The Nicest Girl in the School: A Story of School Life

by Angela Brazil

  CHAPTER XII

  Playing with Fire

  The Fourth Class, including the members of both upper and lowerdivisions, was by far the largest at The Priory, and, in the opinion ofMiss Lincoln, the most unruly and difficult to manage. During her manyyears of teaching, she had always found that girls between fourteen andsixteen gave more than the usual amount of trouble. They were too old tobe treated as children, and had already begun to set up standards oftheir own; indeed, they thought they knew most things a little betterthan their elders. They were impatient of discipline, yet their ideaswere still crude and unformed, and they had not the judgment norself-restraint which might be counted upon in the higher forms. It was aphase of character which she knew would soon pass, but it requiredjudicious treatment, and she felt that a mistress needed to be both kindand firm to exercise the right influence at such a crisis in the younglives under her charge. Miss Harper, who was popular with her class,could always tame the most rebellious spirits, and maintain perfectorder; but with Miss Rowe it was a totally different affair. She was notgenerally liked, and, taking advantage of her youth and lack ofexperience, many of the girls were as naughty as they dared, and defiedher authority on every occasion. Amongst the ring-leaders in what may becalled "the opposition", I regret to say Enid Walker held a foremostplace. She was a very high-spirited, headstrong girl, who resented anyrestraint; she either took a violent fancy to people, or disliked themequally heartily: anyone who could gain her affection could lead hermost easily, otherwise she was apt to prove so wayward as to cause ateacher to despair. Unfortunately Miss Rowe had not discovered the rightway to manage Enid; for some time matters had been rather strained, andby the summer term it was a case of undeclared war between pupil andteacher.

  "It doesn't matter what I say or do, Miss Rowe's always down on me!"declared Enid.

  "Well, you really go rather too far sometimes," said Avis. "Miss Roweknew perfectly well this morning that you dropped your atlas on purpose,and that it was you who tied Cissie's hair ribbon to her desk."

  "Miss Rowe can be quite nice sometimes," said Patty. "When we were onthe common yesterday, she found two new orchises, and gave them to me topress."

  "Oh, you always manage to say something for everybody!" said Enid."You're too good-natured, Patty. I can't bear Miss Rowe."

  "But why?"

  "'I do not love thee, Doctor Fell, The reason why I cannot tell; But this I know, and know full well, I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,'"

  quoted Enid. "That's how I feel, exactly."

  "Perhaps she feels the same about you," suggested Winnie.

  "Perhaps she does, but I don't care in the least. I don't like hervoice, nor the cold way she looks at me and says, 'Now, Enid!' She'sonly an assistant teacher, and I'm not going to obey her as if she wereMiss Lincoln or Miss Harper. She needn't expect it."

  Certainly poor Miss Rowe found Enid a very trying pupil. Her attentionwas ever wandering, and she was invariably engaged in some mischiefcalculated to distract the rest of the class. She would sometimes give awrong answer on purpose to raise a laugh; she could never lift the lidof her desk without letting it fall with a bang; and the contents ofher pencil-box seemed always ready to disperse themselves over thefloor. One morning the girls were having a lesson in grammar, and werediligently repeating Latin derivations and Anglo-Saxon suffixes, whensome chance called Patty's attention to Enid. She noticed the latteropen her desk stealthily, and draw out a tiny paper box, which sheplaced on her knee, and covered with her pocket handkerchief. Pattywondered what she was doing. It was evidently something which requiredgreat secrecy, for Enid glanced carefully round to see whether anyonewas watching her; then, as nobody except Patty appeared to be looking,she drew away a fold of her handkerchief, cautiously opened the littlebox, and out hopped a huge grasshopper, which bounded straight on toCissie Gardiner's blouse. Patty was so fascinated by gazing at it, andwondering where its next leap would take it, that she started when MissRowe asked her a question, and for once failed with her answer.

  "Ad, ante," she began, but could get no further. Her eyes were glued toCissie's blouse, and Cissie, noticing she was the cause of Patty'shesitation, looked down at her sleeve, and sprang up with a scream.

