Beryl Goes to School
Chapter Two
A Most Dreadful Day
Beryl sat down by the trout stream and cried. She missed her mummy, and she missed her daddy, and she missed her pet sheep, Dolly. She had no friend, and everyone was quite horrid.
She could not stop the hot tears from flowing down her cheeks. It had been a dreadful day. She would have to run away tomorrow. She really would.
She had failed inspection in the dorm that morning. Her clothes had not been in apple-pie order. Items of underwear had been discovered under her bed. Matron was very cross. Miss Larch had scolded her in sewing class for not knowing her cross-stitch. It really was not fair.
And then that wicked Heidi had given her a mean pinch in French.
“Yaroo!” she had cried.
“Wheech girl said ‘yawoo’?” said Mademoiselle Dubois. “Yawoo eez not Fraynch.”
Two more demerits and she would be sent to the Supply Mistress.
“You are letting the House down,” warned a great big girl in Form Four. “There will be trouble if you don’t pull up your socks.”
She had to improve. She could not let her House down.
Beryl looked at her socks. They were around her ankles and badly needed pulling up. They were stained with mud from her scamper through the woods to the stream. She would begin at once. “I will wash my socks,” she said to herself.
She took off her shoes and put them beside her hat on the bank of the stream. She took off her socks and rinsed them in the bubbling water that rippled over the smooth grey stones. Then she stepped in, seeking a deeper pool. Her foot found a rock. The rock shifted.
Splash!
She sat down abruptly in the middle of the stream. Oh no! Her uniform skirt was wet through. She was soaked to the skin.
What would Matron say now?
The tension is unbearable! I can hardly wait for the next installment!