21 Amanda Makes Plans
Again the news flew round the school like wildfire! “Amanda went swimming out to sea and got caught in the current! June went down to bathe in the pool and saw her. She got the little boat and rescued her—but Amanda’s badly hurt.”
“Fancy June rescuing her bitter enemy!” said the lower-formers. “Good old June! She’s collapsed¹, Matron says. They are both in the san.”
June soon recovered. She had been completely exhausted², and that and the panic she had felt had knocked her out for a few hours. Then she suddenly sat up and announced that she felt quite all right, could she get up, please?
“Not yet,” said Matron. “Lie down. I don’t want to speak severely³ to such a brilliant life-saver, but I might, if you don’t do what you’re told! You certainly saved Amanda’s life.”
“How is Amanda?” asked June, shivering as she remembered Amanda’s terrible leg and arm—bruised and swollen⁴ and cut.
“She’s not too good,” said Matron. “Her arm isn’t so bad—but the muscles of the leg have been terribly torn. On a rock, I suppose.”
June lay silent. “Matron—will it—will this mean Amanda can’t swim or play games any more this term?”
“It may mean more than that,” said Matron. “It may mean the end of all swimming and games for her—unless those muscles do their job and heal up marvellously.”
“But—Amanda was going in for the Olympic Games next year,” said June. “She was good enough, too, Matron.”
“I know all that,” said Matron. “It’s a bad thing this, June. When a person has been given strength and health and a wonderful gift for games, and throws it all away for an hour’s forbidden pleasure, it’s a tragedy. What that poor girl is thinking of, lying there, I don’t like to imagine.”
June didn’t like to imagine it, either. How terrible for Amanda! And to think she had brought it on herself too—that must be even more terrible.
“Can I go and see Amanda?” she asked Matron, suddenly.
“Not today,” said Matron. “And let me tell you this, June—I know about your clash with Amanda, and I don’t care who’s right or who’s wrong. That girl will want a bit of help and sympathy, so don’t you go and see her if you can’t be generous enough to give her a bit. You saved her life—that’s a great thing. Now you can do a little thing, and make it up with her.”

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