The Luckiest Girl in the School

ance Ex

erected two years ago, so everything about it was absolutely new and up-to-date. It supplied a great need in th

ion in business details. Art, music, and nature study were well catered for, and manual training was not forgotten. As the school was intended to become in time a center for the county, the

r sangfroid. Some looked dejected, some confident, and others hid their feelings under a mask of stolidity. Winona joined them shyly. They were all unknown to one another, and so far nobody had plucked up courage t

t was a trite commonplace, but it broke the ice. Ever

rl in spectacles, "but there are only two scholarships, so nineteen of u

'd put us out of our misery at once!" groa

set!" shive

ed a fourth. "We're all scrambling for the sa

red girl laug

o take our sporting

o win at any rate," said Winona. "That's logi

'Miserere me' too soon!" chirped a jolly-looking dark-eyed girl wit

her neck. "I never am lucky, so I thought I'd try what this would do for me for once. I know English history beaut

hy book, in which she was making a last desperate clutch at likely items of knowledge. "I

hair-ribbon. "It's this waiting that knocks the spirit out of me. Patience is

e manner she marshaled the candidates into line, and conducted them to the door of the head-mistress' study, wh

can, please!" commanded the

, then focussed her attention on the figure that sat at the desk. It was only at a later date that she grasped any details of Miss Bis

r na

a Wood

ge

fte

iden

hbourne, near

lived in the coun

nce I wa

these replies on a page of her

your name at the head of your papers, you are to write the number given you on

nona seemed hardly to have entered

he little crowd round the door. "Will those who h

forward. Somebody jogged Winona's elbow. Her card slid from her grasp and fell on to the gr

it?" she laughed. "Hope we've g

t time t

t's all right. I wish you luck! Won't w

directing her to a seat in the room marked with the corresponding number. Winona walked rather solemnly to the desk labeled 10. The great ordeal was at last about to begin. She wondered wha

a shot as I can at things, and if I fail-well, I shal

r, and a penholder with a new nib lay ready. Each of the other twenty victims was sur

cher in charge, who distributed them round the room. The subject for the first hour was arithmetic. Winona read over her paper slowly. She felt ca

if I've only time," she tho

the platform sounded a bell, and ordered papers to be put together. She collected them, handed them to another mistress, then without any break proceeded to deal out the questions for the next hour's examination. This was in geography, and here Winona was not on such sure ground. Granted that you are acquainted with certain rules in arithmetic, it is always possible to work out problems, but it needed more knowledge than she possessed to write answers to the riddles that confronted her. She had never he

nd the candidates thankfully adjourned. O

this geography one is the limi

ho had studied her text-book up to the last available moment. Apparently he

but I liked one or two questions. I just happened to know the

air pigtail. "Remember, there are four other exams

feel inclined to turn tail a

ch time, do they? Now for the tortu

A good many were grumbling, but that sandy-haired girl in the spectacles said nothing. No more did the one with the red hair-ribbo

hese she was not ready with dates. Then suddenly Percy's advice flashed into her mind. "Write from a romantic standpoint, and make your paper sound poetical." It seemed rather a forlorn hope, and she feared it would scarcely satisfy her examiners, but in such a desperate situation anything was worth trying. Winona possessed a certain facility in essay writing. Prose composition had been her favorite lesson at Miss Harmon's. She collected her w

ns was still keen and vivid. She described its old-world garden by the side of the Thames, where the little King Edward VI. must often have roamed with his pretty cousin Jane: the two wonderful ill-starred children, playing for a brief hour in happy unconsciousness of the fate that faced them. What did they talk about, she asked, as they stood on the paved terrace and watched the river hurrying by? Plato, perchance, and his philosophy, or the marvelous geography-book with woodcuts of foreign beasts that had been specially printed for the young king's use. Did they compare notes about their tutors? Jane would certainly hold a brief for her much-loved Mr. Elme

nts and dates, but from the inner view of a girl's standpoint. Did Jane wish to leave her Plato for the bustle of a Court? Did she care for the gay young husband forced upon her by her ambitious parents? Surely for h

oul was pur

rs met in yo

spirit, fi

her blood, and threw her into poetical channels. She c

golden bowl, the sp

saintly soul floats

l rite be read-the

ueenliest dead that

doubly dead, in tha

t is, which perishes, for the true part of her they could not touch. Farewell, sweet innocent

de la vie à p

lement mes lèv

mes mains en

May it be well with

ther when asked for such sordid details as the names of the Cabal ministry, or the history of the Long Parliament. The bell rang, and left her with her paper only half finished. At one o'clock the candidates were given an hour's rest, and a hot lunch was served to them in the dining-hall. At two they returned to their desks, and the examination continued until half-past four. Winona found the q

one rather dispirited cand

ord in my life. My hand's stiff with cramp!" exclaimed the girl

ons. My swastika isn't worth its salt. I shall

solute encyclopaedias if we had all that pat off at our

ed the ruddy-haired girl, who wa

can't say whether they're right or wrong. Wasn't the Latin translation just too horrible? I

. "It would have been much better

l it's finished. It would be wretched to have to begin again to-morrow. I hardly s

her leave. How many of them would she see again, she wond

now my papers weren't up to standard. I believe th

rospect of spending a week of suspense at Abbey Close was so formidable, that she had begged to be allowed to return home, excusing herself on the

ch out of you!" Percy greeted her. "Did th

e fifteenth, but I expect I've f

s truly! I fail nine times out of

she had higher ambitions, and the cloud of depression soon settled down again. Her temper, not alway

fractious since you were cutting your t

at each hour could hold so many minutes. On the morning of the

my misery!" she thought, as the po

er-box, and returned bearing a

nona Wo

hfi

bou

eat Ma

fingers. But as she read, her fa

r) "that the Governors of the Seaton High School have dec

passed the pape

d Mrs. Woodward, clapping her hands

ou never mean to tell me that Tiddleywi