generally blind.

The sixth member was a person who, where Social Work was concerned, did
more or less as she was told, without doing it particularly well. The
result, very properly, was that all the work which a committee
euphemistically calls "organising work" was left to her. Organising work
consists of sitting in 'buses bound for remote quarters of London, and
ringing the bells of people who are almost always found to be away for a
fortnight. The sixth member had been ordered to organise the return of
the broomstick to its owner.

Perhaps it would be more practical to call the sixth member Sarah Brown.

The bereaved owner of the broomstick was washing her hair at Number 100
Beautiful Way, Mitten Island. She was washing it behind the counter of
her shop. She was the manageress of the only shop on Mitten Island. It
was a general shop, but made a speciality of such goods as Happiness and
Magic. Unfortunately Happiness is rather difficult to get in war-time.
Sometimes there was quite a queue outside the shop when it opened, and
sometimes there was a card outside, saying politely: "Sorry, it's no use
waiting. I haven't any." Of course the shop also sold Sunlight Soap, and
it was with Sunlight Soap that the shop-lady was washing her hair,
because it was Sunday, and this was a comparatively cheap amusement. She
had no money. She had meant to go down to the offices of her employer
after breakfast, to borrow some of the salary that would be due to her
next week. But then she found that she had left her broomstick
somewhere. As a rule Harold--for that was the broomstick's name--was
fairly independent, and could find his way home alone, but when he got
mislaid and left in strange hands, and particularly when kindly finders
took him to Scotland Yard, he often lost his head. You, in your