e was renewed in ----, when the English gained
the decisive battle of ----, in which the Prince ---- was slain and the
Duke of ---- taken prisoner. By the Treaty of ---- a truce was
concluded', &c."

"Perhaps Miss Farrar will think it's a guessing competition," remarked
Honor.

"I dare say she will. I wish we needn't have exams., or marks, or any
horrid things, to show whether we've done well or badly."

"I can get on tolerably with facts," said Lettice, "but I'm always
marked 'weak' for composition. Miss Farrar says I use tautology and
repeat myself, and that my grammar is shaky and my general style poor.
She told me to take Macaulay as a model, but I can no more copy other
people's ways of writing than I could improve my features by staring at
the Venus de Medici."

"Poor old Salad! You're not cut out for an authoress."

"I'm certainly not; I'd rather be a charwoman! I don't aspire to be
editress of the school magazine, I assure you, nor even a contributor.
By the way, Honor, why don't you send something? I'm sure you could."

"I did think of it," replied Honor. "I was going to make a nice little
series of acrostics on all of your names. I did one about Chatty, and
showed it to Janie; but she said that it was far too slangy, and Vivian
would never pass it, so I tore it up, and felt too squashed to go on."

"Oh! what was it?" exclaimed the girls. "Can't you remember it?"

"I'll try. I believe it went this way:

"C hatty Burns is just a ripper!
H air's the colour of a kipper;
A nd her face so round and red is
T hat you'd think her cheeks were cherries.
T hough we often call her 'Fatty',
Y ou depend we're nuts on Chatty."

"What a shame!" cried the indignant original of the acrostic. "My
hair's auburn, it's not the colour of a kipper!"

"We certainly call you 'Fatty', though," laughed Lettice. "I think the
poem is lovely!"

"It's a good thing you tore it up, all the same," said Ruth. "Vivian
would have been simply horrified. We have a crusade against slang at
Chessington, and 'ripper' is one of the words absolutely vetoed. We
only say 'jolly' by stealth."

"I'm sure 'jolly' ought to be allowable. I saw it in a book in the
library: 'as jolly as a sandboy', was the expression."

"What is a sandboy?" asked Lettice. "The phrase is always quoted as the
high-water mark of bliss."

"I've never been able to find out," said Ruth. "I suppose it's either
one of those wretched little