  "Take it off! Somebody take it off!" she entreated. At this point thegrasshopper promptly hopped away, no one could see where. Each girlnaturally thought it might be on herself, and, jumping up, shook herskirts frantically. The class was instantly in the greatest disorder.Ella Johnson and May Firth stood on their seats, loudly protesting theirhorror of all creeping or crawling insects.

  "Don't let it come on me! Oh, don't!" wailed Kitty Harrison.

  "It's there!" exclaimed Maud Greening.

  "Where?"

  "It's hopped on to Doris."

  "Oh! It will go down my neck!" shrieked Doris.

  "No, it's hopped off again."

  "It's on Maggie Woodhall's desk."

  "Catch it, Maggie!"

  "I daren't! I daren't!"

  "Squash it with your ruler."

  "I couldn't! I hate squashing things!"

  "It's gone again."

  "It will be on me next!"

  "There it is on Maggie's desk again."

  "Girls! Girls! Calm yourselves and keep still!" cried Miss Rowe'smeasured voice. "Maggie, sit down at once!"

  The teacher strode across the room, and, catching the grasshopper in herhand, put it safely out of the window, then turned again to her agitatedclass.

  "Order!" she said sternly; and after waiting a few moments until herpupils had regained their self-control, she continued: "Who let loosethat grasshopper?"

  "I did, Miss Rowe," replied Enid, promptly.

  "Then you will leave the room at once, Enid. You will take a bad markfor conduct, and you will learn two pages of Greek chronology, andrepeat them to me to-morrow morning before nine o'clock. Goimmediately!"

  Enid obeyed with as much noise as she could; she was in a naughty frameof mind, and enjoyed banging the door after her. She did not greatlycare about either the bad mark for conduct or the Greek chronology,though she had an uncomfortable qualm when it occurred to her that theepisode might possibly come to Miss Lincoln's ears. For this once,however, she was safe. Miss Rowe was anxious to manage her troublesomeclass without constant reference to the headmistress, and thought itbetter not to report the affair. She determined, nevertheless, thatEnid, being the centre of so much mischief, should move from her desk,and, instead of sitting in the second row from the back, should be infront, directly under her teacher's eye. She mentioned her wish to MissHarper, who ordered Enid to change places with Beatrice Wynne, and totransfer her books to her new desk before the next morning. Enid wasfurious.

  "I won't go!" she declared to her companions. "Not unless Miss Rowedrags me there."

  "You'll have to!" said Avis.

  "I don't know about that. No one can force me to do a thing I don'twant, not even Miss Lincoln."

  "Miss Lincoln would expel you if you didn't do what you were told."

  "I shouldn't care!"

  "Oh, Enid, don't be silly! It can't make such a difference where yousit. I'll help you to move all your books, and put your new desk tidy,"said Patty, hoping to pour oil on the troubled waters, and adding:"You'll have one advantage. You'll be close to Miss Harper in the botanyclass, and she'll hand you the specimens first. I wish I might changeinstead of you. I always envied Beatrice when she was pulling offpetals, and we were craning our necks to try and look."

  "It's easy enough to see the bright side for somebody else," grumbledEnid.

  "Let us have our removal now," continued Patty, wisely taking no notice."Beatrice is quite ready; aren't you, Beatrice? We'll lay all the thingson the seat, and dust the desk inside before we put them in."

  "I wouldn't do it for anybody but you," said Enid, allowing herself tobe persuaded.

  Beatrice soon emptied her desk, and it did not take very long to arrangethe books in their new quarters. The alteration
was effected almostbefore Enid realized it, and the storm which Patty had dreaded for herfriend's sake was avoided. Nevertheless, Patty was not easy about Enid.

  "She'll be getting into serious trouble some day," she thought. "I wishshe would behave better in Miss Rowe's classes. Things can't always goon like this, and if Miss Rowe were to tell her to report herself in thelibrary, I don't believe even Enid would like to face Miss Lincoln andfind her really angry. I know I shouldn't."

