Ella cheeked Mademoiselle yesterday, and had to write out 'Little
Girls must be polite and obedient' a hundred times in French. She
was jolly sick about it. I told her it served her right. Joe made
eighty-three against Lancashire. Reggie made a duck. Have you got
your first? If you have, it will be all through Mike. Uncle John
told Father that Mike pretended to hurt his wrist so that you could
play instead of him for the school, and Father said it was very
sporting of Mike but nobody must tell you because it wouldn't be
fair if you got your first for you to know that you owed it to Mike
and I wasn't supposed to hear but I did because I was in the room
only they didn't know I was (we were playing hide-and-seek and I was
hiding) so I'm writing to tell you,

"From your affectionate sister

"Marjory."

There followed a P.S.

"I'll tell you what you ought to do. I've been reading a jolly good
book called 'The Boys of Dormitory Two,' and the hero's an awfully
nice boy named Lionel Tremayne, and his friend Jack Langdale saves
his life when a beast of a boatman who's really employed by Lionel's
cousin who wants the money that Lionel's going to have when he grows
up stuns him and leaves him on the beach to drown. Well, Lionel is
going to play for the school against Loamshire, and it's _the_
match of the season, but he goes to the headmaster and says he wants
Jack to play instead of him. Why don't you do that?

"M.

"P.P.S.--This has been a frightful fag to write."

For the life of him Mike could not help giggling as he pictured what
Bob's expression must have been when his brother read this document.
But the humorous side of the thing did not appeal to him for long.
What should he say to Bob? What would Bob say to him? Dash it all, it
made him look such an awful _ass_! Anyhow, Bob couldn't do much.
In fact he didn't see that he could do anything. The team was filled
up, and Burgess was not likely to alter it. Besides, why should he
alter it? Probably he would have given Bob his colours anyhow. Still,
it was beastly awkward. Marjory meant well, but she had put her foot
right in it. Girls oughtn't to meddle with these things. No girl ought
to be taught to write till she came of age. And Uncle John had behaved
in many respects like the Complete Rotter. If he was going to let out
things like that, he might at least have whispered the