Two Joans at the Abbey

Jansy Raymond went dancing into her mother’s room. “I’ll be a surprise for little Joan, won’t I, Mother?”Joan looked up from the cradle. “Jansy, you almost woke him. You must remember there’s a baby in the house again.”“I’m most frightfully sorry.” Jansy tiptoed to the cradle to peep at her new brother. “I’ll try to be careful. Isn’t he a funny little thing? Not a scrap like the rest of us.”Joan smiled as she tucked in the bedclothes. “He’s his father’s boy. The rest of you are all like me.”Jansy, leaning against her shoulder, shook back dark red curls, which matched the long plaits wound round her mother’s head. Her small brother, John, and her smaller sister, Jennifer, had the red curls too; the new baby was yellow-haired and blue-eyed, while the eyes of all the rest were brown.