"udd645453-9008-5d49-9bd7-a907e8ce20eb">
First published in Great Britain by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd in 1970
This edition published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2020
Published in this ebook edition in 2020
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
HarperCollins Publishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is
Text copyright © Noel Streatfeild 1970
Cover illustrations copyright © Sarah Gibb 2020
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020
Noel Streatfeild asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008244057
Ebook Edition © Feb 2020 ISBN: 9780008244040
Version: 2020-02-26
Dedicated to an American penfriend, Kathy Retan, with love
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
– Anonymous
Contents
Chapter One: The Choice
Chapter Two: Packing Up
Chapter Three: The Journey
Chapter Four: The Orphanage
Chapter Five: First Day
Chapter Six: School
Chapter Seven: Lavinia
Chapter Eight: A Letter
Chapter Nine: Plans for Sunday
Chapter Ten: Half a Sunday
Chapter Eleven: The Picnic
Chapter Twelve: A Night Adventure
Chapter Thirteen: By Moonlight
Chapter Fourteen: The Archdeacon’s Brother
Chapter Fifteen: The Invitation
Chapter Sixteen: Questions
Chapter Seventeen: Sunday with Mr Windle
Chapter Eighteen: Trouble
Chapter Nineteen: Escape
Chapter Twenty: Jem
Chapter Twenty-one: Polly Makes a Discovery
Chapter Twenty-two: The Nightdress
Chapter Twenty-three: Ma Smith
Chapter Twenty-four: Wilberforce
Chapter Twenty-five: First Morning
Chapter Twenty-six: In the Drawing Room
Chapter Twenty-seven: Rain
Chapter Twenty-eight: New Plans
Chapter Twenty-nine: Goodbye to Matron
Chapter Thirty: The Tunnel
Chapter Thirty-one: At the Bull
Chapter Thirty-two: At Morning Prayers
Chapter Thirty-three: The Theatre
Chapter Thirty-four: The Whole Truth
Chapter Thirty-five: The Rehearsal
Chapter Thirty-six: The Crusader
Chapter Thirty-seven: Curtain Down
Keep Reading …
About the Author
Books by Noel Streatfeild
About the Publisher
Margaret had been discovering all her life that grown-ups were disappointing conversationalists. So now that she was ten she was quite prepared to carry on a conversation by herself. That January afternoon as she walked – or sometimes, forgetting it was a crime – skipped home beside Hannah, she argued about boots.
‘I know you say and Miss Sylvia and Miss Selina say that boots are economical because they last longer but I don’t think that’s true. All the other girls at school wear shoes and they say they don’t wear out quickly and they ought to know. And what nobody understands is what wearing boots does to me – they humiliate my legs. If I wasn’t me but a different person they would humiliate me all over, but not even boots can do that. I am Margaret Thursday and unhumiliatable.’
Hannah, her mind worrying round like a squirrel