s wiser: here were girls of sixteen and seventeen years of
age, some of whom would progress no farther along the high-road of
education. As for the boarders who sat in this form, they made up a
jealous little clique, and it was some time before the younger couple
could discover the secret bond.

Then, one morning, the two were sitting with a few others on the
verandah bench, looking over their lessons for the day. Mrs. Gurley had
snatched a moment's rest there, on her way to the secretary's office,
and as long as she allowed her withering eye to play upon things and
people, the girls conned their pages with a great show of industry. But
no sooner had she sailed away than Kate Horner leant forward and called
to Maria Morell, who was at the other end of the seat: "I say, Maria,
Genesis LI, 32."--She held an open Bible in her hand.

Maria Morell frowned caution. "Dash it, Kate, mind those kids!"

"Oh, they won't savvy."

But Laura's eyes were saucers of curiosity, for Tilly, who kept her
long lashes lowered, had given her a furious nudge. With a wink and a
beck to each other, the bigger girls got up and went away.

"I say, what did you poke me so hard for?" inquired Laura as she and
Tilly followed in their wake, at the clanging of the public prayer-bell.

"You soft, didn't you hear what she said?"

"Of course I did"--and Laura repeated the reference.

"Let's look it up then." Under cover of the prayer Tilly sought it out,
and together they bent their heads over it.

On this occasion, Tilly was more knowing than Laura; but on this alone;
for when Laura once grasped what they were driving at, she was as
nimble-witted as any.

Only a day or two later it was she who, in face of Kate and Maria,
invited Tilly to turn up chapter and verse.

Both the elder girls burst out laughing.

"By dad!" cried Kate Horner, and smacked her thigh. "This kid knows a
thing or two."

"You bet! I told you she wasn't born yesterday."--And Maria laid her
arm round Laura's shoulders.

Thus was Laura encouraged, put on her mettle; and soon there was no
more audacious Bible-reader in the class than she.

The girls were thrown thus upon the Book of Books for their contraband
knowledge, since it was the only frankly outspoken piece of literature
allowed within the College walls: the classics studied were rigidly
expurgated; the school library was kept so dull that no one over the
age of ten much cared to borrow a volume from it. And, by