magnolia-buildings

"Oh no, Mum. I can't. They'll guess." "You're coming with me or I'll tell your Dad."

Val looked at her. "Suppose1 the lady doesn't go to the police?"

"We'll go to the Supermarket after that. She probably made a fuss3 there. But we've got to take the purse to the police. And Val, this must be the end of filching. Take one thing, and you'll take another. And if I ever catch you again, I'll hand you over too the police with my own hands. I'll not have any thieves in our family."

They went to the police station and Mum went up to the desk, while Val stood behind her. He knew most of the cops of their district, and hoped they would not recognize him.

"My boy found this in the Supermarket, by the fruit stall," said Mum to the policeman behind the counter.

Val thought that the policeman gave him a searching look,4 but the man didn't say anything. He counted the money in the purse, asked Mum to give him details and wrote down everything.

"We'll let you know if somebody comes to us," he said at last.

"Val," said Mum as they walked home. "I've got to go to the hospital next week. I shall have no peace or rest lying there if I'm afraid all the time of your getting into trouble."5

Val was silent.

"What if Dad comes and tells me they've caught you?"

Val put his hand into hers, just as he had done when he was a small child.

"Val, promise me you won't do it any more!" He pressed her hand and they left it at that.8

Chapter X

NIGHTGOWNS

The greatest difficulty about going to hospital was — nightgowns. At home you could go to bed in petticoats or old summer dresses. But you couldn't wear such things if you had to sit up in bed in a ward where all the other la-

"I've got my cardigan that I can wear in bed," Mum said to Ally, "and I've got one nightgown, but that's all. You know, Glory, I've never had a really pretty nightgown, one of those lovely things that you see in the shop windows. I saw a beauty last week, pale blue, with little bows of ribbon."

When Mrs Crawley heard of Mum's difficulty, she promised to lend her one of the nightgowns she had bought when she had to go to hospital because of her bad leg.

"It's so good of her,"3 Mum explained to Ally, "because if you don't take enough things, they make you put on awful old hospital nightgowns. I'd die of shame if I had to wear one of those."

Grandma sent another nightgown, but it was so oldfashioned that Mum said she simply couldn't put it on.

"Could we alter it a bit?" said Ally, but she knew that it was hopeless. Mum and she were both not good at sewing.

"I'll take it to needlework class,"4 said Doreen. "The teacher will help me with it." Doreen was good at sewing and handicrafts.

"I'm not sure you'll be able to do it," said Mum. The thought of the hospital and the other ladies in

the ward who would look at her scornfully made Mum go

to the post office and draw out thirty shillings of her small savings. With this money she bought a nice pink nightgown with lace on it.

"And you'll just have to take my things home and wash them up quickly," she said to Ally.

The last evening, Mrs Crawley and Mrs Doherty dropped in to wish Mum luck and give her some advice about hospital life. Mum's little

suitcase was already packed but it was opened again to show the ladies her new nightgown, and the one which Doreen had altered.

Soon Dad came home. He carried a parcel and looked so shy that all the ladies couldn't he,lp smiling.1

"Brought you2 something, Marge," he muttered, put the parcel on the table and went straight to the kitchen to wash. Mum untied the parcel with fingers that trembled with excite-

ment. Inside the parcel was a pale blue nightgown, just like the one she had described to Ally.

"Oh!" she cried with delight.

"I told Dad you wanted it!" shouted Ally, dancing about. "Isn't it lovely?"

"Good old Dad!" cried Mum. Her eyes were shining and her pale cheeks grew red. "There!3 Now I'll be able to sit up with the other ladies and look as smart as they do. Half a minute, Alf Berners, you've got to have a kiss for this, whether you like it or not." And she ran into the kitchen and kissed Dad, who was all wet from washing.

"Isn't it a beauty?" exclaimed Mrs Doherty. "I wish I could be going to hospital myself I"4 And she offered to lend

Mum her new plastic bag with roses on it to carry her soap and tooth-brush when Mum would go to the bathroom.

"Oh, Mum, what about a dressing-gown for going to the bathroom?" Ally had suddenly realized this need.

Mum looked puzzled for a minute. "Well, I'll just have to wear my blue coat."

"Oh, many of them won't have any dressing-gowns, I'm sure," cried Mrs Doherty looking at Mum with her kind blue eyes. "And your coat is so smart, Mrs Berners, dear."

"Now, I must put all the things in the suitcase again," said Mum. "Wheie's my tooth-brush and comb? And now my hankies and the sweets Ally gave me." She put everything into the suitcase, as pleased as if she were a young girl going on her first visit.

