A little tumble-down desolate cottage (p. 63).
BETTY
AT ST. BENEDICK’S
A SCHOOL STORY FOR GIRLS
BY
ETHEL TALBOT
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, LTD.
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK
CONTENTS
I. On the Way to School
II. Are You a Daisy?
III. At the Window Table
IV. In the Big Oak Hall
V. The Daisy Mascot
VI. The Guide Cup
VII. The Fairy Piper
VIII. In Witch’s Wood
IX. Betty Keeps a Secret
X. Lost!—The Cup!
XI. With Sybil, in the Wood
XII. The Tracking Expedition
XIII. Little Friend of all the World
XIV. The Pioneer Picnic
XV. Betty Shares the Secret
XVI. Everything comes Right!
BETTY AT ST. BENEDICK’S
CHAPTER I
ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL
The whole family had come down to see Betty off.
Dad was there, although Betty felt that reallyand truly he oughtn’t to spare the time.
The twins were there, because nothing on earthwould have kept them at home.
Even baby was there; though he wasn’t to becalled “baby” any longer, Aunt Frances haddecided. Aunt Frances was holding his handnow, and telling him to wave good-bye to Betty.
“Oh, don’t trouble him, Auntie!” said Bettyin a motherly tone. “He so very rarely gets thechance to see an engine really start!”
“Dear old Bet,” said Auntie.
Auntie was a darling. There was no doubt ofthat. If it hadn’t been that she was such a darling,Betty couldn’t possibly have brought herself tocome away. But it had all been arranged sosuddenly and unexpectedly, and almost without askingher at all.
“You see, old lady,” Dad had said only a fortnightago, speaking one evening a few days afterAuntie’s arrival, in a voice which tried—though itcouldn’t quite succeed—to be in an ordinary, everydaytone; “you see, you have looked after all of usso long, Auntie says, that I’ve quite forgotten thatit’s I who ought to be looking after you!”
“Oh, Dad!” Betty had said, staring.
Auntie hadn’t said it in Dad’s way. She hadcome along that evening after Betty was in bed.She had sat on the edge too, and had hugged Bettyjust the same way that Betty hugged Jan, thetwin. “Bet, pet,” said Auntie, “you see, you’vegot to go for Daddy’s sake!”
“Oh, Auntie!” Betty had said again, but in adifferent tone of voice.
“It worries him to see you growing up like this,”said Auntie. “We don’t want to ha