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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ruth Fielding At College, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding At College
+       or The Missing Examination Papers
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: September 14, 2008 [EBook #26613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
+from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/title.jpg"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt=""/></a>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1>Ruth Fielding At College</h1>
+
+<h4>OR</h4>
+
+<h2>THE MISSING EXAMINATION PAPERS</h2>
+
+<h2>BY ALICE B. EMERSON</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill," "Ruth Fielding on Cliff
+Island," Etc</span>.</h3>
+
+<h4><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></h4>
+
+
+<h4>NEW YORK<br />
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY<br />
+PUBLISHERS</h4>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1917, by</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Cupples &amp; Leon Company</span></h4>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding at College</span></h4>
+
+<h4>Printed in U. S. A.</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/frontis.jpg"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt=""/></a>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"ASHORE! PUT US ASHORE!" RUTH GASPED.</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">Looking Collegeward</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">Maggie</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">Expectations</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">First Impressions</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">Getting Settled</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">Miss Cullam's Trouble</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">Fame Is Not Always an Asset</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">The Stone Face</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">Getting on</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">A Tempest in a Teapot</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">The One Rebel</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">Ruth Is Not Satisfied</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">The Girl in the Storm</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">"Oft in the Stilly Night"</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">An Odd Adventure</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">What Was in Rebecca's Trunk</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">What Was in Rebecca's Heart</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">Bearding the Lions</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">A Deep, Dark Plot</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">Two Surprises</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. <span class="smcap">Many Things Happen</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. <span class="smcap">Can It Be a Clue?</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. <span class="smcap">The Squall</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. <span class="smcap">Treasure Hunting</span></a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. <span class="smcap">The End of a Perfect Year</span></a><br /><br />
+<a href="#THE_RUTH_FIELDING_SERIES">THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES</a><br />
+<a href="#THE_BARTON_BOOKS_FOR_GIRLS">THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS</a><br />
+<a href="#THE_BETTY_GORDON_SERIES">THE BETTY GORDON SERIES</a><br />
+
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>LOOKING COLLEGEWARD</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"</p>
+
+<p>By no possibility could Aunt Alvirah Boggs have risen from her low
+rocking chair in the Red Mill kitchen without murmuring this complaint.</p>
+
+<p>She was a little, hoop-backed woman, with crippled limbs; but she
+possessed a countenance that was very much alive, nut-brown and
+innumerably wrinkled though it was.</p>
+
+<p>She had been Mr. Jabez Potter's housekeeper at the Red Mill for more
+than fifteen years, and if anybody knew the "moods and tenses" of the
+miserly miller, it must have been Aunt Alvirah. She even professed to
+know the miller's feelings toward his grand-niece, Ruth Fielding, better
+than Ruth knew them herself.</p>
+
+<p>The little old woman was expecting the return of Ruth now, and she went
+to the porch to see if she could spy her down the road, and thus be
+warned in time to set the tea to draw. Ruth and her friends, who had
+gone for a tramp in the September woods, would come in ravenous for tea
+and cakes and bread-and-butter sandwiches.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Alvirah looked out upon a very beautiful autumn landscape when she
+opened the farmhouse door. The valley of the Lumano was attractive at
+all times&mdash;in storm or sunshine. Now it was a riot of color, from the
+deep crimson of the sumac to the pale amber of certain maple leaves
+which fell in showers whenever the wanton breeze shook the boughs.</p>
+
+<p>"Here they come!" murmured Aunt Alvirah. "Here's my pretty!"</p>
+
+<p>She identified the trio striding up the roadway, distant as they were.
+Ruth, her cheeks rosy, her hair flying, came on ahead, while the
+black-haired and black-eyed twins, Helen and Tom Cameron, walked
+hand-in-hand behind her. This was their final outing together in the
+vicinity of the Red Mill for many months. Helen and Tom were always very
+close companions, and although they had already been separated during
+school terms, Tom had run over from Seven Oaks to see his sister at
+Briarwood for almost every week-end.</p>
+
+<p>"No more of 'sich doin's now, old man," Helen said to him, smiling
+rather tremulously. "And even when you get to Harvard next year, you
+will not be allowed often at Ardmore. They say there is a sign 'No Boys
+Allowed' stuck up beside every 'Keep Off the Grass' sign on the Ardmore
+lawns."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" laughed Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I only repeat what I've been told."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Sis, you won't be entirely alone," Tom said kindly. "Ruth will be
+with you. You and she will have your usual good times."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. But <i>you'll</i> be awfully lonely, Tommy."</p>
+
+<p>"True enough," agreed Tom.</p>
+
+<p>Then Ruth's gay voice hailed them from the porch upon which she had
+mounted yards ahead of them.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, slow-pokes. Aunt Alvirah has put on the tea. I smell it!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding did not possess her chum's measure of beauty. Helen was a
+dainty, compelling brunette with flashing eyes&mdash;eyes she had already
+learned to use to the undoing of what Ruth called "the youthful male of
+the species."</p>
+
+<p>As for Ruth herself, she considered boys no mystery. She was fond of
+Tom, for he was the first friend she had made in that long-ago time when
+she arrived, a little girl and a stranger, at the Red Mill. Other boys
+did not interest Ruth in the least.</p>
+
+<p>Without Helen's beauty, she was, nevertheless, a decidedly attractive
+girl. Her figure was well rounded, her eyes shone, her hair was just
+wavy enough to be pretty, and she was very, very much alive. If Ruth
+Fielding took an interest in anything that thing, Tom declared, "went
+with a bang!"</p>
+
+<p>She was positive, energetic, and usually finished anything that she
+began. She had already done some things that few girls of her age could
+have accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>The trio of friends trooped into Aunt Alvirah's clean and shining
+kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! dear me!" murmured the little old woman, "I sha'n't have the
+pleasure of your company for long. I'll miss my pretty," and she smiled
+fondly at Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the only drawback about coming home from school," grumbled Tom,
+looking really forlorn, even with his mouth full of Aunt Alvirah's pound
+cake.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the drawback?" demanded his twin.</p>
+
+<p>"Going away again. Just think! We sha'n't see each other for so long."</p>
+
+<p>He was staring at Ruth, and Helen, with a roguish twinkle in her eye,
+passed him her pocket-handkerchief&mdash;a wee and useless bit of
+lace&mdash;saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Weep, if you must, Tommy; but get it over with. Ruth and I are not
+gnashing <i>our</i> teeth about going away. Just to think! ARDMORE!"</p>
+
+<p>Nothing but capital letters would fully express the delight she put into
+the name of the college she and Ruth were to attend.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" grunted Tom.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Alvirah said: "It wouldn't matter, deary, if you was both goin' off
+to be Queens of Sheby; it's the goin' away that hurts."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had her arms about the little old woman and her own voice was
+caressing if not lachrymose.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't take it so to heart, Aunt Alvirah. We shall not forget you. You
+shall send us a box of goodies once in a while as you always do; and I
+will write to you and to Uncle Jabez. Keep up your heart, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Easy said, my pretty," sighed the old woman. "Not so easy follered out.
