The Second Form at St. Clare's — Enid Blyton

St. Clare's Vol. 4 of 6
The Second Form At St. Clare's -
Enid Blyton


1 OFF TO SCHOOL AGAIN
THE last week of the summer holidays flew by, and the twins, Pat and Isabel
O'Sullivan, seemed to be in a rush of buying clothes, fitting them on, looking out
lacrosse sticks, finding lacrosse boots, and hunting for all kinds of things that
seemed to have completely disappeared.
' Where is my knitting-bag?' said Pat, turning a whole drawer-full of things upside
down. ' I know I brought it home at the end of last term.' ' I can only find one of
my lacrosse boots,' wailed Isabel. ' Mummy, have you seen the other?' ' Yes, it
came back from the bootmaker's yesterday,' said Mrs. O'Sullivan. ' Where did you
put it?' ' Packing to go to school is always much more muddling than packing to
come back home,' said Pat. ' I say. Isabel-won't it be fun to be in the second form
this term?' ' Who is your form-teacher there? ' asked their mother, unpacking
half Pat's things and packing them all over again.
' Miss Jenks,' said Pat. ' I'll be sorry to leave Miss Roberts and the first form, in
some ways. We did have fun there.' ' I bet we'll have some fun in Miss Jenks's
class too,' said Isabel. ' I don't think she's quite so strict as Miss Roberts.' '
Don't you believe it!' said Isabel, trying to cram a tin of toffees into a corner. '
She may not have Miss Roberts's sarcastic tongue-but she's all there! Don't you
remember how she used to deal with Tessie when Tessie used to try on her
pretend-sneezes?' ' Yes-sent her to Matron for a large dose of awful medicine,
supposed to stop a cold !' giggled Pat. ' All the same, I bet we'll get away with
quite a lot of things in Miss Jenks's form.' ' I hope you mean to work,' said Mrs.
O'Sullivan, putting in the top tray of Isabel's trunk. ' I was quite pleased with last
term's report. Don't let me have a bad one as soon as you go up into another form,
will you?' ' We'll work all right, Mummy,' said Pat. ' I can tell you, the teachers at
St. Clare's aren't easy-going where work is concerned. They keep our noses to the
grindstone I Mam'zelle's the worst. She really seems to think we ought to learn to
talk French better than we speak English!' ' No wonder your French accent is so
much improved, then,' said Mrs. O'Sullivan, with a laugh. ' Now Pat- let me see if I
can possibly shut your trunk. You'd better sit on it whilst I try to shut the clasps.'
The trunk wouldn't shut. Mrs. O'Sullivan opened it again and looked inside. ' You
can't take all those books,' she said, firmly.
' Mummy, I must,' said Pat. ' And I simply must take those games too-we love
jigsaws in the winter term.' ' Well, Pat, all I can say is, you'd better take books,
games, toffees, biscuits and knitting things, and leave behind your clothes,' said
the twins' mother. ' Now-be sensible-take out three books and we can shut the
trunk.' Pat took out three books, and, when Mrs. O'Sullivan was not looking, put
them hurriedly into Isabel's trunk. Her own trunk now shut down fairly easily, and
was locked. Then Mrs. O'Sullivan went to Isabel's.
'The things you girls take back with you nowadays! When I ..." ' When you were a
girl you only took a small case, and that held everything!' chanted the twins, who
had heard these remarks before. ' Mummy, we'll both sit on Isabel's trunk, shall
we? ' Mrs. O'Sullivan opened the trunk and firmly removed three books from the
top layer. She looked at them in surprise. ' I seem to have seen these before !' she
said. The twins giggled. They sat on the trunk and it shut with a groan.
'And now to pack your hand-bag with night-things in,' said Mrs. O'Sullivan, looking
at the school-list to make sure nothing had been forgotten. ' That won't take long.'
Night-gowns, tooth-brushes, face-flannels and sponges went into small bags. Then
the twins were ready. They were both dressed neatly in their school whiter
uniforms of grey, with blue blouses and scarlet ties. They put on grey coats and
grey felt hats with the school ribbon round...