You know that. I tell you I did clean the tools,” “All right, all right,” said John, going on with the digging. “I suppose they all walked out of the shed in the middle of the night and went digging by themselves and forgot to have a wash and brush-up afterwards. We’ll leave it at that.” The two children dug in silence. Elizabeth was puzzled, upset, and angry. She hated to think that John didn’t believe her, and yet her common sense told her that it really did look as if she had forgotten to clean the tools, It was horrid to have John cross with her. She didn’t know what to do.
“John,” she said at last, “I really do think I cleaned the tools, but if I forgot, I’m very sorry. I’ve never forgotten before, I won’t forget again.” “All right, Elizabeth,” said John, lifting his honest brown eyes to hers. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. But in her secret heart she was very puzzled indeed.
Kathleen had been waiting about by the garden shed to see what would happen. She was pleased when she saw that John was cross with Elizabeth. She went away, planning to do something else to get Elizabeth into trouble, What should she do next? Perhaps in a day or two she would dirty the tools again. She had better not do that too soon, though, in case Elizabeth began to suspect a trick, She decided to take two or three of Elizabeth’s books and hide them somewhere. Miss Ranger would be cross if they couldn’t be found. So once again Kathleen slipped into the classroom, and this time she went to Elizabeth’s desk. She took out her geography exercise-book, her arithmetic-book, and her history-book. She slipped out of the room with them and went to a cupboard outside, On the top were kept old maps. Kathleen stood on a chair and threw the books right on the very top, among the old maps. Nobody was about to see her. She quickly put back the chair, and went away, And now, what should she do to Jenny? The naughty girl frowned, and thought hard, Then she smiled to herself. She would take two of the white mice and put them into Miss Ranger’s desk! That would be marvellous! Miss Ranger would be quite sure to think that Jenny had put them there herself, Nobody would know who had done it.
To do this Kathleen had to wait till the next morning. She planned to get the mice before breakfast, No one would be about then. She lay in bed that night thinking of what Miss Ranger would say when she opened the desk and found the mice.
She was up early the next morning. Nora was surprised, for Kathleen was usually one of the last Out of bed. “Hallo, turning over a new leaf?” she said, Kathleen didn’t answer. She slipped downstairs five minutes before the breakfast-bell went, and ran to the big shed where the pets were kept. She went to the cage of white mice. She had with her a little box, and it took her only a second or two to pick up two of the tiny white mice and slip them into the box. Then she hurried to her classroom with them. She lifted up the lid of Miss Ranger’s desk.
She opened the box-and out scurried the white mice into the desk. Kathleen shut down the lid. What a surprise Miss Ranger and Jenny were going to get! EXCITEMENT IN CLASS! THE first lesson that morning was arithmetic. Miss Ranger explained a new kind of sum to the class, and they listened hard, “Now get out your books and we will do a few of these sums,” said Miss Ranger, beginning to put down a few on the blackboard, “You should all be able to do them correctly, but if anyone hasn’t quite understood what I have been saying, ask me first, before you begin the sums.” Elizabeth opened her desk to get out her arithmetic exercise-book. It wasn’t on the top of the pile, where she usually put it. She hunted through her desk. How funny! The book wasn’t there at all, Where could it be?
“Elizabeth! How much longer are you going to have your head hi your desk?” asked Miss Ranger.
“I can’t find my book,” said Elizabeth, “Well, you had it yesterday,” said Miss Ranger. “Did you take it out of the classroom?” “No, Miss Ranger,” said Elizabeth, “I hadn’t any arithmetic home-work to do. I just put the book back when I’d finished with it yesterday morning. But it really isn’t here.” “Take some squared paper from the shelf in the cupboard,” said Miss Ranger. “We can’t wait all morning for you to find the book.” So Elizabeth took some squared paper and did her sums on that, thankful that she hadn’t got into trouble. She simply could not imagine where her book could be! She kept on and on thinking about it.
Kathleen wondered what would happen when Elizabeth couldn’t find the other books! She was also longing for Miss Ranger to open her own desk and find the mice. But Miss Ranger had no reason to open her desk in the arithmetic lesson. So the mice remained undisturbed. They had curled up in a corner and gone to sleep.
The next lesson was French, and after that came geography. Miss Ranger wanted a map drawn, and the girls got out their exercise-books. And once again Elizabeth couldn’t find hers.
“Well, really, Elizabeth, you are surely not going to tell me that your geography-book is lost, too!” said Miss Ranger impatiently.
“Miss Ranger, I just can’t understand it, but it’s gone,” said Elizabeth, putting her head above the desk-lid to speak to Miss Ranger.
“It is very careless of you to lose both books,” said Miss Ranger. “I am not pleased, Elizabeth. Perhaps I had better look through your desk myself to make quite sure that they are not there, I can’t imagine that you could lose two of your exercise-books, when you say you did not even take them out of the classroom!” But not even Miss Ranger’s sharp eye could see the missing books, and she went back to her own desk. Robert was pleased to see Elizabeth getting into trouble. As for Kathleen, she was so delighted at the success of her mean trick that she did not dare to look at either Elizabeth or Jenny in case they saw how glad she was.
“I will give you some map-paper, and you must pin the map you draw into your book, when it is found again,” said Miss Ranger, She lifted up the lid of her desk to get some blank drawing-paper-and awoke the two mice! With squeals and squeaks they raced round the desk in fright, jumping over rubbers and books and rulers. Miss Ranger stared at them in amazement and anger.
She was about to shut down the desk and leave the mice there, when they both leapt out, ran down Miss Ranger’s skirt and tore across the floor, All the girls stared in the greatest astonishment, Miss Ranger put on a very stern face and looked at the surprised Jenny.
“Jenny,” she said, “I believe you are the only person in the school who keeps white mice as pets. Do you really think it is a funny joke to put the poor little things into my airless desk in order to play a foolish trick on me?” Jenny couldn’t say a word at first. She really was too amazed to speak. Were they her mice? How in the world could they have got into the desk?
“Miss Ranger, of course I didn’t put them there!” she said at last. “Please, please believe me. I wouldn’t do such a thing to my little mice. And anyway, you were so decent to me when I came to class with one down my neck that I certainly wouldn’t have been mean enough to play a trick on you after that,” The mice fled all over the room. Jenny watched them anxiously, terrified that they would go under the door and escape-perhaps to get eaten by the school cat! “You had better try to catch them,” said Miss Ranger. “We can’t have the whole lesson disturbed like this. I can’t imagine how they could have got into my desk unless you put them there. I shall have to think about the whole thing. I am very displeased about it.” Jenny leapt up from her seat to catch the mice. But that was easier said than done, The frightened creatures tore all over the room, hiding under first one desk and then another. Some of the girls pretended to be frightened and squealed whenever a mouse came near their feet. Elizabeth and Belinda tried to help, but those mice were too nimble to be caught.
And then, to Jenny’s great dismay, they squeezed themselves under the schoolroom door, and escaped into the passage outside! Jenny ran to the door and opened it- but the mice had disappeared! Goodness knew where they had gone! The little girl ran down the passage, looking everywhere, but the mice were nowhere to be seen.