he asked.

'I don't know,' said Angela, rather foolishly. 'Jean said "Come on!" and
we'd promised to share the first opportunity that came; and Babs went, and
so of course I went too.'

Miss Finlayson looked relieved. 'You have made me feel much happier,
children,' she said, 'because I see now that you did not realise what you
were doing, and that your own reasons seemed good enough to you at the
time. If I thought I could not trust to your honour any more, I should
be most unhappy. Do you think you understand?'

The triumvirate looked very thoughtful. Angela, who seemed to have
forgotten all about her alarming symptoms, was the first to speak.

'I suppose I ought to have found out whether the others were right before
I followed them,' she said.

Miss Finlayson nodded.

'And we ought to have made sure we were right ourselves before we let her
follow us, because Angela always follows,' added Jean.

Miss Finlayson nodded again.

Barbara roused herself and shook back her hair. 'I was the worst,' she
said impetuously. 'I did remember about the bounds, and the others didn't
until afterwards. But I forgot about the honour part, truthfully!'

'Yes,' answered the head-mistress; 'you were the worst, Babs; and you
soon found out that the lane did not lead to the enchanted grotto, didn't
you? Now, what we can all see very clearly from this conversation is that
we must think a little more carefully in future before we do things. The
rules in my school are made for people who _think_, and not for people
who have to be told whether a thing is right or wrong. People of that kind
are not the people for me. Are you going to let me trust you again in
future, children?'

There was no doubt whatever from their faces that they thought she might;
but Babs still wanted something cleared up.

'Was the Canon's sermon all wrong, then?' she asked in her straightforward
manner. Jean and Angela looked at the head-mistress nervously; but Miss
Finlayson did not seem to mind.

'The Canon's sermon was rather like my rules,' she pointed out; 'and
it was meant for people who think. It is no use being unselfish in a
thoughtless kind of way, or else you do as much harm as most people do
by being selfish. I want you to try very hard to put lots of thought and
cleverness into your good deeds all your life, so that by the time you
are grown up your good deeds will be really worth doing. Then you will
be able to carry out properly what the Canon