+An' Jabe Potter is dreadful tryin' when you ain't here."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Uncle Jabez," murmured Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Aunt Alvirah, you'd better say!" exclaimed Helen, sharply, for she
+had not the patience with the miserly miller that his niece possessed.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment the back door was pushed open. Helen jumped. She feared
+that Uncle Jabez had overheard her criticism.</p>
+
+<p>But it was only Ben, the hired man, who thrust his face bashfully around
+the edge of the door. The young people hailed him gaily, and Ruth
+offered him a piece of cake.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank'e, Miss Ruth," Ben said. "I can't come in. Jest came to the shed
+for the oars."</p>
+
+<p>"Is uncle going across the river in the punt?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Ruth. There's a boat adrift on the river."</p>
+
+<p>"What kind of boat?" asked Tom, jumping up. "What d'you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's gone adrift, Mr. Tom," said Ben. "Looks like she come from one o'
+them camps upstream."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! let's go and see!" cried Helen, likewise eager for something new.</p>
+
+<p>Neither of the Cameron twins ever remained in one position or were
+interested solely in one thing for long.</p>
+
+<p>The young folk trooped out after Ben through the long, covered passage
+to the rear door of the Red Mill. The water-wheel was turning and the
+jar of the stones set every beam and plank in the structure to
+trembling. The air was a haze of fine white particles. Uncle Jabez came
+forward, as dusty and crusty an old miller as one might ever expect to
+see.</p>
+
+<p>He was a tall, crabbed looking man, the dust of the mill seemingly so
+ground into the lines of his face that it was grey all over and one
+wondered if it could ever be washed clean again. He only nodded to his
+niece and her friends, seizing the oars Ben had brought with the
+observation:</p>
+
+<p>"Go 'tend to Gil Martin, Ben. He's waitin' for his flour. Where ye been
+all this time? That boat'll drift by."</p>
+
+<p>Ben knew better than to reply as he hastened to the shipping door where
+Mr. Martin waited with his wagon for the sacks of flour. The miller went
+to the platform on the riverside, Ruth and her friends following him.</p>
+
+<p>"I see it!" cried Tom. "Can't be anybody in it for it's sailing
+broadside."</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez put the oars in the punt and began to untie the painter.</p>
+
+<p>"All the more reason we should get it," he said drily. "Salvage, ye
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't go alone, Uncle Jabez," Ruth said mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! why not?" snarled the old miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Something might happen. If Ben can't go, I will take an oar."</p>
+
+<p>He knew she was quite capable of handling the punt, even in the rapids,
+so he merely growled his acquiescence. At that moment Ruth discovered
+something.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! the boat isn't empty!" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"You're right, Ruth! I see something in it," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jabez straightened up, holding the painter doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Aw, well," he grunted. "If there's somebody in it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He saw no reason for going after the drifting boat if it were manned. He
+could not claim the boat or claim salvage for it under such
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>But the strange boat was drifting toward the rapids of the Lumano that
+began just below the mill. In the present state of the river this "white
+water," as lumbermen call it, was dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how foolish!" Helen cried. "Whoever is in that boat is lying in
+the bottom of it."</p>
+
+<p>"And drifting right toward the middle of the river!" added her twin.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry up, Uncle Jabez!" urged Ruth. "We must go out there."</p>
+
+<p>"What fur, I'd like to know?" demanded the miller sharply. "We ain't
+hired ter go out an' wake up every reckless fule that goes driftin' by."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. But maybe he's not asleep," Ruth said quickly. "Maybe
+he's hurt. Maybe he has fainted. Why, a dozen things might have
+happened!"</p>
+
+<p>"An' a dozen things might <i>not</i> have happened," said old Jabez Potter,
+coolly retying the painter.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle! we mustn't do that!" cried his niece. "We must go out in the
+punt and make sure all is right with that boat."</p>
+
+<p>"Who says so?" demanded the miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we must. I'll go with you. Come, do! There is somebody in
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding, as she spoke, leaped into the punt. Tom would have been
+glad to go with her, but she had motioned him back before he could
+speak. She was ashamed to have the miller so display the mean side of
+his nature before her friends.</p>
+
+<p>Grumblingly he climbed into the heavy boat after her. Tom cast off and
+Ruth pushed the boat's nose upstream, then settled herself to one of the
+oars while Uncle Jabez took the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! they ain't anything in it for us," grumbled Mr. Potter as the punt
+slanted toward mid-stream.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>MAGGIE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding knew very well the treacherous current of the Lumano. She
+saw that the drifting boat with its single occupant was very near to the
+point where the fierce pull of the mid-stream current would seize it.</p>
+
+<p>So she rowed her best and having the stroke oar, Uncle Jabez was obliged
+to pull <i>his</i> best to keep up with her.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" he snorted, "it ain't so pertic'lar, is it, Niece Ruth? That
+feller&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She made no reply, but in a few minutes they were near enough to the
+drifting boat for Ruth to glance over her shoulder and see into it. At
+once she uttered a little cry of pity.</p>
+
+<p>"What now?" gruffly demanded Uncle Jabez.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Uncle! It's a girl!" Ruth gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"A gal! <i>Another gal?</i>" exclaimed the old miller. "I swanny! The Red
+Mill is allus littered up with gals when you're to hum."</p>
+
+<p>This was a favorite complaint of his; but he pulled more vigorously,
+nevertheless, and the punt was quickly beside the drifting boat.</p>
+
+<p>A girl in very commonplace garments&mdash;although she was not at all a
+commonplace looking girl&mdash;lay in the bottom of the boat. Her eyes were
+closed and she was very pale.</p>
+
+<p>"She's fainted," Ruth whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Who in 'tarnation let a gal like that go out in a boat alone, and
+without airy oar?" demanded Uncle Jabez, crossly. "Here! hold steady.
+I'll take that painter and 'tach it to the boat. We'll tow her in. But
+lemme tell ye," added Uncle Jabez, decidedly, "somebody's got ter pay me
+fur my time, or else they don't git the boat back. She seems to be all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she isn't conscious!" cried Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" grunted Uncle Jabez, "I mean the boat, not the gal."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth always suspected that Uncle Jabez Potter made a pretense of being
+really worse than he was. When a little girl she had been almost afraid
+of her cross-grained relative&mdash;the only relative she had in the world.</p>
+
+<p>But there were times when the ugly crust of the old man's character was
+rubbed off and his niece believed she saw the true gold beneath. She was
+frequently afraid that others would hear and not understand him. Now
+that she was financially independent of Uncle Jabez Ruth was not so
+sensitive for herself.</p>
+
+<p>They towed the boat back to the mill landing. Tom and Ben carried the
+strange girl, still unconscious into the Red Mill farmhouse, and
+bustling little Aunt Alvirah had her put at once to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I hustle right over to Cheslow for the doctor?" Tom asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's goin' to pay him?" growled Uncle Jabez, who heard this.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let that worry you, Mr. Potter," said the youth, his black eyes
+flashing. "If I hire a doctor I always pay him."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good thing to have that repertation," Uncle Jabez said drily.
+"One should pay the debts he contracts."</p>
+
+<p>But Aunt Alvirah scoffed at the need of a doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"The gal's only fainted. Scare't it's likely, findin' herself adrift in
+that boat. You needn't trouble yourself about it, Jabez."</p>
+
+<p>Thus reassured the miller went back to examine the boat. Although it was
+somewhat marred, it was not damaged, and Uncle Jabez was satisfied that
+if nobody claimed the boat he would be amply repaid for his trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, the two girls fluttered about the stranger a good deal when
+Aunt Alvirah had brought her out of her faint. Ruth was particularly
+attracted by "Maggie" as the stranger announced her name to be.</p>
+
+<p>"I was working at one of those summer-folks' camps up the river. Mr.
+Bender's, it was," she explained to Ruth, later. "But all the folks went
+last night, and this morning I was going across the river with my
+bag&mdash;oh, did you find my bag, Miss?"</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," Ruth laughed. "It is here, beside your bed."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you," said the girl. "Mr. Bender paid me last night. One of
+the men was to take me across the river, and I sat down and waited, and
+nobody came, and by and by I fell into a nap and when I woke up I was
+out in the river, all alone. My! I was frightened."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have no reason for going back to the camp?" asked Ruth,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;Miss. I'm through up there for the season. I'll look for another
+situation&mdash;I&mdash;I mean job," she added stammeringly.</p>
+
+<p>"We will telephone up the river and tell them you are all right," Ruth
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you&mdash;Miss."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth asked her several other questions, and although Maggie was
+reserved, her answers were satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>"But what's goin' to become of the gal?" Uncle Jabez asked that evening
+after supper, when he and his niece were in the farmhouse kitchen alone.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Alvirah had carried tea and toast in to the patient and was sitting
+by her.</p>
+
+<p>The girl of the Red Mill thought Maggie did not seem like the usual
+"hired help" whom she had seen. She seemed much more refined than one
+might expect a girl to be of the class to which she claimed to belong.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth looked across the table at her cross-grained old relative and made
+no direct reply to his question. She was very sure that, after all, he
+would be kind to the strange girl if Maggie actually needed to be
+helped. But Ruth had an idea that Maggie was quite capable of helping
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jabez," the girl of the Red Mill said to the old man, softly, "do
+you know something?"</p>
+
+<p>"Huh?" grunted Uncle Jabez. "I know a hull lot more than you young
+sprigs gimme credit for knowin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I didn't mean it that way," and Ruth laughed cheerily at him. "I
+mean that I have discovered something, and I wondered if you had
+discovered the same thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Out with it, Niece Ruth," he ordered, eyeing her curiously. "I'll tell
+ye if it's anything I already know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Aunt Alvirah is growing old."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye don't say!" snapped the miller. "And who ain't, I'd like to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her rheumatism is much worse, and it will soon be winter."</p>
+
+<p>"Say! what air ye tryin' to do?" he demanded. "Tellin' me these here
+puffictly obvious things! Of course she's gittin' older; and of course
+her rheumatiz is bound to grow wuss. Doctors ain't never yet found
+nothin' to cure rheumatiz. And winter us'ally follers fall&mdash;even in this
+here tarnation climate."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but the combination is going to be very bad for Aunt Alvirah,"
+Ruth said gently, determined to pursue her idea to the finish, no matter
+how cross he appeared to be.</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, is it <i>my</i> fault?" asked Uncle Jabez.</p>
+
+<p>"It's nobody's fault," Ruth told him, shaking her head, and very
+serious. "But it's Aunt Alvirah's misfortune."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!"</p>
+
+<p>"And we must do something about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! Must we? What, I'd like to have ye tell me?" said the old miller,
+eyeing Ruth much as one strange dog might another that he suspected was
+after his best marrow bone.</p>
+
+<p>"We must get somebody to help her do the work while I am at college,"
+Ruth said firmly.</p>
+
+<p>The dull red flooded into Uncle Jabez's cheeks, and for once gave him a
+little color. His narrow eyes sparkled, too.</p>
+
+<p>"There's one thing I've allus said, Niece Ruth," he declared hotly. "Ye
+air a great one for spending other folks' money."</p>
+
+<p>It was Ruth's turn to flush now, and although she might not possess what
+Aunt Alvirah called "the Potter economical streak," she did own to a
+spark of the Potter temper. Ruth Fielding was not namby-pamby, although
+she was far from quarrelsome.</p>
+
+<p>"Uncle Jabez," she returned rather tartly, "have I been spending much of
+<i>your</i> money lately?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he growled. "But ye ain't l'arnt how to take proper keer of yer
+own&mdash;trapsin' 'round the country the way you do."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed then. "I'm getting knowledge. Some of it comes high, I have
+found; but it will all help me <i>live</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! I've lived without that brand of l'arnin'," grunted Uncle Jabez.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth looked at him amusedly. She was tempted to tell him that he had not
+lived, only existed. But she was not impudent, and merely went on to
+say:</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Alvirah is getting too old to do all the work here&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I send Ben in to help her some when she's alone," said the miller.</p>
+
+<p>"And by so doing put extra work on poor Ben," Ruth told him, decidedly.
