20 well done, mary-lou!

then up came the other two or three swimmers and called out sharply. 'what's up, darrell? get outof the way, mary- lou.'

but mary-lou couldn't. she had made her great effort, jumped into the water and swum a few strokes—but now her strength was gone and her clothes were weighing her down. one of the swimmerstook her safely to the side, where she clutched a bar, panting, looking anxiously over her shoulder tosee if darrell was safe.

she had apparently quite recovered from the cramp, for she was swimming over to mary-lou withstrong, quick strokes, her eyes gleaming.

'mary-lou! you jumped right in to the water, and you hardly knew how to swim! you're an idiot, butyou're the pluckiest idiot ever i knew!' cried darrell.

somebody helped the shivering, astonished mary-lou out of the pool. miss potts came down the cliffat that moment and was amazed to see a fully-dressed and soaking mary- lou scrambling out, withgirls crowding round her, clapping her on the shoulder and praising her.

'what's happened?' said miss potts, in wonder. 'did mary-lou fall in?'

eager voices told her what had happened. 'she jumped in to save darrell! darrell had the cramp andyelled for the life-belt. but mary-lou jumped straight in to save her—and she can hardly swim!'

miss potts was as astonished as everyone else. mary- loul but mary-lou screamed if she saw anearwig! what

an amazing thing.

'why didn't she throw the life-belt?" asked alicia.

'it w-w-w-wasn't there,' answered mary-lou, her teeth chattering partly from cold and partly fromexcitement and shock. 'it's g-g-g-gone to be m-m-m-mended. didn't you know?'

no. nobody had noticed that it w as gone from its place. so mary-lou had not been stupid. she hadknown the life?belt was not there to save darrell, and she had done the next best thing—jumped inherself. well, who would have thought it ?

miss potts hurried the shivering mary-lou up the cliff. darrell turned to face alicia, her eyes shining.

'well—who was right? sally or you? why, mary-lou was brave. it isn't as if she liked the water oreven knew how to swim properly! she was as brave, no, braver than any of us, because she musthave been so afraid !'

alicia could be generous even when she was proved to be in the wrong. she nodded. 'yes. she wasjolly brave. i never thought she had it in her. but i bet she wouldn't have done it for anyone else butwm!'

darrell could hardly wait to tell sally. she rushed to her after tea, her face glowing. 'sally! your ideawas w?rvellous! simply wizard. do you know, there wasn't a life-belt there this afternoon, so mary-lou jumped straight into the water with all her clothes on and everything, to try and save me!'

'gosh!' said sally, and her face too began to glow. 'i never thought of that—did you? darrell, that'smarvellous. you'll be able to tackle mary-lou properly now.'

'what do you mean?" asked darrell.

'well—tell her how brave she is, and how no one ever guessed it, and now she knows it herself she'llbe able to be brave about lots of other things,' said sally. 'easy! once you can make anyone believein themselves, they're all right."

'you are a funny, wise person,' said darrell, admiringly. '1 never think of things like that. all right.

i'll do my best, and when mary-lou comes to see you. you tell her a few things, too !'

so mary-lou, to her enormous surprise and delight, became the heroine of the hour, for soon it hadgone all up and down the school how she had jumped into the pool, fully- dressed, to try and savedarrell.

'it's no good you shrinking away into a corner any more, or screaming yourself blue in the facebecause you've seen a spider!'said darrell. 'now we know how brave you are, we shall expect to see abit more of your bravery !'

'oh,yes,' said mary-lou, beaming. 'i'll try. now i know i can be brave, it's different. it's when youknow you can't be, that things are awful. 1 never, never in my life thought i would dare to jump intothe deep end like that—and yet i did ! 1 never even thought about it. i just did it. it wasn't reallybrave, you know, because i didn't have to screw up my courage or anything'.

the only person who had no word of praise for mary- lou was gwendoline. for one thing she wasreally jealous of all the fuss made of mary-lou. even the teachers made quite a to-do about it, forone and all realized that this was their one chance of making mary-lou realize that she could dothings if she wanted to. gwendoline hated all the fuss— especially as it was darrell that mary-louhad jumped in to save.

'fancy anyone wanting to do her a good turn !' she thought, remembering the hard slaps she had oncehad from the angry girl. 'i'd have left her to struggle. stupid mary- lou ! i suppose she will get allconceited now.'

but mary-lou didn't. she remained her own rather shy, quiet self, but now she had more confidence,and stood up for herself better. she had been proved and had not been found wanting. she waspleased and proud, though she did not show it, as a girl like gwendoline would have done.

for one thing she stood up to gwendoline better, and this annoyed and exasperated gwendolineintensely. and when sally came back into school again, as she did in two weeks' time, she tooseemed changed, and would stand no nonsense from gwendoline. she stood up for mary-lou, andticked gwendoline off in a way that irritated her and made her long to snap at sally.

the term went on, more and more quickly now. only three more weeks till the holidays ! darrellcould hardly believe the time had flown by so quickly.

she was working much better now, and twice she had been fifth from the top in her weekly marks.

gwendoline was the only one steadily at the bottom. even mary-lou had crept up a place or two.

darrell wondered how gwendoline was going to persuade her parents that she was top in everythingat the end of the term, when she took home her report. because her report would certainly show upgwendoline's appalling work.

darrell spoke to her one day about it. 'gwendoline, what will your mother and father say when theysee on your report how badly you've done in your form work ?' she asked, curiously.

gwendoline looked very startled. 'what do you mean— my report ?' she asked.

