ouldn't be here now if Tom Postboy hadn't pulled
up his horses in time."

"And was it for her to cast up to me if I was a bit overtaken?" demanded
Nanny.

It may be supposed that after such a conversation as this there was not
much chance of the bowl-dish setting the fashion. There was not the
same ill-temper and jealousy of Susan Pucklechurch being held up as an
example, for her family were the natural hangers-on of Greenhow, and
were, besides, always neater and better dressed than the others; but
Mrs Mole was even poorer than themselves, and had worked with them,
even while "keeping herself to herself," a great offence in their eyes.
Thus nobody was inclined to follow the clipped fashion, except one or
two meeker women, who had scarcely seen that their girls' hair was
getting beyond bounds. It is to be remembered that seventy years ago,
long hair could hardly be kept in respectable trim by busy mothers
working in the fields, and with much less power of getting brushes and
combs than at present; so that the crops were almost the only means of
securing cleanliness and tidiness, and were worn also by all the little
daughters of such gentry as did not care for fashion, nor for making
them sleep on a ring of lumps as big as walnuts. So that Mrs Carbonel
and her sisters really wished for what was wholesome and proper when
they tried to make the children conform to their rules, if the women
could only have seen it so, instead of resenting the interference.

Sunday brought George Hewlett's two girls with their hair fastened up in
womanly guise, and their cousins becurled as before; but there was
nothing particularly untidy, and Mary held her peace.

However, the war was not over, and one day, when, after a short absence,
Dora and Sophy went into the school, they found five or six girls
bristling with twists of old newspapers, and others in a still more
objectionable condition, with wild unkempt hair about their necks, and
the half-dozen really neat ones were on the form around Mrs Thorpe, who
proceeded to tell Dora that she was quite in despair, the more she spoke
to the girls about tidy heads, the worse they were, and she was really
afraid to let her own children or the clean ones sit near the dirty
ones.

Dora's spirit was roused. "Very well," she said, "Mrs Carbonel and I
will not be disobeyed. Come here, Lizzie Barton. Your head is
disgraceful. Lend me your scissors, Mrs Thorpe."

Lizzie Barton began to cry,