l of racy Irish humour when she
liked, and would send the girls into fits of laughter with her quaint
sayings and funny stories. Her nickname of "Paddy Pepper-box" stuck to
her, and she certainly justified it occasionally.

"She's like a volcano," declared Lettice Talbot. "Sometimes if you
tease her she starts with a bang, and lets off steam for five minutes.
Then it's all over, and she's quite pleasant again, until next time."

"I'd rather have that than sulking, at any rate," said Dorothy
Arkwright. "A storm often clears the air."

"It's not much use chaffing her, either," said Madge Summers, "for she
always seems to get the best of it."

"Yes; if she's down one minute she'll bob up again the next, like a
cork."

Honor's humours were apt to overflow into the region of practical
jokes. These were generally played on such genial recipients as Lettice
Talbot and Madge Summers, but occasionally she would venture on more
dangerous ground. One afternoon, at the end of her first week at
Chessington, she was in the dressing-room, changing her shoes in
preparation for cricket, when Ruth Latimer interposed.

"I forgot to tell you, Paddy! Games are off to-day."

"Why?" asked Honor in astonishment, for the hour and a half in the
playing-fields was as strict a part of the college curriculum as the
morning lessons.

"Because it's the Health Testing."

"What's that?"

"A kind of medical examination," explained Dorothy Arkwright. "We
always have it at the beginning of each term, to make sure that, as
Miss Cavendish expresses it, we are 'physically fit for the duties of
school life'."

"Oh!" said Honor, looking rather aghast at the prospect.

"You needn't pull such a long face, Paddy," said Lettice. "We none of
us mind; indeed, we think it's a joke."

"We have a lady doctor, you see," said Ruth, "and she's so jolly, she
keeps one laughing all the time."

"What does she do?"

"Oh! weighs us, and sounds our lungs, and tests our eyes, and measures
our chests."

"You'll have to draw a deep breath, and to put out your tongue, and to
let her look at your teeth," added Lettice.

"And if any girl is really very much below standard," said Dorothy,
"she is 'turned out to grass'. That means that she only does
half-lessons."

"Of course, she has to be rather bad for that," remarked Ruth.

"It's never been my luck yet!" lamented Lettice.

"I should think not, with those fat, red cheeks! You couldn't look
delicate, howev