A Patriotic Schoolgirl

tory

e year for snapshots, but she managed to get a few time exposures on bright days, and enjoyed herself afterwards in the developing-room. She wanted to make a series of views of the school and send them to her father and to her brothers, for she knew how much they appreciated such things at

to another of the family, but this had been specially written to Marjorie and addressed to Bracken

cer-looking than any of the other girls' fathers! I do wonder when you'll get leav

very great chums at school. She inclined to Mollie Simpson, but Mollie, like herself, was of a rather masterful disposition, and squabbles almost invariably ensued before the two had been long together. With the three girls who shared her dormitory she was on quite friendly, though not warm, terms. They had at first considered Marjorie i

ember the four girls were dressi

etty Moore. "It seems so silly to array oneself in white just to

iggy to wear the same serge dress from breakfast to bedtime. Brackenfield scores o

Sylvia Page. "We don't get e

ay night, and charades on Wedne

mean to go on a farm, and wear corduroy knickers and leggings and thick boots all the time. It'll be gor

t over. I'll nurse, or drive a wagon,

n, and got my first pony. It was a darling little brown Shetland named Sheila. I cried oceans when it died. My next was a grey one named Charlie, and Tom, our coachman, taught me t

se, there are no horses to be had, and the riding-master, Mr. Hall, has gone to the front. I wonder if things will ever

assured her. "You ought to ha

shall be sixte

birthday nex

n. We're not allowed to do an

exemptions, to ask for exeats, or to bring cakes into the dining-hall. In a school of more than two hundred pupils it would have been difficult continually to make allowance

. She found an opportunity, when Irene was out of

the limit that we're not supposed to take any notice of it. I vote we get up

rjorie! I'm your man if there's any fun

we going to manage the caterin

a to ask them to get a few things for us. We must have a cake, and some candles, and s

ake to be general of the

o secrecy, and the St. Ethelberta kids aren't likely to tell. They do the same themselve

Dona by special appointment in the gymnasium, an

crests before I could make them promise. They say Miss Jones has got suspicious now about bulgy coats, and actually feels them. They have to sling bags under their skirts and it's so uncomfy walking home. However, they did their best for you. There's a cake, and t

gular trumps. I'll give them some of my crests if they like-I'm not really collecting and d

the question. Never mind; we hav

come upstairs. The three confederates undid their package, and gloated over its contents. The cake was quite a respectable one for war-time, to judge from appearances it had cherries in it, and there was

d it will look A

pen the tin of condens

Marjorie jauntily. "Give it to me. A penny's

er lid underneath. You'

o fall. She was not quite a

ull the nail out of the wall, and give me a boot to hammer with. You've to go

coming. Stick t

inside her wardrobe. Thanks to the drawn curtains o

e asked curiously, but no one would tell. T

not to ask any other girls to join the party, but

hem in, and it will wake the Acid Drop

mall cake and wouldn't go rou

Only half her presents had turned up, and

t I born in the holidays? There ought to be a law regulating births to certain times of the year. If I

one. Sylvia began to sing a song about tears turning to

he one thing I can't stand is anybody try

"I don't mind betting that when you wake up y

ark the othe

mination, in fact

all most unkind!

r. A bracket clock on the stairs sounded the quarters, and Marjorie, as the lightest sleeper, undertook to keep awake and listen to its chimes. It was rather difficult not to doze when the room was dark and her companions were breathing quietly and regularly in the other beds.

range and struck twelve times. S

a more difficult matter to rouse Irene. She turned over in bed and grunted, and th

ter? Zepps?" sh

irthday party. Look!

ith its sixteen little lighted candles, and also the ti

oke!" she exclaimed. "I say, t

purred Marjorie. "I flatter myself those candles look rath

o touch them,"

cake," announced

lmost time to be putting up the banns. Now again. Tinker, tailor, soldier! Lucky you! My plum stones generally give me beggar-man or thief. Silk, satin, muslin, rags; silk, satin! You've got all t

felt they had never tasted a better in their live

ied to borrow a little and a spirit lamp from Meg Hutchins

delicious by itself

t a spoon," apol

eet delicacy the girls dipped lead-pencils int

r a critical taste. "Yes-I certainly think it's qu

e any since sugar went short. Jemima!

u ought to leave it

n't be any so

ars afterwards. They'll take some time,

imed Marjorie. "I'm always so afraid the war w

d Irene anxiously. "If the Acid Drop d

ith equal dispatch. They were only just in time, for a moment later the door opened, and Miss Norton, clad in a blue dressing-gown, flashed her torchlight into the roo

ve!" murmur

listen outside," whispered Sylvia, with a keen

Dormitory mentioned that they ha

ge," proclaimed Lennie Jackson.

dy walking in her sleep,

. "I'd be scared to death of anyone sleep

ebody?" enquired

e book I read in the holidays-The Somnambulist it was called-about a man who was always going about in the night with fixed,

ep it's fearfully dangerous to

it?

en don't get over it for ages! You ought to take t

ose they

he second bell. Scootons nous vite

to co