+"No, Aunt Alvirah must have another woman around, or a girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Where ye goin' to find the gal?" snapped the miller. "Work gals don't
+like to stay in the country."</p>
+
+<p>"She's found, I believe," Ruth told him.</p>
+
+<p>"Huh?"</p>
+
+<p>"This Maggie we just got out of the river. She has no job, she says, and
+she wants one. I believe she'll stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Who's goin' to pay her wages?" demanded Uncle Jabez, getting back to
+"first principles" again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll pay the girl's wages, Uncle Jabez," Ruth said seriously. "But you
+must feed her. And she must be fed well, too. I can see that part of her
+trouble is malnutrition."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh? Has she got some ketchin' disease?" Uncle Jabez demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't contagious," Ruth replied drily. "But unless she is well fed
+she cannot be cured of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Wal, there's plenty of milk and eggs," the miller said.</p>
+
+<p>"But you must not hide the key of the meat-house, Uncle," and now Ruth
+laughed outright at him. "Four people at table means a depletion of your
+smoked meat and a dipping occasionally into the corned-beef barrel."</p>
+
+<p>"Wal&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, if I pay the girl's wages, you must supply the food," his niece
+said, firmly, "Otherwise, Aunt Alvirah will go without help, and then
+she will break down, and <i>then</i>&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" grunted the miller. "I couldn't let her go back to the poorfarm,
+I s'pose?"</p>
+
+<p>He actually made it a question; but Ruth could not see his face, for he
+had turned aside.</p>
+
+<p>"No. She could not return to the poorhouse&mdash;after fifteen years!"
+exclaimed the girl. "Do you know what <i>I</i> should do?" and she asked the
+question warmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Somethin' fullish, I allow."</p>
+
+<p>"I should take her to Ardmore with me, and find a tiny cottage for her,
+and maybe she would keep house for Helen and me."</p>
+
+<p>"That'd be jest like ye, Niece Ruth," he responded coolly. "You think
+you have all the money in the world. That's because ye didn't aim what
+ye got&mdash;it was give to ye."</p>
+
+<p>The statement was in large part true, and for the moment Ruth's lips
+were closed. Tears stood in her eyes, too. She realized that she could
+not be independent of the old miller had not chance and kind-hearted and
+grateful Mrs. Rachel Parsons given her the bulk of the amount now
+deposited in her name in the bank.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding's circumstances had been very different when she had first
+come to Cheslow and the Red Mill. Then she was a little, homeless,
+orphan girl who was "taken in out of charity" by Uncle Jabez. And very
+keenly and bitterly had she been made to feel during those first few
+months her dependence upon the crabbed old miller.</p>
+
+<p>The introductory volume of this series, "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,
+or, Jacob Parloe's Secret," details in full the little girl's trials and
+triumphs under these unfortunate conditions&mdash;how she makes friends,
+smooths over difficulties, and in a measure wins old Uncle Jabez's
+approval. The miller was a very honest man and always paid his debts.
+Because of something Ruth did for him he felt it to be his duty to pay
+her first year's tuition at boarding school, where she went with her new
+friend, Helen Cameron. In "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall," the Red
+Mill girl really begins her school career, and begins, too, to satisfy
+that inbred longing for independence which was so strong a part of her
+character.</p>
+
+<p>In succeeding volumes of the "Ruth Fielding Series," we follow Ruth's
+adventures in Snow Camp, a winter lodge in the Adirondack wilderness; at
+Lighthouse Point, the summer home of a girl friend on the Atlantic
+coast; at Silver Ranch, in Montana; at Cliff Island; at Sunrise Farm;
+with the Gypsies, which was a very important adventure, indeed, for Ruth
+Fielding. In this eighth story Ruth was able to recover for Mrs. Rachel
+Parsons, an aunt of one of her school friends, a very valuable pearl
+necklace, and as a reward of five thousand dollars had been offered for
+the recovery of the necklace, the entire sum came to Ruth. This money
+made Ruth financially independent of Uncle Jabez.</p>
+
+<p>The ninth volume of the series, entitled, "Ruth Fielding in Moving
+Pictures; or, Helping the Dormitory Fund," shows Ruth and her chums
+engaged in film production. Ruth discovered that she could write a good
+scenario&mdash;a very good scenario, indeed. Mr. Hammond, president of the
+Alectrion Film Corporation, encouraged her to write others. When the
+West Dormitory of Briarwood Hall was burned and it was discovered that
+there had been no insurance on the building, the girls determined to do
+all in their power to rebuild the structure.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was inspired to write a scenario, a five-reel drama of schoolgirl
+life, and Mr. Hammond produced it, Ruth's share of the profits going
+toward the building fund. "The Heart of a Schoolgirl" was not only
+locally famous, but was shown all over the country and was even now,
+after six months, paying the final construction bills of the West
+Dormitory, at Briarwood.</p>
+
+<p>In this ninth volume of the series, Ruth and Helen and many of their
+chums graduated from Briarwood Hall. Immediately after the graduation
+the girl of the Red Mill and Helen Cameron were taken south by Nettie
+Parsons and her Aunt Rachel to visit the Merredith plantation in South
+Carolina. Their adventures were fully related in the story immediately
+preceding the present narrative, the tenth of the "Ruth Fielding
+Series," entitled, "Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie; or, Great Times in the
+Land of Cotton."</p>
+
+<p>Home again, after that delightful journey, Ruth had spent most of the
+remaining weeks of her vacation quietly at the Red Mill. She was engaged
+upon another scenario for Mr. Hammond, in which the beautiful old mill
+on the Lumano would figure largely. She also had had many preparations
+to make for her freshman year at Ardmore.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen were quite "young ladies" now, so Tom scoffingly said.
+And going to college was quite another thing from looking forward to a
+term at a preparatory school. Nevertheless, Ruth had found plenty of
+time to help Aunt Alvirah during the past few weeks.</p>
+
+<p>She had noted how much feebler the old woman was becoming. Therefore,
+she was determined to win Uncle Jabez to her plan of securing help in
+the Red Mill kitchen. The coming of the girl, Maggie, though a strange
+coincidence, Ruth looked upon as providential. She urged Uncle Jabez to
+agree to her proposal, and the very next morning she sounded Maggie upon
+the subject. The strange girl was sitting up, but Aunt Alvirah would not
+hear to her doing anything as yet. Ruth found Maggie in the
+sitting-room, engaged in looking at the Ardmore Year Book which Ruth had
+left upon the sitting-room table.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty landscapes about the college, aren't they?" Ruth suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes&mdash;Miss. Very pretty," agreed Maggie.</p>
+
+<p>"That is where I am going to college," Ruth explained. "I enter as a
+freshman next week."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so&mdash;Miss?" hesitated Maggie. Her heretofore colorless face
+flushed warmly. "I've heard of that&mdash;that place," she added.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, have you?"</p>
+
+<p>Maggie was looking at the photograph of Lake Remona, with a part of
+Bliss Island at one side. She continued to stare at the picture while
+Ruth put before her the suggestion of work at the Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course, Miss Fielding, I'd be glad of the work. And you're very
+liberal. But you don't know anything about me."</p>
+
+<p>"No. And I shouldn't know much more about you if you brought a dozen
+recommendations," laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose not&mdash;Miss." It seemed hard for the girl to get out that
+"Miss," and Ruth, who was keenly observant, wondered if she really had
+been accustomed to using it.</p>
+
+<p>They talked it over and finally reached an agreement. Aunt Alvirah was
+sweetly grateful to Ruth, knowing full well that there must have been a
+"battle royal" between the miller and his niece before the former had
+agreed to the new arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was quite sure that Maggie was a nice girl, even if she was queer.
