chapter 7 a little conference

peace reigned in the house for a little while. george and anne went to help the cook with thewashing-up. joan was pleased, because with eight people in the house, including herself, there was alot to do.

she had been very astonished that morning to find a fifth child added to the household, but had beentold that after breakfast she could go into the sitting- room and hear an explanation. joan mustcertainly be in the secret too!

upstairs berta was helping with the beds - not very successfully because she was not used to doingthings for herself. but she was very willing to learn and aunt fanny was quite pleased with her.

timmy and sally darted about together and made things rather more dificult than they need havebeen, popping under beds and out again at top speed.

'i'm glad timmy likes sally,' said berta. 'i knew he would. i can't think why george thought hewouldn't. george is funny, i think.'

'not really,' said aunt fanny. 'she hasn't any brothers or sisters to rub off her corners, and she didn'teven know her three cousins till a few years ago, or go to school. lonely people aren't so easy to geton with as others - but she is great fun now, as you will soon find out.'

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'i'm an only child too,' said berta. 'but i've always had plenty of other children to play with. my popssaw to that. he's wunnerful - i mean wonderful. i'll say that word 'wonderful' twenny times, thenmaybe, i'll get it right.'

'well, say the word 'twenty' as well!' said aunt fanny. 'it has a letter t at the end as well as at thebeginning, you know. it's 'twenty' not 'twenny'. but don't make yourself too english. it's nice tohave a change!'

'wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! twenty, twenty!' chanted berta, as she made the beds.

dick looked into the room and chuckled.

'great snakes!' he said, with a grin, and an american accent. 'you shore are wunnerful, baby!'

'don't be so silly, dick,' said his aunt, laughing. 'now - i think we've finished all we have to do,berta. we'll go downstairs and have a conference. tell the others, will you?'

berta, followed closely by sally, who was also followed closely by an adoring timmy, went to telldick and julian, and then george and anne. george was not too pleased with timmy.

'where have you been?' she said. 'can't you stop running about after sally? she'll get very very tiredof you!'

'wuff!' said sally, in a high little bark, not at all like timmy's deep 'woof!'

soon all five children and the two dogs, and also joan, were in the sitting-room with aunt fanny.

berta began to look a little nervous. aunt fanny had the letter that berta's father had sent. she did notread it out to the children, but told them what was in it. she also explained to joan about berta.

'joan, you have always known what important work the master does,' she said. 'well, miss berta'sfather does the same kind of work in america, and he and the master are working on a great newscheme together.'

'oh yes, mam,' said joan, very much interested.

'berta's father has been warned by the police that it is possible berta may be kidnapped and held toransom, not for money, but for the scientific secrets that he knows,' went on aunt fanny. 'so she hasbeen sent to us to be kept safe for three weeks. by that time the scheme will be finished and madepublic. berta is going to the same school as miss anne and miss george, and it is a good idea to letthem know one another first.'

joan nodded. 'i understand that, mam,' she said. 'i think we can keep miss berta safe, don't you?'

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'yes,' said aunt fanny. 'but her father has now put up some further ideas that he wants us to follow.

he says it would be best to disguise her as a boy...'

'jolly good idea,' interrupted dick.

'and to give her another name - a boy's name,' said aunt fanny. 'he wants her to have her hair cutshort and...'

'oh please not that!' begged berta, shaking back her fair, wavy hair. 'i'd hate it. girls with short hairlike boys look so silly, they...'

anne nudged her and frowned. berta stopped hurriedly, remembering that george had curly hair cutas short as any boy.

'i think we'll have to do what your father says,' said aunt fanny. 'this is very important, berta.

you see, if anyone should come here looking for you, thinking of kidnapping, they would neverrecognize you if you were looking exactly like a boy.'

'but my hair,' said berta, almost in tears. 'how could pops say i'm to have my hair off? he alwayssaid it was wunnerful!'

nobody liked to point out that there was a d in wonderful just then! berta was really so very upsetabout her hair.

'your hair will grow quickly enough,' said aunt fanny.

'her head's a good shape,' said julian, looking at it consideringly. 'she should look nice with shorthair.'

berta cheered up. if julian thought that, then it wouldn't be so bad.

'but what about clothes?' she said, remembering this point with a look of horror. 'girls look frightfulin boy's clothes. pops always said so till now.'

'you won't look any worse than george does,' said dick. 'she's got on a boy's jersey, boy's jeans andboy's shoes this very minute!'

