"Blyton, Enid - St Clare's 03 - Summer Term at St Clare's" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

The twins grinned. Every one liked Matron. She was full of common sense and fun-but woe betide any one who lost too many hankies, tore their sheets, or didn't darn their stockings at once! Matron descended on them immediately, and many a time the twins had had to go to Matron's room and try in vain to explain away missing articles.
'We're glad to be back,' said Pat. 'We're looking forward to tennis and swimming, Matron.'
'Well, remember that your bathing-costumes have to be brought to me after swimming,' said Matron. 'No screwing them up and stuffing away into drawers with dry things! Now run away, both of you-unless you want a dose out of a nice new bottle of medicine!'
The twins laughed. Matron had the largest bottles of medicine they had ever seen anywhere. There was a big new one on the mantelpiece. Matron picked it up and shook it. 'Try it!' she said.
But the twins fled. Downstairs they went to see Miss Theobald, the wise and kindly Head Mistress. They knocked at the drawing-room door.
'Come in!' said a voice, and in they went. Miss Theobald was sitting at her desk, writing. She took off her glasses and smiled at the blushing twins. They liked the Head Mistress very much, but they always felt nervous in front of her.
'Well, twins?' she said. 'I still don't know which is which! Are you Patricia?' She looked at Isabel as she said this and Isabel shook her head.
'No, I'm Isabel,' she said, with a laugh. 'I've got a few more freckles on my nose than Pat has. That's about the only way to tell us at present.'
Miss Theobald laughed. 'Well, that's an easy way to tell one from the other when you are both in front of me,' she said, 'but it wouldn't be very helpful when there was only one of you. Now listen, twins-I want you to work hard this term, because Miss Roberts thinks you should go up into the second form next term. So just see what you can do! I should like you to try for top places this term. You both have good brains and should be able to do it.'
The twins felt proud. Of course they would try! What fun it would be to go up into the next form-and how pleased their parents would be.
They went out of the room determined to work hard- and to play tennis hard and swim well. 'Thank goodness we didn't get the mumps,' said Pat, happily, as they went back to the common room. 'Wouldn't it have been awful to have missed more weeks of the summer term?'
It was supper-time when they reached the common room and the girls were pouring out to go to the dining-hall, chattering loudly. Janet was arm-in-arm with the new girl, the one with the turned-up nose and crinkly eyes.
'Hallo, Pat, hallo, Isabel,' she said. 'Come and be introduced to the Bad Girl of the Form-Bobby Ellis!'
Bobby grinned, and her eyes became more crinkled than ever. She certainly looked naughty-and there was a sort of don't-care air about her that the twins liked at once.
'Is your name really Bobby?' asked Pat. 'It's a boy's name.'
'I know,' said Bobby. 'But my name is Roberta and the short name for Robert is Bobby, you know-so I'm always called Bobby too. I've heard a lot about you two twins.'
'Good things I hope, not bad,' said Isabel, laughing. 'Wouldn't you like to know!' said Bobby, with a twinkle, and went off with Janet.
It was fun to sit down at supper-time again and hear the familiar chatter going on, fun to take big thick slices of bread and spread it with potted meat or jam. Fun to drink the milky cocoa and yell for the sugar. Everything was so friendly and jolly, and the twins loved it all. Afterwards the girls returned to the common room and put on the wireless or the gramophone. Some of the girls did their knitting, some read, and some merely lazed.
By the time that bedtime came the twins felt as if they had been back at school for weeks! It seemed quite impossible to think they had only been there a few hours.
They went upstairs yawning. 'What's the work like this term?' asked Pat, poking her head into Janet's cubicle as they undressed.
'Fierce,' said Janet. 'It always is in the summer term, don't you think so? I suppose it seems extra difficult because we all so badly want to be out in the sunshine-but honestly Miss Roberts is driving us like slaves this term. Some of us will have to go up into the second form next term, and I suppose she doesn't want us to be backward in anything. My goodness, the maths we've had the last week! You just wait and see.'
But not even the thought of Miss Roberts being fierce with maths could make the twins feel unhappy that first night! They cuddled down into their narrow beds and fell asleep at once, looking forward to the next day with enjoyment.




