"What possessed you to go and lose the tennis-court for the form ?" "If you hadn't stared so hard at me Miss Strong would never have noticed." "Oh, of course! Throw the blame on somebody else! You're always the 'little white hen that never lays astray.'" "Kitty and Evie and Belle and I had arranged a set!" grumbled Cicely Denham.

"It's most unfair, this rule of punishing the whole form for what one girl does!" "Go and tell Miss Burd so then!" flared Ingred.

"It hasn't been very successful so far to tell teachers they're not fair, but you may have better luck than I had.

She'll probably say: 'Oh, yes, Cicely dear, I'll rearrange the rules at once!' So like her, isn't it ?" "Now you're sark! Almost as sarky as the Snark herself!" commented Cicely, as Ingred, choking over a last biscuit, stumped away.
There is much written nowadays about the unconscious power of thought waves, and certainly one grumbler can often spread dissatisfaction through an entire community.

Perhaps the black looks which Ingred encountered from the disappointed tennis-players in her form turned into naughty sprites who whispered treason in the ears of the juniors, or perhaps it was a mere coincidence that mutiny suddenly broke out in the Lower School.