The Leader of the Lower School

akes he

e more than a trifle dull. She had an adventurous temperament, and her roving life had given her a taste for constant change and variety, so the prim regime o

tress used to notice when we got restless, and take us for a day's camp into the bush. The day girls would bring horses for us boarders to use (everybody rides out there), and off we'd go, each

d Dilys, who generally stood u

ipsy. "I like hockey, but it

stress ride too?

d have sat a kangaroo, I should think! She was

controlling a fiery st

ee you on horseback

my dear, if you'd provide the gee-gee. I c

s horse here," remark

eadow beyond the hock

forgotten the colt!" ex

him bareback. Even your wonderful cleverness can't

urned Gipsy. "It's nearly

see you cat

alter. Do you dare me to do it? How man

e boxful if you ride

e practice this afternoon. I haven'

t's too dangerous!" bes

y-it's all brag!

riman? Just wait till this aft

box of chocolates, tho

ead abroad in the Lower School, so the Juniors had assembled ten minutes in advance of their ordinary time on the chance of witnessing what Hetty called "the circus-riding". Th

" said Mary Parsons. "You'd better n

said Alice O'Connor. "Well, Gipsy? Going to tu

rate. If I'm not galloping round the field in ten minutes, you may count me done. Hetty, you kee

ver, by the boys at the farm to which it belonged (a fact of which Gipsy was well aware when she accepted Gladys's challenge), and had a marked partiality for such dainties as bread, sugar, and carrots. Though Gipsy was a stranger, it evidently considered she was familiar with horse language, a

und and scramble flung herself across its back. It was so quickly and neatly done that the bystanders held their breath with admiration. Gipsy's horsemanship was evidently no idle boast, if she could perform so difficult a feat of gymnastics with such comparative ease. Meantime the colt, astonished and enraged at finding

asped wildly. "Oh, for pity

en she herself afterwards confessed was almost a miracle, but she kept her seat somehow. Up and down the field fled her steed in furious career, till, tired of galloping, it changed its tactics and stood still and kicked, when Gipsy seized the opportunity of sliding to the ground. She just escaped its hoofs as, re

as a cowboy!" e

rider!" added

done,

ra

lar enthusiasm, and received her adventurous pu

and once for all that I forbid such mad proceedings. If you have hurt your leg you had better go indoors. The soon

en an agitated spectator from the linen-room window, bathed the wounded leg, put

on said it was wrong, it was wrong. My sister is always right. Please remember that. Why, child, you're all trembling! I'll make you a cup of Bovril, and you must lie down on your bed for an hour. An

! Yes, the bruises feel better now, and the Bovril would be delicious. And you're a darling! Let me giv

e Juniors regarded her as an even greater heroine than before. Gladys Merriman redeemed her promise, and brought the box

according to Miss Poppleton, it was scarcely a lady-like accomplishment,

inds the hero, bound with cords, lying in the brushwood, and then rides off post-haste to infor

t have taken some gorgeous records this afternoon for

You should have brought yo

ought you'd

to do any special thing, I gue

kee!" roared

Doodle", as she was nicknamed, was felt decidedly to relieve the monotony of the ordinary Briarcroft atmosphere. Not that Gipsy really ever meant to behave badly; but, accustomed as she was to the free-and-easy conduct of her up-country Colonial schools, she found it almost impossible to realize that what would have been tolerated there with

sarcastically one day. "Can't even walk decently in line, and pr

Juniors much to heart, and could not

I was trying to dodge Miss White, and dash upstairs to get my Hamlet. I've forgotten the wretched thing, and if I go to c

ht too, for forgetting! No, I shall not allow you to go and fe

nd in consequence were drawn up like a small regiment in the corridor to wait until a previous class was over and they could enter the lecture hall. Waiting is often dull work

esson without my Hamlet," she remons

napped Doreen. "Be quiet, Gipsy Latimer; if

slipped out into the playground. On the opposite side of the quadrangle stood the open window of her classroom, ten feet or so above the ground. The wall of that part of the house was thickly covered with ivy, and in less time than it takes to tell it she was scrambling up with as mu

Look at Ya

the runaway. Her outraged face, upturned from below, greeted Gipsy as that

back down the stair

She came down the ivy quite easily, picked up her Hamlet, smoothed its cover, which had suffered in the fall, and flitted back to her p

e said. "You'll report yourself to-morrow at the monitresses' meeting a

et, anyhow," chuckled naughty Gipsy, a

e in defying Doreen. Perhaps she thought, on maturer consideration, that she had gone a trifle too far, for she tu

elen Roper with dignity. "Do you realize that monitresses are officers in thi

from her pocket, and, unfolding

in her voice that might have been either laughter

hat a twinkle in the dark eyes? But no;

. "Every girl at Briarcroft knows that, and anyone who deliberatel

drooping; her face had assumed a

en brought up! If I'd been at Briarcroft all the time, instead of other schoo

And you'll please to remember that now you're

be taught better," murmured the subdued voice that w

was possessed of a strong sense of humour,

once, but if it happens again, I warn you that I shall send you straight to Miss Po

ke two wells absolutely overflow

than I deserve!" she sighed, and, flaunting

ey could have seen the war dance she executed

or two friends who were waiting for her. "Oh, you should have

r Helen didn't see you w

ing me the path I ought to walk in. How would

you want the monitresses to come out and catch you? You'll

ise. I'm one of the otherwise! It's my misfortune, not my fault

incident, though shrouded in mystery, was generally laid by Miss Poppleton as a sin to her charge. In the upper corridor, not very far from Gipsy's dormitory, hung a long chain which sounded a fire bell. The boarders at Briarcroft were instructed

f our bedroom window," she exclaimed. "It

on the puddles this morning," said Dilys. "No fire-drill

of adventure in yo

instead, and that's what you

the school to give it a chance to see whether it's prepared for emergencies. Gipsy Latimer, I guess you'll have to be th

h the quiet house. Everybody woke in a hurry, and the head of each dormitory at once switched on the electric light and assumed command. The well-trained girls dipped their towels in water and put them over their mouths, threw the red blankets from their beds round their shoulders, and lined up along the corridor. Miss Lindsay was already there, and gave the command to march, and away trooped the boarders downstairs and out of the front door on to the lawn, where they ranged t

been disturbed for nothing on a chilly night in November. The Principal made every enquiry next day as to the source of the alarm, but she could discover nothing. Dilys Fenton was able to assure her that when she had switched on the light in No. 3 Dormitory Gipsy Latime

y didn't use the chute after a

er-you couldn't

solute mirrors of innocence that even