+At least, she gave deference to the quaint little old housekeeper, and
+seemed to like Aunt Alvirah very much. And who would not love the woman,
+who was everybody's aunt but nobody's relative?</p>
+
+<p>Once or twice Ruth found Maggie poring over the Year Book of Ardmore
+College, rather an odd interest for a girl of her class. But Maggie was
+rather an odd girl anyway, and Ruth forgot the matter in her final
+preparations for departure.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>EXPECTATIONS</h3>
+
+
+<p>"I expect she'll be a haughty, stuck-up thing," declared Edith Phelps,
+with vigor.</p>
+
+<p>"'Just like <i>that</i>,'" drawled May MacGreggor. "We should worry about the
+famous authoress of canned drama! A budding lady hack writer, I fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me, no!" cried Edith. "Didn't you see 'The Heart of a
+Schoolgirl' she wrote? Why, it was a good photo-play, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>"And put out by the Alectrion Film Corporation," joined in another of
+the group of girls standing upon the wide porch of Dare Hall, one of the
+four large dormitories of Ardmore College.</p>
+
+<p>The college buildings were set most artistically upon the slope of
+College Hill, each building facing sparkling Lake Remona. Save the
+boathouse and the bathing pavilions, Dare and Dorrance Halls at the east
+side of the grounds, and Hoskin and Hemmingway Halls at the west side,
+were the structures nearest to the lake.</p>
+
+<p>Farther to the east an open grove intervened between the dormitories and
+the meadows along the Remona River where bog hay was cut, and which were
+sometimes flooded in the freshet season.</p>
+
+<p>To the west the lake extended as far as the girls on the porch could
+see, a part of its sparkling surface being hidden by the green and hilly
+bulk of Bliss Island. The shaded green lawns of the campus between Dare
+and Hoskin Halls were crossed by winding paths.</p>
+
+<p>A fleshy girl who was near the group but not of it, had been viewing
+this lovely landscape with pleasure. Now she frankly listened to the
+chatter of the "inquisitors."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Edith Phelps insisted, "this Ruth Fielding was so petted at that
+backwoods' school where she has been that I suppose there will be no
+living in the same house with her."</p>
+
+<p>Edith was one of the older sophomores&mdash;quite old, indeed, to the eyes of
+the plump girl who was listening. But the latter smiled quietly,
+nevertheless, as she listened to the sophomore's speech.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have to take her down a peg or two, of course. It's bad enough
+to have the place littered up with a lot of freshies&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Just as we littered it up last year at this time, Edie," suggested May,
+with a chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," Edith said, laughing, "if I don't put this Ruth Fielding, the
+authoress, in her place in a hurry, it won't be because I sha'n't try."</p>
+
+<p>"Have a care, dearie," admonished one quiet girl who had not spoken
+before. "Remember the warning we had at commencement."</p>
+
+<p>"About what?" demanded two or three.</p>
+
+<p>"About that Rolff girl, you know," said the thoughtful girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I know what you mean," Edith said. "But that was a warning to the
+sororities."</p>
+
+<p>"To everybody," put in May.</p>
+
+<p>"At any rate," Dora Parton said, "Dr. Milroth forbade anything in the
+line of hazing."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" said Edith. "Who mentioned hazing? That's old-fashioned. We're
+too ladylike at Ardmore, I should hope, to <i>haze</i>&mdash;my!"</p>
+
+<p>"'My heye, blokey!'" drawled May.</p>
+
+<p>"You are positively coarse, Miss MacGreggor," Dora said, severely.</p>
+
+<p>"And Edie is so awfully emphatic," laughed the Scotch girl. "But she
+will have to take it out in threatenings, I fear. We can't haze this
+Fielding chit, and that's all there is to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Positively," said the quiet girl, "that was a terrible thing they did
+to Margaret Rolff. She was a nervous girl, anyway. Do you remember her,
+May?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. And I remember being jealous because she was chosen by the
+Kappa Alpha as a candidate. Glad <i>I</i> wasn't one if they put all their
+new members through the same rigmarole."</p>
+
+<p>"That is irreverent!" gasped Edith. "The Kappa Alpha!"</p>
+
+<p>"I see Dr. Milroth took them down all right, all right!" remarked
+another of the group. "And now none of the sororities can solicit
+members among either the sophs or the freshies."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's a shame!" cried Edith. "The sorority girls have such fun."</p>
+
+<p>"Half murdering innocents&mdash;yes," drawled May. "That Margaret Rolff was
+just about scared out of her wits, they say. They found her wandering
+about Bliss Island&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Sh! We're not to talk of it," advised Edith, with a glance at the fat
+girl in the background who, although taking no part in the discussion,
+was very much amused, especially every time Ruth Fielding's name was
+brought up.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know why we shouldn't speak of it," said Dora Parton, who
+was likewise a sophomore. "The whole college knew it at the time. When
+Margaret Rolff left they discovered that the beautiful silver vase was
+gone, too, from the library&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hush!" exclaimed May MacGreggor, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't hush&mdash;so now!" said the other girl, smartly, making a face at the
+Scotch lassie. "Didn't Miss Cullam go wailing all over the college about
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," Edith agreed. "You'd have thought it was her vase that had
+been stolen."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe the vase was stolen at all," May said. "It was mixed up
+in that initiation and lost. I know that the Kappa Alpha girls are
+raising a fund to pay for it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pay for it!" scoffed some one. "Why, they couldn't do that in a
+thousand years. That was an Egyptian curio&mdash;very old and very valuable.
+Pay for it, indeed! Those Kappa Alphas, as well as the other sororities,
+are paying for their fun in another way."</p>
+
+<p>"But, anyway," said the quiet girl, "it was a terrible experience for
+Miss Rolff."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless she 'put it on' and got away with the loot herself," said Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, scissors! <i>now</i> who's coarse?" demanded May MacGreggor.</p>
+
+<p>But the conversation came back to the expected Ruth Fielding. These
+girls had all arrived at Ardmore several days in advance of the opening
+of the semester. Indeed, it is always advisable for freshmen,
+especially, to be on hand at least two days before the opening, for
+there is much preparation for newcomers.</p>
+
+<p>The fleshy girl who had thus far taken no part in the conversation
+recorded, save to be amused by it, had already been on the ground long
+enough to know her way about. But she was not yet acquainted with any of
+her classmates or with the sophomores.</p>
+
+<p>If she knew Ruth Fielding, she said nothing about it when Edith Phelps
+began to discuss the girl of the Red Mill again.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Cullam spoke to me about this Fielding. It seems she has an
+acquaintance who teaches at that backwoods' school the child went
+to&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Briarwood a backwoods' school!" said May. "Not much!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's somewhere up in New York State among the yaps," declared
+Edith. "And Cullam's friend wrote her that Fielding is a wonder. Dear
+me! how I <i>do</i> abominate wonders."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps we are maligning the girl," said Dora. "Perhaps Ruth Fielding
+is quite modest."</p>
+
+<p>"What? After writing a moving picture drama? Is there anything modest
+about the motion picture business in <i>any</i> of its branches?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear me, Edie!" cried one of her listeners, "you're dreadful."</p>
+
+<p>"I presume this canned drama authoress," pursued Edith, "will have
+ink-stains on her fingers and her hair will be eternally flying about
+her careworn features. Well! and what are <i>you</i> laughing at?" she
+suddenly and tartly demanded of the plump girl in the background.</p>
+
+<p>"At you," chuckled the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I so funny to look at?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. But you are the funniest-talking girl I ever listened to. Let me
+laugh, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>Before this observation could be more particularly inquired into, some
+one shouted:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, look who's here! And in style, bless us!"</p>
+
+<p>"And see the freight! Excess baggage, for a fact," May MacGreggor said,
+under her breath. "Who <i>can</i> she be?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Queen of Sheba in all her glory had nothing on this lady," cried
+Edith with conviction.</p>
+
+<p>It was not often that any of the Ardmore girls, and especially a
+freshman, arrived during the opening week of the term in a private
+equipage. This car that came chugging down the hill to the entrance of
+Dare Hall was a very fine touring automobile. The girl in the tonneau,
+barricaded with a huge trunk and several bags, besides a huge leather
+hat-box perched beside the chauffeur, was very gaily appareled as well.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! look at the labels on that trunk," whispered Dora Parton.
+"Why, that girl must have been all over Europe."</p>
+
+<p>"The trunk has, at any rate," chuckled May.</p>
+
+<p>"Hist!" now came from the excited Edith Phelps. "See the initials, 'R.
+F.' What did I tell you? It is that Fielding girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my aunt!" groaned the plump girl in the background, and she
+actually had to stuff her handkerchief in her mouth to keep from
+laughing outright again.</p>
+
+<p>The car had halted and the chauffeur got down promptly, for he had to
+remove some of the "excess baggage" before the girl in the tonneau could
+alight.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess she must think she belongs here," whispered Dora.</p>
+
+<p>"More likely she thinks she owns the whole place," snapped Edith, who
+had evidently made up her mind not to like the new girl whose baggage
+was marked "R. F."</p>
+
+<p>The girl got out and shook out her draperies. A close inspection would
+have revealed the fact that, although dressed in the very height of
+fashion (whatever <i>that</i> may mean), the materials of which the
+stranger's costume were made were rather cheap.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Dare Hall, isn't it?" she asked the group of girls above her on
+the porch. "I suppose there is a porter to help&mdash;er&mdash;the man with my
+baggage?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a rule of the college," said Edith, promptly, "that each girl
+shall carry her own baggage to her room. No male person is allowed
+within the dormitory building."</p>
+
+<p>There was a chorused, if whispered, "Oh!" from the other girls, and the
+newcomer looked at Edith, suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess you are spoofing me, aren't you?" she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Help! help!" murmured May MacGreggor. "That's the very latest English
+slang."</p>
+
+<p>"She's brought it direct from 'dear ol' Lunnon'," gasped one of the
+other sophomores.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" said Edith, addressing her friends, "wouldn't it be nice to
+have a 'close up' taken of that heap of luggage? It really needs a
+camera man and a director to make this arrival a success."</p>
+
+<p>The girl who had just come looked very much puzzled. The chauffeur
+seemed eager to be gone.</p>
+
+<p>"If I can't help take in the boxes, Miss, I might as well be going," he
+said to the new arrival.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," she rejoined, stiffly, and opening her purse gave him a
+bill. He lifted his cap, entered the car, touched the starter and in a
+moment the car whisked away.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare!" said May MacGreggor, "she looks just like a castaway on the
+shore of a desert island, with all the salvage she has been able to
+recover from the wreck."</p>
+
+<p>And perhaps the mysterious R. F. felt a good deal that way.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST IMPRESSIONS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Greenburg was the station on the N. Y. F. &amp; B. Railroad nearest to
+Ardmore College. It was a small city of some thirty or forty thousand
+inhabitants. The people, not alone in the city but in the surrounding
+country, were a rather wealthy class. Ardmore was a mile from the
+outskirts of the town.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding and Helen Cameron, her chum, had arrived with other girls
+bound for the college on the noon train. Of course, the chums knew none
+of their fellow pupils by name, but it was easily seen which of those
+alighting from the train were bound for Ardmore.</p>
+
+<p>There were two large auto-stages in waiting, and Ruth and Helen followed
+the crowd of girls briskly getting aboard the buses. As they saw other
+girls do, the two chums from Cheslow gave their trunk checks to a man on
+the platform, but they clung to their hand-baggage.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a nice looking lot of girls," murmured Helen in Ruth's ear. "It's
+fine! I'm sure we shall have a delightful time at college, Ruthie."</p>
+
+<p>"And some hard work," observed Ruth, laughing, "if we expect to keep up
+with them. There are no dunces in this crowd, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness, no!" agreed her friend. "They all look as sharp as needles."</p>
+
+<p>There were girls of all the classes at the station, as was easily seen.
