"Blyton, Enid - Malory Towers 05 - In the Fifth at Malory Towers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

Clippity-clop, clippity-clop went the hooves of the seven grand horses, curvetting about the broad drive. 'Hrrrrrrrumph!' said one of them, and then all seven neighed together.
'Bill, where can we let the horses drink?' came the deep voice of the seventeen-year-old brother.
'Follow me,' said Bill, and the six brothers trotted up the drive and round a corner, following the girl sitting so straight on her magnificent horse, Thunder.
'Gosh!' said Alicia. 'What a horde of brothers. Where's the seventh?'
'Gone into the army,' said Sally. 'My word Ч I wish I had seven brothers.'
'Well, I've got three and that's more than enough,' said Alicia. 'No wonder Bill's more like a boy than a girl.'
'Here they come again!' said Irene. 'Belinda, where's your sketch-book Ч do draw them all!'
Belinda had already got out her sketch-book which was always somewhere about her person. Her swift pencil sketched in horse after horse, and the others watched in admiration. Oh, to have a gift like Belinda's ! She could draw anyone and anything.
The seven horses seemed to know that Bill and Thunder were to be left behind. They lifted their heads and whinnied softly. Bill leaned over and stroked the noses of those nearest to her.
'Good-bye, Moonlight. Good-bye, Starlight. Good-bye, Snorter. Good-bye, Sultan . . .'
'She's paying a lot more attention to the horses than to her brothers!' said Alicia, with a grin. 'That's Bill all over, of course Ч horse-mad!'
'Well, her brothers are as bad!' said Sally. 'Look Ч yelling good-bye to Thunder but not to Bill!'
'Off they go,' said Darrell, envying Bill her brothers. 'Look at Thunder, trying to follow them. He doesn't want to be left behind!'
Bill was left alone in the drive with the impatient Thunder, who thought he should go with his comrades; he reared and curvetted in annoyance at being made to go the other way, up the drive instead of down.
The six horses and brothers disappeared in a clatter of hooves and a cloud of dust. Bill, looking rather solemn, made Thunder take the path to the stables. She hated being parted from the many horses that her family owned. But now that she had settled down well at Malory Towers, and was allowed to bring her horse, she would not have given up boarding-school for anything.
Another clatter of hooves, this time coming up the drive, made Bill rein in her horse, and look round. The five up in the art-room yelled to her.
'Bill! BILL! Here comes Clarissa Ч and she's on her horse, too!'
Sure enough, up the drive came a beautiful little horse with white socks, tossing his pretty head and showing off. Clarissa Carter rode him. She had been a new girl the term before, a plain, bespectacled little thing with an ugly wire round her front teeth. But now she had no wire and no spectacles, and she galloped up, her auburn hair flying in the wind, and her green eyes shining.
'Bill! Bill! I've brought Merrylegs! Isn't he sweet? Oh, do let him see Thunder. They'll love one another.'
'Two horse-mad creatures,' said Alicia, with a laugh. 'Well, Bill never had a friend till Clarissa came Ч so they'll have a fine time together this term, talking about horses and riding them, feeding them and grooming them . . .'
'Scrubbing their hooves and brushing their tails!' added Irene. 'Gosh, those galloping hooves have given me an idea for a new tune Ч a galloping tune Ч like this!'
She hummed a galloping, lilting melody Ч 'tirretty-tir-retty-tirretty-too . . .'
'Dear old Irene Ч she's not horse-mad, she's music-mad,' said Belinda, putting away her sketch-book. 'Now we shall have nothing but galloping tunes for the next few weeks! Come on, tirretty-too!'
And she galloped her friend out of the room at top speed. 'Tirretty-tirretty-tirretty-too. Oh Ч so sorry, Miss Potts Ч we never saw you coming!'


