d two in decent line and
had refrained from prohibited conversation. To-day they surged upstairs
in an unseemly rabble, chattering and talking like a flock of rooks or
jackdaws at sunset. It was in vain that Althea tried to restore order,
her efforts at discipline were simply scouted by the unruly mob, who
rushed into the studio helter-skelter, took their places anyhow, and
only controlled themselves at the entrance of Miss Godwin, the art
mistress.

Althea, flushed, indignant, and most upset, sought her fellow-prefects.

"Shall I go and complain to Miss Burd?" she asked.

"Um--I don't think I should yet," said Lispeth a little doubtfully. "You
see, Miss Burd has given us authority and she likes us to use it
ourselves as much as we can, without appealing to her. Of course in any
extremity she'll support us. I'll pin up a notice in the junior
cloak-room and see what effect that has. It may settle them."

Lispeth stayed after four o'clock until the last coat and hat had
disappeared from the hooks in the juniors' dressing-room. Then she
pinned her ultimatum on their notice board:

"In consequence of the extremely bad behavior of certain girls on the
stairs this afternoon, the prefects give notice that should any
repetition of such conduct occur, the names of the offenders will be
taken and they will be reported to Miss Burd for punishment."

"That ought to finish those kids!" she thought as she pushed in the
drawing-pins.

There was more than the usual amount of buzzing conversation next
morning as juvenile heads bumped each other in their efforts to read the
notice. The result, however, was absolutely unprecedented in the annals
of the school. It was the custom of the Sixth Form, and of many of the
Fifth, to take their lunch and eat it quietly in the gymnasium. There
was no hard and fast rule about this, but it was generally understood to
be a privilege of the upper forms only, and intermediates and juniors
were not supposed to intrude. To-day most of the elder girls were
sitting in clumps at the far end of the gymnasium, when through the open
door marched a most amazing procession of juniors. They were headed by
Phyllis Smith and Dorrie Barnes carrying between them a small blackboard
upon which was chalked:

DOWN WITH PREFECTS!
RIGHTS FOR JUNIORS!
THE WHOLE SCHOOL IS EQUAL!

After these ringleaders marched a determined crowd waving flags made of
handkerchiefs fastened to the end of rulers. A