omplexions, and lovely dark eyes, and there was a fair girl,
who wrote diligently all the time, and seemed in no difficulty. When it
was over I asked her how she had got on, and she said she had found it
quite easy, and answered most of the questions. We compared notes, and I
saw that if she was right I must be wrong, and as she was quite sure she
was right I went home very despondent indeed, but determined to work my
way up from the bottom if need be.

Next morning I hardened my heart for what was to befall me, and started
for school. I had to go by omnibus, and found one that ran just at the
right time.

I was met at the school entrance by a tall, thin, small-featured lady,
who wore glasses, and spoke in a sharp, clear voice, but quite kindly,
telling me that I was in the Fifth Form, and my desk was that nearest
the door.

There was a good deal of crush and confusion as there were a lot of new
girls, and I sat at my desk and wondered whether the Fifth Form was the
highest or the lowest. I could hardly believe I was in the highest form,
but the other girls sitting at the desks looked as old as myself. The
two pretty dark girls were there, but I saw no sign of the fair girl who
had worked so easily.

I sat and watched for her, and presently she came in, but she was moved
on to the form behind. She was in the Fourth Form, and I heard her
name--Mabel Smith.

I had a good report at the end of the first term, and went home
happy--very happy to get home again, for I had never been so long away
before, and I found my little brothers grown out of knowledge. But the
Christmas holidays were soon over, and I went back in a cold, snowy
week; and London snow is a miserable spectacle, not like the lovely pure
white covering which hides up all dirt and ugliness in the country.

However, I knew my way about by this time, and found my old familiar bus
waiting for me, and the conductor greeted me with great friendliness. He
was a most kind man, and always waited for me as long as he could.

This term we had a new mistress for mathematics, and I didn't like her a
bit.

I was always very slow and stupid at mathematics, and the new mistress
was so quick, she worked away like lightning, and I _could_ not follow
her. She would rush through a proposition in Euclid, proving that some
figure was, or was not equal to some other figure, and leave me stranded
vainly trying to understand the first proof when she was at the last,
and I _co