gs
made a back for me. A soft hand pressed my head on to the woollen
skirt between the knees, and the softness of the hand and the warmth of
the pillow used to send me to sleep. When I woke up again the pillow
became a table. The same hand put bits of cake on it, and bits of
sugar and sweets sometimes. And all round me I heard the world living.
A voice with tears in it would say, "No, Sister, I didn't do it." Then
shrill voices would say, "Yes, she did, Sister." Above my head a full
warm voice called for silence. And then there would be the rap of a
ruler on the desk. It would make an enormous noise down in my hollow.
Sometimes the feet would be drawn away from my little stool, the knees
would be drawn together, the chair would move, and down to my nest came
a white veil, a narrow chin, and smiling lips with little white pointed
teeth behind them. And last of all I saw two soft eyes which seemed to
cuddle me and make me feel comfortable.

When my eyes got better I used to get an alphabet as well as sweets and
cakes. It was a little book with pictures next to the words. I often
used to look at a great big strawberry which I fancied as big as a bun.
When it was not cold in the classroom, Sister Marie-Aimee put me on a
bench between Ismerie and Marie Renaud, who slept in the two beds next
to mine in the dormitory. Now and then she used to let me go back to
my hollow again, and I loved that. I used to find books there with
pictures, which made me forget all about the time.

One morning Ismerie took me into a corner, and told me with great
secrecy that Sister Marie-Aimee was not going to take the class any
more. She was going to take Sister Gabrielle's place in the dormitory
and the refectory. She did not tell me who had told her this, but she
said it was an awful shame. She was very fond of Sister Gabrielle, who
used to treat her like a little child. She did not like "that Sister
Marie-Aimee," as she used to call her when she knew that nobody heard
her but ourselves. She said that Sister Marie-Aimee would not let her
climb on to our backs, and that we should not be able to make fun of
her as we used to of Sister Gabrielle, who always went upstairs
sideways. In the evening after prayers Sister Gabrielle told us that
she was going. She kissed us all, beginning with the smallest of us.
We went up to the dormitory making a dreadful noise. The big girls
whispered together and said they would not put u