"'One, two, three, four, Jenny at the cottage door," began Avis. "'Eating cherries off a plate, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, out goes she.' Why, it's you, Winnie, after all."
"I wish it wasn't," groaned Winnie. "However, I suppose I shall have to go. Miss Rowe's in the studio, so I'll ask her now and get it over."
"Tell her we don't think it's fair," said Enid.
"And that Ella ought to have a bad mark too," said Kitty Harrison.
"Oh, you mean thing! It's not my fault," protested the indignant Ella.
"You can say we might all have done the parsing if we'd begun it first," said Beatrice.
"And don't forget to say there wouldn't have been time to answer two such long questions," said Maggie Woodhall.
"I'll do the best I can, but don't expect too much," replied Winnie. "Stay here, all of you, till I come back."
Winnie returned in about five minutes with a doleful face. "It's no use," she assured the girls, "I can't make Miss Rowe understand the point at all. She would only say: 'You wrote a very ill-prepared exercise, which did not deserve a good mark, and if you think I am going to excuse bad work you are quite mistaken'."
"It's just what I expected," declared Enid. "Miss Rowe carries everything with such a high hand, she won't take the trouble to listen properly when one tries to explain."