+Ruth and Helen chanced to get into a seat with two of the seniors, who
+seemed most awfully sophisticated to the recent graduates of Briarwood
+Hall.</p>
+
+<p>"You are just entering, are you not&mdash;you and your friend?" asked the
+nearest senior of Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," admitted the girl of the Red Mill, feeling and looking very shy.</p>
+
+<p>The young women smiled quietly, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"I am Miss Dexter, and am beginning my senior year. I am glad to be the
+first to welcome you to Ardmore."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you so much!" Ruth said, recovering her self-possession. Then she
+told Miss Dexter her own name and introduced Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"You girls have drawn your room numbers, I presume?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were drawn for us," Ruth said. "We are to be in Dare Hall and hope
+to have adjoining rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"That is nice," said Miss Dexter. "It is so much pleasanter when two
+friends enter together. I am at Hoskin Hall myself. I shall be glad to
+have you two freshmen look me up when you are once settled."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," Ruth said again, and Helen found her voice to ask:</p>
+
+<p>"Are all the seniors in Hoskin Hall, and all the freshmen at Dare Hall?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. There are members of each class in all four of the
+dormitories," Miss Dexter explained.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose there will be much for us to learn," sighed Ruth. "It is
+different from a boarding school."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you both come from a boarding school?" asked their new acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"We are graduates of Briarwood Hall," Helen said, with pride.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, indeed?" Miss Dexter looked sharply at Ruth again. "Did you say
+your name was Ruth Fielding?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Dexter."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you must be the girl who wrote a picture play to help build a
+dormitory for your school!" exclaimed the senior. "Really, how nice."</p>
+
+<p>"There, Ruth!" said Helen, teasingly, "see what it is to be famous."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I hope my reputation will not be held against me," Ruth said,
+laughing. "Let me tell you, Miss Dexter, we all at Briarwood helped to
+swell that dormitory fund."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy so," said the senior. "But all of your schoolmates could not
+have written a scenario which would have been approved by the Alectrion
+Film Corporation."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not!" cried Helen, warmly. "And it was a great picture,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"It was clever, indeed," agreed Miss Dexter. "I saw it on the screen."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dexter introduced the girl at the other end of the seat&mdash;another
+senior, Miss Purvis. The two entering freshmen felt flattered&mdash;how could
+they help it? They had expected, as freshmen, to be quite haughtily
+ignored by the seniors and juniors.</p>
+
+<p>But there were other matters to interest Ruth and Helen as the auto-bus
+rolled out of the city. The way was very pleasant; there were beautiful
+homes in the suburbs of Greenburg. And after they were passed, there
+were lovely fields and groves on either hand. The chums thought they had
+seldom seen more attractive country, although they had traveled more
+than most girls of their age.</p>
+
+<p>The road over which the auto-bus rolled was wide and well oiled&mdash;a
+splendid automobile track. But only one private equipage passed them on
+the ride to Ardmore. That car came along, going the same way as
+themselves, just as they reached the first of the row of faculty
+dwellings.</p>
+
+<p>There was but one passenger in the car&mdash;a girl; and she was packed
+around with baggage in a most surprising way.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" gasped Helen, in Ruth's ear, "I guess there goes one of the real
+fancy girls&mdash;the kind that sets the pace at college."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth noticed that Miss Dexter and Miss Purvis craned their necks to see
+the car and the girl, and she ventured to ask who she was.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you," Miss Dexter said briskly. "I never saw her before."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Perhaps, then, she isn't going to the college."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; she must be. This road goes nowhere else. But she is a freshman,
+of course."</p>
+
+<p>"An eccentric, I fancy," drawled Miss Purvis. "You must know that each
+freshman class is bound to have numbered with it some most surprising
+individuals. <i>Rarae aves</i>, as it were."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dexter laughed. "But the corners are soon rubbed off and their
+peculiarities fade into the background. When I was a freshman, there
+entered a woman over fifty, with perfectly white hair. She was a <i>dear</i>;
+but, of course, she was an anomaly at college."</p>
+
+<p>"My!" exclaimed Helen. "What did she want to go to college for?"</p>
+
+<p>"The poor thing had always wanted to go to college. When she was young
+there were few women's colleges. And she had a big family to help, and
+finally a bedridden sister to care for. So she remained faithful to her
+home duties, but each year kept up with the graduating class of a local
+preparatory school. She was really a very well educated and bright
+woman; only peculiar."</p>
+
+<p>"And what happened when she came to Ardmore?" asked Ruth, interested,
+"is she still here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. She remained only a short time. She found, she said, that her
+mind was not nimble enough, at her age, to keep up with the classes.
+Which was very probably true, you know. Unless one is constantly engaged
+in hard mental labor, one's mind must get into ruts by the time one is
+fifty. But she was very lovely, and quite popular&mdash;while she lasted."</p>
+
+<p>Helen was more interested just then in the row of cottages occupied by
+the members of the faculty, and here strung along the left side of the
+highway. They were pretty houses, set in pretty grounds.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, look, Helen!" cried Ruth, suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"The lake!" responded Helen.</p>
+
+<p>The dancing blue waters of Lake Remona were visible for a minute between
+two of the houses. Ruth, too, caught a glimpse of the small island which
+raised its hilly head in the middle of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that Bliss Island?" she inquired of Miss Dexter.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You can see it from here. That doesn't belong to the college."</p>
+
+<p>"No?" said Ruth, in surprise: "But, of course, the girls can go there?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is 'No Man's Land,' I believe. Belongs to none of the estates
+surrounding the lake. We go there&mdash;yes," Miss Dexter told her. "The
+Stone Face is there."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that, please?" asked Ruth, interested. "What is the Stone
+Face?"</p>
+
+<p>"A landmark, Miss Fielding. That Stone Face was quite an important spot
+last May&mdash;wasn't it, Purvis?" the senior asked the other girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, goodness me, yes!" said Miss Purvis. "Don't mention it. Think what
+it has done to our Kappa Alpha."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you suppose ever became of that girl?" murmured Miss Dexter,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't imagine. It was a sorry time, take it all in all. Let's not
+talk of it, Merry. Our sorority has a setback from which it will never
+recover."</p>
+
+<p>All this was literally Greek to Ruth, of course. Nor did she listen with
+any attention. There were other things for her and Helen to be
+interested in, for the main building of the college had come into view.</p>
+
+<p>They had been gradually climbing the easy slope of College Hill from the
+east. The main edifice of Ardmore did not stand upon the summit of the
+eminence. Behind and above the big, winged building the hill rose to a
+wooded, rounding summit, sheltering the whole estate from the north
+winds.</p>
+
+<p>Just upon the edge of the forest at the top was an octagon-shaped
+observatory. Ruth had read about it in the Year Book. From the balcony
+of this observatory one could see, on a clear day, to the extreme west
+end of Lake Remona&mdash;quite twenty-five miles away.</p>
+
+<p>The newcomers, however, were more interested at present in the big
+building which faced the lake, half-way down the southern slope of
+College Hill, and which contained the hall and classrooms, as well as
+the principal offices. The beautiful campus was in front of this
+building.</p>
+
+<p>"All off for Dare and Dorrance," shouted the stage driver, stopping his
+vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>The driveway here split, one branch descending the hill, while the main
+thread wound on past the front of the main building. Ruth and Helen
+scrambled down with their bags.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," said Miss Dexter smiling on them. "Perhaps I shall see you
+when you come over to the registrar's office. We seniors have to do the
+honors for you freshies."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Purvis, too, bade them a pleasant good-bye. The chums set off down
+the driveway. On their left was the great, sandstone, glass-roofed bulk
+of the gymnasium, and they caught a glimpse of the fenced athletic field
+behind it.</p>
+
+<p>Ahead were the two big dormitories upon this side of the campus&mdash;Dare
+and Dorrance Halls. The driveway curved around to the front of these
+buildings, and now the private touring car the girls had before noticed,
+came shooting around from the lake side of the dormitories, passing Ruth
+and Helen, empty save for the chauffeur.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "I wonder if that dressy girl with all the
+goods and chattels is bunked in <i>our</i> dormitory?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Our' dormitory, no less!" laughed Ruth. "Do you feel as much at home
+already as <i>that</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! No. I'm only trying to make myself believe it. Ruth, what an
+e-<i>nor</i>-mous place this is! I feel just as small as&mdash;as a little mouse
+in an elephant's stall."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth laughed, but before she could reply they rounded the corner of the
+building nearest to the campus and saw the group of girls upon its broad
+porch, the stranger at the foot of the steps, and the heap of baggage
+piled where the chauffeur had left it.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello!" May MacGreggor said, aloud, "here are a couple more kittens.
+Look at the pretty girl with the brown eyes and hair. And the
+smart-looking, black-eyed one. Now! <i>here</i> are freshies after my own
+heart."</p>
+
+<p>Edith Phelps refused to be called off from the girl and the baggage,
+however. She said coolly:</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know what you will do with all that truck, Miss
+Fielding. The rooms at Dare are rather small. You could not possibly get
+all those bags and the trunk&mdash;and certainly not that hat-box&mdash;into one
+of these rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"My name isn't Fielding," said the strange girl, paling now, but whether
+from anger or as a forerunner to tears it would have been hard to tell.
