"All right! I'm lazy if you like. I wonder, though, how you'd care to change places with me, and be in old Barlow's Form. He's the most fearful Turk, and gets as savage as a bear if one doesn't construe properly--very different from your Miss Drummonds and Miss Bardsleys." Mabel laughed. "Shall I go to Stavebury with Piers and Godfrey, and you can take Aldred back to Birkwood?" "Done! It would be jolly good fun--for me, at any rate. I should be living in clover." "Except for the work--you mustn't forget that." "Work! I don't call your lessons work! They seem mostly cookery and wood-carving, varied by hockey and tennis." "Don't be nasty! We have to use our brains during school hours and prep., though we do have jolly times in between. You needn't laugh at cookery, for you were ready enough to eat the queen's cakes that Aldred and I made last week." "I'm not laughing. They were delicious; I only wish you'd make some more! All the same, don't you suppose that the amount of grind you go through is anything like equal to ours; if you had old Barlow to set your exercises, you'd soon find out." "Well, you don't want girls to swat as hard as boys," said Piers, who was rather fond of airing his opinions on various topics. "Spoils their complexions! They're put in the world to do the ornamental." "Are we, indeed, sir? Thank you!" replied Mabel, with a mock curtsy. "I wonder what you know about complexions, by the by? As for exerting ourselves, we can do quite as much as you, in our own way." "Granted, so long as you keep to your own way, and don't poach on ours!" "Here, you two, stop bickering!" said Godfrey. "When Piers begins an argument he'll hold forth for hours together. We don't want to discuss 'Women's Sphere', or the 'Education Question'! Leave these to the Debating Society, and let's enjoy ourselves! How would Mabel and Aldred like to come with us to Holt's farm? The pater wants us to take a message there. It's only three miles away, and Aldred, at any rate, hasn't seen the river." "I've never been to Holt's farm either," said Mabel "I haven't even crossed the ferry." "It would be better fun than tennis," agreed Piers. "Our court seems a very poor affair after the one at the Hall; it's hardly worth playing on." Both Mabel and Aldred felt disposed for a walk. It was a fresh and bright afternoon, and the prospect of seeing a new part of the neighbourhood was attractive. Mabel often went out riding on horseback, or in the motor with her parents, and thus knew the high roads for many miles around; but unless she accompanied her cousins, she seldom explored the lanes and by-paths. "In one way it's much jollier to go on foot," she declared. "You can stop to pick flowers, or climb on to banks; and I do so enjoy getting over stiles!" "You'll have enough of them this afternoon," laughed Francis. "There are at least twelve to cross, if we go through the fields by the river." "Are Sibyl and Ida coming with us?" asked Mabel.