"We'll all get up to see you off, dear," Mrs Crawley cried as the two women went away to give their families some tea.

The rest of the evening Mum kept giving directions to her own family about everything they had to do while she was away: the plants must be watered, Len must go to bed early, Val had to wash and so on and so forth.

It was quite late by the time Auntie Glad came home. She entered the room as usual, almost invisible in her black coat and hat, ate the supper that Mum had kept hot for her, and said nothing about a large parcel she had brought home. Mum sent all the children off to bed, as they had to get up earlier than usual. Mum had to be at the hospital by ten.

Dad had gone to the "Cock" to have his usual half pint of beer, and Mum was finishing her ironing, when Auntie Glad handed her the parcel without saying a word.

"Oh, Glad! What's it?" Then she cried out: "Oh!" as if she couldn't believe her own eyes. "A dressing-gown, a lovely dressing-gown! Glad, where did you get it? It can't be for me!"

"I made it myself, see," explained Auntie Glad in her low voice. "I bought the stuff for a song1 and made the thing during the dinner hours."

"But it's lovely. I've never had anything like it before. Oh, you are so good to me!" said Mum with tears in her eyes.

"Well, you've been good to me, Marge," said Auntie

Glad. "You took me in, with your big family. I was glad to do it for you."

Mum hugged the little woman, and then, as Dad came in at that moment, she hugged him too, for she didn't want him to think that his present was forgotten. So they unpacked the nightgown once more and showed it to Auntie Glad.

Then Mum put on the new dressing-gown and paraded up and down1 for the children, who got out of bed to see the wonderful thing.

"I'll just run and tell Mrs Crawley and Mrs Doherty," said Ally, who was still in trousers and sweater. "They must see it while'it's new. Oh, Mum, you won't have to wear your blue coat now."

The Crawley and Doherty families were not yet in bed, and so they came at once.

"You'll be the smartest woman in the ward!" cried Mrs Doherty. "And now off to bed, all of you, for the poor woman must have her rest."

"Don't you worry," said Mrs Crawley. "I'll drop in and keep an eye on things."2

"There! I've never had a nicer evening in my life," said Mum as she and Dad went off to bed. "It's almost worth going to hospital3 to find out how kind people are!"

Dad took her to the hospital in the morning. Ally had offered to go in his place, but Dad had said, "No, the British Railways will have to manage without me for a time. Can't I look after my wife when she is ill?"

Chapter XI

MUM AWAY4

When the operation was safely over and Mum began to recover, the family returned to normal life. But the flat seemed so quiet and dull without Mum there, laughing, and drinking tea and chatting with her friends.

At first, Ally did her best.1 She got up early and made the boys wash and then cooked breakfast. In the evenings she hurried home after school to make tea and do all the work that Mum used to do. Val and Doreen also tried to help, and even offered to go shopping. But after a few days the children got tired of2 it all. Dad and Auntie Glad had not changed their ways.3 They just did their own work and never tried to help in the flat. So all the housework was left to Ally. She would not have minded it 4 if she could have thought of herself as of a noble daughter doing her duty in the absence of a sick mother. There could have been glamour in such a role. But for that she needed praise from the family and got none. They only grumbled.

They all took it for granted 8 that Ally had to stay at home every evening, and couldn't act in the church play or go to the pictures. All the other girls at school were in the play and they told Ally about the rehearsals and

"Glamour!" she said to herself, as she washed up piles of dirty dishes. No one had stayed to help her in spite of her grumbling. Val just said, "Washing-up is a woman's job." As to Dad, he had gone to the "Cock" as usual on his way to visit Mum. Len was too young to be of much use, and Doreen had said she had to finish an essay.

"Again an essayl" cried Ally. "Why do you have to work so much now? You've passed your exam. Remember what Mum said? I pity the

man you'll marry I"

"I'll never marry. I'm not that sort," 6 said Doreen

quietly. "Now just shut up a moment. I've got to concentrate."

In her rage Ally broke a saucer and cut her finger. Things were going from bad to worse.1 Doreen got sick eating too many sweets, Val came home very late every evening and Len was always whining and asking for Mum. Finally, Ally gave up trying.2 She stopped cooking proper meals, and just went out and bought fish and chips. She stopped cleaning the flat. It was not only laziness, it was tiredness as well. During the last few months she had been getting fatter, and the girls at school laughed at her and called her "Fatty".3 So she had started to diet, giving up bread and potatoes and margarine. As she was not eating enough for her growing body, she grew more and more tired and as she got tired, she became sulky and irri-

table.

In spite of her constant tiredness Ally tried to do her morning exercises, but it was not an easy thing in the small flat crowded 4 with furniture. She could not even do the exercises on her bed because of Doreen.

