Pat's Third Term.
Illustrated by HAROLD EARNSHAW.
Pat Baxter is a turbulent, impulsive member of the Lower Fourth in a famous Girls' School. She begins her Third Term by "cheeking" the Head girl herself, thereby earning a good deal of hostility. She falls from favour in other quarters as the story goes on, for though she has a genius for getting into scrapes, she is too honest and honourable to disavow her share in any plot, as many of her school-fellows do. Through her disobeying a stringent rule, and going alone into the town, the whole school, upper and lower, is put into quarantine, the result of this isolation being that Rhoda, the Head girl, generally beloved in the school, will have to "scratch" from a local tennis match, the winning of which would have brought her her coveted tennis colours. The whole school, in indignation, unknown to Rhoda, sends Pat to "Coventry." Pat also becomes the object of a good deal of mean, unfair treatment from a few of her form fellows, about which, in the end, Rhoda herself learns. Horror-stricken at the treatment meted out, Rhoda puts Pat under her special protection, and a deep friendship springs up between the two. Pat finishes her third term by saving the life of her greatest enemy, earning a special medal for bravery.
By MARY BRADFORD WHITING
A Daughter of the Empire
Illustrated by JOHN CAMPBELL.
Christina, a curiously vivid character, is suddenly thrown from the backwoods of Australia into the family circle at Strafford Royal, where Lady Stratford, her second cousin, reigns supreme. Lady Strafford dislikes Christina from the first, patronises her and snubs her, and the girl is thrown for sympathy and companionship into the society of Miss Luscombe, a lovable woman whose home is on a neighbouring estate. Christina finds herself continually faced by the stone wall of the prejudices of Lady Strafford, who looks on all foreigners with suspicion and her own family with placid pride, and is continually voicing her determination that the War shall not be allowed in any way to upset the even tenour of her life. Just how the War very successfully breaks in on to Strafford Royal, sweeping away the heir, rendering halt and maim the second son, is told in the course of the story. Christina's part in the denouement is characteristically plucky and honourable, and in the end she breaks down even Lady Stratford's dislike and mistrust. The story is told with much charm and sympathy.
By L. B. WALFORD
A Sage Of Sixteen.
Illustrated by JAMES DURDEN.