A Popular Schoolgirl Angela Brazil (best novels for beginners TXT) š
- Author: Angela Brazil
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āIt will be far better for the mistresses not to be present at the meeting,ā she said. āI can trust you, Lispeth, to explain things, and the girls will like it much more if it seems to emanate from the new Council. Talk to them in your own way, and theyāll understand you. I want the Society to be an absolutely voluntary one, or itās of no use. Donāt let them think they must join merely to please me. Iād rather have a dozen who are in earnest over it than a hundred halfhearted members. Only those who feel enthusiastic need give in their names. I donāt mind if it begins in quite a humble way. Indeed, I only expect a small membership at first.ā
āOn the contrary, Miss Burd, I think it will catch on,ā replied Lispeth.
In consequence of this conversation, the head prefect pinned a paper on the notice-board, convening a general meeting of all girls over twelve years of age, to be held in the big hall on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 sharp, the last lesson of the day having been remitted by orders from the Study. There was a universal feeling that something important was on foot, so those forms that were eligible trooped in a body to the hall, while the disappointed juniors tried to console themselves with the reflection that they would be able to go home half an hour earlier than their elders. After considerable shuffling about, places were taken. Unwilling to waste further time, Lispeth mounted the platform, and rang the bell for silence.
āAre we all here? Well, I canāt wait for anybody else. Those who come in late will have to hear what they can, and you must tell them the rest afterwards. Oh, here they are! Quietly, please! Thereās plenty of room over there. Violet, will you shut the door? Now that weāre all together, I want to have a talk with you. You know Iām what may be called āPrime Ministerā of our School Parliament, and, though your wardens will report all we say in council, I think it is well to have a public meeting sometimes. This term everything seems to have made a fresh start. Weāre in new buildings, and we have new rules, and our very Parliament is a new institution. Youāre all in new forms, and Iām the new Head Prefect. Itās not only in school that everythingās different, but in the outside world as well. This is our first term since peace was signed. I can remember our first term after War was declared. I was only in IIIa thenā āquite a youngster! Hetty Hughes, who was the head girl, made a speech, and told us what we ought to do to try to help our country. I think some of us who were here have never forgotten that. We nearly hurrahed the roof off, and we formed a Knitting Club and a Soldiersā Parcel Society on the spot. You know for yourselves how we worked to keep those up. Well, today the Empire is at peace, but our country needs our help as much as ever, or even more. Itās making a fresh start, and we want the new world to be a better place than the old. Hundreds of thousands of gallant young lives have been gladly given to establish this new worldā āin this school alone we know to our costā āand we owe it to our heroic dead not to let their sacrifice be in vain. We want a better and purer England to rise up and make a clean sweep of the bad things that disgraced her before. I expect youāll say: āOh, thatās for politicians, and not for us schoolgirls!ā but it isnāt. Popular opinion is a mighty thing. The schoolgirls of today are the women of tomorrow, and the women of a country have an enormous amount to do with the formation of public opinionā āmore nowadays than ever beforeā āand their influence will go on increasing with every year that passes. If each of us tries to help the world instead of hindering it, think what an asset each one may be to the country! Itās really a tremendous honor to know that we can all take our part in the reconstruction of England. Itās like each being allowed to lay a brick in the foundation of a new building. Of course youāll ask me: āWell, and how are we going to help?ā Thatās just what I want to talk about. We pride ourselves on being practical at the College. Some of us thought we might start a new society, to be called āThe Rainbow League.ā Itās a sort of āGuild of Helpers,ā and we want to do all kinds of jolly things to help in the town, something like our old āKnitting Clubā and āSoldiersā Parcel Society,ā only of course different. We could give concerts and make clothes for war orphans, and toys for the hospitals, and scrapbooks for crippled children. There are heaps of nice things like that youāll just love doing. Itās called āThe Rainbow League,ā because a rainbow was set in the sky after the Flood, to help people to remember, and we want, in our small way, not to let the Great War be forgotten, but to do our bit to help with the future of the race.
āIām not any great hand at speaking or explaining, so I want you each to take a copy of the rules of āThe Rainbow Leagueā and to
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