"It knocks all the poetry out of the music," she complained. "I hardly know what tune I'm playing when Miss Fanny is watching my hands like a cat watching a mouse, and that abominable metronome is tick-tack-tick-tacking on the top of the piano! How I hate the beastly thing. I'd as soon recite Shakespeare to a metronome as play Chaminade. It would be just as sensible. Music, to my mind, is like reciting, you want to hurry up some phrases and to linger on others, not go pounding on like a pianola or a piece of clockwork! Tick-tack-tick-tack--Ugh! I hate it!" Opal, who also suffered from the metronome, chimed in with her side of the grievance. "My cousin learns from Mr. Jardine, the best teacher in Burchester, and she never uses one!" "I don't see why we need. I wish somebody would break the wretched old thing, or lose it, or otherwise dispose of it. They'd have my blessing I'm sure." The juniors, who had gathered round to listen, giggled at Merle's heroics. It was rather nice to hear elder girls grumbling. "Why don't you do it yourself," piped Betty Marshall. Merle, just for fun, seized the object of her invective from the top of the piano, and opening the window placed it outside upon the sill. "It may stay there and tick-tack to the birds if it likes," she declared. "If I had my way it would never come back again. Yes, I mean it." The juniors laughed again as they ran from the room, and Merle, also laughing, lifted the unfortunate metronome inside and placed it back on the piano. She and Opal chased the smaller ones along the passage, and caught them, squealing with delight, in the cloakroom. "You little pussies, I'll tickle you!" cried Merle, swinging Posie Andrews off her feet and tucking her under one arm, while she made a grab at Florrie Leach. The children, wild with fun, danced about like so many imps. "It's Nicky Nan Night to-night," twittered Betty as she jumped and pranced. "We're all Nicky Nans. Look at us!" "Hooray! It's Nicky Nan Night," shouted the others. "Heavens, so it is. I'd completely forgotten!" said Opal. She stood for a moment as if thinking, then she suddenly ran back to the schoolroom. She was only gone a moment or two, but she returned to the cloakroom with a curious look of amusement on her face. "What have you been up to?" asked Merle, eyeing her suspiciously. "Ah! Wouldn't you just like to know?" "You've been doing something!" "Indeed! How clever we are all of a sudden. Are you clairvoyante may I ask?" "Not at all, but I know Opal Earnshaw. You're pluming yourself no end." Opal broke into a fit of delighted giggling, but refused all explanations, and slamming on her hat rushed away home, leaving the juniors still dancing about the cloakroom like pixies and loudly proclaiming: "It's Nicky Nan Night. We're all Nicky Nans!"