Jean, how different it would be! I shouldn't
have a single trouble left in the world, and life at The Priory would be
just delightful."

CHAPTER VI

Albums

"I want you to put something in my album, Patty," said Winnie Robinson
one afternoon, producing a dainty little volume reserved for souvenirs
of her friends. "You're clever at drawing, so please let it be a
picture, and if you can colour it, so much the better."

"I hope I shan't spoil your book," replied Patty, turning over the
leaves to look at the various artistic efforts and poetical quotations
with which about half the pages were filled.

"Of course you won't! I expect yours will be one of the nicest. I want
every girl in the class to either paint or write something, and then I
shall have a keepsake of the Upper Fourth. Maggie Woodhall drew this
pretty little dog, and Ella Johnson those roses, and Enid has promised
to make up a piece of poetry on purpose."

"It was only half a promise," declared Enid.

"Then you must write half a poem."

"Suppose the Muse deserts me?"

"Oh, rubbish! You can always make up verses. They seem to flow just as
if you turned on a tap."

"Have you an album, Patty?" enquired Avis.

"No," said Patty. "I never saw one like Winnie's before. It's something
quite new to me."

"Oh! then you must get one. They're the fashion just at present, and
every girl in the class has one."

"We're rather fond of fads at The Priory," explained Winnie. "We have a
rage for some particular thing, and are quite silly over it for a while,
until we grow tired of it, and take up something else. This is about the
fifth craze since I've been at the school. They never last long."

"The first was foreign stamps," said Enid. "Don't you remember how keen
we were about collecting them, and how we envied May Firth because she
had an uncle in Persia?"

"Maggie Woodhall got several stamps from Mexico," said Avis. "I think
her collection was one of the best."

"I was very enthusiastic about mine," said Enid. "I exchanged three new
lead pencils once for a Japanese stamp, and I asked Mother for an album
for my birthday present. It was a beauty, too. Then, in the holidays, I
went to stay with my godmother, and she had a whole pillow-case full of
old letters, mostly foreign ones. She let me tear the stamps off all the
envelopes, and I got at least twenty new kinds. I was delighted with
them; but when I came back to school the fashion had changed,