The Clippie Girls by Margaret Dickinson Read Free Book Online Page B

glancing to each side. She loved the interior of the tramcar with its plush green-patterned seats in the lower car and red leather seats upstairs. On the lower deck at both ends stairs curved upwards behind where the motorman stood at the controls.
    ‘Passengers should get on and off at the opposite end to wherever the driver is. And remember,’ Peggy warned as they moved off, ‘when the car’s full, you put the rope across and shout, “Another one behind.” You’ll get some abuse, but just smile and never, ever, get involved in a slanging match with a passenger.’
    For the first ten minutes Rose found it hard to concentrate; Bob was so close and she was hard pressed not to keep glancing towards him. But, as the car began to fill up with passengers, her mind was fully occupied in punching tickets, taking the correct fare and giving change. By their first relief, the huge money bag she’d been given was heavy with takings.
    ‘This is killing my shoulder,’ Rose moaned.
    ‘You’ll soon get used to it.’ Peggy laughed as Bob joined them in the mess room for a welcome cup of tea. ‘Let’s just hope when you make your waybill out tonight, everything tallies.’
    ‘It won’t,’ Bob said, ‘but don’t worry about it. Mr Bower is lenient with trainees.’
    But Rose wasn’t so sure. The job she’d hankered after wasn’t as easy as she’d thought. She watched her sister with growing admiration. It was wonderful how Peggy seemed to know which poor old lady really needed a hand on and off the tram and which was putting it on. She hadn’t known her older sister could engage in banter with the men and fend off the advances of the cheekier ones.
    ‘Coming out with me tonight, darlin’?’ one smartly dressed young man asked Peggy as he hopped on to the tram and refused to leave the platform to take a seat. ‘Ah’ve got summat ah’d like to show thee.’
    ‘Sorry, love. I’m washing my hair.’
    Nonplussed, the young man winked saucily. ‘What about ya mate here, then?’
    ‘That’s my sister and she’ll be helping me wash my hair. Now, if you’d move down the car, love, and let the other passengers get on, we’ll be on our way all the quicker.’
    Rose could hardly hide her laughter, but then she was plunged once more into punching tickets for all those who had just boarded the car and remembering to shout out the next stop.
    When they reached the terminus, Peggy reminded her to go down the line of seats, flicking the backs over.
    ‘Clever, isn’t it? And what’s the other thing you must remember?’
    ‘Oh heck – I don’t know,’ Rose moaned, looking so woebegone that Peggy laughed. ‘To carry your gas mask, silly.’
    ‘Not something else to hang round my neck!’ Rose sighed and then grinned. ‘But half the passengers getting on the trams aren’t carrying their gas masks.’
    ‘That’s no excuse,’ Peggy said primly. ‘Mr Bower says we must set a good example.’
    ‘I wonder how poor Alice is managing,’ Rose thought while she counted out change as the tram swayed around a corner, only to be told that she’d given a penny short.
    Alice, it seemed, had had a better day than Rose. Under the tutelage of an experienced and patient older man, she’d got the hang of everything very quickly. ‘Although I nearly sat on one feller’s lap when the car lurched. He didn’t seem to mind, though.’
    ‘I bet he didn’t.’ Rose laughed wryly.
    ‘And my figures tallied,’ Alice smiled triumphantly.
    ‘Well done, you,’ Rose said and added mournfully, ‘I wish mine had.’
    ‘See you tomorrow.’ Alice smiled as they parted company outside the depot.
    ‘That’s the most cheerful I’ve seen her,’ Rose confided to Peggy. ‘She’s had a bit of a hard time of it. But it looks like she’s taken to a clippie’s life like the proverbial duck to water.’
    ‘And so will you,’ Peggy said, linking arms. ‘Come on, let’s catch the tram home.’
    As they sat down with a sigh and Rose