nine o'clock
Judith ate slowly and carefully , set her lips , and kept back the miserable lump . The chocolate was still to finish , and Jane began an interminable story of a canoe trip in Algonquin Park , but before it was nearly ended , tired Judith was fast asleep . JUDITH never forgot morning prayers on the first day of school at York Hill . In some miraculous way the throng of girls , who crowded the corridors before nine o'clock , formed in lines at the doors of their old classrooms , new girls were piloted to a special position , and when the prayer-bell rang , an orderly procession , beginning with the little `` Removes '' and ending with the serious and important-looking Sixth Form , filed into Big Hall and took their places . The beautiful arching Gothic windows , the soft music from the pipe organ , the dignity of the high , oak-beamed ceiling , all this to Judith 's beauty-loving mind was curiously satisfying . The service was short but reverent ; a hymn , the reading of the lesson , the prayers for the day , and then the Head Mistress was reading out the promotion of old girls and the placing of new girls . Form Five A was announced ; `` Judith Benson , Josephine Burley , Sally May Forsythe , Joyce Hewson , Nancy Nairn , Frances Purdy '' -- Judith 's cheeks glowed as the list was read .