e've got the game into our own hands if we like,"
continued the speaker. "Nobody can force us to subscribe to societies of
which we don't approve. We'll insist on a referendum of the whole
school, and see how the result turns out. Are you all ready to combine
on this point? Those in favour, please say 'Aye'."

"Aye! Aye! Aye!" arose from all sides.

"Well spoken!"

"Hurrah for the Junior School!"

"Three cheers for Gipsy Latimer!" shouted Hetty Hancock, jumping up
agitatedly from her chair, and nearly falling over the edge of the
platform in the heat of her enthusiasm.

"Hear, Hear!"

"Hip, hip, hip, hooray!"

The excitement was intense. Gipsy's oratory had been quite spontaneous
and unaffected, and like most genuine things it carried conviction to
its hearers. In the midst of a babel of voices the big bell rang for
afternoon school. The girls fled to their various classrooms, discussing
the matter on their way upstairs.

"It's the best idea I've ever heard!" declared Meg Gordon. "Gipsy
Latimer's a trump! I'll support her in anything she proposes."

"I wonder we never thought of such a thing before," said Cassie Bertram.

"Yes, to think of our having stood the Sixth for years, and never making
a move!"

"I think it ought to have come from some of us, though," objected Maude
Helm. "Gipsy's quite a new girl, and it's rather cheek of her to try and
foist her American notions upon us, as if we didn't know anything."

"Oh, you shut up! Why didn't you suggest it yourself?"

"I'm rather of Maude's opinion," said Alice O'Connor. "I agree with the
thing in principle, but I don't like it coming from a new girl."

"New girls oughtn't to run the whole show," added Gladys Merriman.

"Oh, you three! You'd find fault with an angel! For goodness' sake don't
get up these petty little jealousies, and spoil the whole affair. What
does it matter if Gipsy's new? Everybody has to be new some time. She's
shown she's capable of a great deal more than most of us are."

"And she knows it too, doesn't she just?" sneered Maude. "The way she
stood on that platform and talked!"

"It's sheer nastiness on your part, Maude Helm, to try and belittle her!
You won't get much glory for yourself by sticking pins in other people;
and I can tell you, if you're going to set up in opposition to Gipsy,
you've no chance. I'll undertake there's hardly a girl in the Lower
School now who won't side with Gipsy Latimer!"

CHAPTER V

A Pit