S PLEBE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL," and
"GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL," the girl chums have
become familiar figures. It will be remembered how Grace Harlowe and her
friends, Nora O'Malley and Jessica Bright, during their freshman year,
became the firm friends of Anne Pierson, the brilliant young girl who won
the freshman prize offered each year to the freshmen by Mrs. Gray. The
reader will recall the repeated efforts of Miriam Nesbit, aided by Miss
Leece, the algebra teacher, to disgrace Anne in the eyes of the faculty,
and the way each attempt was frustrated by Grace Harlowe and her
friends. Mrs. Gray's house party, the winter picnic in Upton Wood, and
Anne Pierson's struggles to escape her unworthy father all contributed
toward making the story stand out in the reader's mind.

In "GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE YEAR," the girl chums were found leading
their class in athletics. Here, Miriam Nesbit, still unsubdued, endeavored
once more to humiliate Anne Pierson, and to oust Grace from her position
as captain of the basketball team, being aided in her plan by Julia
Crosby, captain of the junior team, against whom the sophomores had
engaged to play a series of three games. Grace's brave rescue of Julia
Crosby during a skating party and the latter's subsequent repentance
restored good feeling between the two classes, and the book ended with
the final conversion of Miriam after her long and stubbornly nursed
enmity.

David Nesbit's trial flight in his aeroplane, Grace's encounter with the
escaped lunatic, who imagined himself to be Napoleon Bonaparte, were
among the features which made the book absorbing from start to finish.

The clang of the first bell broke in upon the chattering groups, and
obedient to its summons, the girls moved slowly out of the locker-room
and down the corridor, talking in subdued tones as they strolled toward
the study hall.

Miss Thompson stood at her desk, serene and smiling, as the girls filed
in.

"How well Miss Thompson looks," whispered Grace to Anne as they neared
their seats. "Let's go up and see her when this session is over. It's
sure to be short this morning."

It was customary on the opening of school for the members of the various
classes to take their seats of the previous year. Then the sections were
rearranged, the seniors taking the seats left by the graduates, and the
other classes moving up accordingly. The first day of school amounted to
really nothing further than