able to attend, as the
expedition would be of great educational value. The general
conversation in the room immediately turned upon geology. The black
hat with cherries bore down upon the Professor, and its owner plunged
into a lengthy discussion on the flora of the carboniferous period, so
apparently absorbing that it left her no opportunity to lodge
complaints as to the behaviour of the pupils. The chums, whose social
duties were now finished, slipped thankfully away to prep.

"I'm disgusted with the Professor!" groaned Morvyth. "It's too bad of
him to take up another of our precious Saturday afternoons with his
geology excursion. The tennis match will be all off now, and I know we
could have beaten the Sixth! I don't want to hunt for fossils! I'm
tired of continually having my mind improved!"

"We really don't get a fair chance for games at this school," Ardiune
grumbled in sympathy. "I wish Gibbie were sporting instead of
intellectual!"

It was really a grievance to the girls to be obliged to abandon tennis
on this occasion. The match between Sixth and Fifth had been a
fixture, and each side had hopes of its own champions. Daphne and
Barbara were good players, but Valentine and Muriel had been
practising early and late, and in the estimation of their own Form
were well in the running for victory. Even the juniors had looked
forward to witnessing the combat. Valentine, in her disappointment,
went so far as to suggest to Miss Gibbs that the match might claim
precedence over the excursion. The astonished mistress gazed at her
for a moment with blank face, then burst out:

"Give up the fossil hunt in favour of tennis! What nonsense! You ought
all to be deeply grateful to Professor Marshall for coming to take us.
You girls don't appreciate your privileges!"

"There's one compensation," urged Fauvette. "We shall walk through the
village, and, if we break line a little, it will give a chance for
somebody to dash into the shop and buy pear-drops. One had better do
it for us all, and get a pound. We'll pay up our shares, honest."

On the afternoon of Saturday, twenty-six rather apathetic geologists
started forth from the Grange. Each carried a basket, and a few, who
had scrambled first, had secured hammers. Miss Gibbs, armed with "An
Illustrated Catalogue of the Fossils in the Bradbury Museum," by
means of which she hoped to identify specimens, brought up the rear,
in company with Veronica, and the school crocodiled i