The Famous Five Collection 1: Books 1-3 (Famous Five, #1-3)

by Enid Blyton

IT WAS the last week of the Christmas term, and all the girls at Gaylands School were looking forward to the Christmas holidays. Anne sat down at the breakfast-table and picked up a letter addressed to her. ‘Hallo, look at this!’ she said to her cousin Georgina, who was sitting beside her. ‘A letter from Daddy – and I only had one from him and Mummy yesterday.’ ‘I hope it’s not bad news,’ said George. She would not allow anyone to call her Georgina, and now even the mistresses called her George. She really was very like a boy with her short curly hair, and her boyish ways. She looked anxiously at Anne as her cousin read the letter. ‘Oh, George – we can’t go home for the holidays!’ said Anne, with tears in her eyes. ‘Mummy’s got scarlet fever – and Daddy is in quarantine for it – so they can’t have us back. Isn’t it just too bad?’ ‘Oh, I am sorry,’ said George. She was just as disappointed for herself as for Anne, because Anne’s mother had invited George, and her dog Timothy, to stay for the Christmas holidays with them. She had been promised many things she had never seen before – the pantomime, and the circus – and a big party with a fine Christmas tree! Now it wouldn’t happen. ‘Whatever will the two boys say?’ said Anne, thinking of Julian and Dick, her two brothers. ‘They won’t be able to go home either.’