"I don't see why not. We don't use our old exercise-books, do we?"
"I know, but..."
"Take this old geography exercise-book, for example. I finished it this afternoon, and I'll begin a new exercise-book next lesson. So why can't I use this exercise-book for a paper 1 chain? We throw away a lot of old exercise-books at the end of every term."
When Jennings and Darbishire explained their plan most of the boys of Linbury Boarding School liked it very much. After a long conversation the boys decided to decorate with I paper chains not only the common room, but the corridors, too. They also organized a corn petition to see which dormitory could make more paper chains. Then the boys went to Mr Carter and asked for his permission.
"All right," said Mr Carter. "But here are two things that I want to warn you about. First. You must use only waste paper for your chains. Second. You mustn't begin to hang up your decorations till the day of the party."
The boys agreed, and the next day nearly all the boys were busy making paper chains:
they cut paper into strips, coloured them and gummed the ends together.
Soon they had used all the waste paper that they could find and had to look for some more. They used newspapers, magazines and letters from home.
All the free time that was left from decorations the boys spent on drawing Christmas cards.
Atkinson was drawing a Christmas card for his favourite uncle when Jennings came into Form Three classroom before Mr Wilkins' geography lesson on Friday afternoon. He looked at Atkinson's card.
"What a funny pillar-box you are drawing!" said Jennings.
"It isn't a pillar-box," said Atkinson. "What you call a pillar-box is Father Christmas. See? You don't know anything about art, Jennings."
"Well, I bet I could draw a better man," said Jennings.
"I bet you couldn't!" said Atkinson. "Do your best drawing of a man and we'll ask somebody to say if it's better than my Father Christmas."
Jennings opened his desk and began to look for pencil and paper.
"All right," he agreed. "Wait till I find something to draw on, and I'll show you."
He could not find anything but some brown paper which he wanted to use for the decorations. So he got a pile of exercise-books out of the desk, took one and opened it at a clean page.
"Hey, you can't draw in this, Jen,- not in your geography exercise-book," Atkinson warned him.
"I can rub it out," said Jennings and began to draw the head and shoulders of a middle-aged man. The drawing was very poor: the ears were too large, the eyes were like marbles, the neck was too short.
But when Darbishire saw the drawing he was sure that he knew that man. "I say, Jen, that is a good picture. I've recognized him at once."
Jennings looked up in surprise. It was only a drawing of a man's head. "Recognized whom?" he asked.
"Well, I know who you meant," said Darbishire and began to laugh. He called the boys who were coming into the classroom for afternoon school. "Hey, Venables! Temple! Come here and look at old Jen's drawing. It's wonderful." The boys gathered round Jennings' desk.
"Do you recognize the man?" asked Darbishire.
Like Jennings, Temple and Venables could not recognize the man in the picture.
"Is it a snowman?" asked Temple.
"No, try again," said Darbishire. He was surprised that nobody could recognize the man.
Temple looked at the picture again. No, I he could not recognize the man. It was just a man. That's all. "Old Wilkie," he said for fun.
"Of course!" exclaimed Darbishire. "Who else? Of course it's Old Wilkie!"
There was certainly no resemblance between Jennings' picture and Mr Wilkins. But the boys were only too ready to recognize him in the drawing. Temple was happy with his guess. Venables did not want to say anything against Jennings' drawing because Jennings was expecting a parcel of food from his Aunt Angela. Atkinson did not like Mr Wilkins and was only too happy to see a caricature of him.
"Yes, so it is. I can see it now," said Venables and laughed loudly to show that he liked the picture.
"I can't understand why I couldn't see it before," said Atkinson. "It's a masterpiece, if you ask me."
Jennings was happy.
"Well, it isn't a masterpiece," he said modestly. "But I think it's not a bad picture of Old Wilkie."
Now he decided to make the picture funnier. He drew a balloon coming out of the man's mouth and in it he wrote the words, I-I-I... You, silly little boy!
When the bell for the afternoon school rang the other boys of Form Three came into the classroom. At once Darbishire showed them the masterpiece.
"Come and look at it," he said to Jones and Crosby. "Do you know who it is?"
Jones looked at the exercise-book and smiled. The drawing meant nothing to him, but when he read the words he said, "Yes, of course. It's Old Wilkie."
"You see," cried Darbishire. "If Jones recognizes it, everybody will."
Jennings was happy. Now he himself was Sure that it was Old Wilkie's picture, and he wrote under the drawing L. P. Wilkins.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The geography test
When Jennings finished writing the last letter under his drawing Mr Wilkins himself arrived to begin the lesson. Quickly Jennings turned over the page. Mr Wilkins must never see the caricature.
The boys began the geography test and worked on it during nearly all the lesson. Jennings was ready for the test and soon he found that he could answer most of the questions well enough. So he finished the tests ten minutes before the end of the lesson.
That was very good because it meant that he had some time to think what to do with his masterpiece. If Mr Wilkins mustn't see his portrait he must rub it out before Mr Wilkins stood up to take in the boys' exercise-books at the end of the lesson.
At the same time Jennings did not want to rub out the drawing. He wanted to show it to some other boys of Linbury Boarding School who, he was sure, would like it too.
"I'm sorry I've chosen my geography exercise-book to draw Old Wilkie's portrait," thought Jennings. "But how did I know that I could draw a masterpiece? Maybe I'll cut the page out."
He looked at the teacher's desk. Mr Wilkins was reading something. Now was the time!
Jennings opened his desk and put the exercise-book into it. "If Old Wilkie looks at me, he will think that I'm taking my books and exercise-books for the next lesson," Jennings thought. From a box in his desk he took his penknife and opened it.
"Jennings!" Mr Wilkins' voice rang so suddenly that the boy jumped. "What are you doing inside that desk?" Jennings quickly shut'' the exercise-book. "I-I wasn't really doing anything, sir."
"Don't talk to me over the top of a desk!"
Jennings closed the desk.
"What's that penknife doing in your hand?"
"This penknife, sir? Well, you see, I've, finished the test, and now 1 have nothing to do, and I am... cutting a piece of paper, sir!"
"Cutting a piece of paper! Again these Christmas decorations! It's bad enough that you boys spend all your free time on this nonsense, and I'm certainly not going to let you do it in class, whether you've finished your work or not."
"No, sir."
"Bring that penknife to me. I shall confiscate it."
Very slowly Jennings went to the teacher's desk and put the penknife on it.
"Will you give it back to me at the end of the term?" he asked.
"I haven't decided it yet," was the answer.
"But sir..."
"Don't argue with me. Be quiet; the other boys are still working," Mr Wilkins said. "If you've finished the test you can leave the room and stay in the corridor till the end of the lesson."
"It was bad luck about the penknife," Jennings said to himself in the corridor. "I may get it back before the holidays or may not. You never know with Mr Wilkins. The only thing I can do is to be decent to him for a week and then ask him to give me back the penknife."
Jennings was not worried about the drawing, because when the lesson was over he could go back into the classroom and... The bell rang and a moment later Mr Wilkins came out of the classroom with a pile of exercise-books under his arm.