"But Moira Thompson didn't do that!" shrieked an indignant voice. "Do as I tell you!" ordered Netta tartly. "You lot go over there, and begin your dance, and Ida Bridge and Peggie Weston stop here and hold this rope." "But I'm the leader!" wailed Ida. "They can't get on without me!" "They'll have to, for once." "But it's not fair! You've come to help us to practise--not for us to help you!" "That's as I like to arrange it!" "Oh, you are a beast!" "Apologize for that word, or I'll spiflicate you! Where are your manners?" "If you're not fair, we shan't mind manners, so there!" "Ida Bridge, do you intend to hold this rope?" "Shan't! I'd rather tell Miss Trent first." "You miserable little sneak!" "I'm not a sneak! It's your fault! Why can't you take our rehearsal properly, like the others did? We're wasting time." "So we are! Get to business, you kids over there. Why don't you begin your precious dance?" "We can't without Ida and Peggie--specially Ida!" fumed the performers. "Well, I've told you I want them myself, and you'll just have to manage as best you can. Now then, off you go--one--two--three! Bother the lot of you! What are you waiting for?" "For Ida Bridge." "You won't get her!" "Then the rehearsal's off!" "No, it's not off, you lazy little wretches! You can manage all right if you like; I know perfectly well you can! It's just a piece of obstinacy. Pig policy doesn't pay with me, I assure you! I've been put in authority for this afternoon, and I mean to have my own way, so I give you warning. Start that dance instantly, and Ida and Peggie hold this rope." Instead of obeying, the Juniors crowded round Netta uttering protests and reproaches in a perfect chorus of mutiny. Gwen, who could not quite grasp the cause of the quarrel, made her way through a gap in the hedge and entered the large field. "What's all the shindy about?" she enquired. "You're like a set of wild Irishmen at a fair. I thought you were supposed to be rehearsing?" "How can we rehearse by ourselves?" "And without our leader?" "Netta won't conduct!" "She told us to go and dance by ourselves, while she practised her own jumping." "And she wanted to make Ida and Peggie hold the rope for her." "How can we do our morris dance without Ida and Peggie? It spoils the figures." "Netta!" gasped Gwen. "Did you actually mean to practise jumping instead of taking this rehearsal?" Netta shrugged her shoulders easily. "The kids know their steps so well, they can do the thing perfectly," she replied. "What was the good of wasting my time drilling them? I thought I'd make them of some use, and let them hold a rope for me. They're an ungrateful little set of sneaks--won't do a thing for their seniors!" "Why, I should think not, in this case, when you'd been specially told off by the Committee to superintend their dance. I sympathize with the kids. They've right on their side. It's you who are the sneak."