its contents turned upon Maude with blazing
eyes.

"I never thought much of you, Maude Helm, but I didn't believe even you
could have invented such a detestably mean, dastardly trick as this. You
deserve to be boycotted by every decent girl in the school."

"It was only a joke," blustered Maude. "Everyone expects to be taken in
to-day."

"It's a wicked, heartless joke--the cruellest thing you could have
thought of--and you knew it, and did it on purpose!"

"How could you, Maude? It's hateful!" came in a chorus from the other
girls. "We'll tell Miss White!"

"Well, I'm sure it's not so dreadful, and it was Gladys who thought of
it, too!" protested Maude, finding popular opinion against her.

"Don't try and put it off on Gladys, though one of you is as bad as the
other. Girls, I'm not going to speak to Maude Helm or Gladys Merriman
for a week, and I hope nobody else will either!" thundered Hetty.

Lennie Chapman and Meg Gordon were trying to comfort Gipsy, and make her
take heart of grace again, but she had suffered a severe shock, and
controlled herself with difficulty. She sat up, however, as Miss White
came into the room.

"Don't tell her!" she whispered huskily. "What's the use? It would only
make a fuss, and I hate fusses. The thing's over now, and I'd rather try
and forget it. Maude needn't be proud of such a poor joke!"

"What a stoic you are!" returned Meg admiringly.

CHAPTER XIV

Mountaineering

EASTER was drawing very near, and the school was to break up for more
than three weeks. Gipsy, to her intense delight, had been asked to spend
the holidays with the Gordons, and Miss Poppleton had graciously allowed
her to accept the invitation.

"We had meant to ask you for Christmas," said Meg, "and Mother had even
got as far as writing a letter to Poppie; then Billy broke out in spots,
and the doctor said we might all have taken the infection, and we must
stop in quarantine. It was a horrible nuisance. I felt so savage! But we
couldn't invite you to come and share measles! We're all looking forward
most tremendously to your visit. I'm so excited I can hardly wait till
the end of the term!"

After six months spent entirely at Briarcroft, Gipsy felt that the idea
of a change was most welcome and exhilarating. She liked Meg, and wanted
to see her home surroundings. The two younger sisters, Eppie and Molly,
she knew already, as they were in the Lower Third and Second Forms, and
she had always set