'i think she looks awful,' said berta, obstinately, and george scowled.

'well, i think you'd look horrible,' she said. 'you wouldn't even look like a boy, you'd look little-girlish, silly little sissy-boy. i think it's a fat-headed idea to put you into boys' clothes!'

'aha! our george wants to be the only one!' said dick, slyly, and quickly got out of the way of apunch from the furious george.

'well,' said julian, 'i'll go out and buy some things for berta this morning, so that's settled. whatabout her hair? shall i cut it short?'

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aunt fanny was amused at julian's high-handed way of dealing with berta and her troubles, and evenmore amused to see that berta did not even argue with julian.

'you can certainly go shopping for berta if you like,' she said. 'but i'd rather you didn't cut her hair.

you'd make her look a scarecrow!'

'i don't mind if julian cuts it,' said berta, surprisingly meek all at once.

'i shall cut it for you myself,' said aunt fanny. 'now - what about a boy's name? we can't call youberta any more, that's certain.'

'i'd rather not have a boy's name,' said berta. 'it's silly for a girl to be called by a boy's name, likegeorge.'

'if you mean to be rude to me, i'll ...' began george, but got no farther. julian and dick had burst intolaughter.

'oh george - you and berta will be the death of us!' said julian. 'here are you doing all you can topretend to be a boy - and here is berta doing all she can to get out of it? for goodness' sake, let'ssettle the matter without any more bickering. we'll call berta robert.'

'no - that's too like berta,' said dick. 'it ought to be a completely different name. we'll call her a goodplain boy's name like jim or tom or john.'

'no,' said berta. 'i don't like any of them. let me have my second name, please.'

'what's that? another girl's name?' asked julian.

'yes. but it's used for a boy too, only then it's spelt differently,' said berta. 'it's lesley. it's a nicename, i think.'

'lesley. yes - it rather suits you,' said julian. 'it suits you better than berta. we'll call you lesley- and people will think it's leslie spelt l-i-e at the end, and not l-e-y. all right. everything's settled.'

'not quite,' said his aunt. 'i just want to say that you mustn't let berta - i mean lesley - out of yoursight at all. and you must report at once any mysterious happening or any stranger you see.

the local police here know that we have lesley with us, and why - and anything can be reported tothem at once. they also are keeping a good look-out, of course.'

'this almost sounds as if we're in the middle of an adventure!' said dick, looking pleased.

'i hope not,' said his aunt. 'i don't imagine that anyone will ever guess berta - i mean lesley - isanything more than she will appear to be - a boy friend of yours and julian's, come to stay for awhile. dear me, it's going to be dificult to refer to her and him all the time!'

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'it certainly is,' said julian, standing up. 'if you'll give me some money, aunt fanny, i'll go and do alittle shopping for lesley. what size do you think he needs?'

everyone laughed. 'he wears size three shoes,' said joan, smiling. 'i noticed that this morning.'

'and he will have to get used to doing his coat buttons up on the right-hand side instead of on theleft,' said anne, joining in the fun.

'she will soon get used to that?' said george. 'won't she, timmy?'

'don't spoil it all now, george,' said julian. 'a slip of the tongue, saying she instead of he, mightlead to danger for her - i mean lesley.'

'yes, i know,' said george. 'it's just that she'll never look like a boy, and...'

'i don't want to look like a boy,' said berta. 'i think you look...'

'here we go again!' said julian. 'stop it, lesley, stop it, george. george, you'd better come out andhelp me to get the things for lesley. come on. and take that scowl off your face. you look like asulky girl!'

that made george alter her face at once. she couldn't help grinning at the artful julian.

'i'm coming,' she said, 'good-bye, berta. when we come back, you'll be leslie, haircut and all!'

she and julian went off. anne fetched her aunt's sharpest scissors and draped a big towel roundberta's shoulders. berta looked as if she was going to cry.

'cheer up,' said dick. 'you're going to look angelic with short hair! begin, aunt fanny. let's seewhat she's like with shorn locks.'

'sit quite still,' said aunt fanny and began. clip-clip-clip! the wavy golden hair fell to the floor inbig strands and berta began to weep in earnest. 'my hair! i can't bear this. oh, my hair!'

soon most of it was on the floor, and aunt fanny began to clip what was left as best she could, tomake it look as boyish as possible. she made a very good job of it indeed. dick and anne watchedwith the greatest interest.

'there! it's done!' said aunt fanny at last. 'stop crying, lesley - and let's have a look at you!'