e other chastened souls in the "Jolly
Susan"--"No more midnight suppers!"

CHAPTER VI

PUTTING IT THROUGH

THE last two weeks had been so full of other things that lessons and
their preparation had taken a somewhat secondary place in the thoughts
of Form Five, and, in consequence, they had merited and received many
rebukes.

Sally May had spent two hours of a precious Saturday afternoon learning
poetry, for she had failed miserably in the last literature test;
Josephine had been her companion in disgrace, and had even had to spend
a precious Friday evening "in durance vile" because of returned lessons.

Judith's pride had been badly hurt by Miss Hilton's comment written in
her geometry exercise book, "Very poor work, indeed, untidy and
careless," and, worse still, when the lists were posted for the mid-term
Latin examination, Judith's name had been halfway down with fifty-six
marks to her credit. At Miss Graham's she had always headed the list.
Just for a moment she almost thought that there must be some mistake,
and then she realized that Five A standards were high and first-class
standing meant first-class work.

Literature and history were Judith's strong subjects, and on the morning
when she saw her Latin marks she made a mighty resolve to head the list
in at least one of these. It wouldn't be easy. Joyce Hewson and Phyllis
Lovell had been steadily piling up marks all term, and the whole form
was watching their tussle for first place. Christmas reports and class
standing for the half-year were made on class work and on the
examinations at the end of the term.

"I've just _got_ to have one 'first' on my report," said Judith to
herself as she put away her books after morning school. "I've just _got_
to--Daddy'll be awfully disappointed if I don't." And then, taking her
place in the line that was filing into Big Hall, she whispered to Nancy,
"What're we going to have this morning?"

"I'm not sure," said Nancy, "but I think Ruth Laughton's going to speak.
I saw her going into Miss Meredith's study this morning."

The last period of Friday morning school belonged to Miss Meredith.

"It's like a grab-bag," Nancy had inelegantly told Judith; "you never
know what you are going to get--sometimes it is a lecture, sometimes
Miss Meredith reads us a story, sometimes we have carol singing--I do
like that--and during the War we had talks from people who had been
there. Once we had a Polish Countess who spoke t