Angela Brazil

The School by the Sea Angela Brazil

GIRLS! Girls everywhere! Girls in the passages, girls in the hall, racing upstairs and scurryingdownstairs, diving into dormitories and running into classrooms, overflowing on to the landing andhustling along the corridor-everywhere, girls! There were tall and short, and fat and thin, and alldegrees from pretty to plain; girls with fair hair and girls with dark hair, blue-eyed, brown-eyed, andgrey-eyed girls; demure girls, romping girls, clever girls, stupid girls-but never a silent girl. No!Buzz-hum-buzz! The talk and chatter surged in a full, steady flow round the house till the noiseinvaded even that sanctuary of sanctuaries, the private study, where Miss Birks, the Principal, sataddressing post cards to inform respective parents of the safe arrival of the various individualmembers of the frolicsome crew which had just reassembled after the Christmas vacation. Inordinary circumstances such an indiscretion as squealing on the stairs or dancing in the passageswould have brought Miss Birks from her den, dealing out stern rebukes, if not visiting dire justice onthe offenders; but for this one brief evening-the first night of the term-the old house was LibertyHall. Each damsel did what seemed good in her own eyes, and talked, laughed, and joked to herheart's content.