6 - The Silver Chair.docVIP

THE SILVER CHAIR by C.S. Lewis First published 1953 CHAPTER ONE BEHIND THE GYM IT was a dull autumn day and Jill Pole was crying behind the gym. She was crying because they had been bullying her. This is not going to be a school story, so I shall say as little as possible about Jills school, which is not a pleasant subject. It was Co-educational, a school for both boys and girls, what used to be called a mixed school; some said it was not nearly so mixed as the minds of the people who ran it. These people had the idea that boys and girls should be allowed to do what they liked. And unfortunately what ten or fifteen of the biggest boys and girls liked best was bullying the others. All sorts of things, horrid things, went on which at an ordinary school would have been found out and stopped in half a term; but at this school they werent. Or even if they were, the people who did them were not expelled or punished. The Head said they were interesting psychological cases and sent for them and talked to them for hours. And if you knew the right sort of things to say to the Head, the main result was that you became rather a favourite than otherwise. That was why Jill Pole was crying on that dull autumn day on the damp little path which runs between the back of the gym and the shrubbery. And she hadnt nearly finished her cry when a boy came round the corner of the gym whistling, with his hands in his pockets. He nearly ran into her. Cant you look where youre going? said Jill Pole. All right, said the boy, you neednt start - and then he noticed her face. I say, Pole, he said, whats up? Jill only made faces; the sort you make when youre trying to say something but find that if you speak youll start crying again. Its Them, I suppose - as usual, said the boy grimly, digging his hands farther into his pockets. Jill nodded. There was no need for her to say anything, even if she could have said it. They both knew. Now, look here, said the boy, theres no good us all - He meant well