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Copyright © Enid Blyton LtdEnid Blyton’s signature mark is a trademark of Enid Blyton Ltd

(a Chorion company). All rights reserved.

First published in Great Britain in 1952 by George Newnes

This edition published in 2007 by Hodder Children’s Books

The right of Enid Blyton to be identified as the Author ofthe Work has been asserted by her in accordance with

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

For further information on Enid Blyton,please contact www.blyton.com

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All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted underUK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or

transmitted, in any form, or by any means with prior permission inwriting from the publishers or in the case of reprographic production

in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the CopyrightLicensing Agency and may not be otherwise circulated in any form ofbinding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a

similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblanceto real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A Catalogue record for this book is availablefrom the British Library

ISBN-10: 0 340 91772 5ISBN-13: 978 0 340 91772 5

Typeset in Sabon by Avon DataSet Ltd,Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

The paper and board used in this paperback by Hodder Children’sBooks are natural recyclable products made from wood grown insustainable forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the

environmental regulations of the country of origin.

Hodder Children’s Booksa division of Hachette Children’s Books

338 Euston RoadLondon NW1 3BH

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Contents

1 Back at Whyteleafe School 12 Patrick comes up against 11

Elizabeth3 Julian’s little trick 214 Patrick in trouble 335 At midnight 41

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1

1 Back at Whyteleafe School

It was the summer term at Whyteleafe School.All the children were back again – Elizabeth,Julian, Harry, John, Martin, Rosemary and therest. They rushed round the school excitedly,glad to be back.

‘Summer term! My favourite term!’ saidElizabeth Allen, pleased. ‘Hi, Julian – come andlook at my new tennis racket!’

Julian came over, humming a little song. Hisgreen eyes twinkled at Elizabeth. ‘Hallo,’ hesaid. ‘What are you going to be this term,Elizabeth? Naughtiest girl in the school? Bestgirl? Silliest?’

Elizabeth laughed and gave Julian a punch.‘I’m a monitor, as you jolly well know,’ she said.‘I’m going to do my best, and be a monitor allthe term – not be chucked out in the middle, asI was last term. What about you?’

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Here’s The Naughtiest Girl!2

‘Oh, I’m going to do my best, too – but I’vegot all sorts of bests,’ said Julian, grinning. ‘I’llbeat you at work this term, for one thing – andI’ll beat you at tennis – and I’ll beat you atthinking out a few little tricks to make lifecheerful – and . . . ’

‘Oh, Julian – I hope you’ll think of a few tricks,’said Elizabeth. ‘But please don’t put sneezingpowder in the pages of my books again –honestly, it’s awful to have to keep on and onsneezing without stopping.’

‘Right,’ said Julian, ‘I’ll make a note of it!’Elizabeth was just going to say something

more when she caught sight of a boy in thedistance. He was so like Julian that she stared insurprise. Same black untidy hair, same greeneyes – but what a sulky face!

‘Look – there’s somebody who looks very likeyou,’ said Elizabeth. ‘He must be a new boy.’

Julian turned. ‘Yes – that’s a cousin of mine.He’s got rather a big opinion of himself, as you’llsoon find out. He didn’t want to come toWhyteleafe School at all.’

‘Why ever not?’ said Elizabeth, who simplycouldn’t imagine anyone not wanting to come.

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3Back at Whyteleafe School

‘Well – he’s not very fond of me,’ said Julian.‘He doesn’t like people who can do things betterthan he can – and he’ll be in our form.’

‘And when you use your brains you’ll be topwhenever you want to!’ said Elizabeth. ‘Eventop of me!’

‘That’s easy,’ said Julian, and got anotherpunch. ‘But, quite seriously, Elizabeth, go slowwith Patrick – he can be very spiteful. Don’tplay the heavy monitor with him too soon ortoo much.’

‘I shall tick him off if he doesn’t toe the line,’said Elizabeth at once. ‘How will he behave, doyou think?’

‘A bit like you behaved when you first came!’said Julian, twinkling at her. ‘Don’t youremember? You were the Naughtiest Girl in theSchool – and you meant to be, too! The thingsyou did!’

Elizabeth went bright pink. ‘You needn’t keepreminding me of that first term,’ she said. ‘I wasawful. I just can’t think how I could havebehaved like that.’

‘Well, I wasn’t there then,’ said Julian, ‘butI’ve heard plenty about it. I bet you’ll always be

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Here’s The Naughtiest Girl!4

known as the Naughtiest Girl, even if you go onbeing a monitor for the rest of your school daysand end up as head girl!’

‘Gosh – I’d never be that,’ said Elizabeth.‘Whoever heard of a Naughtiest Girl ending upas head? Here comes your cousin, Julian.’

Julian swung round. ‘Hallo, Patrick,’ hesaid. ‘Finding your way about a bit? This isElizabeth. She’s a friend of mine and if you wantany help in anything, go to her, because she’sa monitor.’

‘I’m not likely to go to any friend of yours forhelp!’ said Patrick in a high-and-mighty voice.‘And, by the way, you don’t need to spreadaround the news that I’m your cousin – I’m notreally proud of having you for a cousin! Tooswollen-headed for my taste!’

He went off, hands in pockets. Julian glaredafter him. ‘If he wasn’t new I’d shake him till histeeth rattled!’ he said.

Elizabeth was indignant, too. ‘What a cheekfrom a new boy!’ she said. ‘Well, he won’t cheekme! If he does I’ll report him.’

A bell rang just then, and everyone hurriedin to a meal. Elizabeth scrambled for her place

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5Back at Whyteleafe School

at the table. She beamed round at everyone. Howgood it was to be back among all her friends!John Terry grinned at her across the table.

