The Youngest Girl in the Fifth by Angela Brazil Read Free Book Online

be banned the more.
    "I see Gwen Gascoyne has taken up with Netta Goodwin," said Hilda Browne.
    "Then that stamps her," replied Edith Arnold. "I wouldn't touch Netta with a pair of tongs myself. I thought better of the Gascoynes!"
    Netta was a type of girl that can be found in every school and almost every Form. Rather deficient in moral fibre, and badly trained at home, her influence was always on the wrong side. She was clever enough, as a rule, just to avoid getting into open trouble with the authorities, but under the surface she was a source of disturbance. She had a certain following of gigglers and slackers, who thought her escapades funny, and were ready to act chorus to her lead, and though she had never done anything specially outrageous, her reputation at headquarters was not good. Every teacher realized only too plainly that Netta was the firebrand of the Form, and that while she might preserve a smug exterior it was really she who was responsible for any outbreaks of lawlessness among the others.
    As Junior Mistress of the Fifth no one had more reason to be aware of this than Winnie Gascoyne. Teaching was uphill work to Winnie. She had not Beatrice's commanding disposition and capacity for administration, consequently it was the more difficult for her to keep order and enforce rules. She did her conscientious best, but girls easily find out a governess's weak point, and at present Netta was trying how far she could go. "Ragging Miss Gascoyne" was a favourite pastime of hers, and one which afforded much sport to her applauders, if not to the victim of her jokes.
    A few mornings after Gwen's introduction to the Fifth there was a class for memory map drawing with the assistant teacher. Each girl was supposed to come prepared to make a map of India, and to mark in a large number of places, a fairly difficult task, and one over which many of them grumbled in unison.
    "It's not fair! It takes such heaps of time to go over it at home, one hasn't a second for anything else!" wailed Minna Jennings.
    "I'd a raging headache last night, and my mother said she thought Rodenhurst was getting too much for me," bleated Millicent Cooper.
    "Poor frail flower! You look as if you'd wither at a breath! Better pack you off to a sanatorium!" laughed Netta.
    "And you to a lunatic asylum, you mad thing! Don't you ever get headaches with all this over-swatting?"
    "No, my child, for I know a dodge or two! N. G. is no infant in arms, I assure you."
    "Deign to explain, O commander of the faithful!" begged Annie Edwards.
    "Well, as I told you, I'm up to a thing or two, and I flatter myself I know just exactly how to tackle Grinnie."
    "Who's Grinnie?" asked Gwen rather sharply.
    The others roared.
    "My sweet babe, my dear ex-Junior, let us initiate you into the shibboleths of the Fifth! Yes, Seniors indulge in their little nicknames as well as the Lower School, though perhaps we are rather more cultured in our choice of them. Be it known to you then that our respected Head, vulgarly called The Bogey by ill-trained Juniors, is among our elect set yclept Lemonade, partly owing to her habit of fizzing over, and partly to a certain acid quality in her temper, otherwise hard to define. Miss Douglas, our honoured Form mistress, being a canny Scot, goes by the familiar appellation of Thistles, intended also to subtly convey our appreciation--or shall I say depreciation?--of her prickly habit."
    "And Grinnie?" continued Gwen.
    "Your sister, by her perpetual smile, courted the title."
    "It's no good exploding, Gwen!" said Annie Edwards. "If you've got a sister who's a teacher you'll just have to hear her called nicknames. You don't suppose we're going to shut up on your account?"
    "And you needn't go sneaking, either, or it'll be the worse for you," added Minna Jennings.
    "We'd soon know who'd told tales," snapped Millicent Cooper.
    "Peace, turbulent herd!" said Netta, holding up her hand. "Our friend Gwen, being of a sensible disposition, and a lover,