Ballet Shoes for Anna by Noel Streatfeild

much better.”
    “Our hair is usually much better than now,” Gussie had told him. “It is the earthquake, it makes a terrible dust.”
    “Our mother was always washing and cutting our hair,” Francesco had added. “For Anna she tied it on top of her head with a ribbon so her neck was cool.”
    This was so vivid a picture that none of the children could bear to think of it.
    Sir William saw this.
    “I didn’t suppose your hair was always a mess. You must remember I was never in an earthquake. But yours does need washing and perhaps a bit of cutting. What length you wear it is your business, but you might have it trimmed.”
    But that was a week ago and Gussie’s hair, though clean, was on end again. Francesco slicked it down with a wet comb which was unbecoming but effective.
    “Now we all wash,” he said. “Then we watch over the stairs and the moment The Aunt comes out of the kitchen with the food we walk down the stairs.”
    Cecil looked at the children to find something about them on which he could rub off his anger. But there was nothing. They were not a credit to him because, having lived so long in hot countries, they were pale compared with ordinary English children, and they had dark circles under their eyes as a result of all they had suffered. Then he noticed Gussie’s hair. The wet comb had not only made the hair lie down neatly but also had made it look longer. If there was one thing Cecil hated it was boys with long hair.
    “You need your hair cut, Augustus,” he said. “You can have it done this afternoon.”
    Gussie clean forgot what had been decided in the bedroom.
    “Cut! Cut! Cut!” he said. “Everybody speaks about cutting. It was cut last week in Istanbul.”
    Mabel was putting helpings of fish pie on the plates. This meant her back was to the table, but even from that position she could feel a diversion was necessary if Cecil was not to get angry.
    “Don’t worry, dear,” she said to Cecil. “I’ll see Gussie goes to the barber’s.” Then, to keep Gussie quiet, she added: “Would you two boys come and hand round the plates?”
    Francesco could see Gussie was longing to go on arguing, so as he gave his uncle his plate of fish pie he asked:
    “How much in England is it to have the hair cut?”
    “Too much by a long chalk,” said Cecil. “Probably twenty-five pence. Everything costs too much these days.”
    That silenced Gussie. Twenty-five pence would be morethan those ten pences. If only The Aunt did not come with them surely they could find a way to keep the money.
    It was lucky the children had had a busy morning for it had made them hungry, so somehow they forced down the fish pie which they all – used to highly seasoned food – thought disgusting. The fish pie was followed by what Mabel called a summer pudding. It was made of bread and blackcurrants and though, as the children agreed later, not nice it was good for taking away the taste of the fish pie. At the end of the meal Cecil put his hand in his pocket and took out some change and passed it over to Francesco.
    “There’s twenty-five but you may get it done for twenty. If you do, bring me the change. And see Augustus’s hair is cut really short, he looks like a girl as he is, and anyway I’m not made of money, this cut had got to last a long time.”
    Fortunately Mabel had no intention of going with the children to the hairdresser. She told them where the barber’s shop was, then she turned her worried mouselike face to Francesco.
    “I trust you, dear, to see it really is cut short. You don’t want unpleasantness, do you?”
    Gussie only waited to get the other two alone before he burst out:
    “I do want unpleasantness. I won’t have my hair cut. Christopher liked it, Olga liked it and so I think did Jardek and Babka – at least, they never said they didn’t. If anyone tries to cut my hair I’ll run away.”
    Francesco and Anna knew that when Gussie got cross hecould talk louder and louder until he