urchins who dive for pennies, or an
ordinary donkey boy. But this is what Miss Farrar calls 'a digression
from the subject'. I want to hear if Honor has written any more
acrostics."

"I made one on Lillie Harper," replied Honor. "It had an illustration,
too, done very badly, in just a few crooked strokes, like little
children draw:

"L illie is a dab at cricket;
I depict her at the wicket.
L ook how tight her bat she's grasping,
L eaving all the fielders gasping!
I have done this sketch in woggles,
E specially to show her goggles.

"It ought to have the picture to really explain it," said Honor
regretfully; "I'm sorry now that I tore it up. I began a piece on the
exams. too; it was a parody of 'The boy stood on the burning deck', but
I can't get beyond the first verse:

"The girl sat at the hard, bare desk,
Whence all but she had fled;
Her fingers they were stained with ink,
And aching was her head."

"Oh, go on! It would be so nice!"

"It's impossible to think of any more."

"The time rolled on, she could not go
Without her teacher's word,"

improvised Ruth.

"That teacher, taking tea below,
Her sighs no longer heard,"

finished Honor. "Only, Miss Farrar wouldn't be taking tea in the middle
of an exam. No, it can't be done!"

"Then we must put 'To be continued'," said Ruth.

"Make another acrostic, Paddy!" urged Lettice.

"Acrostics are too hard, because one is hampered by keeping to the
letters of the girls' names," objected Honor. "Limericks are much
easier. How would this do for Vivian Holmes?--

"There was a head girl of St. Chad's,
Who was subject to fancies and fads;
When we tried to talk slang,
She declared it was wrong,
And said she considered us cads."

"Good!" laughed Ruth. "Only, of course, Vivian wouldn't dream of using
such a word as 'cad'. Now, I've got one about you:

"There's a girl at our house we call 'Paddy':
She's not 'goody-goody', but 'baddy';
She loves practical jokes,
Or to play us a hoax,
Though we tell her such tricks are not 'Chaddy'."

"Very well, Miss Ruth Latimer! I'll return the compliment," said Honor.
"How do you like this?--

"There's a girl at our house who's called Ruth:
She is fond of an unpleasant truth;
She says she is seeking
To practise plain speaking,
But we think she is merely uncouth."

"I don't m