"It's six years since the school won anything publicly," croaked Phillis, wrinkling her eyebrows. "Humph! Yes! Time it bucked up and did something," endorsed Ermie smartly. "We beat Moreton College in the hockey match," put in Lesbia, always anxious for the credit of her own school. "Yes, that's all right, but you don't get prizes for hockey matches. We want something we can stick on our mantelpiece, and crow over the Sixth. I should like to take down their pride." Just at present there did not seem any immediate prospect of winning a trophy and thereby humbling the upper form. It is one thing to be wildly anxious to compete, but quite another to crystallize your efforts into a definite shape. "There ought to be Olympic Games in Kingfield every year for all the schools in the town, and the Corporation ought to give the prizes," decided Lesbia. "It could be paid for out of the rates and taxes." "It will be when schoolgirls get votes," nodded Marjorie emphatically. Meantime the Corporation did not see its opportunities, and the over-taxed rate-payers of Kingfield would probably have gone on strike at the suggestion of an increase for the purpose of supplying prizes for Olympic Games for school children. Ermie Hall, whose father was a city councillor, did indeed broach the subject at the family breakfast-table, but was squashed flat by her amazed and indignant parent. "Olympic nonsense," he grunted. "We don't want an extra halfpenny on the rates. I don't know what the present generation is coming to. In my young days we played on the meadows by the river and never bothered our heads about trophies. The Education Committee gives a prize or two for book learning, and quite right too, but the City Council would see the children at Jericho before it offered them rewards for playing. Stick to your lessons, child; they're quite enough to keep you busy, I'm sure. Your last report wasn't up to much, so far as I remember." "Of course Dad's rather out-of-date," commented Ermie, reporting the interview to an elect circle in VA. "I told him Miss Tatham said 'the physical side of education is as necessary as the mental', but I couldn't get him to see it. He was quite raggy, and jammed the lid on the bacon dish, and told me to get on with my breakfast and not talk any more rubbish. So there you are. What can you do, even if your father _is_ on the City Council?" "It's hopeless," agreed Calla, with a gusty sigh. "Put not your trust in corporations," grunted Kathleen gloomily. "I do think the town might do something for us schoolgirls."