The Youngest Girl in the School

'It's no good, ' sighed Barbara, looking disconsolately round the room; 'we shall never get straight in time. Don't you think we had better leave it, and let Auntie Anna see us as we really are? She will only be disappointed afterwards, if we begin by being tidy; and I don't like disappointing people, do you?' There was a shout of laughter when she finished speaking, and Barbara frowned. She never knew why the boys laughed at her when she tried to explain her reasons for doing things, but they always did. 'Is that why you have put on your very shortest frock?' asked Wilfred, who was brewing something in a saucepan over the fire. 'I believe you think that if Auntie Anna saw you for the first time in your Sunday frock, she might suppose you were a nice, proper little girl, instead of--' Barbara seized the sofa cushion and aimed it at him threateningly. 'Instead of what?' she demanded