like yours, I should have my dresses made longer.'

'No, you wouldn't, if you had five brothers always wanting you to do
things,' retorted Barbara, promptly. It was saddening to find that, even
here, people were prepared to make remarks about the slimness of her legs.

Angela was so surprised at her sudden show of resistance that she forgot
to giggle.

'I say, you'd better not speak like that to Jean Murray,' she said in a
warning tone, glancing as she spoke at Jean, as though she expected her
to take immediate measures for the suppression of the new girl. 'She's
been the youngest for so long that naturally she's inclined to be jealous,
now you've come to take her place. Of course she has to pretend she's
glad, but you can't expect her to like the idea of somebody else taking
off the head girl's----'

'Oh, if that's all,' said Barbara, indifferently, 'I don't want to take
off anybody's boots, thank you.'

'You'll have to, whether you like it or not,' interposed Jean, who had
been listening quite complacently to Angela's description of her feelings.
'Come along now, and see Margaret Hulme; and don't be such a month about
it, or else we shall catch it for stopping in here so long.'

'Who is Margaret Hulme, and why have I got to go and see her?' asked Babs,
hanging back a little. It was so perplexing to have to do things without
being given any reason for it.

Both the girls opened their eyes wide. 'Why, she is the head girl!' they
explained, as if that were reason enough for anything; and without waiting
for any more objections, they pulled her across the room to where the
fair girl still made the centre of the group round the fire. She kept
them waiting for some seconds before she condescended to notice that they
were there.

'Didn't I tell you to go back to your own playroom?' she demanded
presently. Then her eyes fell on Barbara, and she scanned her critically
up and down.

'This is Jill Urquhart's cousin,' explained Jean, hurriedly, and she gave
Barbara an unexpected push that sent her stumbling, with her usual lack
of good fortune, right against the head girl.

'Take care, child!' said Margaret, frowning. And while Babs stammered out
some apology, she turned to the other girls behind her and said something
that made them all laugh.

'She's only eleven, though she's so awfully tall; and her name is Barbara
Berkeley,' volunteered Angela, peering over the shoulder of the new girl.

'Who spoke to you?' inq