everybody
was tired of stamps, and nobody cared to look at mine, so I gave the
book to my brother. The boys in his class were collecting, and he was
only too pleased to have it."

"I believe crests came next," said Avis reflectively. "Vera Clifford
introduced them, because she was so proud her family has one of its own.
She put it on the front page, and showed it to everybody."

"Yes, and she never forgave Doris Kennedy for making fun of it."

"What did Doris say?"

"Well, you see, the Clifford crest is a lion holding a shell, and the
motto is a Latin one which means, 'Do not touch!' Doris said the lion
was holding a purse, and the motto meant, 'What I've got I'll keep'. It
was a good hit at Vera, because she's very stingy, although she has
plenty of pocket money. She only gave twopence to the Waifs and Strays
Fund--it was less than anybody else in the class; and she'll hardly
ever lend her things, either, though she often borrows from other
girls."

"She used all my Indian ink last term, and never gave me any back when
she bought a new bottle," said Winnie. "She's certainly rather mean."

"The crests looked beautiful when they were pasted into albums," said
Avis. "Beatrice Wynne used to paint borders round hers in red, and blue,
and gold. Her book was like an old illuminated manuscript."

"It was a difficult craze, though, to keep up," said Winnie, "because we
couldn't most of us collect enough crests to fill a book. Post-marks
were much easier. We used to arrange them according to the different
counties they were in. Miss Harper encouraged that fad; she said it
taught us geography."

"So it did; but we made the most absurd mistakes sometimes. I remember
putting Abingdon down under Devonshire, and Ilkley under Lincolnshire. I
used to have to look the places up in the atlas. It was rather too like
lessons to be very popular, so we all took to drawing pigs instead."

"Drawing pigs!" exclaimed Patty.

"Yes, with your eyes shut. It's most amusing to have a pig book. You get
each of your friends to close her eyes tightly, and then draw a pig,
putting in its tail and its eye, and to sign her name to it afterwards.
You can't think what funny pictures people make. The eye's generally in
the middle of the pig's back, and the tail twirling away anywhere but in
the right place."

"All except Miss Harper's pig," said Winnie, "and that was because she
drew the eye first. It wasn't quite fair, because you're supposed to