further remarks, but will at once call upon the speaker
to address us."

Hetty sat down, consciously covered with glory. Her own Form cheered
lustily, and even the unruly Third appeared much impressed. The little
girls in the front row were staring round-eyed and open-mouthed with
admiration. Gipsy rose slowly, took one long, comprehensive glance over
her audience, then in her clear, high-pitched tones began her crusade:

"Girls! I'm afraid most of you will think it's rather cheeky of me to
have taken the matter up when I've only been ten days or so at
Briarcroft, and I'd like at the very start to apologize for what really
must look to you like a piece of cocksure presumption. I think you'll
all allow, though, that it's a pretty true saying that 'outsiders see
most of the game'. I've been examining your institutions pretty
carefully since I came, and it seems to me the game's all in the hands
of the Sixth. There are five separate Guilds in this school--the
Needlework, the Photographic, the Dramatic, the Musical, and the
Athletic. I made enquiries about all of them, and I find that though the
Juniors contribute the bulk of the subscriptions, they haven't the least
voice in the arrangements. Now, in the countries I've lived in, such a
state of affairs would be denounced as tyranny pure and simple. I reckon
a school ought to be a democracy, and every member who joins a society
and pays a subscription has a right to have some say at least in the way
the subscriptions are to be spent. If they don't, it's 'taxation without
representation', a bad old mediaeval custom that it's taken some
countries a revolution to get rid of. I put it to the meeting--Are you
willing to sit down and be tyrannized over by the Sixth? Do you mean to
go on paying your shillings, and never getting the least advantage or
satisfaction out of any of the Guilds?"

An indignant roar of "No, no!" came from the audience. Gipsy had stated
the case very clearly. It was what the Juniors had all felt, but had
never fairly voiced before. They wanted to hear more.

"Go on! Go on!" they cried eagerly.

"There are at present ninety-three girls in this school," continued
Gipsy. "Twenty-two are in the Fifth and Sixth, and seventy-one in the
lower Forms. Just compare those figures! Twenty-two Seniors and
seventy-one Juniors! Why, our majority is simply overwhelming. Now, for
an example let us take the Dramatic Guild. At a shilling a year a head,
the subscription