disaster every time they step outside the
school gates), she collapses, refuses to move and begs Lois to stay
because she doesn't want to die alone. Her behaviour is contrasted with
that of Ann, who tells Lois to leave her after she has banged her head
on a tree, which Lois of course refuses to do.
Indeed, Haverfield's self-sacrificing heroines are often so stoical that
the only time they can express their true feelings is when they are
delirious. In Just a Jolly Girl , Dixie Harding, told by her nurse that
she was ugly, is jealous of her prettier schoolmates and becoming bitter
and warped. For years she has believed that her adored mother is
disappointed in her. It is only when she is delirious after being
knocked down by a car on a school walk that she pours out all her
bottled-up emotions: I'm not a little dwarf, it isn't true This is
the first her mother, sitting by her bedside, knows of her daughter's
thoughts. Dixie, what kind of a mother do you take me for? Don't you
think that I love you? And after years of misunderstanding, all is
resolved.
Similarly, in The Luck of Lois when Ann is unconscious in bed following
the forest fire, Lois overhears her saying What do you think of your
precious friend now? Plucky isn't she? Wanting you to die with her! You
didn't ask me to die with you. Lois, who can be rather dense at times,
can't make sense of this at all, but the astute reader will realise that
Ann cares for her. In Our Vow too, Alison's ravings after being burned
in the fire gain her some sympathy from her aunt, who has previously
dismissed her as a naughty child. She must have been most miserable for
months, and we none of us understood her at all or knew of it. In The
Happy Comrade, two girls are expelled as bullies after one of their
victims, who has refused to tell her parents why she did not wish to
return to school, reveals all in delirious ramblings.
--
Kate Lambert
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