explained, "and you go skimming down the
stairs like a water-chute. It'll be prime!"

"O-o-o-oh!"

"You _are_ priceless!"

"Great is Diana of the Americans!"

The improvised bob-sleigh worked admirably, and if it happened to catch,
there was always the banister to clutch at. Its popularity eclipsed even
that of the soap-slide and the roller skates. The fun waxed fast and
furious, not to say noisy. Bumpings and bursts of laughter began to echo
downstairs on to the lower stories. Miss Hampson, coming to unlock the
jam-cupboard in preparation for tea, stood for a moment in the corridor,
listening like a pointer. Then she thrust the key into her pocket and
dashed to the upper regions, just in time to behold Wendy, with scarlet
cheeks and flying hair, coasting down the stairs on a drawing-board. For
a moment Miss Hampson was without words. She stared, gasping, at Wendy,
who hurriedly picked up both herself and the drawing-board, and stood at
attention. The sporting party on the upper landing would gladly have
melted away had there been any possible cover, but there was not. Vi and
Sadie had not even time to kick off their roller skates. Miss Hampson's
keen eyes took in every detail of the trails on the polished oak floor,
and the soap-slide. Then they focused on Diana.

"I can imagine who's been the instigator of all this!" she said
sharply. "We've never been accustomed to such doings at Pendlemere
before. Miss Todd will be appalled at the damage you've done to the
floor. Go downstairs to the schoolroom at once, and remember that this
landing is prohibited in future. I'm astonished that all of you don't
know better!"

It was on the following Monday that tidings of the armistice were
proclaimed. The girls heard the church bells ringing when they were in
the middle of morning lessons, and unanimously "downed books and
pencils" and trooped to the front door, where Miss Todd was verifying
the good news from the butcher boy. For five minutes the school went
wild; everybody joined hands and danced in a circle on the drive,
shouting "Hurrah!" After all the long suspense and anxiety the relief
was stupendous. There was hardly a girl who had not some relation at the
front over whose safety she might now rejoice. That the shadow of more
than four years had at length been removed, seemed almost too good to be
true. Miss Todd and Miss Beverley had gone indoors to find all the
available stock of bunting; Miss Chadwick was already