Monitress Merle | Page 6

start, but I
want to tell you that though there is plenty of work in front of you
there's also plenty of fun, and that if every girl makes up her mind to do
her very best all round we shall get on grandly. Now I am going to read
out the lists of the various forms, and then you can march away in turn
to your own classrooms."
In making her arrangements for the reorganisation of the school Miss
Mitchell had decided to have no Sixth form as yet. The girls were all
under seventeen, and she did not consider any of them sufficiently
advanced to be placed in so high a position. The Fifth was at present to
be the top form, and consisted of eleven girls, all of whom she intended
should work their uttermost and fit themselves for the honour of
becoming the Sixth a year later.
Mavis and Merle, both of whom were included in this elect eleven,
walked demurely away to their new classroom. Five of their old
companions were with them, Iva Westwood, Nesta Pitman, Aubrey

Simpson, Muriel Burnitt, and Edith Carey, and the remaining four
consisted of Beata Castleton, Fay Macleod, and two strangers, Sybil
Vernon and Kitty Trefyre. Romola Castleton had been placed in the
Fourth, together with Maude Carey, Babbie Williams, Nan Colville,
Tattie Carew, and several other new girls.
The Fifth, as the top form, was to be mainly Miss Mitchell's; Miss
Barnes, the fresh assistant mistress, was to take the Fourth; and the
teaching of the three lower forms would be shared by Miss Hopkins,
Mademoiselle, and Miss Fanny Pollard. Lessons, on a first morning,
are usually more or less haphazard, but at any rate a beginning was
made, the pupils were entered on their class registers, their capacities
were tested, and they began in some slight degree to know their
teachers. Before the school separated at 12.30 for dinner Miss Pollard
had an announcement to make.
"Miss Mitchell and I have decided that for the general good of the
school it will be wise to appoint four monitresses. Two of these must be
boarders and will be chosen by us, but the other two may be elected by
yourselves. We will have a ballot this afternoon. You may nominate
any girls you like by writing their names upon slips of paper and
handing them in to me before 2.30. All candidates, however, must be
over the age of fifteen and must have spent at least two previous terms
at 'The Moorings.' The voting will take place in the big schoolroom
immediately after four o'clock."
Mavis and Merle, walking home to lunch at Bridge House, discussed
the project eagerly as they went.
"Good for Miss Pollard! Or I expect it's really Miss Mitchell who
suggested it! I call it a ripping idea. It's just exactly what's wanted. The
monitresses will lead the games and all the various societies. Run the
school, in fact. What sport!" rejoiced Merle, with shining eyes. "The
old 'Moorings' will really wake up at last."
"Only four monitresses, and two of them are to be boarders and chosen
by the powers that be!" mused Mavis. "That means Iva and Nesta, if I
know anything of Miss Pollard and Miss Fanny! Now the question is

who are to be the other two lucky ones?"
"It ought to be somebody who could lead!" flushed Merle. "Somebody
really good at games and able to organise all that rabble of kids. Some
one who's been accustomed to a big school and knows what ought to be
done. Not girls who've spent all their lives in a tiny school like this.
They've no standards. I've often told them that! They've simply no idea
of how things used to swing at the Whinburn High!"
"I wish Miss Pollard and Miss Mitchell would have done all the
choosing," said Mavis anxiously. "I think myself it's a mistake to put it
to the vote. Probably somebody quite unsuitable will be elected. The
juniors will plump for the girl they like best, without caring whether
she knows anything about games or not. There's Aubrey Simpson!"
"Oh! They can't choose 'the jackdaw'!" interrupted Merle.
"They can choose her if they like. She's over fifteen and perfectly
eligible. Edith Carey is rather a favourite, I believe."
"That silly goose! Good-night!"
"Well, there's Muriel Burnitt at any rate. She's been a long time at 'The
Moorings.'"
"All the worse for that, though she's better than Edith or Aubrey. I shall
vote for her myself, and for you."
"And I'm going to vote for you, and for Muriel, because, as you say,
she's better than the others. I sincerely hope you'll win."
"I hope we both shall. I'll nominate you if you'll nominate me!"
"Rather a family affair, isn't