"I have to wash my hands before dinner," Flip said; and as she started up the stairs she thought--maybe you'd call it a date at that, Sally! And she grinned as she turned down the corridor. By the next Saturday all of the five other new girls in Flip's class had done Deeds. Two of them had made all the seniors Pie beds. One had wangled a big box of chocolates into the Common Room with the help of a cousin who lived in Montreux. Only Flip had done nothing. Gloria tried to help her. "Maybe you could put salt in Balmy Almy's tea. I have it! You could fill all the sugar bowls with salt!" Flip shook her head. "Where would I get the salt?" "Well, let's think of something else, then," Gloria said. "You don't know, Pill! That initiation's going to be something terrific! Maybe you could trip the Dragon up when she comes into Assembly. You're on the end of the line." Flip shook her head again. "Well, whatever you do," Gloria warned, "don't do anything like making a pie bed or a booby trap for anyone in _our_ class. They wouldn't like that." "I won't," Flip assured her. "But I can't think of a Deed, Gloria. I've tried and tried, but I just can't seem to think of anything."--If only I could produce Paul and Ariel, she thought.--That would bowl them over all right. "I thought you were supposed to have such a good imagination," Gloria said. "I've done everything I can to help you, ducky, so there's nothing else for it. You'll just have to be initiated." "I expect I'll have to," Flip agreed mournfully and with trepidation. "I'll do what I can to keep it from being too awful," Gloria promised her magnanimously. But she was, as Flip had known she would be, one of the most violent of the initiators. The entire class met after lunch behind the playing fields. It was almost out of sight of the school there; only the highest turrets could be seen rising out of the trees. Erna, Jackie, and Gloria had Flip in tow. "Don't be scared," Jackie whispered comfortingly. "It's only fun." "I'm _not_ scared." Flip was vehement. Even if she knew she was a coward she did not want anyone else to know. It was a grey day with little tendrils of fog curled here and there about the trees. The tips of the mountains were obscured in clouds that looked heavy and soft and like snow clouds. Erna said it was too early for snow as far down the mountain as Jaman, though there might possibly be some in Gstaad, a town further up, where the annual Ski Meet was held. Behind the playing fields was the most desolate spot around the school. It was rocky ground with little life; the grass was neither long nor short; just ragged and untidy and a dull rust brown in color. The only tree was dead, with one lone branch left sticking out so that it looked like a gibbet. Most of the girls clustered about the tree. Flip heard one of them asking, "What do we do?"