t, much better-looking than our usual one.

"Forty--over forty--some of 'em fifty, I bet--and look at 'em!" grumbled
Terry in reluctant admiration.

There were no spectacular acrobatics, such as only the young can
perform, but for all-around development they had a most excellent
system. A good deal of music went with it, with posture dancing and,
sometimes, gravely beautiful processional performances.

Jeff was much impressed by it. We did not know then how small a part of
their physical culture methods this really was, but found it agreeable
to watch, and to take part in.

Oh yes, we took part all right! It wasn't absolutely compulsory, but we
thought it better to please.

Terry was the strongest of us, though I was wiry and had good staying
power, and Jeff was a great sprinter and hurdler, but I can tell you
those old ladies gave us cards and spades. They ran like deer, by which
I mean that they ran not as if it was a performance, but as if it was
their natural gait. We remembered those fleeting girls of our first
bright adventure, and concluded that it was.

They leaped like deer, too, with a quick folding motion of the legs,
drawn up and turned to one side with a sidelong twist of the body. I
remembered the sprawling spread-eagle way in which some of the fellows
used to come over the line--and tried to learn the trick. We did not
easily catch up with these experts, however.

"Never thought I'd live to be bossed by a lot of elderly lady acrobats,"
Terry protested.

They had games, too, a good many of them, but we found them rather
uninteresting at first. It was like two people playing solitaire to
see who would get it first; more like a race or a--a competitive
examination, than a real game with some fight in it.

I philosophized a bit over this and told Terry it argued against their
having any men about. "There isn't a man-size game in the lot," I said.

"But they are interesting--I like them," Jeff objected, "and I'm sure
they are educational."

"I'm sick and tired of being educated," Terry protested. "Fancy going to
a dame school--at our age. I want to Get Out!"

But we could not get out, and we were being educated swiftly. Our
special tutors rose rapidly in our esteem. They seemed of rather finer
quality than the guards, though all were on terms of easy friendliness.
Mine was named Somel, Jeff's Zava, and Terry's Moadine. We tried to
generalize from the names, those of the guards, and of our three g