Matilda

'Don't argue with me, for heaven's sake, woman! This little brute Matilda or whatever her name is has stink-bombed my study! There's no doubt about it! Thank you for suggesting it.'

'But I didn't suggest it, Headmistress.'

'Of course you did! Now what is it you want, Miss Honey? Why are you wasting my time?'

'I came to you to talk about Matilda, Headmistress. I have extraordinary things to report about the child. May I please tell you what happened in class just now?'

'I suppose she set fire to your skirt and scorched your knickers!' Miss Irunchbull snorted.

'No, no!' Miss Honey cried out. 'Matilda is a genius.'

At the mention of this word, Miss Trunchbull's face turned purple and her whole body seemed to swell up like a bullfrog's. 'A genius!' she shouted. 'What piffle is this you are talking, madam? You must be out of your mind! I have her father's word for it that the child is a gangster!'

'Her father is wrong, Headmistress.'

'Don't be a twerp, Miss Honey! You have met the little beast for only half an hour and her father has known her all her life!'

But Miss Honey was determined to have her say and she now began to describe some of the amazing things Matilda had done with arithmetic.

'So she's learnt a few tables by heart, has she?' Miss Trunchbull barked. 'My dear woman, that doesn't make her a genius! It makes her a parrot!'

'But Headmistress, she can read.'

'So can I,' Miss Trunchbull snapped.

'It is my opinion,' Miss Honey said, 'that Matilda should be taken out of my form and placed immediately in the top form with the eleven-year-olds.'

'Ha!' snorted Miss Trunchbull. 'So you want to get rid of her, do you? So you can't handle her? So now you want to unload her on to the wretched Miss Plimsoll in the top form where she will cause even more chaos?'

'No, no!' cried Miss Honey. 'That is not my reason at all!'

'Oh, yes it is!' shouted Miss Trunchbull. 'I can see right through your little plot, madam! And my answer is no! Matilda stays where she is and it is up to you to see that she behaves herself.'

'But Headmistress, please ...'

'Not another word!' shou

ted Miss Trunchbull. 'And in any case, I have a rule in this school that all children remain in their own age groups regardless of ability. Great Scott, I'm not having a little five-year-old brigand sitting with the senior girls and boys in the top form. Whoever heard of such a thing!'

Miss Honey stood there helpless before this great red-necked giant. There was a lot more she would like to have said but she knew it was useless. She said softly, 'Very well, then. It's up to you, Headmistress.'

'You're darn right it's up to me!' Miss Trunchbull bellowed. 'And don't forget, madam, that we are dealing here with a little viper who put a stink-bomb under my desk ...'

'She did not do that, Headmistress!'

'Of course she did it,' Miss Trunchbull boomed. 'And I'll tell you what. I wish to heavens I was still allowed to use the birch and belt as I did in the good old days! I'd have roasted Matilda's bottom for her so she couldn't sit down for a month!'

Miss Honey turned and walked out of the study feeling depressed but by no means defeated. I am going to do something about this child, she told herself. I don't know what it will be, but I shall find a way to help her in the end.

The Parents

When Miss Honey emerged from the Headmistress's study, most of the children were outside in the playground. Her first move was to go round to the various teachers who taught the senior class and borrow from them a number of text-books, books on algebra, geometry, French, English Literature and the like. Then she sought out Matilda and called her into the classroom.

'There is no point,' she said, 'in you sitting in class doing nothing while I am teaching the rest of the form the two-times table and how to spell cat and rat and mouse. So during each lesson I shall give you one of these text-books to study. At the end of the lesson you can come up to me with your questions if you have any and I shall try to help you. How does that sound?'

'Thank you, Miss Honey,' Matilda said. 'That sounds fine.'

'I am sure,' Miss Honey said, 'that we'll be able to get you moved into a much higher form later on, but for the moment the Headmistress wishes you to stay where you are.'