BEHIND THE GYM IT was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was g behind the gym.
She was g because they had been bullyihis is not going to be a school story, so I shall say as little as possible about Jills school, which is not a pleasant subject. It was "Co-educational," a school for both boys and girls, what used to be called a "mixed」
school; some said it was not nearly so mixed as the minds of the people who ran it. These people had the idea that boys and girls should be allowed to do what they liked. And unfortunately what ten or fifteen of the biggest boys and girls liked best was bullying the others. All sorts of things, horrid things, went on which at an ordinary school would have been found out and stopped in half a term; but at this school they werent. Or even if they were, the people who did them were not expelled or puhe Head said they were iing psychological cases a for them and talked to them for hours. And if you khe right sort of things to say to the Head, the mai was that you became rather a favourite than otherwise.
That was why Jill Pole was g on that dull autumn day on the damp little path which ruween the back of the gym and the shrubbery. And she hadnt nearly finished her cry when a boy came round the er of the gym whistling, with his hands in his pockets. He nearly ran into her.
"t you look where yoing?" said Jill Pole.
"All right," said the boy, "you start -" and theiced her face. "I say, Pole,」
he said, "whats up?」
Jill only made faces; the sort you make when youre trying to say something but find that if you speak youll start g again.
"Its Them, I suppose - as usual," said the boy grimly, digging his hands farther into his pockets.
Jill here was no need for her to say anything, even if she could have said it.
They both knew.
"Now, look here," said the boy, "theres no good us all -」
He meant well, but he did talk rather like someone beginning a lecture. Jill suddenly flew into a temper (which is quite a likely thing to happen if you have been interrupted in a cry).
"Oh, go away and mind your own business," she said. "Nobody asked you to e barging in, did they? And youre a nice person to start telling us what we all ought to do, arent you? I suppose you mean we ought to spend all our time sug up to Them, and currying favour, and dang attendan Them like you do.」
"Oh, Lor!" said the boy, sitting down on the grassy bank at the edge of the shrubbery and very quickly getting up again because the grass was soaki. His name unfortunately was Eustace Scrubb, but he wasnt a bad sort.
"Pole!" he said. "Is that fair? Have I been doing anything of the sort this term? Didnt I stand up to Carter about the rabbit? And didnt I keep the secret about Spivvins - uorture too? And didnt I -」
"I d-dont know and I dont care," sobbed Jill.
Scrubb saw that she wasnt quite herself yet and very sensibly offered her a peppermint.
He had ooo. Presently Jill began to see things in a clearer light.
"Im sorry, Scrubb," she said presently. "I wasnt fair. You have done all that - this term.」
"Then wash out last term if you ," said Eustace. "I was a different chap then. I was - gosh! what a little tick I was.」
"Well, holy, you were," said Jill.
"You think there has been a ge, then?" said Eustace.
"Its not only me," said Jill. "Everyones been saying so. Theyve noticed it. Eleanor Bl