(9/13)The School at Thrush Green (28 page)

Amazingly, it worked, and Agnes secured the cat in the basket just as the removal men were about to move off.

The two ladies were to follow in the car, and to meet the van at Barton at two-thirty. The time now had come to say goodbye to Isobel and Harold who had been helping them.

But not only Isobel and Harold, it seemed, for although the children of Thrush Green school were supposed to be at school dinner, they were instead all at the railings of the playground, with the three staff standing behind them, smiling and waving.

'What a wonderful send-off!' said Agnes, as they drove off towards Lulling. 'What a nice idea of the headmaster's!'

'Yes, a kindly thought,' agreed Dorothy, negotiating the traffic in Lulling High Street. 'I think the school should do
quite well
under him.'

Greatly content, the two friends drove southward to their future.