The Manor House School

a's

d until the tea-bell should ring. From the tennis court came the sounds of the soft thud of balls and a few excited voices recording the score; while through the open windows of the

apidated atlas. Their respective owners were apparently making a half-hearted endeavour to hunt out a list of towns upon the m

each of the places, there'd be some sense in it; but to have to reel off a str

ave set us a shorter one for the first! It's really too bad of her to make us begin with two pag

learn when one's just come back after the holidays?

o horrid. It's perfectly dreadful to think what

ctising, a walk in the park or along the Surrey Road, and a game of tennis when you can manage to get hold of the court. There

tainly did not seem a remarkably enlivening o

go to a boarding school," sa

rsation, "I've been hunting for you everywhere. I thought you were in

, for the newcomer was out of breath, and lo

ded Lindsay, pushing the others fa

g really nice?

give you each six guesses, and even then

't mean to take ge

ng, though I wi

en another window

t's much more inte

s going to giv

ting warm!

we ca

ive i

n and

me with Dr. Redford, and they both went over the school

ered what the

nd he's sent a report to Miss Russell to say that the

your gr

. Dr. Redford says the drains can't possibly be touched while we're all

us home when we've only just com

ouse in the country, and it's to be our school for the whole of the summer term

had certainly succeeded. They were wild with curi

re i

are we

you get

Russell has been explaining it to the monitresses, and said they might tell us as soon as they liked. It's

he school from town to country was without

d to be true," cried

he seaside both together," declared Lindsay, waltzi

all have lessons when we

l be ever so much nicer

r!" shouted Marjorie But

ector's report. She was determined to make the change without

schoolbooks, and numberless other articles. For the few days that remained work was relaxed, the headmistress's chief anxiety se

my head ached," said Nora Proctor. "She asked ev

lly. "I soon wished I hadn't, because she gave me a horribly nasty disinfectant loz

ll of carbolic. There's a jar f

to endure it for one day more.

e of time. By Tuesday morning, however, the final arrangements were completed; the rows of boxes were locked, strapped, and piled on rail

iving a last peep into the familiar classroom. "We shan

ave happened before we come back

aloon carriages, and taken large baskets of lunch; so, in the opini

d remove into the country altogether," said Beryl Austen, who

n't be able to have visiting masters," s

hould be only too delighted n

ed sm

emarked dryly. "I'm afraid you'll find Miss Frazer will give you plent

en lessons are over. We're going to have a glori

ht of a holiday. As the train steamed through green meadows and woods just breaking into leaf, it indeed seeme

r destination they kept enquiring whether they must get out at the next station, and were s

nce in plain letters, and a porter's voice was heard pronouncing something which bore a faint resemblance to the name. "Stead

latform, to make sure that none of her pu

e ourselves that not even an umbrella is missing. It is only half a mile from here to t

atin grammar. There had been a slight shower of rain, which had brought out the scent of growing grass and budding leaves; the ground was white with the fallen blos

and the line proved a straggling one, in spite of Miss Frazer's efforts in the

said, with a touch of pride in her voice. "I w

f grey stone, and partly of black and white timbers. There were latticed windows, and a porch

ne of Sir Walter Scott's no

all kinds of adventures there,"

lightful to sit down to tea in a great dining-hall, with a carve

almers. "I'm sure they didn't have it in Queen Elizabet

n the past," said Mildred Roper. "I'm afraid you'll have to leave the ma

got the quaintest panelled bedroom you could possibly imagine. There's a great four-pos

o many queer rooms and long passages upstairs," put in Nora Proc

looked so dim and dark I didn't dare to go alone, so I turned back

vening of their arrival. After being accustomed to electric light and modern bedrooms, it was a great

ow any absurd nonsense of this kind. You have no more to be afraid of here than you had at Winterburn Lodge. I will take you over the house to-

lf back among streets and squares. It certainly seemed more interesting to learn lessons sitting on tall-backed oak chairs at a carved table, than at desks in an ordinary schoolroom, f

" said Cicely, as, in company with the rest of the third form, she took p

y. "Girls in those days d

d easily have put you to shame. If you want her sixteenth-century studies you will

at such a list of accomplishments. "

ting and hawking then," said Marjorie Bu

om. Young people were very severely brought up. They might never sit without permission in the presence of their parents or teachers, and they were beaten for the slightest offences. Don't you remember that e

for what the king had done? How h

girls who perhaps may have done lessons in this room three hundred years ago would not learn them so easily and pleasantly as you