'golly, don't you know what reports are ?' asked darrell, in surprise. 'look, i'll show you an old oneof mine. i've got my last one here, from my old school. i had to bring it with me to show miss potts.'

she showed the report to gwendoline who stared at it in the utmost horror. what ! a list of all thesubjects taken, with their marks, and position in form, and comments on the work done! gwendolinecould quite well imagine some of

the comments that would be on hers!

'french. very backward and lazy.

'maths. does not try in the least. could do with some coaching in the holidays.

'games. disgraceful. has no sense of sportsmanship or team-work at all.'

and so on. poor gwendoline. it really had never occurred to her for one single moment that her badand lazy work would be reported in this fashion to her parents. she sank down in a chair and stared atdarrell.

'but gwendoline, did you never have a report on your work before ?' asked darrell, in surprise.

'no,' said the crest-fallen gwendoline. 'never. i told you i had never been to school before 1 camehere. only my governess, miss winter, taught me—and she never made out reports, of course. shejust told mother how well i was getting on, and mother believed her. i didn't know i was sobackward till i came here.'

'well, i should think your parents will get a terrific shock when they see your report!' said darrell,heartlessly. '1 should think it will be the worst one in the school. you'll be sorry you told so manyfibs to your mother and miss winter at half-term, when you take your report home for the holidays!'

'i shall tear it up!' said gwendoline, fiercely, feeling that she wouldn't be able to bear theastonishment, dismay and anger of her parents when they saw her report.

'you can't,' said darrell. 'it goes by post. ha ha ! i'm jolly glad you'll be shown up at home. mary-lou told me some of the idiotic things you told your mother and miss winter at half-term. fancyboasting like that, when you've no more brains than a mouse, and what you have you don't use!'

gwendoline was speechless. how dare darrell speak to her like that? and how dare mary-lourepeat to the others the things she had overheard her say to her mother at half- term? nasty, sly,disgusting little meanie! she would jolly well pay her out. she would take her fountain-pen andstamp on it! she would—she would... oh, there was no end to the things she would do to that beastly,ungrateful mary-lou!

'after i've been friends with her, too!' thought gwendoline, angrily. "there's disloyalty for you! ihate her.'

then she began to think about her report. she felt afraid when she thought of her father reading it.

that was why he had sent her away to school—because he had said she was lazy and vain and toopleased with herself. he had said some horrid things. gwendoline tried to forget them, but they cameback into her mind at odd times.

she could tell what untruths she pleased, she could boast all she liked—but if in her report there werethe words 'lazy, unreliable, irresponsible, conceited, stupid'—words she knew she richly deserved—well, her boasts and fibs would all be wasted.

'only two or three weeks more,' thought gwendoline, frantically. 'can i possibly make my report anybetter in those few weeks? i shall have to try! why didn't i know there were school reports before? icould have worked a bit harder. now i shall simply have to slave!'

and, to the intense astonishment of miss potts, and the no less intense surprise of mam'zelle,gwendoline began to work ! how she worked! she pored over her books. she wrote endlesscompositions and then rewrote them in her best writing. she was the most attentive one in the class.

'what has happened to gwendoline?' asked miss potts of mam'zelle. 'i begin to believe she has a few—just a few— brains at last!'

t too,' said mam'zelle. 'see this french exercise ? only one mistake! never has this happened beforeto gwendoline. she is turning over a new stalk.'

'new leaf, you mean,' said miss potts. 'well, well, surprising things happen. there's darrell workingmuch better too—and sally hope quite a new child. and mary- lou has blossomed out tremendouslysince she jumped into the pool. but, gwendoline is really the most surprising one. she wrote mequite a passable composition yesterday, with only six spelling mistakes. usually she makes at leasttwenty. i shall be able to put ''can use her brains "on her report, instead of "never uses her brains!"gwendoline did not enjoy working so hard. darrell laughed at her, and told the others why there wassuch a sudden change in the lazy gwendoline.

'she doesn't want her people to know she told such fibs to them at half-term,' she said. 'does she,mary-lou? that's what comes of boasting, gwendoline. sooner or later you have to eat your words.'

mary-lou laughed too. she was much bolder nowadays, though only when darrell or sally werethere. gwendoline scowled at her. horrid little turn-coat!

gwendoline had her chance of paying mary-lou out the next day. she went into the common roomwhen there was no one else there — and in mary- lou's locker was her precious fountain- pen!

gwendoline saw it at once.

'that's the end of thatv she said, spitefully, and threw it on the floor. she stamped on it hard, and thepen smashed, spilling ink all over the wooden floor!