shouldn't bother with tennis if I were you."

"Winnie's right; you can't serve two masters," said Enid. "It will take
your whole time if you want to do anything at tennis. The Chambers are
all so splendid at it, it needs a good player to have any chance against
them."

"But Miss Latimer's very hard to satisfy at cricket," said Winnie.

"So she is. She certainly doesn't allow any slack practice."

"She pegged my right leg down once to prevent my moving it, and she's
most severe on a crooked bat," said Avis.

"She recollects everybody's average scores for whole years back," said
Winnie. "I can't think how anybody can have such a memory."

"Miss Lincoln's the funniest," said Cissie Gardiner. "When I lost a
wicket last Wednesday, she said: 'That must be because you got a bad
mark for Euclid, my dear!' As if mathematics had anything to do with
cricket."

Winnie laughed.

"Miss Lincoln always says: 'Those who do well in school will be equally
successful in athletics'; but it's just a pleasant little fiction, like
nurses telling you if you eat crusts it will make your hair curl, and it
never did, because I used to finish even the hardest and most burnt
ones, and my hair's as straight as a yard measure, while my little
brother, who leaves all his, has a regular mop of close ringlets."

"Which do you play, Avis?" asked Patty.

"Tennis. I'm no good at all at cricket. I miss the easiest catches, and
get the ball tangled in my skirts. I used to play with my brothers at
home, but they always called me 'butterfingers'; so I've quite given it
up, and I won't even field for them now. They tell me girls are no good
at cricket."

"They should see Dora Stephenson," said Enid. "She plays as good a game
as any boy, I'm sure. Miss Latimer's tremendously proud of her batting."

"Yes, I often wish I could take her home to have a match against the
boys," replied Avis. "How astonished they would be! I think our old
gardener would have a fit. He doesn't at all approve of girls' cricket,
and told me once that 'young misses weren't meant to be lads', and I
should 'only make a bad job of it'. He rolls the tennis court most
beautifully, though, when he knows I'm coming back for the holidays."

"Which are you going to choose, then, Patty, cricket or tennis?" asked
Enid, going back to the original subject of the conversation.

"I won't decide until I've had a good turn at each, and see which I can
manage best," said Patty, diplomatical