“It was a bit of hard luck to be caught!” giggled Olave.  “Didn’t you feel queer when he came up?”

“I thought he was a beast, and didn’t deserve propitiating with a tip!” declared Agatha.

“But we washed our hair!” rejoiced Mary, plaiting her long dark pigtail.

CHAPTER XII

Captain Winona

To the entire satisfaction of themselves, their relations, and Dr. Barnes, the girls passed safely through their period of quarantine, and were certified as fit once more to take their places among the rest of the world.  They left the Camp almost with regret.  They had been such a jolly, merry party, and had enjoyed such high jinks there, that they felt their departure closed a pleasant episode.  They were going straight home to holidays, however, which was a very different matter from returning to work.  The remainder of July and the month of August passed very swiftly to Winona.  She missed Percy, who was in training with his regiment, but since the advent of their new governess, Letty and Mamie had grown more sensible, and proved quite pleasant companions.  Letty especially seemed suddenly to have awakened, so far as her intellectual capacities were concerned.  She had begun to devour Scott and Dickens, took a keen interest in nature study, and tried—­sometimes with rather comical effect—­to be extremely superior and grown-up.

“She’s far cleverer really than I am,” thought Winona.  “Pity she’s not at the Seaton High!  She’d be the star of her form directly.  I wish she could get a scholarship some day.”

With her school experience in coaching juniors, Winona was able to give her family some drilling in the matter of cricket, though she did not find that younger brothers and sisters proved such docile pupils as the members of III.a. and III.b.  It was the usual case of “a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country,” and while to High School juniors she preserved the authority and dignity of a senior, to Letty, Mamie, Ernie, Godfrey, and Dorrie she was “only Winona.”  She practiced tennis with the Vicarage girls, and was surprised to find how much her play had improved.  Last summer they had nearly always beaten her, now it was she who scored the victories.

“I’ve learnt how to play games at ‘The High,’ even if my report was only moderate,” she said to herself.

To make up for the long holiday caused by the small-pox scare, school was to commence at the beginning of September.  Aunt Harriet, who had not been well, and was taking a rest in Scotland, wrote that her house in Abbey Close was shut up for the present, but that she was making other arrangements for her great-niece until her return.  This term a hostel was to be opened in connection with the High School, and Winona was to be a boarder there for a few weeks.  She was uncertain whether she liked the prospect or not, but she nevertheless left home in good spirits.