THE YOUNGEST GIRL IN THE SCHOOL
by
EVELYN SHARP
Author of 'The Making of a Schoolgirl,' 'Wymps,' Etc.
With Illustrations by C. E. Brock
New York The Macmillan Company London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 1906 All rights reserved
Copyright, 1901, By the Macmillan Company.
Set up and electrotyped September, 1901. Reprinted January, 1902.
New edition September, 1906.
Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
TO
THE PROFESSOR
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page 'May I--may I have all that?' 27
'Look here, Babs,' she began, smoothing the mop of tangled hair 45
'What in the name of wonder are you children doing down there?' 99
Five heads suddenly appeared at the open window 108
'Dear me!' he said, slightly taken aback 175
'Hullo!' said Jean. 'What's the matter?' 184
'Tell me, Herr Doktor' 261
'So he got Jill' 310
CHAPTER I
IN A LONDON SCHOOLROOM
'It's no good,' sighed Barbara, looking disconsolately round the room; 'we shall never get straight in time. Don't you think we had better leave it, and let Auntie Anna see us as we really are? She will only be disappointed afterwards, if we begin by being tidy; and I don't like disappointing people, do you?'
There was a shout of laughter when she finished speaking, and Barbara frowned. She never knew why the boys laughed at her when she tried to explain her reasons for doing things, but they always did.
'Is that why you have put on your very shortest frock?' asked Wilfred, who was brewing something in a saucepan over the fire. 'I believe you think that if Auntie Anna saw you for the first time in your Sunday frock, she might suppose you were a nice, proper little girl, instead of----'
Barbara seized the sofa cushion and aimed it at him threateningly. 'Instead of what?' she demanded.
Wilfred was at a disadvantage, owing to his position as well as to the precious quality of the liquid in the saucepan; and he felt it wiser to make terms. 'Well,' he observed, 'you might at least have put on a longer frock for the credit of the family; now, mightn't you?'
Barbara looked down at her blue serge skirt, edged with certain rows of white braid that only made it look shorter; and she gave it a pull to make it fall a little lower over the slim black legs that appeared beneath it. 'It's not my fault that I have just come from a gymnastic class,' she protested. 'Besides, my Sunday frock is only two inches longer! What difference does two inches make, even if we _have_ got an aunt coming? You're so particular, Wilfred.'
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: The Youngest Girl in the School by Evelyn Sharp
- 2: ' added Babs from the back of the sofa
- 3: 'she'll see that Egbert has a crammer next summer holidays
- 4: She'll turn her attention to the Babe
- 5: Barbara stopped spinning round
- 6: And he tripped over the saucepan
- 7: Who always expected to be patronised
- 8: When Egbert made a spirited interruption
- 9: She comes between me and Bobbin
- 10: Saying she was on her way home to Crofts
- 11: I've just come down the chimney with a bang
- 12: Only Kit says he isn't old enough
- 13: Jill slipped out of the arm chair
- 14: And Jill was a little hurt about it
- 15: ' she whispered privately to the magician
- 16: Auntie Anna insisted on more clothes
- 17: There was a horse for Egbert to ride to hounds
- 18: Along the rows of chrysanthemums
- 19: Asthma always had a bad effect upon his temper
- 20: And she put her arm hurriedly round Babs
- 21: And Miss Finlayson stooped and fastened it back
- 22: And Miss Finlayson nodded to Barbara
- 23: Next to the fireplace was a curtained archway
- 24: ' chimed in the irrepressible Angela
- 25: But Angela did not seem convinced
- 26: These smaller people in the junior playroom
- 27: And told Babs it was her bedroom
- 28: ''It was Jean Murray who told me to come
- 29: Are you going to apologise or not
- 30: Barbara sighed and remained where she was
- 31: And looked round for Miss Finlayson
- 32: I know Latin up to the deponent verbs
- 33: Barbara was quite equal to the occasion
- 34: Miss Finlayson had stopped smiling
- 35: Miss Finlayson smiled mysteriously
- 36: 'Miss Finlayson had to look at her
- 37: Of course I never said a word about it to Margaret Hulme
- 38: 'Didn't you hear the dinner bell
- 39: I've come to know if you want your boots unlaced
- 40: And Jean was tugging at one end of the bootlace
- 41: 'Why don't you unlace somebody else's boots
- 42: Then Kit waved a screw of paper and made more signs
- 43: Miss Finlayson shot one glance outwards
- 44: 'Miss Finlayson waited till they had finished speaking
