r in the school. That would be something
worth doing, wouldn't it?"

In arranging for the School Parliament, Miss Burd had allowed wardens to
be chosen by each form, from IIIB. upwards, but had decided that the
smaller girls were too young to take part in public affairs. Every form
that sent a representative constituted itself into a kind of club, and
chose a special name. These were placed on the Council Register as
follows:

VI. The True Blues.
VA. The Pioneers.
VB. The Amazons.
IVA. The Old Brigade.
IVB. The Mermaids.
IIIA. The Dragonflies.
IIIB. The Cuckoos.

"You can compare marks every fortnight," said Miss Burd, "and whichever
gets the best average shall hold a cup that I intend to present. The
marks of the whole form will count, so that slackers will be a distinct
drawback to their own companies. Any girl who loses a mark hinders her
form from gaining the cup, and of course vice versa, those who work will
help."

The question of marks had been a much debated subject with Miss Burd.
She had discussed it in detail at several educational conferences, and
had come to the conclusion that, on the whole, the system was highly
desirable.

"It's all very well to talk about the evils of emulation, and work for
work's sake," she confided to Miss Strong, "but you can't get children
to see things altogether in the same light as grown-ups. I own that,
when I was a child myself, I made tremendous efforts so that I might be
head of my form, and when the arrangements were changed at our school,
and, instead of carefully-registered marks and places, we only had
first, second, or third class, I slacked off considerably. I knew that a
lesson not quite so perfectly learnt, or an exercise with one or two
mistakes, would still find me in the First Class, so why should I make
such enormous exertions? When every slip might mean the loss of my
chance to be top, I was far more careful. Of course I know that
Emulation, with a big E, is supposed to be all wrong, but really I think
people make too much fuss about it. It was quite friendly rivalry when I
was at school, and the girls with whom I competed were my dearest chums.
I believe my new system here is going to unite both methods. Every girl
will work for herself, but her marks will also count for her form, and
if she slacks, and so pulls down the standard, I hope her companions
will give her as bad a time as they do to a 'butter-fingers' at