n was terrible. His sister skirtless
before the public eye! Young Jenny making him look like a fool!

"Go on in, you little devil," he shouted. He ground his teeth.

"Go on in!"

Ruby was by this time in pursuit of the rebel. Mrs. Raeburn had been
warned and was already at the gate. Alfie, haunted by a thousand mocking
eyes, fled to his room and wept tears of shame. Edie broke away from her
friends, and stood, breathing very fast, in petrified anticipation.
Jenny was led indoors and up to bed.

"Why can't I be a boy?" she moaned.

"Well, there's a sauce!" said Ruby. "However on earth can you be a boy
when you've been made a girl?"

"But I don't want to be a girl."

"Well, you've got to be, and that's all about it. You'll be fidgeting
for the moon next. Besides, if you go trapesing round half-dressed, the
policeman'll have you."

Jenny had heard of the powers of the policeman for a long time. Those
guardians of order stood for her as sinister, inhuman figures, always
ready to spring on little girls and carry them off to unknown places.
She was never taught to regard them as kindly defenders on whom one
could rely in emergencies, but looked upon them with all the suspicion
of a dog for a uniform. Their large quiescence and their habit of
looming unexpectedly round corners shed a cloud upon the sunniest
moment. They were images of vengeance at whose approach even boys
huddled together, shamefaced.

Mrs. Raeburn came upstairs to interview her discontented daughter.

"Don't you ever do any such thing again. Behaving like a tomboy!"

"Why mayn't I be a boy?"

"Because you're a girl."

"Who said so?"

"God."

"Who's God?"

"That's neither here nor there."

God was another shadow upon enjoyment. He was not to be found by pillar
boxes. He did not lurk in archways, it is true. He was apparently not a
policeman, but something bigger, even, than a policeman. She had seen
His picture--old and irritable, among the clouds.

"Why did God say so?"

"Because He knows best."

"But I want to be a boy."

"Would you like me to cut off all your curls?"

"No--o--o."

"Well, if you want to be a boy, off they'll have to come. Don't make any
mistake about that--every one, and I'll give them to May. Then you'll be
a sight."

"Am I a girl because I'm pretty?"

"Yes."

"Is that what girls are for?"

"Yes."

This adventure made Jenny much older because it set her imagination
working, or rather it made her imag