.'

There was certainly something in what she said, and Barbara heaved a
sigh for the complications of school life. It was so silly, she felt,
so extremely silly to make such a fuss about the displeasure of the
head girl, and to avoid it by doing such stupid things for her. Why
couldn't the head girl take off her own boots, like every one else?
However, it did not matter much, one way or the other; and Babs would
have taken off anybody's boots to secure a little friendliness in this
most unfriendly of assemblages. So she threaded her way through the crowd
of girls to where Margaret Hulme stood talking with the enthusiastic
hockey players who formed the first eleven. She had not begun to take
off her boots, Babs noticed, so perhaps it was true after all, and the
head girl was really waiting for some one to come and do it for her.

'Ruth would make a splendid half-back if she'd only learn to strike
better,' Margaret was saying earnestly; 'and if Winifred wasn't so
frightened of tackling, we should have quite a--what is it, child?'

'Please, I've come to know if you want your boots unlaced,' said Barbara,
rather faintly. She was fully prepared to be laughed at again for her
pains; and, indeed, it did seem a most ridiculous suggestion to make to
any one. But the head girl treated it as if it were the most natural thing
in the world.

'Of course I do. Do you want to do them to-day?' was her reply, and she
immediately put her right foot a little forward and went on talking to
her eleven.

'Oh, but I don't _want_ to take them off,' cried Babs, eagerly. 'I only
thought----'

But Margaret was too deep in her conversation to pay any attention to
the youngest girl in the school; and Barbara knelt down unwillingly and
struggled with a stubborn knot in a muddy bootlace. She had hardly begun
her unattractive task, when some one dropped suddenly beside her on the
floor and laid a hot hand on hers.

'You leave the head girl's boots alone!' said Jean's voice in her ear.
'It's just like your interfering ways, to come sneaking up to her when
I wasn't looking. Go away and mind your own business!'

Now, Babs had just been resenting deeply the absurdity of her position at
the feet of the head girl. She did not want to take off anybody's boots,
and she thought it an exceedingly stupid thing to do. But to give up her
task because some one came and got cross about it, was quite another
matter. A lurking spirit of mischief, helped by th