02 Jo of the Chalet School by Elinor Brent-Dyer

aspirin, and I shall go to sleep, I think. Don’t look so worried, Baby! I shall be all right presently!’
    Jo nodded. She lifted two chairs and set the towel-rail on top of them. Over that she hung her sister’s flannel dressing-gown, effectually darkening her bed. Madge smiled her thanks. The creamy casement curtains at the window didn’t do much to keep out the light, and the darkness was a relief.
    ‘Run downstairs now, Joey,’ she murmured. ‘I shall sleep beautifully, now you have put me in the dark.
    Tell Miss Maynard not to worry; I shall be quite all right. You can come up and see if I am awake at eleven if you like. Don’t tap; just come straight in. Bye-bye for the present!’ She stretched out a slender hand and squeezed Joey’s, then she settled back, and her small sister went quietly out of the room to find Miss Maynard and give her message.
    The other middles found her decidedly quiet and dull. It was such an unusual thing for Madge to be poorly, that Jo felt scared. She adored her sister, though wild horses wouldn’t have dragged it out of her, and she felt rather miserable. Bernhilda and Gisela, understanding, took her off with them when they went over to Le Petit Chalet to explain things to Mademoiselle, so that the others might not bother her with questions – which, by the way, was remarkably forgiving of them.
    Luckily, when eleven o’clock came, Jo found her sister sleeping quietly, and went downstairs, much relieved; and Kaffee at sixteen o’clock brought a message to her from the study, where Madge, her headache completely gone, sat waiting for her. Jo went into the room rather apprehensively.
    ‘You goose!’ laughed Miss Bettany. ‘You look scared out of your existence!’
    ‘I was!’ returned Joey truthfully. ‘It isn’t often you’re ill, you know!’
    ‘No; I know that! But I can’t help having a headache now and then! Now, you know how I feel when there’s anything wrong with you ; so perhaps you’ll try to avoid doing mad things that give you cold!’
    ‘I haven’t had one cold all this year!’ cried Joey in injured tones.
    ‘I know! I’m only warning you! Now sit down and pour out the tea, will you? I’d rather have tea to-day, and I’ve scarcely seen you; so I thought you’d like to have it with me for once.’
    ‘Well, rather!’
    Joey had a joyful hour with her sister, and then went back to the others in high spirits.
    Gisela came over to her at once. ‘How is Madame?’ she asked.
    ‘Nearly all right, thanks awfully!’ replied Jo. ‘She’s not coming into school at all to-day, but she’ll be there tomorrow.’
    ‘I am so glad,’ returned Gisela. ‘We do not like it when Madame is ill!’

    Then she sent the middle back to her own quarters, where she was promptly seized on by the others, who demanded to know how Madame was.
    ‘I am glad she is better,’ said Simone. ‘It has been so triste all day!’
    ‘In sooth it hath been a weary length,’ returned Joey, suddenly remembering their plans. ‘I pray you, tell me, doth it yet snow?’
    ‘Nay, damsel, but the wind is howling much!’ replied Evadne promptly.
    The spirits of all the middles had gone up with a bound. How they managed to get through prep without any trouble was a mystery, or they were all wildly excited, giggling and whispering as much as they dared.
    After prep Bernhilda appeared to say that there would be no dancing that night, but that they were all to get their sewing, and Miss Durrant had offered to read aloud to them.
    ‘Woe is me!’ sighed Jo. ‘I cannot stomach sewing!’
    Bernhilda gasped. ‘Will you all please hurry,’ she said, when she had recovered her breath. Then she left them.
    ‘I’ll warrant me I startled her full sore!’ laughed Joey, as she got out her much -abused petticoat. ‘Oh dear!
    How I hate sewing!’
    Work in hand, they trotted off to the big school-room, where the found the others ready, waiting for Miss Durrant, who happened to be