The holidays had come and gone, and the pupils of Oakdale High School had
resigned themselves to a period of hard study. The dreaded mid-year
examinations stared them in the face, and for the time being basketball
ardor had cooled and a surprising devotion to study had ensued.

Since the day that Grace had refused to give up her captaincy there had
been considerable change in the girls' attitude toward her. She had not
regained her old-time popularity, but it was evident that her schoolmates
respected her for her brave decision and treated her with courtesy. They
still retained a feeling of suspicion toward Anne, however, although they
did not openly manifest it.

Miriam Nesbit had been inwardly furious over the outcome of her plan to
gain the captaincy, but she was wise enough to assume an air of
indifference over her defeat. Grace's speech had made considerable
impression on the minds of even Miriam's most devoted supporters and she
knew that the slightest slip on her part would turn the tide of opinion
against her.

Grace was in a more cheerful frame of mind than formerly. She felt that
all would come right some day. "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,"
she told herself, and the familiar saying proved very comforting to her.

Winter had settled down on Oakdale as only a northern winter can do. There
had been snow on the ground since Thanksgiving, and sleigh rides and
skating parties were in order.

Grace awoke one Saturday morning in high good humor.

"To-day's the day," she said to herself. "Hurrah for skating!"

She hurried through her breakfast and was donning her fur cap and sweater,
when Anne, Jessica and Nora, accompanied by David, Hippy, Reddy and, to
her surprise and delight, Tom Gray, turned in at her gate.

"'Oh, be joyful, oh, be gay,
For there's skating on the bay,'"

sang Hippy.

"Meaning pond, I suppose," laughed Grace, as she opened her front door.

"Meaning pond?" answered Hippy, "only pond doesn't rhyme with gay."

"You might say,

"'Oh, be joyful, oh, be fond,
For there's skating on the pond,'"

suggested David.

"Fond of what?" demanded Hippy.

"Of the person you've asked to skate with you," replied David, looking
toward Anne, who stood with a small pair of new skates tucked under her
arm.

"I shall be initiated into all the mysteries of the world soon," she
observed, smiling happily. "Last year it was coasting and football and now
it's dancing