  It seemed no use for Patty to try remonstrances. Enid only laughed, andwould not listen to her.

  "Patty, you're a dear!" she declared. "I love you the best of any girl Iknow, but even you can't persuade me to like Miss Rowe. It's no use.We're flint and steel, or frost and fire; or oil and water, or anythingelse you can name that oughtn't to go together, and won't mix. The verytone of her voice annoys me."

  "Why should it?"

  "It's so prim. The way she pokes out her chin and says 'Enid!' is mostdisagreeable. It always makes me want to be naughty. Yes, it does;don't shake your head. I've told you a hundred times I'm not good likeyou, and I simply can't be. I'm like a bottle of soda-water with thecork popped, and I have to fizz over sometimes."

  It was unfortunate that Enid should have taken such a dislike to herteacher, for she kept up a state of ill-feeling among the girls whichotherwise would probably have died away. Absurd trifles were magnifiedand made much of, and ridiculous grievances were nursed and cherished.One day Miss Rowe set the upper division a grammar exercise consistingof two questions. The first was long and very difficult; it was on theorigin of the English language, and required a certain knowledge ofvarious Anglo-Saxon roots, a list of words derived from ancient British,and some account of the Norman-French period. The second and shorterquestion was simply a sentence to be parsed. No one in the class had agood memory for derivations. Fourteen out of the fifteen members spentthe half-hour racking their brains and biting the ends of their pens invain endeavours to complete their answers to Question 1, so that when itwas time to hand in their exercise books, they had written very little,and that little was mostly wrong. The exercises were corrected andreturned the next day, and each girl, with the solitary exception ofElla Johnson, found she had received a bad mark.

  "It's too disgusting!" said Beatrice Wynne. "I don't believe even MissRowe herself could have answered that question without looking at thebook."

  "How did you manage it, Ella? You're the only one who's scrapedthrough," asked Avis.

  "I didn't attempt it," said Ella. "I did the parsing instead."

  "You mean to say you didn't do Question 1 at all?" exclaimed KittyHarrison.

  "No, not I."

  "How abominably unfair!" cried Enid. "I thought everybody had to beginwith the first question. All the rest of us took so long over it, thatwe hadn't time for the parsing, and yet we got bad marks, and you, whohadn't even tried, got a good mark. It's just like Miss Rowe'smeanness."

  "It's really too bad," said Winnie. "Someone ought to go to Miss Roweand ask her about it."

  "Yes, so they ought."

  "Who will, then?"

  Nobody volunteered for the disagreeable task, and Avis suggested thatWinnie herself might be suitable.

  "I daren't, after the snubbing I got yesterday," said Winnie. "Shewouldn't listen to me."

  "I think it would be best if we were to draw lots," said Enid.

  "No, don't draw lots, it seems like gambling," said Avis. "Suppose wecount as we do for games? Stand in a circle, and I'll begin. Are youready?"

  "The first one who gets 'out' will have to go and tell Miss Rowe what wethink, then," agreed Enid.

  "'One, two, three, four, Jenny at the cottage door," began Avis."'Eating cherries off a plate, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three,out goes _she_.' Why, it's you, Winnie, after all."

  "I wish it wasn't," groaned Winnie. "However, I suppose I shall have togo. Miss Rowe's in the studio, so I'll ask her now and get it over."

  "Tell her we don't think it's fair," said Enid.

  "And that Ella ought to have a bad mark too," said Kitty Harrison.

  "Oh, you mean thing! It's not my fault," protested the indignant Ella.

  "You can say we might all have done the parsing if we'd begun it first,"said Beatrice.

  "And don't forget to say there wouldn't have been time to answer twosuch long questions," said Maggie Woodhall.

  "I'll do the best I can, but don't expect too much," replied Winnie."Stay here, all of you, till I come back."

  Winnie returned in about five minutes with a doleful face. "It's nouse," she assured the girls, "I can't make Miss Rowe understand thepoint at all. She would only say: 'You wrote a very ill-preparedexercise, which did not deserve a good mark, and if you think I am goingto excuse bad work you are quite mistaken'."

