magnolia-buildings

"You're to be in the yard as soon as it gets dark," he ordered. "And if you start talking about our plans, Billy — well, you know what! So keep all your big mouths shut,1

bangs, a very strange procession left Magnolia Buildings. Old sofas, chairs, tables, beds, mattresses and other such things,were all moving down the street above funny short legs. Val and George led the procession with a horrible sofa on their heads. Four smaller boys carried a huge mattress, Billy had two old chairs.

The official order was that the procession should move silently, but this was quite impossible for twenty boys. There were shouts and laughter and collisions.

"Shut up, you asses! Come on, hurry!" implored Val. "Stop shouting, Bill. You take my end of the sofa, Pete, I'm going ahead."

A fight had started between two boys carrying chairs, and Val had to stop it. Luckily, all the grown-ups were indoors having their tea, so the procession got safely to the bomb site.

"Come on, chaps, pile it up,"1 commanded Val, as they came to the centre of the site. "No! Not like that. Here, first put the big things, and then all the small junk. Be quick! Hurry up, or they'll come and stop us!"

All the chairs and sofas were piled up and the horrible Guy that had helped the children so much in their begging was put on the very top of the pile, on a chair with three legs. Rockets were stuck in the Guy's arms. Val struck the

A moment ago, the bomb site had been a dark, lonely place, but suddenly it came to life. In a few seconds hundreds of children joined the organizers, and now they all yelled and ran and danced round the bonfire.

Fireworks were now let off all over the place, exploding in the very middle of the crowd. Screaming girls ran away. All the windows in the houses round the bomb site had been opened, and their inhabitants were yelling protests and complaints, but not one of the children listened. Some of the grown-ups saw the fun of the fire;2 but there were other ones 8 who went to ring up the police and the fire brigade.

Val and his gang were in their glory.4 For weeks they had been planning this night, counting their pennies and dreaming of rockets. Their faces and hands were by now, if possible,6 blacker than usual. As the rockets went up and broke into a myriad of bright stars, red, green, and orange, their hearts seemed to go up too.

Yet hardly had the fire attained its full height when8 the children heard the ringing of bells. Big red machines were rushing from every direction towards the bomb site.

"They're coming!" yelled Val "Look out,1 chaps, the brigade's here." Behind the fire brigade were the black police cars.

Usually the boys would have run away. Mum, who had come with Len, held her breath.2 But the boys did not care.3 They knew that public opinion and history and tradition were all on their side. Besides, on this night

The firemen and the policemen had jumped out of their machines. The firemen were getting ready to put out the fire but then they stopped and looked at the dancing flames for a moment. They were remembering their own childhood, when they too had searched for a place to light

One of the policemen wanted to protest, but saw that really there were too many children to arrest.4

"Poor kids," said the sergeant, who was also a father. "They'd been saving their pennies and begging for weeks."

"They oughtn't to be let go begging," 5 said the first policeman.

Some of the more angry neighbours, seeing that the fire still burnt, had, come out of their houses and were shouting at the police.

"They're dirtying our windows and washing. They've woken our babies and frightened our dogs. They ought to

At last, the police and the fire brigade began to move towards the bonfire. They moved slowly, as though they too were hypnotized by the flames. The children had fallen quiet,1 and were no longer jumping and yelling because they were a little afraid.

The sergeant had shouted, "You know you can't light a fire here."

But the children knew that they had done it.

Then the fire began to die down of itself,2 because it had burnt so fiercely. The highest chair fell down, and the Guy on it let off his rocket and was also burnt in the flames. That seemed to be a signal for the firemen, and they began to put out the fire at last. But no one minded it now.

The boys had had their fire and let off most of their rockets. They had nothing against going to bed. Guy Fawkes had been burnt until another year.

Chapter XIX

THE PANTOMIME

The shops always felt it was Christmas time long before 3 anyone else. Some people laughed and said that the shops were silly, that Christmas was getting earlier and earlier, and soon it would begin in August. But the children agreed with the shops, because they too liked to think about the coming of Christmas. It was the one bright star ahead that kept them cheerful through 4 dark, smoggy November and icy December.

The Common was almost deserted now except for a few people going to their work. Even the mothers with their prams preferred to go for walks along the lighted shops.

dren were swinging on the swings or sliding down the slides. It was getting darker and darker every day. No wonder x that people turned to indoor occupations,2 T. V., dancing, roller skating and cinemas.

The Berners family were used to London winters and smog and did not worry very much. They were too busy. Mum had gone back to her cleaning, and although she sometimes grumbled a bit when she had to leave house in the icy darkness of five o'clock in the morning, as soon as she was in the lighted bus with the other cleaners, she was gay again and ready to chat and joke. "We've all missed you, duck," said the fat conductor.

Val was getting up early too, as he had to do his paper round. He was never late and Mr Arby said he was a good boy. Sometimes he longed to stay in bed and not to go out into the smog or frost or rain, but the thought of twelve shillings a week made hiin jump out of bed. He was saving up money to buy a tent. He wauled to go camping in the country next summer. With a tent and a bike he would be absolutely free. The faithful George would go with him. Already they had made a plan to join the navy together as soon as they could.

Mum had asked for a part of Val's money to pay for his new shoes. "It's not fair," he grumbled. "I'm not working for shoes."

