Althea Joins the Chalet School Quiz

Answer: She is getting married and moving to Australia.

Althea accidentally overhears her father and aunt talking about what to do with her, and her father explains that as her mother has been ill, her doctor has told her to go on a long sea voyage. This means Major and Mrs Glenyon will be leaving Althea with her aunt.

However, Aunt Joan refuses to take Althea as she is due to be married to a doctor who has a job in Australia, and will soon be moving over there. The wedding had previously been postponed due to Mrs Glenyon's illness, and Aunt Joan didn't want to put it off again. Althea's parents are hesitant to send her to boarding school because she gets ill easily but Aunt Joan's fiancé, Dr Kennedy, happens to be the cousin of Clare Kennedy, a former Chalet School pupil, and he explains about the school's connection with the Sanatorium in the Alps.

As it turns out, Althea has heard of the Chalet School from meeting Jack and Anne Lambert on holiday, and is also a fan of Josephine M Bettany's books.

Answer: Len

Len has spent the week with Simone de Bersac in France and meets Althea and her governess at the station in Paris, before accompanying her on the train to Switzerland. Althea is due to stay with the Maynard family at Freudesheim a few days, as her parents and aunt are going abroad before term starts. Joey is reluctant to take Althea on as she is recovering from the stress of Phil's illness, but Miss Annersley talks her into accepting. Jack and Con Maynard meet Len and Althea at Basle, and Althea meets the younger Maynard children and Erica Standish, Joey's new ward.

She is placed in Upper IVa with Val Pertwee as her sheepdog.

Answer: Petrushka

Lucy Peters is a huge fan of ballet, as is her friend, Felicity Maynard. Like Felicity's big sister Con, she has a sleepwalking incident after having a nightmare about the Moor puppet from 'Petrushka', dreaming that he is chasing her around with a scimitar and trying to cut her toes off! Althea is woken by her sleepwalking and goes downstairs to investigate, and gets a nasty fright when Lucy falls down some stairs and screams. Althea also screams, waking Matron and several girls and staff. Matron takes Lucy back to bed while Len comforts Althea, who is crying with the shock. Everyone is back in bed by 2am and Miss Annersley allows for an extra hour of sleep, asking Karen the cook to make breakfast an hour later and cancelling music practice, much to Miss Lawrence's annoyance.

Answer: She forgot to explain to Althea about the languages rule.

The day after the sleepwalking incident is a Monday, which is German day, and Althea struggles with the language barrier as she doesn't know any German. Flavia Ansell, the dormitory prefect, hears Althea speaking English and Althea has to explain that she can't understand anything, so Flavia tells her what to say and explains how the language system works, and how new girls are helped if they can't understand the language of the day. Flavia finds out that Val is Althea's sheepdog and that she didn't explain to Althea about the language policy, and tells her off.

She also reports her to Len, who also tells Val off, and Miss Dene puts Samaris in charge of Althea instead. Val resents Althea because of this and it leads to a feud between them.

Answer: Two boys steal a motorboat and it goes out of control.

Althea is a strong swimmer and also has boating experience, as her brothers have taught her. Althea, Flavia Samaris and Val go out on the lake in a rowing boat with Miss Ferrars supervising, and the girls take turns at rowing. On the way back, they almost crash into a runaway motorboat piloted by two young boys who are staying locally. Miss Ferrars jumps into the motorboat and takes the wheel, but has trouble keeping it under control. Luckily, a guard boat catches her up and one of the guards manages to slow the motorboat down. Miss Ferrars goes to the hotel where the boys are staying and finds out that their father had hired the motorboat.

They sneaked out while their nanny was resting, and one of the boys had been fiddling around with the switches, and he and his brother accidentally started the motorboat.

The boys' father cuts their holiday short as punishment, as well as making them pay for repairs.

Answer: Val's notes get torn and covered in ink, and she blames Althea.