  "It's just what I expected," declared Enid. "Miss Rowe carrieseverything with such a high hand, she won't take the trouble to listenproperly when one tries to explain."

  "It's a shame!" said all the girls, indignantly.

  "I wish we could find some way of paying her out," said Enid.

  "What could we do?"

  "Let me think. I know! Suppose we none of us say 'Good morning' to herwhen she comes into the schoolroom to-morrow to take the register."

  "Oh, yes! That would be splendid, and then she would see our opinion ofher."

  "Every girl must vow she won't say it, even you, Patty!"

  "I think you're very silly," said Patty, "but I shan't be there myself.I always have my music lesson at nine o'clock on Friday mornings."

  "So much the better," said Enid. "You were the only one I thought mightspoil it. Will everybody else promise?"

  All gave the required assent. The girls were anxious to air theirgrievance, and this seemed the most feasible way of showing theirteacher their displeasure. At five minutes to nine on the followingmorning, they were seated in their places waiting for the second bell toring. Miss Rowe entered punctually, and turning to the class as usualsaid: "Good morning".

  There was no reply. She waited a moment in much astonishment.

  "Good morning, girls," she said again.

  Still there was dead silence in the room.

  "I will give you one more chance. I cannot believe that you can be sodeliberately and intentionally discourteous. Good morning, girls."

  What would have happened at this juncture, whether the girls would havestill persisted in defying their teacher, and so have obliged her toreport their conduct to Miss Lincoln, or whether they would have givenway with an ill grace, it is impossible to say. Fortunately for allconcerned, Miss Harper was rather earlier than usual that day, andarriving in the schoolroom exactly at the critical moment, she saved thesituation. Her greeting was answered by a chorus of "Good morning",which might be intended for both mistresses. Miss Rowe had the goodsense to take no further notice, and to proceed at once to mark theregister; and as she did not refer to the subject afterwards, the girlsfelt doubtful whether their little mutiny had been quite so effective asthey had meant it to be.

  "I wish Miss Rowe wasn't so horribly particular," said Avis, tidying herpossessions ruefully a few days afterwards. "She says she's going tolook at all our desks this afternoon, and give forfeits for any that arein a muddle. I haven't rummaged to the back of mine for ever so long. Iscarcely know what's in it. Why, what's this? It's actually a box offusees. I remember now, I brought them from home. I'd quite forgotten Ihad them."

  "Oh, do give them to me!" cried Enid. "They make such a lovely hissingnoise, I like to hear them go off."

  "You'd better not strike them in class, then," replied Avis.

  "Do you dare me to?"

  "Why, even you wouldn't do such a risky thing!"

  "Oh! What would Miss Rowe say if you did it in the very middle ofEuclid?" said Cissie Gardiner, with round eyes of delighted horror.

  "Then I will, just to show you I dare. I'm not afraid of Miss Rowe!"declared Enid, appropriating the box and putting it in her pocket.

&nbs
p; The girls laughed, not believing for a moment that she really intendedto carry out her threat. The bell rang, Miss Rowe entered, and lessonsbegan before they had time to say anything more about it. Euclid was nota favourite subject with the Upper Fourth. It was considered dry, andthe half-hour devoted to it was regarded as more or less of a penance.In the very middle of the fifth proposition, when Miss Rowe had changedthe letters on the blackboard, and was endeavouring to make VeraClifford grasp the principle of the reasoning, instead of merelyrepeating the problem by rote, Enid's head was bent low over her desk,and her fingers appeared to be busy with something.

  "Y G K = D F O," droned Vera in a melancholy voice.

  Suddenly there was a striking sound, and a loud, long hiss.

  "Oh! oh! oh!" came in a subdued chorus from all sides.

  "Enid, what are you doing?" cried Miss Rowe, sharply.

