oke in the early morning of that splendid summer day, feeling that
something very delightful was about to happen. One after another they
peeped out and saw the sun on the grass and heard the birds sing and
felt the soft zephyrs of the summer breeze blowing on their cheeks.
Then they returned back again to their different little beds in their
different dormitories, and remarked with intense satisfaction that the
long wished-for day had come, and that to-morrow they were all going
home--home for the holidays. Could anything be more fascinating,
stimulating, and delightful? And each girl hoped to go back again to
the beloved home with honor, for Mrs. Clavering had a wonderful way
with her pupils, a very stimulating way, and she so arranged her prizes
and her certificates that no girl who had really worked, who had really
taken pains, was excluded from distinction. It was only the hopelessly
idle, the hopelessly disobedient, who could leave Cherry Court School
without some token of its mistress's sympathy, regard, and
encouragement.

Kitty Sharston was too new a scholar to expect to get any reward in the
ordinary sense of this term, but, all the same, she had worked fairly
well, and during the last three weeks had tackled her studies and
regulated her conduct like a veritable little Trojan. Every moment of
Kitty's day was now marked out. There was never an instant that she
was off guard with regard to herself; there was no time left in her
busy life for reckless speeches and reckless deeds. The goal set
before her was such a high one, the motive to struggle for pre-eminence
was so strong, that Kitty was quite carried along by the current. Her
natural keen intelligence stood her in good stead, her marks for
punctuality, for neatness, for early rising were all good, and she had
little, very little fear of the results of this afternoon's brief
examination.

The examination was to be very short, and was to be conducted on this
special occasion by no less a person than Sir John Wallis himself.
Mrs. Clavering having reckoned up the marks, Mademoiselle Le Brun
having given her testimony, Fraulein having given hers, and the English
teachers having further testified to the industry of the pupils, the
girls of the Upper school were to pass muster before Sir John, who was
to decide without prejudice in favor of the lucky three who alone were
to compete for the great Scholarship in October.

Florence and Kitty were in the sa