+Her face was not one to be easily read.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name isn't <i>Fielding</i>?" gasped Edie Phelps, while the latter's
+friends burst into laughter. "'R. F.'! What does that stand for, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the fleshy girl who had been all this time in the
+background on the porch, flung herself forward, burst through the group,
+and ran down the steps. She had spied Ruth and Helen approaching.</p>
+
+<p>"Ruthie! Helen! <i>Ruth Fielding!</i> Isn't this delightsome?"</p>
+
+<p>The fleshy girl tried to hug both the chums from Cheslow at once. Edie
+Phelps and the rest of the girls on the porch gazed and listened in
+amazement. Edie turned upon the girl with the heap of baggage,
+accusingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a good one! What do you mean by coming here and fooling us all
+in this way? What's your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rebecca Frayne&mdash;if you think you have a right to ask," said the new
+girl, sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"And you're not the canned drama authoress?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean, I'm sure," said Rebecca Frayne. "But I
+<i>would</i> like to know what I'm to do with this baggage."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had come to the foot of the steps now with Helen and the fleshy
+girl, whom the chums had hailed gladly as "Jennie Stone." The girl of
+the Red Mill heard the speech of the stranger and noted her woebegone
+accent. She turned with a smile to Rebecca Frayne.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I know about that," she said. "Just leave your trunk and bags here
+and put your card and the number of your room on them. The men will be
+along very soon to carry them up for you. I read that in the Year Book."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Rebecca Frayne.</p>
+
+<p>The group of sophomores and freshmen on the porch opened a way for the
+Briarwood trio to enter the house, and said never a word. Jennie Stone
+was, as she confessed, grinning broadly.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>GETTING SETTLED</h3>
+
+
+<p>"What does this mean, Heavy Jennie?" demanded Helen, pinching the very
+comfortable arm of their fleshy friend.</p>
+
+<p>"What does that mean? Ouch, Helen! You know you're pinching something
+when you pinch <i>me</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"That's why I like to. No fun in trying to make an impression on bones,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"But it doesn't hurt bones so much," grumbled Jennie. "Remember what the
+fruit-stand man printed on his sign: 'If you musta pincha da fruit,
+pincha da cocoanut.' You can't so easy bruise bony folk, Helen."</p>
+
+<p>"You are dodging the issue, Heavy," declared Helen. "What does this
+mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"What does what mean?" demanded the fleshy girl, grinning widely again.</p>
+
+<p>"How came you here, of course?" Ruth put in, smiling upon their gay and
+usually thoughtless friend. "You said you did not think you could come
+to Ardmore."</p>
+
+<p>"And you had conditions to make up if you did come," declared Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I made 'em up," said Jennie, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"And you're here ahead of us! Oh, Heavy, what sport!" cried Helen,
+undertaking to pinch the plump girl again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that's enough of that," said Jennie Stone. "I have feelings, as
+well as other folk, Helen Cameron, despite my name. Have a heart!"</p>
+
+<p>"We are so glad to see you, Heavy," said Ruth. "You mustn't mind Helen's
+exuberance."</p>
+
+<p>"And you never said a word about coming here when you wrote to us down
+South," Helen said, eyeing the fleshy girl curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know what to do," confessed Jennie Stone. "I talked it over
+with Aunt Kate. She agreed with me that, if I had finished school, I'd
+put on about five pounds a month, and that's all I <i>would</i> do."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" gasped Ruth and Helen, together.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Heavy, nodding with emphasis. "That's what I did the first
+month. Nothing to do, you see, but eat and sleep. If I'd had to go to
+work&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But couldn't you find something to do?" demanded the energetic Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"At Lighthouse Point? You know just how lazy a spot that is. And in
+winter in the city it would be worse. So I determined to come here."</p>
+
+<p>"To keep from getting fatter!" cried Helen. "A new reason for coming to
+college."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jennie, seriously, "I missed the gym work and I missed
+being uncomfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Uncomfortable?" gasped Ruth and Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You know, my father's a big man, and so are my older brothers big.
+Everything in our house is big and well stuffed and comfortable&mdash;chairs
+and beds and all. I never was comfortable in my bed at Briarwood."</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible!" cried Helen, while Ruth laughed heartily.</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>here</i>!" went on Heavy, lugubriously. "Wait till you see. Do you
+know, all they give us here is <i>cots</i> to sleep on? <i>Cots</i>, mind!
+Goodness! when I try to turn over I roll right out on the floor. You
+ought to see my sides already, how black-and-blue they are. I've been
+here two nights."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you come so early?"</p>
+
+<p>"So as to try to get used to the food and the beds," groaned Heavy. "But
+I never will. One teacher already has advised me about my diet. She says
+vegetables are best for me. I ate a peck of string beans this noon for
+lunch&mdash;strings and all&mdash;and I expect you can pick basting threads out of
+me almost anywhere!"</p>
+
+<p>"The teacher didn't advise you to eat <i>all</i> the vegetables there were,
+did she?" asked Ruth, as they climbed the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"She did not signify the amount. I just ate till I couldn't get down
+another one. I sha'n't want to see another string bean for some time."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen easily found the rooms that had been drawn for them the
+June previous. Of course, they were not the best rooms in the hall, for
+the seniors had first choice, and then the juniors and sophomores had
+their innings before the freshmen had a chance.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a door between Ruth's and Helen's rooms, as they had
+hoped, and Jennie's room was just across the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"We Sweetbriars will stick together, all right," said the fleshy girl.
+"For defence and offence, if necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"You evidently expect to have a strenuous time here, Heavy," laughed
+Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"No telling," returned Jennie Stone, wagging her head. "I fancy there
+are some 'cut-ups' among the sophs who will try to make our sweet young
+lives miserable. That Edie Phelps, for instance." She told them how the
+sophomores had met the new girl, Rebecca Frayne, and why.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" said Ruth. "But that was all on <i>my</i> account. We shall have
+to be particularly nice to Miss Frayne. I hope she's on our corridor."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose they will haze you, Ruth, just because you wrote that
+scenario?" asked Helen, somewhat troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no hazing at Ardmore," laughed Ruth. "They can't bother me.
+'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!'"
+she singsonged.</p>
+
+<p>"Just the same," Jennie said, morosely, "that Edie Phelps has a sharp
+tongue."</p>
+
+<p>"We, too, have tongues," proclaimed Helen, who had no intention of being
+put upon.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, girls, we want to take just what is handed us good-naturedly,"
+Ruth advised. "We are freshmen. Next year we will be sophomores, and can
+take it out on the new girls then," and she laughed. "You know, we've
+all been through it at Briarwood."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness, yes!" agreed Helen. "It can't be as bad at college as it was
+during our first term at Briarwood Hall."</p>
+
+<p>"This Edie Phelps can't be as mean as The Fox 'useter was,' I suppose,"
+added Jennie Stone. "Besides, I fancy the sophs need us freshmen&mdash;our
+good will and help, I mean. The two lower classes here have to line up
+against the juniors and seniors."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, me," sighed Ruth. "I hoped we had come here to study, not to
+fight."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" said the fleshy girl, "where do you go in this world that you
+don't have to fight for your rights? You never get something for
+nothing."</p>
+
+<p>However, the possibility of trouble disturbed their minds but slightly.
+For the rest of the day the trio were very busy. At least, Ruth and
+Helen were busy arranging their rooms and unpacking, and Jennie Stone
+was busy watching them.</p>
+
+<p>They went to the registrar's office that day, as this was required.
+Otherwise, they were in their rooms, after their baggage was delivered,
+occupied until almost dinner time. Heavy had been on the ground long
+enough, as she said, to know most of the ropes. They were supposed to
+dress rather formally for dinner, although not more than two-thirds of
+the girls had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>There were in Dare Hall alone as many pupils as had attended Briarwood
+altogether. This was, indeed, a much larger school life on which they
+were entering.</p>
+
+<p>So many of the girls they saw were older than themselves&mdash;and the trio
+of girls had been among the oldest girls at Briarwood during their last
+semester.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, we're only <i>kids</i>," sighed Helen. "There's a girl on this
+corridor&mdash;at the other end, thank goodness!&mdash;who looks old enough to be
+a teacher."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Comstock," said Heavy. "I know. She's a senior. There are no
+teachers rooming at Dare. Only the housekeeper downstairs. But you'll
+find a senior at the head of each table&mdash;and Miss Comstock looks awfully
+stern."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen found the rooms they were to occupy rather different from
+those they had chummed in at Briarwood. In the first place, these rooms
+were smaller, and the furniture was very plain. As Jennie had warned
+them, there were only cots to sleep upon&mdash;very nice cots, it was true,
+and there was a heavy coverlet for each, to turn the cots into divans in
+the daytime.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what we can do," Ruth suggested at the start. "Let's make
+one room the study, and both sleep in the other."</p>
+
+<p>"Bully idea," agreed Helen.</p>
+
+<p>They proceeded to do this, the result being a very plain sleeping room,
+indeed, but a well-furnished study. They had brought with them all the
+pennants and other keepsakes from Briarwood, and sofa pillows and
+cushions for the chairs, and innumerable pictures.</p>
+
+<p>Before night the study looked as homelike as the old room had at the
+preparatory school. They had rugs, too, and one big lounging chair,
+purchased second-hand, that Heavy had, of course, occupied most of the
+afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! I hope you've finished at last," sighed the fleshy girl when the
+warning bell for dinner rang. "I'm about tired out."</p>
+
+<p>"You should be," agreed Ruth, commiseratingly. "You've helped so much."</p>
+
+<p>"Advising is harder than moving furniture and tacking up pictures,"
+proclaimed Jennie. "Brain-fag is the trouble with me and hunger."</p>
+
+<p>"We admit the final symptom," said Helen. "But if your brain is ever
+fagged, Heavy, it will only be from thinking up new and touching menus.
