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excited to let the matter rest.

2. "This particular type of poetry is called a limerick," Miss Honey, the teacher, said. "This one is very famous," she said,

picking up the book and returning to her table in front of the class. "A witty limerick is very hard to write," she added, "they

look easy but they most certainly are not." "I know," Matilda said. "I've tried quite a few times but mine are never any good."

"I insist upon hearing one of them," Miss Honey said, smiling one of her rare smiles. On hearing the limerick, written about

her, Miss Honey's pale and pleasant face blushed a brilliant scarlet.

And now Miss Honey's hopes began to expand even further. She started wondering whether permission might not be got from

the parents for her to give private tuition to Matilda after school. "There is no point," she said to the girl, "in you siting in class

doing nothing while I am teaching the rest of the form how to spell cat and rat and mouse." The prospect of coaching a child as

bright as this appealed enormously to her professional instinct as a teacher. Having got the address from the school records,

Miss Honey found a house in a pleasant street. She rang the bell, and while she stood waiting she could hear the television

blaring inside.

3. The door was opened by a small ratty-looking man, Matilda's father. "Please forgive me for butting in on you like this. I

am Matilda's teacher at school and it is important I have a word with you and your wife. I expect you know that your daughter

has a brilliant mind." "We are not in favour of blue-stocking girls. A girl should think about making herself look attractive. A

girl doesn't get a man by being brainy," the father said. Miss Honey could hardly believe what she was hearing. In vain did she

try to explain that with the proper coaching Matilda could be brought up to university status in two or three years. "Who wants

to go to university for heaven's sake! All they learn there is bad habits!" "But if you got sued for selling someone a rotten

second-hand car, you'd have to get a lawyer and he'd be a university graduate. Do not despise clever people, Mr. Wormwood,

said Miss Honey and away she went."

4. Lavender was in the row behind Matilda, feeling a bit guilty. She hadn't intended to get her friend into trouble.

"You are not fit to be in this school!" The Headmistress was now shouting. "You ought to be behind bars, that's where you

ought to be! I shall have you drummed out of this establishment in utter disgrace! I shall have the prefects chase you down the

corridor and out of the front-door with hockey-sticks! I shall have the staff escort you home after armed guard! And then I shall

make absolutely sure you are sent to a reformatory for delinquent girls for the minimum of forty years!"

But Matilda was also losing her school. She didn't in the least mind being accused of having done something she had

actually done. She could see the justice of that. It was, however, a totally new experience for her to be accused of a crime that