Winona, pelting Percy with
his own walnut-shells.

"You assured us the other day that you despised such vanities."

"Well, it depends. Perhaps I'll be a lady tram conductor, and punch
tickets, or a post-woman, or drive a Government van!"

"If those are careers for girls, bag me for a steeple jack," chirped
Dorrie.

It was perhaps a good thing for Winona that such a short interval
elapsed between the acceptance of Aunt Harriet's proposal and the date
of the scholarship examination. The ten days were very busy ones, for
there seemed much to be done in the way of preparation. Miss Jones, the
dressmaker, was installed in the nursery with the sewing-machine, and
demanded frequent tryings-on, a process Winona hated.

"I shall buy all my clothes ready made when I'm grown up!" she declared.

"They very seldom fit, and have to be altered," returned her mother. "Do
stand still, Winona! And I hope you're learning up a few dates and facts
for this examination. You ought to be studying every morning. If only
Miss Harmon were home, I'd have asked her to coach you. I'm afraid
she'll be disappointed at your leaving, but of course she can't expect
to keep you for ever. I heard a rumor that she means to give up her
school altogether, and go and live with her uncle. I hope it's true, and
then I can take the little ones away with an easy conscience. I don't
want to treat her badly, poor thing, but I'm sure teaching's not her
vocation."

Winona really made a heroic effort to prepare herself for the coming
ordeal. She retired to a secluded part of the garden and read over her
latest school books. The process landed her in the depths of
despondency.

"I'll never remember anything--never!" she mourned to her family. "To
try and get all this into my head at once is like bolting a week's meals
at a single go! I know a date here and there, and I've a hazy notion of
French and Latin verbs, and a general impression of other subjects, but
if they ask me for anything definite, such as the battles of the Wars of
the Roses, or a list of the products of India, I'm done for!"

"Go in for Post-Impressionism, then," suggested Percy. "Write from a
romantic standpoint, and don't condescend to mere facts. Stick in a
quotation or two, and a drawing if possible, and make your paper sound
eloquent and dramatic and poetical, and all the rest of it. They'll mark
you low for accuracy, but put you on ten per cent. for style, you bet! I
know a chap who tr