3 BACK IN MISS ROBERTS'S CLASS

THE twins awoke before the dressing-bell went the next morning. They lay whispering to each other whilst the May sunshine shone warmly in at the window. Then the bell went and the eight girls got out of bed, some with a leap, like Carlotta and the twins, some with a groan like Sheila, who always hated turning out of her warm bed, winter or summer.
They met their Cousin Alison coming out of her dormitory arm-in-arm with the American girl, Sadie Greene. They stared at her, because she had done her hair in quite a different way.
'Alison! What have you done to your hair?' said Pat. 'It looks awful. Do you think you are a film-star or something?'
'Sadie says I look grand like this,' said Alison, setting her little mouth in an obstinate line. 'Sadie says . .
'That's all Alison can say nowadays,' remarked Janet. 'She's like a gramophone record always set to say" Sadie says. . . . Sadie says . . . Sadie says . .
Every one laughed. 'It's sure a wunnerful way of fixing the hair,' said Doris, with a very good imitation of Sadie's American accent. Sadie laughed. She was very good tempered.
'I don't know what Miss Roberts will say though,' went on Doris. 'She isn't very keen on fancy hair styles, Alison.'
'Well, but Sadie says . . .' began Alison, in an injured sort of voice-and at once all the girls took up the refrain.
'Sadie says . . . Sadie says . . . Sadie says!' they chanted in a sort of chorus, whilst Doris jumped up on to a nearby chair and beat time for the chanting. Alison's eyes filled with the easy tears she always knew how to shed.
'You can see your cousin can turn on the water-tap just as easily as last term,' said Janet, in her clear voice. Alison turned away to hide her face. She knew that the girls had no patience with her tears. Sadie slipped her arm through hers.
'Aw, come on, sugar-baby,' she said. 'You're a cute little thing, and I won't let them tease you!'
'I can't think how your cousin can make friends with that vulgar American girl,' said a soft voice at Pat's side. 'It's a good thing you've come. Sadie has a very bad influence on the class.'
Pat turned and saw the girl called Prudence Arnold. She didn't know whether she liked the look of her or not. Prudence was pretty, but her mouth was hard, and her eyes, set too close together, were a pale brown.
The breakfast-bell went and saved Pat the bother of answering. She ran down the stairs with the others and whispered to Janet. 'Is that Prudence? She looks awfully goody-goody.'
'Yes, you'd better mind your P's and Q's with her!' said Janet. 'She's so good she'll burst with it one day
-and as for playing a trick on anyone, well the thought of it would send her into a fit. You should have seen her face one day last week when I flipped a rubber at Hilary in class. It was enough to turn the milk sour. Oh and by the way-according to her she's related to half the lords and ladies in the kingdom. Get her on to the subject-she's funny!'
'No talking now please,' said Miss Roberts as the girls stood for grace to be said. Pat took a quick look at Prudence. The girl was standing with her head bent and her eyes shut, the very picture of goodness.
'Now Lucy Oriell is really good,' thought Pat, glancing at Lucy, 'and I like her awfully, and did from the first- and yet I don't take to Prudence at all, and she sounds good too. Perhaps it is because she hasn't any sense of fun, and Lucy has. I wonder if she's as clever as Lucy at lessons. Well, we shall soon see.'
That morning Miss Roberts read out the class-marks for the week, and the last new girl, Pamela Boardman, was top with ninety-three marks out of a hundred. Prudence Arnold was only half-way down the list. Sadie, Alison, Carlotta and Doris vied for places at the bottom,
'Pamela, you have done very well for the first week,' said Miss Roberts. 'I can see you set yourself a high standard, and you work steadily in each subject. Considering that you are the youngest in the form-not yet fourteen-this is very good.'
All the girls stared at Pamela, who was sitting upright in her desk, red with pleasure. The twins looked at her curiously. They were nearly fifteen, and it seemed marvellous to them that a thirteen-year-old should be top of their form.
'She's very small even for thirteen,' thought Pat. 'And she's pale now that she's not red any more. She looks as if she worked too hard!'