The Girls of St. Cyr

"We get up at six, which seems to me too early in winter," complained a little French girl writing to her father from school three hundred years ago. This is the story of the fine life she led in the big school of St. Cyr near Versailles. Janine and her friends struggle with their spelling and enjoy flying kites or playing tag in the gardens in the summer, while in winter they sing or act little plays written for them by their beloved 'Madame' - Mme de Maintenon, wife of Louis XIV of France, the founder of the school. As one of the young Reds (so-called from the colour of their ribbons), Janine makes friends and enemies, gets into trouble and enjoys the treats they have on feast days. Sometimes life at school is overshadowed by illness or echoes from the battlefield, for all the girls' fathers are fighting for their King, whose visits to the school are cause for special rejoicing. Finally Janine is given her greatest ambition and is given a part in a play to be performed before the King himself in his palace of Versailles.