body. Gipsy
calmly counted the upraised hands, then rang a bell for silence.

"I may take it, then, that the motion is carried by the general consent
of the meeting," she continued. "We're agreed that some stand ought to
be made against the aggressions of the Seniors. Now, the next
question to be considered is what we mean to do, and how we're going to
do it. It seems to me that we ought to have something very definite to
work upon. What I propose is that a picked few of us go as delegates to
the Sixth, and ask for something that has always been refused before.
If, as I expect, they say 'No', then we shall have a just ground of
complaint, and we'll use it as a text at the Annual Meeting to demand a
new arrangement of the Guilds. Four of us ought to make up the
deputation. I'm willing to go for one, and I think I can promise for
Hetty Hancock and Lennie Chapman. Who'll volunteer to be the fourth?"

There was a moment's silence. It was all very well to shout rebellion in
chorus, but the old tradition of awe for the Sixth still oppressed the
Juniors, when it came to the point of openly bearding the lions in
question.

"I will!" said a voice from the back row.

It was Meg Gordon, a member of the Upper Fourth, a rather nice-looking
girl of about Gipsy's own age. Meg had listened with closest attention
and wholehearted agreement, and was prepared to embrace the cause with
the zeal she considered it deserved. If called upon to do so, she would
have been ready even to face Miss Poppleton herself.

"Good!" replied Gipsy. "Then we'll make up a test case. If it's refused,
then we draw up a statement of our grievances, and what we want
reformed, and present it at the General Meeting. If that's also
refused--" (Gipsy paused a moment to let her words take due effect)
"then we show our teeth!"

"What's our programme then?" shouted one of the Lower Fourth.

"I'll tell you. If the Seniors have shown themselves unworthy of our
confidence, they don't deserve our support in any respect. Instead of
voting to elect them as officers, we'll withdraw our subscriptions, and
found a separate system of Guilds for the Lower School alone."

The boldness of Gipsy's suggestion almost took away the breath of her
hearers. To break loose from the hard regime of the Seniors and form a
system of self-governing societies among the Juniors had never occurred
to anybody at Briarcroft before. The idea was splendid in its magnitude.

"It seems to me w