- 45: 'Your Finny thinks an awful lot of him
- 46: ''Shoved a thing like a skewer down
- 47: An old pupil sends me my chutnee
- 48: On the floor of the junior playroom
- 49: I'm not quite sure about the m's in lammenting
- 50: Then Auntie Anna winked at Jill
- 51: 'Has any one seen Barbara Berkeley
- 52: Who was smarting under the giggle
- 53: While he exchanged parting words with Miss Finlayson
- 54: Barbara climbed on the window seat
- 55: And Charlotte flushed a little when they all laughed at her
- 56: ''Who's spilling ink all over the place
- 57: For Jean Murray turned quickly on her heel
- 58: It interrupted a wild tumult in the junior playroom
- 59: But Miss Finlayson waited with her hand out
- 60: 'Miss Finlayson came up to them
- 61: And Jean took up the tale from beyond
- 62: A reply which had no effect whatever upon Barbara
- 63: While the junior playroom in general
- 64: Babs hurried off to the Fifth classroom
- 65: ''You're so splendid at algebra
- 66: It it was because of Margaret Hulme
- 67: To the girls at Wootton Beeches
- 68: 'Barbara Berkeley thinks she can laugh at everything
- 69: Of what Babs had done for her
- 70: But it completed the perplexity of Miss Smythe
- 71: But her explanation failed to satisfy Miss Finlayson
- 72: Jean drew herself up complacently
- 73: 'I watched her all the time Finny was speaking
- 74: 'you must know you're perfectly splendid at gym
- 75: 'There be foive pig styes along of it
- 76: Then the triumvirate broke into a run
- 77: If Finny isn't going to be cross about it
- 78: Angela put down the apple dumplings
- 79: ' he said in a suppressed tone
- 80: Out of consideration for Angela
- 81: But Miss Finlayson merely smiled
- 82: 'Miss Finlayson looked relieved
- 83: Miss Finlayson walked slowly across the room
- 84: You're all coming to the gym display
- 85: For they had suddenly made the discovery that Jill Urquhart
- 86: Wilson Hurst tapped his stick smartly on the table
- 87: 'Hadn't we better go back to Jill
- 88: And the triumvirate came out of quarantine in due course
- 89: 'Can't you see that Hurly Burly wants to say something else
- 90: And Angela stared and withdrew
- 91: 'Barbara Berkeley is in an awful fury
- 92: Babs curled the rope round her waist
- 93: 'You mean Margaret and ''Charlotte Bigley
- 94: 'You should hear Margaret Hulme do it that's something like
- 95: 'She and Margaret Hulme are very close
- 96: But the anteroom was overwhelmed
- 97: She announced that Charlotte Bigley
- 98: 'May I have the trapeze let down
- 99: He failed to see the point of Hurly Burly's message
- 100: And Miss Burleigh made her the signal to begin
- 101: The tidying of the bookshelves
- 102: The mattresses were arranged for the rings
- 103: Angela stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth
- 104: Charlotte tossed her head scornfully
- 105: It was Wilfred who blurted it out instead
- 106: Hurst shut the front door behind him
- 107: 'Miss Finlayson suddenly appeared on the doorstep
- 108: For Jill had once nursed Auntie Anna when she was ill
- 109: And Babs congratulated herself
- 110: Jill began putting her work away in a great hurry
- 111: Christopher shook his head vigorously
- 112: When Jill was blubbing because you weren't so well
- 113: Finny would have sent her man on horseback long before this
- 114: The Doctor flicked the horse with his whip
- 115: And Christopher was left staring after him in the darkness
- 116: ''And Jill is awfully obliging
- 117: Babs is always with them in the sickroom
- 118: As soon as their bicycles had been brought from Crofts
- 119: Egbert was going to Oxford in October
- 120: But Jill was not smiling so much as usual this morning
- 121: And he did not know that Jill was a princess
- 122: For Wilfred called him from below
- 123: Because Jill is nuts on nursing and all that
- 124: Barbara laughed more merrily than ever
- 125: Where we was keeping guard over Jill
- 126: 'Next time you shut a chap into a pig sty
- 127: Hurst has saved Jill from the giant
- 128: Nobody in the junior playroom ever made her feel like that
- 129: Any stupid idiot can put on a white satin dress
- 130: In the company of Kit the prince
- 131: Was conveying a second cup to Babs
- 132: Berkeley looked mildly surprised
- 133: This volume is the outgrowth of observation lessons
- 134: Side lights on american history
- 135: De soto and his men in the land of florida
- 136: Selected and arranged by Francis Turner Palgrave
- 137: A collection of fifty delightful jingles and nonsense verses
- 138: History reader for elementary schools