oft warm grass.

The story would be sure to be interesting, but she postponed the treat
and lay watching the big white clouds sailing lazily across the blue of
the sky, and enjoying the brilliant splashes of colour in the maples at
the foot of the garden.

It had been a very happy week, Judith decided, reviewing the events
which she planned to chronicle in her letter to her mother to-night. How
nice everybody had been to her! No one could have a better chum than
Nancy! How pleased Mother would be that she had received such an
excellent mark for her room; and Daddy would be delighted at the high
mark Miss Marlowe had given her on that initial literature test; Nancy
and Josephine were loud in their admiration of the way she had
translated for Miss Langton in Latin class. Altogether, as Judith rolled
over on to her elbows and found the place in her book, she was feeling
happy and a bit too complacent. Only a page or two had been turned when
a shadow blotted out the flickering tracings of the beech leaves, and a
surprised voice said--

"Hullo, aren't you Judith Benson of South?"

"Yes," said Judith, sitting up and smiling politely, unconsciously ready
for a little more praise: she knew that this was Catherine's friend,
Patricia Caldwell, another South House prefect.

"Well, then, why aren't you playing basket-ball?"

"Because I don't want to play," said Judith calmly; "I prefer tennis."

Patricia almost gasped; this from a new girl--"She didn't want to!"

"Every girl is expected to join in the first practice matches so we can
pick our players for South," she said pleasantly but firmly. "Weren't
you at the Athletic Union meeting on Wednesday? I suppose you didn't
understand. However, you can join in the second half."

Patricia was Senior basket-ball captain and secretary of the Athletic
Union, and basket-ball was to her at present the most important thing in
the School. Judith felt rebellious, but made no reply. She watched
Patricia's retreating figure and wondered whether she dare skip the
practice.

Nancy, who had come to look for her, was questioned.

"Skip it? You had better not!" she exclaimed in horrified tones.

"But it isn't on my time-table," objected Judith. "Mayn't I do as I
please in spare time?"

"Why, but Patricia said you must," said Nancy.

Nancy, brought up in the traditions of York Hill, felt that it was
almost sacrilegious to question the authority of a senior prefect.

Judith was aggriev