"Then you can go barefoot," said Mum laughing. "Suppose I kept my money for myself?" 3

Doreen had to rise early too. The Green Coats School was very far from Magnolia Buildings, and even when she came back late in the evening she still had a lot of homework to do, so that her eyes grew red from over-reading.4 Len was quite happy because Mum had promised to buy him a parrot for Christmas. That was the only sort of pet

''he'll stop bringing all sorts of things home. With all

Nobody asked Dad if he was happy. Maybe he did not know it himself. But he was probably quite pleased as long as a he could be with his family, and go along to the "Cock" in the evening for his half pint of beer and a chat with his friends.

Auntie Glad seemed very happy indeed. When she and Uncle William came to tea on a Sunday, they kept talking about all sorts of changes that were going on in their house, about painting and changing the wall-paper. Uncle William looked fatter and more beaming than ever and Auntie Glad had never gone back to her old dress and black cap. She looked quite young and cheerful. Aggie had now -made it up with 3 her brother.

"Though I wish she hadn't,"4 said Auntie Glad to Mum. "Because she's such a bore. She keeps coming and telling me how to look after Bill, as if I didn't know it myself. Still, in every marriage you have to put up with something,5 and if Bill wants to see her, he's welcome." 6

But what about Ally? Was she happy too? Not all the time, unfortunately. Take, for example, the school pantomime.

The school had always done ' a special Christmas play, and for two years Ally had played the principal part in it. This year it had been decided to do a pantomime, and Ally was sure that she would be chosen to play the part of Cinderella.8

"Look here, Gloria, I'm very sorry," Miss Fleetwood had said when they were casting. "But you really are too tall. Linda is the only one with the voice and the legs

for Principal Boy,1 and you're half a head taller than she is. I don't think we can make you an Ugly Sister, because the boys will play them. So that means that you can only have the part of the Good Fairy."

Ally's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Miss Fleetwood, you almost promised me I'd be Cinderella. I don't want to be the Good Fairy, that's a soppy part."

"But, Ally," said Miss Fleetwood, "I couldn't help your growing up so fast, could I? 2 Come on now,3 be a good gill and cheer up. Anyhow, you'll have a lovely dress all silver and white and a crown on your head. I think we can fix you a wand with an electric battery and the star at the top will light up. You'll be able to do a dance and you'll gel a special spotlight * every lime you come on the stage."

Ally sighed. It wasn't fair! Not even with a special spotlight. She did not want to be the Good Fairy. She had always wanted to play Cinderella, she had imagined herself in a beautiful dress at the Court Ball,5 with all the parents looking at her and thinking how lovely Ally Berners was! That would have been true glamour. In this panto, the Good Fairy spent a lot of her time dressed up

he said with the important air of someone who is just leaving the Grammar School 6 and perhaps going to London University.

"You don't understand," said Ally, as they were walk-

1 was reading the other day 1 about a famous film star who

"Nonsense!" cried Brian scornfully. "Can you imagine any talent scout going to the Church School panto? Be your age,2 Al."

But Ally did not give in. "He might be a parent, you never know. I ought to get a chance."

Even if there were not so many good actors at school, everybody was thinking and talking of nothing else but the panto.3 In the handicraft classes the boys were making and painting the scenery, in the needlework classes the girls were sewing wonderful costumes. Rehearsals filled every spare moment. Luckily, Mr Browne, the headmaster and producer, was a very talented man and knew a lot about directing.4 During the last two years he had managed to organize a school orchestra and taught it to play a few tunes. Miss Fleetwood helped to make the costumes.

In spite of having the wrong part,8 Ally went round the flat singing the song refrains at the 'top of her voice, until Mum yelled, "For pity's sake 6 stop it, Ally. I'm sick to death of7 this singing."

"And it isn't fair," said Ally for the thousandth time. "Imagine Ann Price playing Cinderella! That silly little thing!" 8

"They ought to have chosen 'Jack and the Beanstalk',"9 said Val. "Then you-could've been the beanstalk, Al."

There were all the usual excitements and horrors of staging a panto: some people did not learn their words,

the scenery became dirty, the principal characters got 'flu, the tickets were not ready. All these misfortunes happened. The dress rehearsal* was, of course, simply awful, just as dress rehearsals always are. The lights went out, some of the costumes were still not finished, and the Principal Boy kept forgetting his words. The Ugly Sisters who had been so funny at the first rehearsals were getting duller and duller. In fact, everything seemed hopeless. Mr Browne and Miss Fleetwood went round saying, "It will be all

All the classrooms were turned into dressing-rooms and it was quite amazing to see untidy, dirty schoolchildren turning into beautiful fairies or Court ladies after being dressed and made up.4 All the children rushed to the mirror to see how they looked, and couldn't believe their own eyes. But under the beautiful costumes were frightened, beating hearts. Everyone was thinking, "Suppose I make a mess of my part,5 suppose I forget my words?"

Ally certainly looked dazzling in her silver and white dress with a shining coronet on her hair; but unfortunately all that beauty had to be hidden under a great black cloak, a false nose and a witch's hat.

All her old self-pity came back to Ally when she looked at Cinderella. That Ann Price certainly had a pretty doll's face, but she looked silly.

Ally had to go and take her place above the chimneypiece. She had to come down the chimney and to appear on the stage with a loud explosion and a flash. While she was waiting, ready to jump, she could hear the excited whisper coming from the packed house.6 In every chair was a parent who had come to see his or her own child. I ought to be playing Cinderella, Ally kept thinking, and tears of anger came to her eyes again.