Val gets in trouble for swearing at Marguerite Fonce and Celia Morton, as she is jealous that Len asked Samaris and Althea, and not her, to help her deliver some packages to Freudesheim. She also gets angry with Althea when Althea accidentally trips over Val's workbox and upsets it.

In history class, Miss Charlesworth is angry with Althea for being late - although it was another teacher who delayed her - and tells her to copy Val's notes in prep as Val has neat handwriting. Althea leaves the copying until last and asks Len if she can stay on after prep to copy the notes. Val is packing her things away and grabs at her notes, but Althea holds on and when Val tries to pull her notebook away, the paper is scattered all over the floor.

She and Althea pick it up, but Val loses her temper and pushes Althea into a desk, knocking ink over and spilling it. Len reports both girls to Miss Annersley, who sees them both together and separately, and Val confesses her dislike of Althea.

Answer: Sophy Hamel

The prefects have decided on a seasonal theme for the Sale and although they are planning on using crepe paper to make some of the costumes, it is still not enough (and crepe paper is easily torn and damaged). The school also needs costumes for the Christmas play the following term. Luckily, Sophy Hamel - whose father owns a department store in Innsbruck - is able to help, as her father is having a clearout and gives her loads of spare material. Sophy catches up with her old friends, while Miss Annersley enlists Len, Samaris, Val and Althea to help sort through the material.

She also asks Old Girls living locally, as well as Phoebe Peters, to help with the sewing. Len finds a large roll of material that she thinks will provide a lot of costumes, but the colour is ugly, so Frau Mieders has Va dye it as part of their domestic science class.

Answer: Oil paint

The prefects decide to go into the woods to paint and draw some views for the Sale, with Miss Annersley's permission. On the way back, Nina Konstam's alpenstock breaks and she trips and crashes into Len, knocking her over and pushing her into her painting, while Audrey Everett falls on top of them. Len has been using oil paint and is covered in it when Reg Entwhistle, a young doctor at the Sanatorium (who readers of 'Jo to the Rescue' might remember), is passing by, much to Len's embarrassment. Reg gives Len a lift back to the school while the others walk back, intending to stop any gossip about Len's appearance getting out, but Althea and Val see her while on the way to change their dresses.

A rumour spreads around the school that the prefects had had a paint fight. Con hears it, much to her annoyance, and after asking around, traces the rumour back to Althea and Val and puts them straight.

Answer: A pink worm

On the way to Zug, as the coach is leaving Lucerne, the driver cuts through a small village to avoid a traffic jam and meets a lorry loaded with hay coming the other way. The hay bales come loose and land on the coach, and the girls are unable to get out until other drivers clear the hay away. Miss Wilmot kindly allows the girls to have a nap to recover from the difficult journey.

The next day, Miss Wilmot informs the girls that the coach is out of commission, meaning a change of plan; a large pink worm, along with some hay, had somehow gotten into the engine of the coach.

The girls spend the morning on the lake, before travelling to the Höllgrotten caves in the afternoon.

Answer: Miss Ferrars is chased by a bear.

That escalated quickly! Firstly, when the party get off the lake steamer, Brigit sees a mound and sits on it - but it turns out to be an anthill, and she is swarmed and bitten by the ants and has to jump in the lake to get rid of them, while Len washes her clothes to get the ants out and gives her a plastic raincoat.

She and Margot also get Brigit lotion and a change of clothes. Next, the party go down into the Höllgrotten, and Val trips over a stalagmite and bangs her head. Finally, Althea is woken up in the early hours of the morning by a noise and sees a man rifling through the girls' drawers.

She and five other girls wake each other up in turn, and they pin the man to the ground while calling for help. The owner of the pension calls the police and Miss Annersley tells the girls in the dormitory on their return that they will be summoned to court in Zürich to give a statement. Althea also loses her hat at the zoo and it is destroyed by a female bear. Luckily, nobody is chased by bears!