them inside, but
the grotto was close to the place where Paolo, the gardener, chopped
wood for the stoves, so there were plenty of logs lying about that
served as seats. In a very short time the guests were settled,
hospitality was handed round, the colored papers were removed from the
goodies, and there was a general abandonment to sticky satisfaction.
Between the first and second distributions Agnes, as President of the
Sorority, addressed the meeting.

"We've a proposition to make to you all," she began. "There are some
things in this school that aren't always quite what they ought to be,
and it's rather hard for juniors to fight their own battles. Sometimes
you squabble among yourselves--oh, _I_ know!--and sometimes you get it
hot from the seniors or the Transition. Well, we're going to help you.
Each of us means to take on one or more of you and be a sort of fairy
godmother to you, and responsible for seeing you're decently treated. I
understand there's been a little trouble about your lunch biscuits?"

"It's Bertha!"

"And Mabel!"

"They're real mean!"

"They simply grab them!"

"Oh, do please stop it!"

"And we haven't had our turns at the tennis courts!"

"And Winnie borrowed my paint-box and won't give it back!"

Agnes held up a hand to stop the general clamor.

"That'll do!" she decreed. "I'm going to sort you out and give you each
to your fairy godmother, and you may pour your woes into her ears, and
she'll try her level best to right your wrongs. No, you _mayn't_ say
whom you'd like to have. It's _we_ who'll do the choosing, thanks!
Anybody who's not satisfied can walk off and she won't get a champion at
all or any more candy either. I mean what I say."

Such an awful threat reduced the juniors to order, and they submitted
quite peaceably to be apportioned among their various benefactresses.
Irene secured Little Flaxen, Lorna had a pair of solemn-eyed sisters,
Peachy pounced upon the liveliest trio and proclaimed them as her
triplets, and Delia adopted the two youngest as twins.

"You can come to us at a pinch," explained Agnes, "but please remember
we're Fairy Godmothers, _Limited_. We'll fight any just crusade, but
we're not going to write your exercises for you, or pull you out of
scrapes when you don't deserve it. That's not our function. There, you
understand? Hand the candy again, somebody. There's another piece each
all round at least, and if there are any over I'll throw them up and y