+Come on, now, we're going to scramble into some fresh frocks. You go and
+do the same, Miss Lazybones."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>MISS CULLAM'S TROUBLE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen were much more amply supplied with frocks of a somewhat
+dressy order than when they began a semester at Briarwood Hall. Their
+wardrobes here were well filled, and of course there was no supervision
+of what they wore as there had been at the preparatory school.</p>
+
+<p>When they went downstairs to the dining-room with Jennie Stone, they
+found they had made no mistake in "putting their best foot forward," as
+Helen called it.</p>
+
+<p>"My! I feel quite as though I were going to a party," Ruth confessed.</p>
+
+<p>The girls rustled through the corridors and down the wide stairways,
+laughing and talking, many of the freshmen, it was evident, already
+having made friends.</p>
+
+<p>"There's that girl," whispered Jennie Stone, suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"What girl?" asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! the girl with all the luggage," laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the fleshy girl. "What was her name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rebecca Frayne," said Ruth, who had a good memory.</p>
+
+<p>She bowed to the rather over-dressed freshman. She saw that nobody was
+walking with Rebecca Frayne.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope she sits at our table," Ruth added.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," Helen rejoined, with a smile, "Ruth has already spied
+somebody to be good to."</p>
+
+<p>"Shucks!" said Jennie. "I don't think she'd make a particularly pleasant
+addition to our party."</p>
+
+<p>"What does <i>that</i> matter?" demanded Helen, roguishly. "Ruth is always
+picking up the sore-eyed kittens."</p>
+
+<p>"I think that is unkind," returned Ruth, shaking her head. "Maybe Miss
+Frayne is a very nice girl."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what she's got in all those bags and the big trunk?" said
+Jennie. "I see she's wearing the same dress she traveled in."</p>
+
+<p>"I wager she misses her maid," sighed Helen. "Can't dress without one, I
+s'pose."</p>
+
+<p>But there were too many other girls to watch and to comment on for the
+trio to give much attention to Rebecca Frayne. Ruth, however, said, with
+a little laugh:</p>
+
+<p>"I must feel some interest in her. Her initials are the same as mine."</p>
+
+<p>"And her arrival certainly took the curse off yours, my dear," Jennie
+agreed. "Edie Phelps and her crowd were laying for you and no mistake."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if we shouldn't eschew all slang now that we have come to
+Ardmore?" Helen suggested demurely.</p>
+
+<p>"You set the example then, my lady!" cried Heavy.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Comstock, the very severe looking senior, sat at the table at which
+the Briarwood trio of freshmen found their numbers; but Miss Frayne was
+at the housekeeper's table. There were ten or twelve girls at each table
+and throughout the meal a pleasant hum of voices filled the room.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen, not to mention their fleshy chum, were soon at their
+ease with their neighbors; nor did Miss Comstock prove such a bugaboo as
+they feared. Although the senior was a particularly silent girl, she had
+a pleasant smile and was no wet blanket upon the enjoyment of the
+dinner. At least, she did not serve as a wet blanket upon Jennie Stone.
+The fleshy girl's appetite betrayed the fact that she had been stinted
+at noon, and that a diet of string beans was scarcely a satisfactory
+one.</p>
+
+<p>As they left the dining-room and came out into the wide, well-lighted
+entrance hall of the house, a lady just entering bowed to Jennie Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"There she is!" groaned the fleshy girl. "Caught in the act!"</p>
+
+<p>"Who is she, Heavy?" demanded Helen, in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>"She looks nice," observed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Cullam. She's the one that advised the string beans," declared
+Jennie out of the corner of her mouth. Then she added, most cordially:
+"Oh! how do you do! These are my two chums from Briarwood&mdash;Ruth Fielding
+and Helen Cameron. Miss Cullam, girls."</p>
+
+<p>The teacher, who was rather elderly, but very brisk and neat, if not
+wholly attractive, approached smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"You will meet me in mathematics, young ladies," she said, shaking hands
+with the two introduced freshmen. "And how are you to-night, Miss Stone?
+Have you stuck to your vegetable diet, as I advised?"</p>
+
+<p>Heavy made her jolly, round face seem as long as possible, and groaned
+hollowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Cullam!" she said, "I believe I could have stuck to the diet,
+if&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if what?" demanded the teacher.</p>
+
+<p>"If the diet would only stick to <i>me</i>. But it doesn't. I ate <i>pecks</i> of
+string beans for lunch, and by the middle of the afternoon I felt like a
+castaway after two weeks upon a desert island."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, Miss Stone!" exclaimed the teacher, yet laughing too. Heavy
+was so ridiculous that it was impossible not to be amused. "You should
+practise abstinence. Really, you are the very fattest girl at Ardmore, I
+do believe."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds horrid!" declared Jennie with sudden vigor, and she did not
+look pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"You may as well face the truth, my dear," said the mathematics teacher,
+eyeing the distressing curves of the fleshy girl without prejudice.
+"Here are upwards of a thousand girls&mdash;or will be when all have arrived
+and registered. And you will be locally famous."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't!" groaned Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Heavy!" gasped Helen.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Cullam uttered a short laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Your friends evidently love you, my dear," she said, patting the fleshy
+girl's plump cheek. "But you want to make new friends&mdash;you wish to be
+admired, I know. It will not be pleasant to gain the reputation of being
+Ardmore's heavyweight, will it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds pretty bad," admitted Heavy, coming out of her momentary
+slough of despond. "But we all have our little troubles, don't we, Miss
+Cullam?"</p>
+
+<p>Somehow this question seemed to quench the teacher of mathematics' good
+spirits. A cloud settled upon her countenance, and she nodded seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"We all have; true enough, Miss Stone," she said. "And I hope you, as
+pupils at Ardmore, will never suffer such disturbance of mind as I, a
+teacher, sometimes do."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, who had started up the stairway next to the teacher, put a
+friendly hand upon Miss Cullam's arm. "I hope we three will never add to
+your burdens, my dear Miss Cullam," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>The instructor flashed a rather wondering look at the girl of the Red
+Mill; then she smiled. It was a grouty person, indeed, who could look
+into Ruth Fielding's frank countenance and not return her smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless you! I have heard of you already, Ruth Fielding. I have no idea I
+shall be troubled by you or your friends." They had fallen behind the
+others a few steps. "But we never can tell. Since last term&mdash;well!"</p>
+
+<p>Much, evidently, was on Miss Cullam's mind; yet she kept step with Ruth
+when they came to the corridor on which the rooms of the three
+Briarwoods opened. Ruth could always find something pleasant to say.
+This woman with the care-graved countenance smiled whimsically as she
+listened, keeping at the girl's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Evidently somewhat oppressed by the attentions of the instructor, Helen
+and Heavy had disappeared into the fleshy girl's room.</p>
+
+<p>"Do come in and see how nicely we have fixed our sitting-room&mdash;study, I
+mean, of course," and Ruth laughed, opening the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Looks homelike," confessed Miss Cullam. Then, with a startled glance
+around the room, she murmured: "Why, it's the very room!"</p>
+
+<p>"What is that you say?" asked Ruth, curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who had this room last year?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I haven't the first idea," returned the girl of the Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Rolff."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I know her?" asked Ruth, somewhat puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"She left before the end of the term. I&mdash;I am not sure just what the
+matter was with her. But she is connected in my mind with a great
+misfortune."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Miss Cullam?" said the sympathetic Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>It was, perhaps, the sympathy in her tone that urged the instructor to
+confide her trouble to a strange girl&mdash;a freshman, at that!</p>
+
+<p>"I hope I shall never have the same fears and doubts regarding you and
+your friends, Miss Fielding, that I have felt about some of these girls
+who are now sophomores&mdash;and some of the juniors, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Cullam! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you, my dear," the teacher said, taking the comfortable
+chair at Ruth's gestured recommendation, as the girl switched on the
+electricity. "You seem like an above-the-average sensible girl&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth laughed at that, but she dimpled, too, and Miss Cullam joined in
+the laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of these girls were mere flyaways," she said. "But not many, after
+all. Girls who come as far as college, even to the freshman course in
+college, usually have something in their pretty noddles besides ideas
+for dressing their hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will confide in you, as I say, because I have a fancy to. I
+like you. Listen to the troubles of a poor mathematics instructor."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Cullam," said Ruth, demurely.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, my dear," said Miss Cullam, who had a whimsical way about her
+that Ruth had begun to delight in, "after all, we college instructors
+are all necessarily of the race of watch dogs."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Cullam!"</p>
+
+<p>"Our girls are put upon their honor and are in the main worthy of our
+confidence. But we have experiences that show us how frail human virtue
+is.</p>
+
+<p>"For instance, there are examinations. A most trying necessity are
+examinations. They come mainly toward the close of the college year, and
+a few of our girls are not prepared to pass.</p>
+
+<p>"Last year I felt that some of my freshmen and sophomores could not
+possibly comply with the mathematical requirements. When I received from
+the printers my copies of the questions to be proposed to the classes I
+really felt that a few of my girls were going to have a hard time," and
+she smiled again, yet there was still trouble in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I chanced to be in the library when I received the papers. You have not
+seen our library yet, have you, Miss Fielding?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Cullam. You know, Helen and I arrived only this afternoon at
+Ardmore."</p>
+
+<p>"That is so. Well, the library is a very beautifully furnished building.
+It was a gift from certain alumni. I was alone in the reception-room
+when I examined the papers, and being called suddenly to a duty and not
+wishing to take the papers with me, I rolled them up and thrust them
+into a vase standing upon the table. When I returned in a few minutes,
+still hurried by a task before me, I found that I had thrust the papers
+so far into the small-mouthed vase that I could not reach them. Quite a
+ridiculous situation, was it not?</p>
+
+<p>"But now the plot thickens," went on the teacher, with a sigh. "The
+papers were safe enough there, of course. The vase was a very beautiful
+and valuable silver one, and had its place of honor on that table. I
+could not stop to retrieve the question papers with a pair of tongs&mdash;as
+I might, had I not been hurried. When I returned armed with the tongs in
+the morning&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Cullam?" rejoined Ruth, interestedly, as the teacher paused
+in her story.</p>
+
+<p>"The vase&mdash;and, of course, the question papers&mdash;was gone," said the
+lady, in a sepulchral tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"</p>
+
+<p>"And almost all the girls I had marked for failure in mathematics went
+through the examination with colors flying!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" exclaimed Ruth again, and quite blankly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see the terrible suspicion that has been eating at my mind ever
+since? There happened to be other unfortunate matters connected with the
+disappearance of the vase, too. <i>It</i> has never been found. One of the
+very freshmen who I feared would fail in the examination left the
+college under a cloud."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Cullam!" gasped Ruth. "Is she suspected of stealing the
+vase&mdash;and the examination papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely know what to say in answer to that," said Miss Cullam,
+gravely. "It seems that one of the sororities was initiating candidates
+on that night. One of the&mdash;er&mdash;'stunts,' as they call their ridiculous
+ceremonies, included the filching of this vase after dark and its burial
+somewhere on Bliss Island. So Dr. Milroth later informed me.</p>
+
+<p>"The girl chosen for this ridiculous performance, Miss Rolff, who
+occupied this very room, was found at daybreak wandering alone upon the
+island in a hysterical condition. She insisted upon leaving the college
+immediately, before I had discovered the absence of the vase and the
+missing papers.</p>
+
+<p>"I felt that I could not arouse suspicion in Dr. Milroth's mind by
+mentioning the papers. I secured copies from the printer. Of course, it
+is all ancient history now, my dear," ended the mathematics teacher,
+with a sigh. "But you see, suspicion once fastened upon my mind, it
+still troubles me."</p>
+
+<p>"But what became of the poor girl?" asked Ruth, sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p>"That I cannot tell you," Miss Cullam said, rising. "She has not
+returned this year, and I understand that Dr. Milroth lost trace of
+her."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>FAME IS NOT ALWAYS AN ASSET</h3>
+
+
+<p>Just why the teacher of mathematics had taken Ruth Fielding into her
+confidence upon this rather curious event, it would be hard to say.
