t year or century,
or any other time. We were only talking for their general edification."

"Then nobody actually said a word about it?" persisted Jerry. "You just
made up all that stuff?"

"It didn't do any hurt," began Muriel. "We thought----"

"Don't be such a prig, Jerry," put in Mignon, impatiently. "It isn't
half so wicked to play a joke on those stupid sophomores as it is to ask
one's mother for money for a fountain pen, and then use the money for
candy and ice cream."

There was a chorus of giggles from the girls, in which Jerry did not
join. She was eyeing Mignon steadily. "See here, Mignon," she said with
offended dignity. "I just want you to know that I told my mother about
that money that very same night. I may have my faults, but I certainly
don't tell things that aren't true." Jerry punctuated this pertinent
speech with emphatic nods of her head, and, having said her say, walked
on a little ahead of her friends, the picture of belligerence.

"Now, you've made Jerry angry, Mignon," laughed Susan Atwell.

Mignon merely lifted her thin shoulders. "I can't please every one. If I
did, I should never please myself."

"I don't know what ails Jerry all of a sudden," commented Muriel to
Marjorie. "She isn't usually so--so funny."

Again Marjorie kept her own counsel. She, alone, knew that the object of
the rumor which Muriel and Mignon had started had failed. Ellen Seymour
had gone frankly to headquarters with it, and Miss Archer had asked no
questions. Marjorie wondered what these girls would say if they knew
the truth. She did not like to criticize them, but were they truly
honorable? For a moment she wished she had refused to play on the team
with them. Muriel and Mignon, in particular, seemed so careless of other
people's feelings.

Her sympathies were with Jerry, and quickening her pace she slipped her
arm through that of the fat girl, saying, "Don't you think to-morrow's
algebra lesson is hard?"

Jerry viewed her companion's smiling face rather sulkily. Then
succumbing to the other's charm, she said in a mollified tone: "Of
course it's hard. They're all hard. I know I shall never pass in
algebra."

"Oh, yes, you will," was Marjorie's cheerful assurance. "It's my hardest
study, too; but I'm going to pass my final examination in it. I've
simply made up my mind that I must do it."

"Then I'll make up my mind to pass, too," announced Jerry, inspired by
Marjorie's determined tones. "And, say, it wou