he school bills, if teaching
history involved a visit to the scene of each occurrence. No! You're
supposed to study all this beforehand, and then, when you have a clear
idea of ancient and mediaeval times, you can go abroad with an
understanding of what you'll see."

"But why shouldn't there be a mutual exchange of schools?" continued
Ursula, who liked to discuss questions with Miss Bardsley. "Suppose a
class from an Italian school were to come to the Grange for a month, and
we were to go and take their place: they'd learn English games, and we
should see the old temples and amphitheatres, so we should each have
something we couldn't get in our own country."

"It would certainly be a splendid means of learning languages,
especially if such an exchange could be effected with a French or a
German school. But I fear we are not ripe for that yet; there are too
many difficulties in the way of such international visiting. In years
to come perhaps the State will organize it, and we shall see little
bands of children starting with their teachers to study foreign life and
get rid of insular prejudices. It would have to be a special department
of the Board of Education."

"If Father gets into Parliament again I'll ask him to bring in a Bill
for it," said Mabel. "He's very keen on Secondary Education."

There was so much to be done at Birkwood during the summer term that the
days did not seem nearly long enough, though the school rose half an
hour earlier than in winter. The girls played cricket as well as tennis,
worked in their gardens, and were taken for walks on the downs or on the
shore. These expeditions generally had a scientific object in view, wild
flowers being brought home to be pressed and added to the school
collection, or the pools left by the tide investigated for specimens to
enlarge the already flourishing aquarium. There is an old saying: "If
you are good, you are happy"; but Miss Drummond believed in the
reversing of that moral process, on the theory that "if you are happy,
you are good", considering that young girls, at any rate, would be more
likely to grow up with nice minds and true instincts if all their
environment was beautiful, and their days were filled with pleasures
calculated to elevate and refine. There were few of her pupils on whom
her system had not the desired effect, and the one or two failures had
been gently eliminated, so as not to contaminate the rest.

With Aldred especially Miss Drum