Читать книгу The Naughtiest Girl Again - Enid blyton - Страница 5

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It was two of the new children who disturbed the peace of the form. When Robert had settled down and found his feet, the other boys and girls found that he was spiteful and unkind. And they discovered, too, that Kathleen Peters, the white-faced, spotty girl, was so quarrelsome that it was really very difficult to be nice to her.

On the other hand, Jennifer Harris was great fun. She was a wonderful mimic and could imitate the masters and mistresses marvellously, especially Mam’zelle. Mam’zelle wagged her hands rather a lot, and her voice went up and down when she spoke. Jennifer could put on a face exactly like Mam’zelle’s, and talked and wagged her hands in a manner so like her that she sent the class into fits of laughter.

‘Jenny’s fine,’ said Elizabeth. ‘But I simply can’t bear Robert or Kathleen. You know, I think Robert’s cruel, Joan.’

‘Why do you think that?’ asked Joan. ‘Has he been unkind to you?’

‘No—not to me,’ said Elizabeth. ‘But I heard someone squealing yesterday and I saw little Janet running away from him, crying. I called out to know what was wrong, but she wouldn’t tell me. I believe Robert had been pinching her or something.’

‘I shouldn’t be surprised,’ said Joan.

Belinda Green heard what they were saying and came up.

‘I think Robert’s a bully,’ she said. ‘He’s always running after the smaller ones, and jumping out at them, and giving them sly pinches.’

‘The hateful thing!’ cried Elizabeth, who always hated any unfairness. ‘Wait till I catch him! I’ll jolly well report him at the very next Meeting!’

‘Well, be sure you get your facts right,’ said Belinda, ‘or Robert will say you are telling tales, and then you won’t be listened to.’

Robert came up at that moment and the three of them said no more. Robert bumped hard into Elizabeth as he passed and nearly sent her into the wall.

‘Oh, I didn’t see you!’ he said, with a grin, and went on down the room. Elizabeth went red with rage. She took a step after Robert, but Joan pulled her back.

‘He only did it to make you annoyed,’ she said. ‘Don’t be annoyed!’

‘I can’t help being,’ said Elizabeth furiously. ‘Rude, clumsy thing!’

It was time to go into class then, and there was no time to do anything more. Robert was in Elizabeth’s class, and she glared at him as she sat down. He made an extraordinary face at her—and they were enemies from that moment.

When Robert got nearly all his sums wrong, Elizabeth smiled with pleasure. ‘Serves you right!’ she said in a loud whisper. Unfortunately Miss Ranger heard it.

‘Is there any need to gloat over bad work done by somebody else?’ she said coldly—and then it was Robert’s turn to grin with delight.

Each of them was pleased when the other did badly—though Elizabeth got more laughs out of Robert than he did out of her, for she was a clever girl and found lessons easy. Robert was much slower, though he was bigger and taller.

At games they did all they could to defeat each other. They were very often on opposite sides, and if Robert could give Elizabeth a whack over the hand with his lacrosse stick, or a blow on the ankle with his hockey stick, he would. Elizabeth was not an unkind girl, but she found herself lying in wait for Robert, too, and giving him a hard blow whenever she could.

Mr. Warlow, the games master, soon noticed this, and he called the two of them to him.

‘You are playing a game, not fighting a battle,’ Mr. Warlow told them gravely.

‘You are playing a game, not fighting a battle,’ he told them gravely. ‘Keep your likes and dislikes out of hockey and lacrosse, please, and play fairly.’

Elizabeth was ashamed, and stopped trying to hurt Robert—but Robert took an even greater delight in giving Elizabeth a bruise whenever he could, though now he was careful to do it when Mr. Warlow was not watching.

‘Elizabeth, you really are stupid to make an enemy of Robert,’ said Nora one day. ‘He is much bigger than you are. Keep out of his way. You’ll lose your temper one day and put yourself in the wrong. That’s what he’s hoping for.’

But Elizabeth would not listen to advice of that sort. ‘I’m not afraid of Robert!’ she said scornfully.

‘That isn’t the point,’ said Nora. ‘He’s only doing all this to annoy you, and if only you’d take no notice of him, and not try to pay him back, he’d soon get tired of it.’

‘He’s a hateful bully!’ said Elizabeth.

‘You’re not to say things like that unless you have real proof,’ said Nora, at once. ‘And if you have real proof, then you must make a complaint to the Meeting. That’s the place to accuse people of things. You know that quite well.’

Elizabeth made a sulky face and went off by herself. Why couldn’t Nora believe her? Oh, well—Nora wasn’t in her form and didn’t know that hateful Robert as well as she, Elizabeth, knew him.

