e exhilaration she
still felt after her two hours in the open air, made her retain her hold
on the knot in the head girl's bootlace.

'I am minding my own business,' she retorted stoutly. 'Ever since I've
been here, you and Angela have dinned the head girl's boots into my ears
till I'm sick of hearing about the stupid things. Now I'm here, I'm not
going to stop till I've done them; so you'd better go away yourself.'

[Illustration: 'What in the name of wonder are you children doing down
there?']

Jean glanced at her furiously, and Barbara tugged away at the bootlace
and began whistling again, to show how little she cared whether Jean was
angry or not. Above their heads, the gossip went on busily about the style
of the first hockey eleven.

'How about our chances against the Wilford club next month?' some one was
asking.

'As to that,' said Margaret, with confidence, 'if we only keep our heads
we shall have no difficulty whatever in standing----'

She did not finish her sentence, for at that instant a violent onslaught
on her right foot put a comical end to it by nearly upsetting her balance.
She just saved herself by seizing the arm of the nearest girl, and the
hockey gossip came to an abrupt finish.

'What in the name of wonder are you children doing down there?' demanded
Margaret, wrathfully. The knot had come undone by this time, and Jean
was tugging at one end of the bootlace, while Babs, with an elfish glee
shining in her bright little eyes, was keeping a firm hold on the other
end.

'You go away,' Jean was gasping in a choked voice. 'I've done this for
two years, and I'm not going to give up doing it now.'

'You told me yourself I'd got to do it, and I'm not going away till it's
done, so there!' laughed Barbara, in reply.

She made another dash at the foot between them, and the head girl again
nearly lost her balance. 'Stop quarrelling, and leave my foot alone, you
naughty little wretches!' cried Margaret, stamping her disengaged foot
vigorously. Jean, with two years of discipline behind her, awoke suddenly
to the voice of authority and started to her feet, covered with terror
at the enormity of her offence. But Babs uttered a yell of delight at
finding the victory so easily won.

'Why don't you unlace somebody else's boots?' she shouted defiantly to
her adversary. 'There's lots of boots round here waiting to be unlaced.'

Margaret stooped down and lifted her up bodily, and set her on her feet
besid