tea."

"Wait a jiffy and I'll get some jam--wild strawberry with crumpets is
heavenly."

Catherine was back in the specified jiffy, and in a few moments the two
friends were chatting comfortably over their tea-cups.

York Hill like most modern schools had adopted a modified form of
self-government. Each of the four Houses had its quota of prefects
appointed by the staff, and a House captain; the Senior House captain
was known as the Captain of the School, and this year South House had
the honour of providing the School Captain--Eleanor Ormsby. The
prefects, usually members of the various Sixth Forms, were girls who had
shown themselves worthy of responsibility and privilege and who could be
trusted to set the tone of the School.

Eleanor Ormsby was deservedly popular: there was a frankness and a
directness about her almost boyishly clear-cut face which inspired
confidence, and the girls who brought their difficulties to her found in
her a wise and sympathetic counsellor. Eleanor was not beautiful like
Catherine, not brilliant like Patricia--in fact it was with difficulty
that she held her place in the Sixth-Form classes, but on basket-ball
court, hockey-rink, or gymnasium floor she had no rival. Above all she
was a born leader, and having spent all her school days at York was
steeped in its traditions and ideals.

Just now Eleanor was keen upon getting the two plays given just before
the Christmas vacation well started before the busy time at the end of
term: it was the custom for the Old Girls to entertain the New Girls at
a play and for the New Girls to return the compliment.

So the absorbing topic of Queen's new hockey coach being exhausted for
the time being, "Got any good stuff for the play in your cubicles,
Cathy?" asked Eleanor; "looks to me as if they are a nice lively little
bunch. What a little witch Sally May is, and what lovely eyes Judy has!
I'm glad she and Nancy are such pals--they make a good team."

"They're darlings, all of 'em," said Catherine enthusiastically; "but
'not too good for human nature's daily food.'" And she unfolded the plan
for the midnight supper.

"Well, of course," said Eleanor, laughing reminiscently, "you couldn't
expect them to go home for the holidays without a story of some such
adventure as that. Remember the time we went down to the gym and Pat
fell over the dumb-bell rack."

"And it was such a mean supper to get punished for," added Catherine,
grinning; "only cold