in the street, and step in and out of
the puddles like this!' added Wilfred, taking the end of his coat between
his thumb and finger, and prancing round Barbara on tiptoe.

Egbert shut up his book, and joined lazily in the general derision. 'Poor
little Babe! will it have to turn into a young lady, and stop talking
slang, and learn about box-pleats and false hems and _tucks_?' he jeered
softly.

Barbara turned her back on the others, and once more appealed to
Christopher. Teasing was not the kind of thing that roused her; she
had grown accustomed to it, long ago. 'What else, Kit?' she demanded
impatiently. 'There's something else, isn't there?'

Christopher nodded. 'Yes,' he said ominously, 'there's something else.
But I'm not going to tell you what it is.'

'Yes,' said Egbert, stretching himself, 'of course there's something else,
Babe. We all know what it is, but we're not going to tell you either.'

Babs looked swiftly from one to the other. 'I know!' she said, shaking
the hair out of her eyes. 'It's--school!'

Kit nodded again. 'That swagger place near Crofts, where the adopted kid
has been,' he continued in a solemn tone.

The others copied his manner, and looked at her with a ridiculous pretence
of concern. 'Poor Babe!' they said in a chorus.

Barbara again shook the hair out of her eyes with a defiant gesture. Then
she spun round lightly on her toes, and surprised everybody by laughing
scornfully. 'What a fuss you're all making!' she cried. 'Don't you know
I am simply _longing_ to go to school?'

Judging from their expressions, the Berkeley boys certainly did not know
anything of the kind. Even Christopher was puzzled at her curious way of
taking his prediction. 'You're putting it on, Babs!' he said doubtfully.

Barbara stopped spinning round, and faced them all breathlessly. 'I'm
not, honour bright!' she declared. 'I have always wanted to go to school;
I have always longed to have some real friends of my own, and to be
with people who are not trying all the time to be funny. You don't know
how tiring it is to be scored off from morning till night. I want a
change; I want to do regular, proper lessons, and to get to the top of
the school, and to have every one looking up to me! Then, they play
games at school, _real_ games, instead of the stupid ones we play in
the square, that only graze your knees. Girls are nice and jolly and
quiet, and they understand you, and they don't bother you to do things
whe