Mr Majeika and the Music Teacher

Miss Worlock’s orchestra practised every day. After Mr Majeika had lost his battle with her, nobody else tried to interfere. Mr Potter kept well away, hidden in his office, except when he came out to serve school dinner. No one else dared to tangle with her, and she was allowed to get on with the music whenever she wanted.

She never exactly became good tempered, but at least she stopped threatening to turn the children into toads if they didn’t play well enough. And in fact by now the orchestra was sounding pretty good. Everyone only had to go ‘um-pum-pum, um-pum-pum’ on their instruments while Hamish Bigmore played the tune of ‘The Elephant’ on his double bass (with Thomas and Pete doing all the hard work at the top end). But at first the ‘um-pum-pum’ had sounded pretty terrible, and now it was pretty good. As a result Miss Worlock was in a good mood most of the time, and anyone who had listened in to the orchestra practice would probably have thought that she was a perfectly ordinary music teacher.

CONCERT by the ST BARTY’S SCHOOL ORCHESTRA

conducted by WILHELMINA WORLOCK

Demonstration of the So-Spooky Method

Miss Worlock’s star pupil

HAMISH BIGMORE

will play ‘The Elephant’ on his double bass

All Parents Welcome

Thomas and Pete looked very gloomy as the concert approached. ‘I know she’ll turn us into toads if we don’t work the strings right on Hamish’s stupid double bass,’ groaned Thomas.

‘That’s right,’ said Pete. ‘The whole thing depends on us. If we do our job properly, he’ll play the right notes. But she won’t thank us. It’s her “star pupil” who’ll get the praise. And we know what that means.’

‘Yes, we know what that means,’ said Hamish Bigmore, coming up behind them. ‘It means she’s going to teach me all her secrets! So if she doesn’t turn you into toads during the concert, I will afterwards!’

On the evening of the concert, Jody found Mr Majeika walking up and down miserably outside the school hall. ‘Isn’t there anything you can do?’ she asked him sadly.

Mr Majeika shook his head. ‘Really, I’ve tried to think of every trick in the book, but there’s nothing that can stop her. It isn’t that

she’s a cleverer wizard than me. It’s just that she’s got such a nasty mind. She thinks of horrid things I’d never dream of. What can you do against someone like that?’

The hall was full of parents waiting for the concert to begin. They’d all been surprised at how hard their children had practised and they wanted to hear the results.

The orchestra took their seats and sat as quiet as mice. Then in came Miss Worlock, leading Hamish Bigmore. He was dressed in a smart suit and a bow tie, just like someone playing in a real orchestra. He was followed by his double bass. Or rather, he was followed by Thomas and Pete, carrying the double bass for him.

Miss Worlock smiled her horrible smile at the audience who clapped politely. ‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,’ she said. ‘Welcome to the first concert by the St Barty’s School orchestra, who will demonstrate the

success of my So-Spooky method of music teaching. May I introduce my star pupil, Hamish Bigmore, who will play “The Elephant” from “The Carnival of Animals”? Hamish has been my star pupil this term, and after the concert I shall reward him by teaching him a lot more! Tee-hee!’ She turned to the orchestra. ‘And if you don’t all play the right notes,’ she snarled at them, ‘you know what will happen to you. Toads, every one of you! And as for you two,’ she turned to Thomas and Pete, ‘worse than toads for you, if you don’t play the right notes. I’ll make you into insects. So watch it!’

She sat down at the piano, rapped her knuckles on the lid to call for complete silence, then played the first notes of ‘The Elephant’. The whole orchestra joined in with her.

‘Um-pum-pum, um-pum-pum,’ went the recorders, the violins, the clarinets and the trumpets. And then the double bass began to play: ‘Rum-tum-tum, tum-tiddle-iddle, rum-tum-tum…’

Hamish Bigmore sawed away with his bow. And, up at the top end, Thomas and Pete pressed their fingers on the strings so that he played the right notes.

Then Pete, out of the corner of his eye, noticed the door at the back of the hall opening, and Mr Majeika slipping quietly in. A moment later, Mr Majeika had vanished – he didn’t go out of the door again, but just disappeared, in an instant!

Hamish Bigmore, sawing away with his double bass bow, stopped playing for a moment, then went on again. Miss Worlock glared at him.

‘Rum-rum-tum, tum-tiddle-iddle…’ And again, Hamish stopped for a moment. This time he slapped the end of his nose. The fly flew off.

Miss Worlock glared at him again. He hastily began to play once more. ‘Rum-tum-tum –’ And a third time he stopped playing, now scratching his nose in fury.

The whole orchestra stopped. Miss Worlock was in a towering rage. ‘What’s going on?’ she screeched at Hamish. ‘Why aren’t you playing properly?’

‘A fly?’ Miss Worlock shouted. ‘Why should a fly stop you? Get on with it, boy, and if I have any more trouble you know what’ll happen to you.’

‘But – but I’m your star pupil,’ spluttered Hamish. ‘You can’t do anything nasty to me.’

‘Oh, can’t I?’ sneered Miss Worlock. ‘That’s what you think. Let me tell you, Hamish Bigmore, I’m not going to teach you any of my secrets after this, and if you don’t want to be turned into a you-know-what, you’d better not make any mistakes again. Now, back to the beginning everyone.’

She began to play the piano once more, and Hamish and the orchestra joined in. ‘Rum-tum-tum, tum-tiddle-iddle…’

This time, Hamish didn’t stop. But Thomas and Pete could see that he was still having trouble with the fly. He was puffing and blowing out of the corner of his mouth, in an

attempt to get it off the end of his nose. But it went on sitting there, walking up and down and tickling him as if it knew perfectly well the trouble it was causing.

The fly walking up and down, and Hamish puffing and panting as he sawed away with the double-bass bow, was all too much for Thomas and Pete. They began to laugh. And as a result, they started to play the wrong notes for Hamish. In a moment the double bass was making a terrible noise.

At this, the whole orchestra stopped playing and everyone began to laugh. Not just the children, but the parents too. The sight of Hamish still struggling with the fly while trying not to take his bow off the double bass was too much for everyone. ‘Rum-tum-tum’ went the huge instrument, but now all the notes were wrong and there was Hamish still sawing away and puffing as if he were trying to cut down a tree.

‘Do you know what,’ said Pete to Thomas, ‘I think the fly is really Mr Majeika! I think he turned himself into it to muck up the concert. Good old Mr Majeika!’

And at that instant, the fly vanished and Mr Majeika appeared again, standing in a corner hidden behind the double bass so that Miss Worlock couldn’t see him. ‘Ssh!’ he said to Thomas and Pete, holding his finger to his lips.

Meanwhile the laughter got louder and louder. ‘Enough!’ shrieked Miss Worlock in a fury. ‘Silence! I warned you all! Toads, I said, and I shall do it! I shall turn every one of you into toads.’ She turned to the parents. ‘And you too, you ungrateful lot, not appreciating Wilhelmina Worlock and her So-Spooky method. Toads, all of you.’ And she began to chant words which Thomas, Pete and Jody knew all too well were a spell.