ave to
canvass in the dinner-hour. I wonder if Miss Tempest has put up the
list of candidates yet? I vote we go to the notice board and see;
there's just time before the bell rings."

Off scrambled the girls at once, pushing and jostling one another in
their eagerness to get to the lecture hall. There was a crowd collected
round the notice board, but they elbowed their way to the front
notwithstanding. Yes, the list was there, in the head mistress's own
handwriting, and they scanned it with varying comments of joy or
disappointment, according as their names were present or absent.

"Hurrah!"

"Disgusting!"

"No luck for me!"

"I don't call it fair!"

"You're on, Dorothy Greenfield, and so am I."

"I say, girls, which of you'll promise to vote for me?"

Avondale College was a large day school. Its pupils were drawn from all
parts of Coleminster and the surrounding district, many coming in by
train or tramcar, and some on bicycles. Under the headmistress-ship of
Miss Tempest its numbers had increased so rapidly that extra
accommodation had become necessary; and not only had the lecture hall
and dressing-rooms been enlarged, but an entire new wing had been added
to the building. Avondale prided itself greatly upon its institutions.
It is not always easy for a day school to have the same corporate life
as a boarding school; but Miss Tempest, in spite of this difficulty, had
managed to inaugurate a spirit of union among her pupils, and to make
them work together for the general good of the community. She wished the
College to be, not merely a place where textbooks were studied, but a
central point of light on every possible subject. She encouraged the
girls to have many interests outside the ordinary round of lessons, and
by the help of various self-governing societies to learn to be good
citizens, and to play an intelligent and active part in the progress of
the world. A Nature Study Union, a Guild of Arts and Crafts, a Debating
Club, a Dramatic Circle, and a School Magazine all flourished at
Avondale. The direction of these societies was in the hands of a select
committee chosen from the Fifth and Sixth Forms, but in order that the
younger girls might be represented, a member of the Upper Fourth was
elected each year as "Warden of the Lower School", and was privileged to
attend some of the meetings, and to speak on behalf of the interests of
the juniors.

Naturally this post was an exceedingly coveted honour: t