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Good gracious, no! We've been thinking and talking

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of nothing else hut you and Amanda!' said Felicity. 'We haven't once thought of tricks. But we ought to now - just to celebrate your bravery!'

T wish you wouldn't be an ass/ said June. 'I happened to be there, and saw Amanda in difficulties, that's all. It might have been anyone else.'

But the second-formers would not hide their pride in June. Alicia was pleased and proud too. She came down to clap her small cousin on the back.

'Good work, June,' she said. 'But - it's jolly bad luck on Amanda, isn't it? Out of all games for the rest of the term - and maybe no chance for the Olympic Games next year either.'

No one said, or even thought, that it served Amanda right for her conceit, and tor her continual boasting of her prowess. Not even the lower-formers said it, though none ol them had liked Amanda. Her misfortune roused their pity. Perhaps the only person in the school who came nearest to thinking that it served Amanda right was the French girl, Suzanne, who had detested Amanda for her brusque ways, and for her contempt of Suzanne herself.

But then Suzanne could not possibly understand why Amanda had gone for that long swim, nor could she understand the bitter disappointment of being out of all games tor so long.

June was as good as her word. She went to see Amanda as soon as she was allowed to, taking with her a big box ot crystallized ginger.

'Hallo, Amanda,' she said, 'how's things?'

'Hallo, June,' said Amanda, who looked pale and exhausted still. 'Oh, I say - thanks for the ginger/

Matron went out of the room. Amanda turned to June quickly. 'June - I'm not much good at thanking people - but thanks for all you did. I'll never forget it.'

'Now I'll say something/ said June. 'And I'll say it for ! he two of us and then we won't mention it again. We

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were both idiots over the coaching, both of us. 1 wish the row hadn't happened, but it did. It was fifty-fifty, really. Let's forget it.'

'You might have been in both the second teams,' said Amanda, regretfully.

T'rn going to be!' said June. J mean to be! I'm going to practise like anything again - and will you believe it, Moira's offered to time me at swimming each day, and stand and serve me balls at tennis each afternoon!'

Amanda brightened at once. 'That's good,' she said. 'June - I shan't mind things quite so much - being out of everything, 1 mean - if you will get into the second teams. I shan't feel I'm completely wasted then.'

'Right,' said June. 'I'll do my best.'

'And there's another thing,' said Amanda. 'I'm going to spend my time coaching the lower-formers when I'm allowed up. I am to have my leg in plaster and then I can hobble about. I shan't be able to play games myself, but I shall at least be able to see that others play them well.'

'Right,' said June again. 'I'll pick out a few winners for you, Amanda, so that they'll be ready for you when you get up!'

'Time to go, June,' said Matron, bustling in again. 'You'll tire Amanda with all your gabble. But, dear me - she looks much brighter! You'd better come again, June.'

'I'm going to,' said June, departing with a grin. 'Don't eat all Amanda's ginger, Matron. I know your little ways!'

'Well, of all the cheeky young scamps!' said Matron, laughing. But June bad gone.

Matron was pleased to see Amanda looking so much brighter. 'June's just like Alicia, that wicked cousin of hers,' she said. 'Yes, and Alicia is just like her mother. T had her mother here, too, when she was a girl. Dear, dear, I must be getting old. The tricks Alicia's mother used to play too. It's a wonder my hair isn't snow-white!'

She left Amanda for an afternoon sleep. But Amanda

didn't sieep. She lay thinking. What long long thoughts come to those in bed, ill and in pain! Amanda sorted a lot ol things out, during the time she was ill.

Nobody pointed out to her that pride always comes before a [all, but she pointed it out a hundred times to herself. Nobody pointed out that when you had fallen, what really mattered was not the fall, but the getting up again and going on. Amanda meant to get up again and go on. She meant to make up lor many many things.

And if my leg muscles never get strong enough for me to play games really well again, I shan't moan and groan, she thought. After all, it's courage that matters, not the things that happen to you. It doesn't really matter what happens, so long as you've got plenty of pluck to face it. courage. Pluck. Well, I have got those. I'll be a games- mistress if f can't go in for games myself. I like coaching and I'm good at it. It will be second-best but I'm lucky to have a second-best.

