"It's got to be done, so you'd best fire away and get a move on with it."
"Anybody who could do the lotus pattern on the wall could do a book-back!" declared Carrie.
"Be sporting, Lesbia," urged Kathleen.
"It's all very well for you to talk, but you forget the time it will take me. I've my prep to do, the same as the rest of you, and you know what Miss Pratt is. She's about as much consideration as a slave-driver. 'Your tasks, your daily tasks' are what she's out for and we have to 'make bricks without straw', that's to say, learn things without the time to do it in. How'm I going to manage?"
"We've all got to make sacrifices for the school," said Calla briskly, "and yours must be doing this book-back. If it takes your prep time and you get into rows with Miss Pratt, well that can't be helped. You'll be suffering in a good cause."
"That's all very well, but it's I who'll get the scoldings, and they'll be the limit."
"Cheerio, chucky. We'll all slack a little and bring down the standard, so that you won't seem so conspicuous. You won't mind a bad mark or two, will you, Marjorie?"
"Not at all," beamed that damsel shamelessly. "It's not the first time by any means."
"We'd better have a rota to slack prep" (Carrie's voice was eager), "three of us can do it every day in turns, then Miss Pratt won't be too down on any special one. Bags me to-morrow. I want to go out to tea anyway."
"Right you are. See how we're backing you up, Lesbia. Isn't it noble of us? I think we're absolute mascots if you ask me."