'zelle very much. She watched all Mam'zelle's actions, listened carefully to the rise and fall of her excited voice, and then practised the whole scene by herself. First she was the whining Kathleen, then she was impatient Mam'zelle, and so on. It really made a very funny scene.
Jenny was most anxious to try it on the others to make them laugh. So the next evening, when most of her form were in the common-room, playing the gramophone, reading books, and writing letters, she began to mimic Mam'zelle. The boys and girls looked up, interested. Belinda switched off the gramophone. Kathleen was not there.
In a moment or two the clever girl had the whole room roaring with laughter. She wagged her hands like Mam'zelle, and when she came out with «I am a goose, a cuckoo, a donkey!» exactly as Mam'zelle had said it the children giggled in delight.
Jenny mimicked Kathleen's rather whining voice marvellously. It really might have been Kathleen speaking! But then Jenny went a bit too far. She said things that Mam'zelle had not said.
«Ah, truly, Jenny, I do not like your spots, I do not like your greasy hair, I do not like your manners!» said Jenny, with a funny accent just like Mam'zelle's. And at that moment Elizabeth noticed something – Kathleen was in the room! No one had seen her come in. How long had she been there?
Elizabeth nudged Jenny, but Jenny took no notice. She was enjoying herself far too much. Everyone was listening to her, amused and admiring.
«Jenny! Shut up!» hissed Elizabeth. «Kathleen's come in.»
Jenny stopped at once. All the children looked round, and felt rather uncomfortable when they saw Kathleen. Belinda started up the gramophone. Somebody began to whistle the tune. Nobody liked to look at Kathleen. Elizabeth sat down in a corner, wishing that Jenny hadn't said quite such awful things in Mam'zelle's voice. Suppose Kathleen really thought that Mam'zelle had said them after she had been sent to the common-room to do her forgotten home-work? She stole a quick look at Kathleen.
At first it seemed as if Kathleen was going to turn off the gramophone and say something. But she thought better of it, and sat down with a jerk in a chair. She got out her notepaper, and sat chewing the end of her pen. Her pale face was as white as usual, and her eyes were small and angry. She looked spiteful and mean.
“I guess she won't easily forgive Jenny for that” thought Elizabeth. “We ought to have stopped Jenny, because she went too far – but really, she's so awfully funny. I wonder if Kathleen will complain about it at the next Meeting. I shouldn't be surprised.” Kathleen didn't say a word about the affair to anyone. She spoke to no one at all that evening. Her bed was next to Elizabeth's in the dormitory, and when Kathleen did not reply when everyone called good-night as usual. Elizabeth poked her head between the white curtains to speak to her, for she was sorry about the whole thing.
Kathleen did not see her. The girl was sitting on her bed, looking earnestly at her face in her hand- mirror. She looked really sad, and Elizabeth knew why. Poor Kathleen was thinking how plain and ugly she was! She had always known it herself – but it was dreadful to know that everyone else knew it too, and laughed about it. Elizabeth drew back her head and said nothing. Would Kathleen have the courage to repeat at the Meeting all that Jenny had said about her? Surely she couldn't do that! Kathleen had her own plans. She was going to pay Jenny out in her own way. She got into bed and lay thinking about them. Jenny had better look out, that's all!
Chapter 8: Another School Meeting
Things were not very pleasant the next two or three days. There seemed to be rather a lot of bad feeling about. For one thing, Kathleen simply would not speak to Jenny at all, which was not very surprising considering what she had overheard Jenny saying.
But besides not speaking to her, Kathleen began to speak against her. Jenny was always very hungry, and she ate very well indeed – and Kathleen called her greedy.
«It makes me sick to see the way that greedy Jenny eats», she said to Belinda, after tea the next day. «Honestly, she ate seven pieces of bread-and-butter, and three buns, besides an enormous piece of birthday cake that Harriet gave her.»
Belinda said nothing. Sh
e did not like rows – but Elizabeth overheard and flared up at once in defence of Jenny. «That's a mean thing to say, Kathleen!», she said. «Jenny isn't greedy! She's always terribly hungry at mealtimes – well, I am too, I must say – but I've never seen Jenny gobbling just for the sake of eating, or taking more than her share if there wasn't enough for everyone. And how awful of you to count how many pieces of bread-and-butter she had!»
«I shall count again», said Kathleen, «and you'll be surprised to find I'm right. Jenny is greedy. It's disgusting!»
«Kathleen! What about you and your sweets then!» cried Elizabeth. «You're greedy over them – why, you never offer anyone any!»
«Stop it now, you two», said Belinda, feeling uncomfortable. «I don't know what's the matter with our form this term – somebody always seems to be quarrelling!»
Kathleen went off. Elizabeth took out her paint-box to paint a map, and set it down on the table with a crash. Her face was as black as thunder.
«Elizabeth! I wonder you haven't broken that box in half!» exclaimed Belinda. «My word, I wish you could see your face!»
«I think you might have stuck up for Jenny», said Elizabeth, stirring her paint-water so crossly that it slopped over on the table. «I wouldn't let anyone say a word against a friend of mine without sticking up for them.»
«Well, you've made things much worse by sticking up, than I have by saying nothing», said Belinda. «I don't know what's come over you lately – you're really bad-tempered!»
«No, I'm not», said Elizabeth. «Things have gone wrong, that's all. Anyway, I won't let that spotty – faced Kathleen say mean things about old Jenny. Jenny's a sport. Golly, how I laughed about that white mouse the other day! Miss Ranger was nice about that, wasn't she?»