19 sally's plan

darrell went to see sally at break as usual the next morning. sally greeted her eagerly. 'well,i've thought of something! it's not a frightfully good plan, but it will do as a beginning.'

'what is it?' asked darrell, thinking how pretty the plain little sally looked that morning, with colourin her cheeks, and twinkles in her eyes.

'well, listen. what about you pretending to be in difficulties in the pool, when you get the chance,and yelling out to mary- lou to run and get the life-belt quickly and throw it to you?' said sally. 'ifshe does that, and feels that she has saved you from going under, she'll be awfully bucked. we allknow how to chuck the belt into the water. it would be quite easy for her to do.'

'yes. it's a good idea,' said darrell. i might try it out tomorrow. i'll give the tip to the others not tothrow it to me, but to let mary-lou. at least, i'll tell the people i can trust— not dear gwendoline, forinstance! do you really think it will help mary-lou not to be so scared of things if she does that?'

'well, it seems to me that mary-lou will never be able to face up to things unless she thinks she's gota bit of good sense and courage in her to start with!' said sally, seriously. 'you can't possibly doanything if you think you can't. but you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can.'

'how do you know things like that?' asked darell, in admiration. 'i wish / did!'

'oh, it's not very difficult really,'said sally. 'all you do is put yourself into the place of the otherperson, and feel like them, and then think how you could cure yourself if you were them. that soundsmuddled—but i can't very well say exactly what 1 mean. 1 haven't the words.'

'oh, 1 know what you mean, all right!' said darrell. 'you do what mother is always telling me to do—get into somebody else's skin, and feel what they're feeling. but i'm too impatient to do that. i'mtoo tightly in my own skin! you're not. i think you're clever and kind, sally.'

sally went red and looked pleased. she also looked rather shy. 'i'm not clever—and you know i'm notkind, by the way i behaved to daphne,' she said. 'but it's nice that you think so, anyway! do youthink you can work the idea out all right, darrell?'

'oh, yes, i think so,' said darrell. 'i'll try it tomorrow, when we're in the pool. mary-lou has got a bitof a cold and isn't allowed to bathe this week, so she'll be watching by the side. she can easily go andget the life-belt and fling it to me. won't she be bucked!'

'i guess she's glad she's got a cold this week,' said sally, with a chuckle. 'she does so hate the water! ibet she'll never learn to swim.'

'it was funny when matron said mary- lou had a cold and wasn't to go in the water,' saiddarrell,'because dear gwendoline immediately began to sniff like anything in class, hoping misspotts would report it to matron, and she would be told too that she mustn't bathe. she's even worsethan mary-lou at getting into the water !'

'what happened?' asked sally, with interest. 'oh, i do wish i was back in school. i'd die of boredom ifi hadn't got you to come and tell me things.'

'well, miss potts got angry with gwendoline's sniffs and sat on her properly,'said darrell. 'and thengwendoline said she was sure she had caught mary-lou's cold, so miss potts sent her to matron—and matron gave her a large dose of awful medicine, and was most unsympathetic—and she didn'tsay gwendoline wasn't to go into the water, she said the salt in it would probably do her good. and iheard her tell miss potts that the only way to take gwendoline's tales was with a pinch of salt, so shemight as well swallow some in the pool!'

sally laughed heartily. she could just picture gwen-doline's anger at having medicine for no realreason, and not getting her way after all. darrell got up.

'there's the bell,' she said. 'i'll come back after lunch and tell you all the tit-bits. 1 haven't told you yethow alicia and betty tied thread to a pile of mam'zelle's books on her desk, and alicia pulled thethread and jerked off the books under mam'zelle's very nose ! i thought irene would die of laughing.

you know how she explodes.'

'oh, yes, do come back and tell me everything,' said sally, who looked forward to darrell's visitsmore than to anything else. 'i do love hearing you talk.'

it was strange how completely different sally seemed now. when darrell looked back andremembered the quiet, self-contained, serious person sally hope had always appeared, it seemedimpossible that she had turned into the laughing, eager, twinkling-eyed girl in the bed—a sensible,kindly girl with a real sense of fun.

'she's not such good fun as alicia, of course,' said darrell to herself, 'but she's more trustab\q,somehow. and she isn't as sharp- tongued, though she's just as clever in what she thinks aboutpeople.'

darrell carefully thought out the plan for tricking mary- lou into sudden good sense and a bit ofpluck. it should be quite easy. she would tell alicia and betty to take the others to the other end ofthe pool, so that she, darrell, would be alone in the deep end. then she would struggle and yell andpretend she had cramp.

'1' 11 yell out to mary-lou and shout, "quick, quick, throw me the life-belt!'" ,' she thought. 'thensurely mary-lou will do that, and i'll clutch it and pant and puff, and call out, "oh, mary-lou, you'vesaved my life!" and if after that mary-lou doesn't have a better opinion of herself, it'll be queer.

once she knows she can really do something like that, maybe she'll pull herself together and be ableto face up to some of the silly things that scare her!'

it really did seem a very good plan. darrell let alicia and betty into the secret. 'it's really sally's idea,'

said darrell. it's a very good one, don't you think so?'

