Athletics was decidedly the fashionable cult of the school.

Kirsty Paterson, as Games Captain, made it her business to see that nobody slacked without justifiable cause.
She would break up knots of chatting idlers, and cajole them forth to "cultivate muscle" as she expressed it, while her keen eye was quick to note anybody's "points" and employ them for the general benefit.
Kirsty's jolly, breezy manner and strict sense of justice made her an admirable captain.

She was highly popular with juniors as well as seniors, for she took the trouble to organize the games of the little girls as carefully as those of their elders.
"It's insane short-sighted policy to neglect the kids," was her creed.
"Now's the time to be training them.

Get them thoroughly well in hand and make them understand what's expected from them, and in four or five years' time they'll be crack players.

Yes, I know it's looking far ahead, and we prefects won't be here to see the result, but the school will reap the benefit some day and that's the main thing to aim at.