The next afternoon, after tea, Elizabeth went round to play with the rabbits. On the way she heard somebody calling out in a pleading voice:

‘Please don’t swing me so high! Please don’t!’ Elizabeth peeped round at the swings. She saw a small boy on one, about nine years old. Robert was swinging him, and my goodness, wasn’t he swinging him high!

‘I feel sick!’ cried the boy, whose name was Peter. ‘I shall be sick! I shall fall off. Let me down, Robert, let me down! Don’t swing me any more!’

But Robert took no notice of the small boy’s shouting. His thin lips were pursed together, and with an unkind gleam in his eyes, he went on pushing the swing—high, high, higher!

Elizabeth was so angry that she had to blink her eyes to see clearly. She ran to Robert.

‘Stop!’ she cried. ‘You’re not to do that! You’ll make Peter ill.’

‘Mind your own business,’ said Robert. ‘He asked me to give him a swing and I’m giving him one. Go away, you interfering girl. You’re always poking your nose in where it isn’t wanted.’

‘Oh, I’m not!’ cried Elizabeth. She tried to catch hold of the swing as it came down, to stop it, but Robert was too quick for her. He gave her a push and sent her spinning into a bush. Then he sent the swing even higher than ever.

‘I’ll go and tell somebody!’ cried Elizabeth, picking herself up.

Elizabeth caught hold of Robert’s hair.

‘Tell-tale, tell-tale!’ chanted Robert, giving the swing another push. Elizabeth lost her temper completely and rushed at the aggravating boy. She caught hold of his hair and pulled at it so hard that she pulled a whole handful out! Then she slapped his face and gave him such a punch in his middle that he doubled himself up with a groan.

Elizabeth stopped the swing and helped the trembling Peter off the seat. ‘Go and be sick if you want to,’ she said. ‘And don’t let Robert swing you any more.’

Peter staggered off, looking rather green. Elizabeth turned to face Robert, but just then three or four children came up, and neither child felt inclined to go on with the quarrel in public.

‘I’ll report you at the very next Meeting!’ cried Elizabeth, still in a great temper. ‘You just see! You’ll be punished all right, you cruel, unkind boy!’

She went off, raging. Robert looked round at the interested children who had come up. ‘What a temper that girl has got!’ he said. ‘Look here—she pulled my hair out!’

He picked up some of his dark hairs and showed them to the others. They looked surprised.

‘You must have been doing something awful to make Elizabeth lose her temper like that,’ said Kenneth.

‘I was only giving someone a swing,’ said Robert. ‘Elizabeth interfered, as usual. I wish she’d leave me alone. No wonder she was called the naughtiest girl in the school last term!’

‘We pinned a notice on her once, calling her the Bold Bad Girl!’ said somebody, with a laugh, as he remembered how angry Elizabeth had been. ‘Did you hit Elizabeth, Robert? If you did, you’re mean. Girls are awfully annoying sometimes, but if you’re a boy, you can’t hit them.’

‘I didn’t touch her,’ said Robert, though he knew quite well that if the others hadn’t come up at that moment he would certainly have gone for Elizabeth and slapped her well. ‘She just went up in smoke and flew at me, the horrid girl!’

Elizabeth rushed off to tell Joan all that had happened. Joan listened gravely.

‘Robert really is a horrid bully,’ she said. ‘He’ll have to be stopped. But oh, Elizabeth, I do think it’s rather a pity you lost your temper like that! You have got such a hot temper, you know!’

‘Well, anyone would have lost their temper if they had seen Robert swinging that poor wretched little Peter almost over the top of the swing-post!’ said Elizabeth, still boiling with rage. ‘He was quite green.’

‘You don’t suppose the Meeting will think it’s telling tales if you report Robert, do you?’ asked Joan doubtfully. ‘If I were you, I’d ask Nora first.’

‘I’ll do no such thing!’ cried Elizabeth. ‘I’m the best judge of this! I saw what happened, didn’t I? All right then—I’ll report Robert at the Meeting to-morrow, and then we’ll just see what the Jury say. He’ll get a dreadful shock—and he’ll deserve it, too.’

Elizabeth was angry all day, and when the next day came she could hardly wait for the evening to come to report Robert. Then he would see what happened to boys who did mean, unkind things!

Robert did not seem to be at all upset at the idea of Elizabeth reporting him. He made faces at her whenever he saw her, which made her very angry indeed.

‘You’ll get a shock at the Meeting to-night!’ said Elizabeth. But there was a shock waiting for Elizabeth too!