'well—why ever should you want to bother yourselves with that silly little baby of a mary-lou?' saidalicia in surprise. 'you'll never make her any better. she's hopeless.'

'but we might make her better,' argued darrell, rather disappointed with the way that alicia took theidea.

'not much chance,' said alicia, i expect what will happen is that mary-lou will be too scared stiff todo a thing, and will simply stand blubbing by the pool and let somebody else run for the life-belt.

and that will make her worse than ever, because everyone will despise her.'

'oh,' said darrell, feeling damped. 'that would be sickening. oh, alicia, i didn't think of that.'

darrell told sally what alicia had said, i quite see what she means,' she said. 'and it might makemary-lou worse instead of better, because everyone would laugh at her. you see, alicia is awfullysmart, sally—we never thought of that, did we?'

'yes. alicia is very smart,' said sally, slowly. 'but sometimes she's a bit too smart, darrell. she'sforgotten something important.'

'what's that?' asked darrell.

'she's forgotten that wsyou who are going to struggle and yell for help,' said sally. 'everyone knowsthat mary- lou thinks you're wonderful and would do anything in the world for you—if you'd let her.

well, here is something she can do—and will do! you see if i'm not right. give mary- lou a chance,darrell. alicia sees her as a weak little cry?baby. but she could be something more than that, for thesake of someone she loved.'

'all right, i'll give her a chance,' said darrell. 'but i can't help thinking alicia is right. she really issmart, you know, and can always size people up. 1 wish she wasn't friends with betty. i wish she wasmy friend!'

sally didn't say any more. she played dominoes with darrell and was rather quiet. matron came andshooed darrell away soon after that, and she had to go off to her prep.

i'm going to try out sally's idea on mary-lou,' she told alicia. 'so you and betty will take the othersoff to the shallow end, won't you, when you see mary-lou standing by the deep end? then i'll yellout, and we'll see if mary- lou has the nerve to throw me the belt. it's not much to do!'

'it'll be too much for her," said alicia, rather annoyed that darrell should still think of going on withthe idea after she had poured cold water on it. 'still, we'll see.'

so, the next afternoon the plan was carried out. the first- formers went chattering down to the pool intheir bathing costumes and beach-gowns. gwendoline went too, looking sulky because the form hadteased her unmercifully about her pretended cold!

mary-lou had not changed into her bathing-things, and was pleased. she did so hate the water!

darrell called to her. 'you can throw pennies in for me, mary-lou, and watch me dive for them in thedeep end!'

'all right.' said mary-lou, pleased, and put some pennies into her pocket. her cold was almost better.

what a pity! she had so much enjoyed not having to bathe!

into the water plunged the girls. some jumped in, some dived in. only gwendoline went cautiouslydown the steps. but even she went in quickly for once, because somebody gave her a push and downshe went, spluttering and gasping. and when she arose, angry and indignant, not a single girl wasnear her. of course, so she had no idea at all who had pushed her. darrell or alicia she supposed.

beasts!

mary-lou was at the deep end, watching the others. at least, she watched darrell mostly, admiringthe way she swam, cutting the water so cleanly with her strong brown arms, and thrusting through thewaves like a small torpedo. mary-lou put her hands into her pocket and felt the pennies there. it wasnice of darrell to ask her to throw them in lor her. it was always nice to do anything for darrell, evenif it was only a little thing.

'come down to the other end and let's have a race!' cried alicia suddenly. 'come on, everyone.'

'i'll just stay here for a bit and dive for pennies!' yelled darrell. 'i'm puffed for racing. i'll get out ofyour way when you start. hi, mary-lou, have you got the pennies?"alicia and betty, who were the only girls in the plan, watched what would happen. both girls feltcertain that mary-lou would weep and remain rooted to the rocks w hen darrell called out. shewouldn't have the nerve to rush for the life-belt!

the other girls were splashing about, getting into position for the race. mary-lou threw a penny intothe water and darrell dived for it.

she brought it up in triumph. 'throw another, mary-lou!' she cried. splash! in went another penny.

darrell dived again, thinking that now was the time to pretend to be in difficulties. she came up,gasping.

'help! help!' she cried. 'i've got cramp! quick, mary- lou, the life-belt, the life belt! help, help!'

she threw her arms about and struggled, letting herself sink under a little. mary- lou stared,absolutely petrified. alicia nudged betty.

'just what i thought,' she said in a low voice. 'too much of a ninny even to get the life-belt!'

lhelpl' yelled darrell, and two or three of the other girls, thinking she was really in trouble, swamstrongly up the pool.

but somebody else reached darrell first! there was a resounding splash, and into the water, fullydressed, jumped the scared mary-lou, doing her best to remember the few swimming strokes sheknew. she managed to reach darrell, and put out her arms to her, to try and save her.

darrell, popping her head out of the water for the second time was filled with the utmost amazementto see mary- lou's wet head bobbing beside her! she stared as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

'hold on to me, darrell, hold on to me!' panted mary- lou. 'i'll save you.'