"Oh dear, you can't have glamour if you're fat," Ally kept saying to herself. "I must grow thin." So she went on dieting, and in the evening she had dizzy fits 6 and so could not mend the children's clothes. The boys shed their buttons as a tree sheds its leaves, and it was a wonder that they could still keep up their trousers.8

Until now, Ally had no idea how many clean clothes were needed by seven people in a week. Mum had told her to take the washing to the laundry on Saturdays. Ally took it there in a shopping basket but she was greatly surprised to find how heavy the damp things were when she had to take them back upstairs. They didn't do any ironing at the laundry either. The damp clothes lay about in piles, getting dirty again, because Ally had not the energy to dry and iron them. Finally the boys, when they

a bad cold. He went about with a running nose z and whined for Mum more than ever.

Besides all the housework, Ally had to go to the hospital every other day 3 to visit Mum and bring back the nightgowns which she had to wash and iron properly at home. Sometimes Ally even envied her mother, who was, of course, the life and soul 4 of the ward. Whenever Ally came in she was exchanging jokes with all the other patients. She could say something funny about every ward maid,5 nurse or doctor and made everyone laugh. If any patient looked gloomy, Mum would cry, "Want me 6 to come over and draw a smile on your face with my lipstick?"

Mum knew all about everybody in the ward, what was the matter with them and what the doctor had said. She would tell all this to Ally as she came to visit her. "See that patient over there? That's Mrs Hodson. Poor girl, she had a kidney out ' last Tuesday and she's got four lovely kids. Next to her, yes, that one with red hair, that's Beryl. She's going to get married. And such a nice young chap comes to see her. See that nurse in the small cap? That's Sister Ann. When she gets angry, she shouts at the patients, can you believe it? How's my Lennie? I'm so worried about him. I wish he were allowed 8 to visit me. What about Mrs Crawley, does she come often? Don't let her poke her nose into everything or we'll never be able to get rid of9 her. Quick, duck, tell me all the news, because the bell goes 10 in five minutes."

The woman Mum and Ally liked best in the whole ward was Mrs Cobber. She lay very quietly in the next bed, but she was always smiling and cheerful and the whole ward loved her. No one, not even Mum, knew what her

trouble was,1 but it was something serious. She had been in the hospital for a long time. Mum told Ally that she had two nice children and their photo was on her night-table.

One evening, Mrs Cobber seemed happier than ever. Her eyes were shining and she said to Ally, "I'll go home soon, the doctor says. The pain's better, see, and he doesn't think they'll keep me here much longer. My mother'll come and look after me. I've been here for three months, so I'll be so glad to get home at last. I can't wait to see the children.2 I just lie here and imagine myself having a nice cup of tea in my own kitchen."

After Ally had visited Mum, she usually felt some remorse about the flat. "I'll clean it up properly on Saturday," she promised herself.

But on Saturday, by the time she had done the shopping and taken the washing upstairs, and prepared some slices of bread and jam for Len, she just sank into the armchair and looked at the untidy room without enthusiasm. The breakfast things were still on the table, last week's wash-

ing was still unironed. Everywhere you could see matches, crumbs, shoes, Len's toys and old newspapers. Ally knew that the kitchen was full of dirty supper dishes from yesterday, and that out of all the beds, only Auntie Glad's had been made.

Dad came in at that moment and for the first time he realized the terrible disorder in the flat.

"Be glad x when Mum's back," he said. "So'll I," said Ally. "Look at it!"

"Can't you clean up a bit?" asked Dad and sat down. It was a very hot day and he felt exhausted because of the heat that had come so suddenly.

"What's the use?" 2 asked Ally in a hard voice, but not moving an inch. "As soon as I make it clean, the boys make it dirty again. And no one helps me, not even Doreen.

"Here, cheer up," said Dad, quite worried. "Doreen ought to help you. Where's she gone?"

"P-poetry class or something," sobbed Ally. "And that Val. Can't he do a bit of shopping?"

"He'd break half of the eggs and forget the bread. No, thank you."

"What about Auntie Glad?"

"Oh, well! You know what she's like." *

Dad nodded. He knew. "Well, Dor and Val should help you," was all he found to say

Ally sniffed. "You tell them," she said. "I'm tired of asking. You make them help me."

Dad sat a moment thinking. Usually it was his wife who s gave directions to the family. "All right," he said at last. "Cheer up, Glory. I'll help you."

"You?" said Ally, very much surprised, for Dad had been so spoilt by Mum that he never did a thing in the house. Yet now he really helped Ally to clear the table 6 and wash up.