3 SUPPER-TIME

ALL but the new girls were well settled in by the evening. Matron had received health certificates and pocket-money from the lower school, and health certificates but no money from the upper school, who were allowed to keep their own without having to ask Matron for it.
'Did Irene's health certificate arrive all right?' asked Darrell, remembering how almost every term Irene's certificate was mislaid.
Sally laughed. 'Oh, somebody put an envelope in Irene's case, marked "Health Certificate", and she thought her mother had put it there instead of sending it by post Ч so she took it to Matron, of course, and said, "Here you are, Matron Ч I've really remembered it at last!"'
'And what was inside it?' asked Darrell.
'A recipe for Bad Memories,' chuckled Sally. 'I forget how it went. Take a cupful of Reminders, and a spoonful of Scoldings Ч something like that. You should have seen Matron's face when she saw it. Irene was dumbfounded, of course. She would be! However, it didn't matter because Matron had got her certificate by post.'
'Irene's such a scatterbrain, for all her cleverness,' said Alicia. 'So is Belinda. There must be something about Art and Music that makes people with those gifts perfectly idiotic over ordinary things. If Irene can lose something, she does. And if Belinda can forget something she forgets it! Do you remember how she came down to breakfast once without her blouse on?'
'There's the gong for supper,' said Darrell, thankfully. 'I'm awfully hungry. Hope there's as super a supper as usual Ч we always have such a good one on the first night! I'm glad I haven't got to fuss round Felicity this term Ч she's not a new girl any more. She can stand on her own feet.'
They went down into the big dining-room to supper. Sally absent-mindedly walked towards the fourth-form table, and Darrell pulled her back.
'Idiot! Do you want to sit with those kids?' she hissed. 'Here's the fifth-form table!'
They took their places, and saw three girls already there, two old fifth-formers, and one new girl. Catherine and Moira nodded to them, and Catherine gave them a beaming smile. Moira didn't. She was tight-lipped and looked as if the cares of the whole school rested on her shoulders!
The new girl, Maureen, smiled at them brightly. She was a fluffy, rather untidy-looking girl, with a big mouth, a large nose and rather uneven teeth that stuck out a little and made her look rabbity.
'I'm Maureen Little,' she said, in a light, friendly voice. 'I hope you won't mind having me at Malory Towers!' She gave a little giggle.
'Why should we?'asked Darrell, surprised. 'We heard your old school had closed down. That was bad luck.'
'Yes,' said Maureen, and looked pensive. 'It was such a marvellous school, too Ч you should have seen the playing fields! And we had two swimming-pools, and we were allowed to keep our own pets.'
'Well, I expect you'll find Malory Towers isn't too bad,' said Alicia, joining in.
'Oh yes,' said the girl, smiling again, and showing her rabbit-teeth. 'I'm sure it's wonderful. That's why my mother chose it. She Said that next to Mazeley Manor Ч that was my old school, you know Ч Malory Towers was the best.'
'Dear me Ч that was nice of her,' said Alicia in her smooth voice. 'I don't seem to have heard of Mazeley Manor. Or was it the school whose girls always failed in the School Cert.?'
Maureen flushed. 'Oh no,' she said. 'It couldn't have been. Why, quite half of us passed. I passed myself.'
'Very clever of you,' said Alicia, and Darrell nudged her. What a pity for Maureen to get on Alicia's wrong side so soon! She was just the type that irritated the sharp-tongued Alicia. Alicia winked at Darrell but Darrell frowned. It wasn't fair to tease a new girl so soon. Give her a chance!
But Maureen didn't give herself a chance! 'I must be friendly!' she said to herself. 'I must keep my own end up, I must impress these girls!'
So she chattered away in a light, airy voice, and didn't seem to realize that new girls should be seen and not heard! It was only when the others very pointedly began to talk to one another, turning away from her until she found that no one at all was listening to her, that she stopped.
In the first form if any new girl behaved like that the first-formers would have pointed out at once that she'd better keep her mouth shut before somebody sat on her. But the fifth-formers were not quite so crude. They merely ignored her, hoping she would see that she was behaving stupidly and making a bad start.