‘Going to help in the garden this term?’ hecalled. ‘Have you seen all the seeds that havecome up since last term? We shall have a fineshow this summer.’

John was partly responsible for the gardensof the school. He loved gardening and was verygood at it. Elizabeth nodded back at him. ‘Yes– of course I’ll help. I love messing about inthe garden.’

Elizabeth was going to be busy this term! Shemeant to ride each day on one of the schoolponies. She meant to practise her tennis hardand get into one of the school teams. She meantto help John with the gardens. She was deter-mined to beat Julian as top of the form whenevershe could, and that meant a lot of hard work –and she meant to be a good monitor.

Somebody else meant to beat Julian, too! Thatwas Patrick, his cousin. Patrick was jealous ofJulian – he had always been glad when he hadheard that his cousin didn’t work hard at school,and had continually been bottom. He knew that

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Here’s The Naughtiest Girl!6

Julian had good brains, and it pleased him thathe hadn’t used them.

All the same, he hadn’t wanted to go toWhyteleafe School. ‘Mixed boys and girls!’ hethought, scornfully. ‘I’d rather go to an all-boys’school. Look at that Elizabeth now – fancy mehaving to take orders from a girl! Well – I shan’tpay much attention to her, anyway!’

He set himself to make a good impression onthe others in his form. He entered into everything,and because he was good at games, and could bevery comical when he tried, he was soon well-liked.

He hadn’t Julian’s gift of making extra-ordinary noises – but how he wished he had!Julian could cluck exactly like a hen laying anegg – he could buzz like a bluebottle fly, dronelike a bumble-bee, and make very strange noiseslike nothing at all.

Patrick had often tried to imitate noises, buthe couldn’t. For one thing everyone knew hewas making them, and that gave the game away.

‘Nobody ever knows that Julian is doing thenoises,’ thought Patrick enviously. ‘Last Christ-mas, when he came to us for a party, he imitated

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7Back at Whyteleafe School

a dog whining, and we all hunted round thehouse for ages – and though I looked and lookedat Julian, I couldn’t see a single movement of hismouth or throat.’

Patrick soon found that Whyteleafe wasn’t atall the ‘sissy’ kind of school he had expected.His class worked hard and played hard, prac-tically every boy or girl had a hobby, and ifanything went wrong it was reported at the bigMeeting held by the school each week.

This was a kind of Parliament, at which every-thing was discussed frankly by the childrenthemselves. Complaints were heard, grumbleswere made and set right, money was distributedevenly, plans were made.

Rita and William, the head boy and head girl,presided. If punishments had to be meted out,they said what they were to be. Twelve monitorssat on the platform with them – a kind of jury,Elizabeth always thought. She was very proudto be on the platform, sitting alongside thetwelve other monitors.

At first Patrick had been pleased to hear thathe was to be in Julian’s form. He had frequentlyheard his father and mother say what a pity it

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Here’s The Naughtiest Girl!8

was that a boy with good brains like Julianshould so often be bottom. He didn’t know thatthe term before Julian had begun to use hisbrains well, and could always be top of the formif he wanted to be!

So it was a shock to him to find that in thefirst week’s marks Julian was top, Elizabeth wassecond, and he was tied third with somebodyelse.

‘I thought you made a point of being at thebottom of the form,’ he said to Julian. ‘Or so Ialways heard.’

‘You heard right,’ said Julian, quite amiably.‘I just didn’t happen to want to be top, that wasall. But I do now. Did you want to be top,Patrick? Bad luck that I happen to be using mybrains this term, isn’t it?’

Patrick turned away. All right – he’d workharder still. He wasn’t going to play secondfiddle to Julian. He pondered over his tennis.He was good at that. He would take specialcoaching and practise hard – Julian wasn’t muchgood at tennis! It would do him good to betaken down a peg!

Then one day he came up against Elizabeth.

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9Back at Whyteleafe School

She was the only person in the form he didn’ttry to be nice to. She was Julian’s friend and amonitor – that was enough for Patrick! Hehardly ever addressed a word to her, and if evershe came up to a group he was with he walkedaway.

Elizabeth laughed at first, but soon it in-furiated her. She longed to pull him up forsomething, but the chance didn’t come for threeweeks.

Then a notice was put on the board for ameeting. ‘Meeting of the Garden Committee, atfive o’clock sharp,’ said the notice. ‘All the firstform must attend as well, as volunteers arewanted to help with the weeding.’

Patrick was in the first form. He saw the noticeand ignored it. Why should he go? He wasn’tinterested in gardening, he hated weeding, andhe certainly wasn’t going to volunteer to doanything in the gardens!

He went off to have a quiet practise by him-self, taking his racket and tennis balls with him.There was a wall at the side of the school againstwhich he could hit the balls and strike themcontinually on the rebound.

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Here’s The Naughtiest Girl!10

So, when the meeting gathered, Patrick wasnot there! John, who was in charge, lookedround. ‘Are we all here?’ he said.

‘No. Patrick isn’t,’ said Elizabeth at once. ‘Ibet I know where he is, too! Practising hittingballs against the side-wall. I saw him pass thewindow with his racket.’

‘Oh! Well, he’s got to come,’ said John. ‘Youare a monitor, Elizabeth. Fetch him, will you?’

‘Right,’ said Elizabeth, pleased at being ableto make Patrick ‘toe the line’ for once. ‘I canhear the thud-thud of the balls against the wallnow. I’ll bring him along at once!’

And off she went, quite sure she could makePatrick obey her!

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