And so, when she got up and hobbled around, Amanda was welcomed everywhere by the lower- lormers, all anxious to shine in her eyes, and to show her that they were sorry for her having to limp about. \manda marvelled at their short memories. They've iorgotten already that I never bothered to help anyone hut June, she thought. She gave all her extra time to the eager youngsters, the time that normally she would have had for playing games herself, if it hadn't been for her leg.

'She's really a born games teacher!' the games- mistress said to Miss Peters. 'And now she's taken June on again, and June is so remarkably docile, that kid will be in the second teams in no time!'

So she was, of course, unanimously voted there by -Moira, Sally and Darrell. Amanda felt a prick of pride - but a different kind of pride from the kind she bad felt .lore. This time it was a pride in someone else, not

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The next thing that happened was a good deal pleasanter. The Higher Certitieate girls had sat for their exam and at last had got it behind them. They had gone about looking harassed and pale, but made a miraculous recovery immediately the last exam was over,

'And now/ said Alicia, T feel I want a bit of relaxation. I want to be silly and laugh till my sides crack! What wouldn't I give to be a second-former just now, and play a few mad tricks on somebody.'

And then the tricks had happened. They were, of course, planned by the irrepressible second-formers, particularly June and Felicity, who had both been sorry ior Darrell and Alicia during their hard exam week.

These two had put their heads together, and had produced a series of exceedingly well-planned tricks. They iold the other second-formers, who giggled helplessly.

'These tricks all depend on perfect timing,' said June. One we already know - the hair-pin trick - the other is one I've sent for, that I saw advertised in my latest trick booklet.' June had a perfect library of these, and although they were always being confiscated, they were also being continually added to by the indefatigable June.

'We didn't think the hair-pin trick was quite played -lit, yet,' said Felicity. 'It still has possibilities. But we 'bought we'd combine it with another trick, which will amaze the sixth-formers as well as Mam'zelle.'

'Good, good, good!' said the eager listeners. 'What ■ h?'

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June explained lucidly. 'Well, listen. See these pellets? They are perfectly ordinary pellets till they're wetted - and then, exactly a quarter of an hour after they're wetted, they swell up into a kind of snake-thing - and they hiss!'

'Hiss?' said Nora, her eyes gleaming. 'What do you mean - hiss?'

'Well, don't you know what "hiss" means?' said June. 'Like this!' And she hissed so violently at Nora that she shrank back in alarm.

'But how am they hiss?' she asked.

'I don't know. It's just part of the trick,' said June, impatiently. 'They're wetted - they swell up into funny white snakes - and as they swell, they hiss. In fact, they make a remarkably loud hissing noise! I've got one wetted ready on that desk, so that you can see it working in a lew minutes.

'Oooh,' said the second-formers, in delight.

June went on: 'What I propose to do is to send one of us into the sixth form when Mam'zelle is taking it, and withdraw her hair-pins with the magnet,' said June. 'She'll miss them and rush out to do her hair again. In the meantime, up the chimney there will be one of these pellets, ready wetted - and by it will be a tiny pin¬cushion. But instead of pins, it will have hair-pins - just like Mam'zelle's - stuck into it!'

'I see the trick, I see it!" said Katherine, her eyes dancing. 'By the time Mam'zelle has come back and is settled down, the pellet-snake will come out, and began to hiss like anything - and everyone will hear it . . .'

'Yes,' said Felicity, 'and when they go to hunt for the hissing noise, just up the chimney they will find - the little cushion stuck full ol Mam'zelle's hair-pins!'

'But won't they see the snake?' asked Nora.

'No - because it laiis into the iiuest powder when it's liuidicd.' said (inn- h can't o en be seen That's the

beauty of it. They'll take down the cushion, and won't they gape! I can see mv cousin Alicia wondering what it's all about!'

'That's not all,' said Felicity. There's still some more. One of us goes into the room again and takes out Mam'zelle's second lot ot hair-pins - she'll have done her hair again you see - and we'll slip another wetted pellet just behind the blackboard ledge - with another little cushion of hair-pins!'

The second-formers shrieked at this. Oh, to be up in the sixth form when all this happened!