  For answer naughty Enid held up the hissing fusee in a kind of daringtriumph, but as she raised her head her long curly hair, which wasfloating loose, brushed against the burning spark, and in an instantblazed up, setting fire also to the sleeve of her thin lawn blouse. Witha wild shriek she dropped the fusee, and, springing from her seat,would have tried in her terror to rush from the room had she not beenprevented by Miss Rowe, who, with admirable presence of mind, seized theduster from the blackboard, and with only that and her bare handssucceeded in stifling the flames. The whole class was in a panic. JeanBannerman ran at once for Miss Hall, the teacher in the next room, andin a very short space of time Miss Lincoln herself arrived on the scene.Finding that Enid and Miss Rowe were the only two hurt, she carried themoff at once to apply first aid until a doctor could be summoned, leavingMiss Hall to try and calm the agitated girls. Cissie Gardiner wassobbing hysterically, and all were offering versions of the accident insuch a state of excitement, that it was difficult to understand theiraccounts.

  "Enid Walker lighted a fusee?" repeated Miss Hall, almost incredulously."Then she alone is responsible for this unhappy occurrence. I can onlytrust that neither she nor Miss Rowe is seriously injured. Girls, goback to your desks. I must return now to my own class, but I will send aprefect to you as soon as possible. I trust to your good feeling to workin silence at your preparation for to-morrow."

  Miss Rowe and Enid were taken to the sanatorium, which was always keptin readiness to receive urgent cases. Both were suffering greatly fromthe shock: Miss Rowe's hands were badly scorched, and Enid had a severeburn on her arm and also on her neck. The doctor, having completed hisdressings, ordered them both to be kept very quiet, and not to receivevisitors until he gave his permission. It was several days, therefore,before Enid was allowed to see any of her school-fellows, and when thenurse at last declared that she might have a friend to spend half anhour with her, she fixed her choice at once upon Patty. The latter hadbeen two or three times a day to the sanatorium to enquire how theinvalids were progressing, so it was with great eagerness that she nowknocked at the door. She was admitted by the nurse, and after a warningnot to excite her companion, was shown to Enid's room. Enid was lying onthe sofa, her arm swathed in bandages; some of her pretty hair had beencut away, and her face looked white, with dark circles round her eyes,as if she had not slept. Patty, after a rapturous greeting, sat down ona chair by her side, and began to tell her the school news.

  "Everybody sent all kinds of messages," she said. "It seems so funny inclass without either you or Miss Rowe. Have you seen Miss Rowe? Are herhands very bad?"

  "They're both bandaged up," replied Enid. "She won't be able to use themfor some time. Wasn't it brave of her to rush at me with the duster? Doyou know, she's been so nice. We had a long talk last night, and shetold me ever so many things. She meant to go to Girton when she leftschool, but her father lost all his money, and she had to begin to teachat once, so that she could help a younger brother. She's paying for hiseducation herself, and he's doing splendidly at his school, and she's soproud of him, and hopes he may win a scholarship. If I'd only known allthis, I wouldn't have made it so hard for her. I'm as sorry for that nowas I am about her hands being burnt."

  "I always thought Miss Rowe was nicer than you imagined. I'm so gladyou've found it out," said Patty.

  "I expect she's one of those people who improve on acquaintance,"continued Enid. "I couldn't bear her at one time, and now I believe I'mgoing to like her immensely. You can't think how jolly she can makeherself. I'll never be naughty in her class again, or let anybody elsebe, if I can help it. On my honour I won't!"

  Enid was as good as her word. When she and Miss Rowe were well enough toagain take their places in school, the young teacher found, to hersurprise, that all her trouble with the Upper Fourth was at an end. Thegirls regarded her in the light of a heroine, and her new popularitygave her an influence over them which her efforts at strict disciplinehad not been able to gain.

  "She seems quite different," said Winnie, voicing the feelings of theclass. "She's far pleasanter than she used to be, and now she doesn'torder us about so much, we don't seem to want to do so many things weoughtn't. She's really very pretty, you know; her nose is just perfect,and her hair is so thick and fair. Of course she can't compare with MissHarper, but still I like her ever so much better than I did before, andI vote we give her a tremendous clapping on Speech Day."