‘The Hearne girl is down with scarlet fever,’ he said in a suppressed tone.
CHAPTER XIII
IN ‘QUORRANTEEN’
‘My dear darling dearest Father,–We are in quorranteen that’s Jean Murray and Angela Wilkins and me becos we tried to feed the poor after the cannon’s sermon and the poor had scarlet fever and now praps we shall have scarlet fever too and in case we do we’ve got to stop in quorranteen for eight days and it’s an awful shame becourse it gives us such a little time to practis for the gym prize. The cannon is Finny’s uncle and he’s awfully nice though a little unreesonable Jean says and Jean knows bekause her father is a professor and he has ofered a prize for whoever is best at the gym display on the break up day. I mean the cannon and not Jean’s father. Quorranteen is a little house built by itself in the garden and connected with the school by a covvered passage that leads into the front hall because Jean says it’s no use being in quorranteen unless you’re quite sure no one can catch things off you so we are issolated. All the same we do free exercises every morning just to keep our mussels in good order for the gym competition and I tell them fairy stories when their’s nothing else to do and Angela says they’re not bad only she likes reel stories best which is a great pitty becos I don’t know any reel stories but still they put up with my kind of stories very well and Jean says I’m a funny kid. We have our dinner early so that we can go out in the garden while the other girls are having theirs so that no one can catch anything off us and we are alowed to go all over Finny’s garden as well as the nine aker field and we are really in a very supperior possition Jean says. Sumtimes for a great treat one of the big girls is alowed to come and talk to us from the garden and we stand at the window and shout down to her because you can’t catch things off people that way Jean says and the other two nearly always vote for Margaret that’s the head girl who is adorrable and divvine Jean says but I vote for Ruth who is a brick. The worst of being in quorranteen is that I have learnt the true charracter of the doctor and Kit always said he was a beast but I didn’t think he was a beast but now I think he must be rather a beast because he is so horrid and unsimpathetick he always behaves as if we were very naughty and wicked for wanting to feed the poor and giving such a lot of trubble insted of understanding that it was all the cannon’s fault for preaching that sermon which meant something quite diferent and how were we to know that the poor had scarlet fever? I think we were rather silly and it was our silly silliness that I minded most but the doctor doesn’t seem to think that and he looks at our tungs and he says what’s that? to every paper bag he sees about in the quorranteen which is only hardbake or chocalate from the big girls. Jean says he is much nicer to me than to Angela or her but I haven’t noticed any diference myself and I don’t want him to be nice to me if he isn’t nice to them it isn’t fair or above bord is it father? Anuther bother is that Finny hasn’t said a word to us yet about feeding the poor and giving such a lot of trubble and I think she’s very cross and is saving up for an enormous skolding but Jean says no it’s Finny’s way to give us time to think it over before she says anything and it’s just dissipline Jean says. Besides, she can’t be very cross or else she wouldn’t have gone on feeding the poor I mean the Hearnes ever since we came into the quorranteen which is what she’s been doing because she told us so and they haven’t had to go into the workhouse after all.’
Barbara had scribbled so far uninterrupted, but when she picked up her third sheet of exercise paper and began to cover that too, the patience of her companions became exhausted.
‘I say,’ said Jean, yawning, ‘I wish you’d stop writing and talk; I never knew any one so fond of writing as you are, Babe.’
Quarantine, after nearly a week of it, was beginning to lose its novelty, and all the paper bags that the sure aim of the head girl managed to deposit in their prison did not make up for the many hours of her society that they were unable to enjoy. Even the arithmetic lessons of Miss Tomlinson, and the plain-work evenings conducted by ‘Smithy,’ would not have seemed nearly so unattractive now as they did a week ago.
‘All right,’ said Babs, putting down her blue pencil; ‘I don’t mind stopping, but I thought Angela didn’t want to talk.’
Jean glanced round at Angela, and Angela immediately put her hand to her head and sighed heavily. She had been doing this for some minutes without making any effect upon Barbara, although Barbara had been the first to notice that there was something unusual in her behaviour. That was so like Babs! She was always the first to notice anything, but she had such an unsatisfactory way of passing it over, whatever it was, that it was no advantage to anybody unless some one else noticed it too.
‘Hullo!’ said Jean, staring; ‘what’s the matter, Angela?’