'And the snake will come out, hidden behind the blackboard, on the iedge, and will hiss like fury,' said June. 'And when the hissing is tracked there, they'll find a hair-pin cushion againV

'Priceless,' said Harriet.

'Smashing!' said N'oia.

'It's really quite ingenious,' said June, modestiy. 'Felicity and I thought it out together. Anyway it will be a real treat for the poor old jaded sixth form, after their week of exams.'

They found out when Mam'zelle was taking a French lesson in the afternoon again. It had to be a time when the second-formers were free, or could go swimming or play tennis. It would be easy to arrange To slip up at the correct times then.

'Wednesday, a quarter to three,' reported June, after examining the time-tables of her form and the sixth. 'Couldn't be better. Nora, you can go in first with the magnet. And, Felicity, you're going in next, aren't you?'

77/ go in first,' said Felicity. 'Who will wet the pellet and put it up the chimney before the class begins?'

'1 will,' said June. So, when Wednesday afternoon urn', there was much excitement and giggling among he second-formers. Miss Parker uondered what :hc\ were up to now. But it was so hot that she really couldn't bother to find out.

June disappeared upstairs just before a quarter to three with the wetted pellet and the little cushion of pins. There was a tiny shelf a little way up the chimney and she carefully placed the pellet at the back and the cushion just in front. Then she fled.

The class filed in a few minutes later. Mam'zelle arrived. Then Felicity entered, panting. 'Oh please, Mam'zelle, here is a note for you,' she said, and put the envelope down in front of Mam'zelle. The name on it had been written by June, in disguised handwriting. It said 'Mam'zelle Rougier'.

'Why, Felicity, my child, do you not know by now that my name is Mam'zelle Dupont, not Rougier?' said Mam'zelle. 'This is for the other Mam'zelle. Take it to her m the fifth form.'

Felicity was a little behind Mam'zelle. The class looked at her suspiciously. Why the enormous grin on the second-former's face? They soon saw the magnet being held for a few seconds behind Mam'zelle's head. Then Felicity hid the magnet - and its hair-pins - in her hand, took the note, and departed hurriedly.

It was done so quickly that the sixth form gaped. Mam'zelle sensed almost immediately that something was wrong with her hair. She put up her hand, and gave a wail.

'Oh la la\ Here is my hair undone again!'

And once again she searched in vain for her hair-pins. Knowing from her experience the first time that she would probably not find a single one. she left the room to do her hair, puzzled and bewildered. What was the matter with her hair these days - and her pins too? Mam'zelle seriously considered whether or not it would be advisable lo have her hair cut short!

She rushed into her room, did her hair again and stuffed her bun with hair-pins, driving them in viciously as if to dare them to come out! Then she rushed back to the class, patting her bun cautiously.

The hissing began just as she sat down. Up the chimney the wetted pellet was evolving into a sort of snake, and giving out a loud and insistent hissing noise.

'Ssss-ssss-SSSSSSSS-sss!'

The sixth-formers lifted their heads. 'What is this noise?' asked Mam'zelle, impatiently. 'Alicia, is it you til at heesses?'

'No, I don't heess,' said Alicia, with a grin. 'It's probably some noise outside, Mam'zelle.'

'It isn't,' said Moira. 'It's in this room. I'm sure it is.'

The hissing grew louder. 'SSSSSSSSSSSSS!'

'It sounds like a snake somewhere,' said Darrell. They hiss just like that. I hope it's not an adder!'

Mam'zelle sprang up with a scream. 'A snake. No, no. There could not be a snake in here.'

'Well, what on earth is it, then?' said Sally, puzzled. They all listened in silence.

'SSSSS-sssss-sss-SSS,' said the pellet, loudly and insistently, as the chemicals inside it worked vigorously, pushing out the curious snake-like formation.

Alicia got up. 'I'm going to track it down,' she said. It's somewhere near the fireplace.'

She went down on hands and knees and listened. 'It's up the chimney!' she exclaimed in surprise. 'I'll put my hand up and see what's there.'

'No, no, Alicia! Do not do that!' almost squealed Mam'zelle, in horror. 'There is a snake!'

But Alicia was groping up the chimney, pretty certain ihere was no snake. Her hand closed on something and she pulled it down the chimney.