“Your affectionate brother,

“PERCY.”

“P.S.—­You can tell the mater if you like.”

Winona, in a great state of excitement, showed the note to Aunt Harriet, who telegraphed the information to Mrs. Woodward.  The latter had just heard from Percy’s housemaster of his disappearance, and was greatly relieved to have news of his whereabouts.  The runaway was below military age, and his mother’s first impulse was to apply for his immediate discharge.  But from this course her best friends dissuaded her.  The headmaster of Longworth College and Mr. Joynson, her trustee, were unanimous in counseling her to leave the boy alone, and Aunt Harriet cordially agreed with them.

“Let the lad serve his country!” she wrote to her niece.  “He is tall for his age, and if the Military Authorities have accepted him, well and good.  It seems to me the one thing in the world that is likely to steady him and give him that sense of responsibility that hitherto he has so signally lacked.  You will make the mistake of your life if you keep him back now.”

It seemed funny to Winona to imagine Percy, so young and boyish, actually in His Majesty’s uniform.  He had not yet got his khaki, but he promised to have a photo taken as soon as ever he was in military garb, and she looked forward to showing the portrait of her soldier brother to the girls in her Form.  She began a pair of socks for him at once.  I regret to say that Winona’s patriotic knitting had languished very much during the last two terms, but this personal stimulus revived her ardor.  She even took her sock to the tennis court, and, emulating the example of Patricia Marshall and several other enthusiasts, got quite good pieces done between the sets.  She would have taken it to cricket also, but Kirsty had sternly made a by-law prohibiting all knitting on the pitch since Ellinor Cooper, when supposed to be fielding, had surreptitiously taken her work from her pocket and missed the best catch of the afternoon, to her everlasting disgrace and the scorn of the indignant Games Captain.

Kirsty was keen at present upon each Form having its own Eleven, and had arranged some school matches as trials of skill.  The first of these, Sixth v. Fifth, was fixed for the following Saturday afternoon.  Winona, to her ecstatic and delirious delight, had been elected captain of the combined V.a. and V.b.  Eleven, and she was looking forward to the contest as one of the events of her life.  She was aware that on its success or failure might hang much of her future athletic career at school, and she was determined to show of what stuff she was made.  She urged her team to make heroic efforts, and got all the practice in that was available.  On the Thursday afternoon she gave everybody a final drilling.  On Friday the pitch would be the property of the Lower School, so this was the last opportunity of play before the match.