+Teachers are human like other people, and perhaps sometimes prone to
+gossip.</p>
+
+<p>However, Ruth felt that it was a confidence, and she did not mention the
+matter of the missing examination papers to her chum or to Jennie Stone.
+The other Briarwood girls were the only members of the freshman class
+Ruth was likely to be intimate with for some days.</p>
+
+<p>Friendships are not made so quickly at college as at smaller schools.
+There were so many girls that it took some time for the trio to adjust
+themselves and to become acquainted with their mates.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning they went again to the registrar's office, and there they
+met Miss Dexter, who was appointed to escort them about, show them the
+college offices, the bookstore, and introduce them to such of the
+instructors as came in the path of the new girls.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, their tuition fees&mdash;one hundred and seventy-five dollars
+each&mdash;for the year had been already paid. Their board would be nine
+dollars weekly, and all books, stationery, gymnastic suits and supplies,
+as well as medical and hospital fees (if they chanced to be ill) would
+be extra.</p>
+
+<p>There were only a few simple rules of behavior to note. If a girl is not
+well trained in ladylike demeanor before arriving at the college age she
+is, of course, hopeless. The faculty have other things to do besides
+watching the manners as well as the mental attributes, of the students.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and her friends learned that they were not to leave the college
+grounds before six in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>"And who'd want to?" demanded Heavy. "That's the best time to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>However, the fleshy girl soon learned that if she was to have a
+reasonable time for breakfast she must be up betimes. The meal was
+served from seven to a quarter to eight. Chapel was at eight-thirty, but
+not compulsory. Recitations began at nine and lunch was at twelve.</p>
+
+<p>Recitations and lectures (these latter did not interest our freshmen,
+for they had no lectures the first year) ended at three-thirty, when,
+all the girls were supposed to take gymnastics of some kind. Otherwise,
+their time was their own until dinner at six o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>The girls had the time free from seven till seven-thirty. The following
+two hours were those devoted to quiet study (or should be) in their own
+rooms, or in the reference department of the library. At ten all were
+supposed to retire.</p>
+
+<p>The students might leave the grounds at any time during the day, but
+never in the evening without a chaperon. These rules and requirements
+seemed easy enough to the trio from Briarwood Hall, used as they were to
+the far stricter oversight of the teachers in the preparatory
+institution.</p>
+
+<p>More girls appeared at Ardmore that day, and the one following would see
+the opening of the semester and, as Jennie Stone said, "the buckling
+down to real work." A notice was posted on the bulletin boards already
+commanding all freshmen to meet at Hoskin Hall after dinner that
+evening, signed by the president of the sophomore class.</p>
+
+<p>"What's <i>she</i> got to do with <i>us</i>?" Helen demanded, with a sniff.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we allowed to run our own class affairs here?" Heavy asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy not," Ruth rejoined. "Miss Dexter told me that the sophs and
+freshies were usually lined up against the two older classes. The sophs
+need us, and we need them."</p>
+
+<p>"I have an idea," said Heavy, with a warning shake of her head, "that
+some of the sophs don't care so much for us."</p>
+
+<p>The trio were returning from the college hall as they chatted. Helen
+suddenly exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Girls! did you ever see so many tam-o'-shanters in your little lives?
+And such a wealth of colors?"</p>
+
+<p>It was true that every girl in sight (and there were "just hundreds!" to
+quote Heavy again), unless she were bareheaded, wore a tam-o'-shanter.</p>
+
+<p>"The most popular thing in head covering at Ardmore this year, that is
+sure," said Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! will you look at the one that Frayne girl is wearing?" Helen
+gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" said Heavy. "Looks like an Italian sunset."</p>
+
+<p>"Or a badly scrambled egg," put in Helen. "There! I believe that girl
+would look a fright whatever she put on."</p>
+
+<p>"She can't help her taste, poor girl," Ruth said.</p>
+
+<p>"My!" sighed Heavy. "I like to hear you talk, Ruth. You're as full of
+excuses for everybody criticised as a chestnut is of meat," and she
+nibbled one of the nuts in question as she spoke. Then:</p>
+
+<p>"Wow! Oh, the nasty thing!"</p>
+
+<p>Helen laughed uproariously. "Something besides meat in that chestnut,
+Heavy. Did it squirm much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me," said the fleshy girl, gloomily. "Of such is life! 'I
+never owned a gay gazelle&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"Cut it out. You never owned a gazelle of any kind," said Helen. "You
+know you never did."</p>
+
+<p>It was just here that the trio came upon a group of girls of whom Edith
+Phelps was evidently the leader. It was opposite the gymnasium, under
+the wide-spreading oaks that gave shade to that quarter of the campus.
+The Briarwood girls had been about to enter the gymnasium building to
+look around.</p>
+
+<p>Edith and her friends were mostly in gymnasium costumes. They had been
+tossing the medicine ball; but it was plain that they had gathered here
+near the path the three freshmen friends followed, for a purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, here comes the leading lady!" cried Edith Phelps, in a high and
+affected voice. "Get set! Camera!"</p>
+
+<p>The girls, or most of them, struck most ridiculous attitudes at Edie's
+word, while an oblong, black box suddenly appeared, affixed upon a
+tripod, and May MacGreggor, who was out for fun as much as any of the
+sophomores, began to turn a tiny crank on one side of the box.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi! what are you trying to do&mdash;you fat person there?" demanded Edie,
+excitedly, imitating a movie director, and waving back the amazed and
+somewhat angry Jennie Stone. "Want to crab the film?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the mean things!" gasped Helen, growing as red as though the joke
+were aimed directly at herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Cracky!" murmured the fleshy girl, who couldn't help seeing the
+ridiculous side of it. "Isn't that funny?"</p>
+
+<p>At the moment, too, a thin little tune began to wander from the black
+box, none other than "The Wearing of the Green." Inside the box was one
+of those little, old-fashioned Swiss music boxes, and May was
+industriously turning the crank.</p>
+
+<p>"Register fear, Miss Fielding!" shouted Edith, energetically. "Fear, I
+say! Don't you realize that you are about to be flung over a cliff and
+that a mad bull is waiting bel-o-o-w to catch you on his horns? Close up
+of the bull, please!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had been first surprised, then not a little displeased; but she
+knew instinctively if she showed that this buffoonry offended and
+troubled her it would only be repeated again and again.</p>
+
+<p>Much better able than her chum, Helen Cameron, to control her features,
+she began now to smile broadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Girls!" she said aloud to her two friends, "it must be that that girl
+knows Mr. Grimes personally or has seen him at work. You remember Mr.
+Grimes, the Alectrion director who filmed our play at Briarwood?"</p>
+
+<p>"And was so nasty to Hazel Gray? I should say!" exclaimed Jennie,
+instantly falling in with Ruth's attempt to pass the incident off as a
+joke.</p>
+
+<p>"I think <i>she's</i> nasty-mean," muttered Helen, her black eyes snapping.</p>
+
+<p>"If you played that tune while making a film for me, Miss MacGreggor, I
+should want to jig," Heavy cried, and started to do a few ridiculous
+steps in front of the black box.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth continued to smile, too, saying to Edith Phelps: "You might have
+warned us of this. I'd have liked to primp a little before posing for
+the camera."</p>
+
+<p>The other girls laughed. It did not take much to make them laugh, and it
+is possible that they laughed as much at Edie as with her. But as the
+trio of freshmen went on toward Dare Hall, Ruth shook her head
+doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Ruthie?" asked Helen, squeezing her arm. "The mean
+things!"</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," murmured Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"You wonder what?" demanded Helen.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth sighed. "I guess fame isn't always an asset," she said.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE STONE FACE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth knew better than to show anger over any such silly joke. If she was
+to be made the laughing stock of her class by the sophomores, she might
+as well face it and bear the cross good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was as sensitive as any refined girl. It hurt her to be ridiculed.
+But she had not spent years at boarding school without learning that the
+best way&mdash;indeed, the only way&mdash;to bear successfully such indignity
+is to ignore it. That is, to ignore the fun poked at one as far as
+possible. To bear the jokes with a smile. So she would not allow her
+friends to comment much upon this scene before the gymnasium building.</p>
+
+<p>She had never given herself airs because of her success in writing
+scenarios. Another girl might have done so. But Ruth was naturally
+modest, and had never really ceased to be surprised at her own success.</p>
+
+<p>The new scenario she was at work upon, the scenes of which were laid at
+the Red Mill, was born of an idea she had evolved when her attention had
+first been turned to motion-picture writing.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hammond, her kind friend and the president of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation, had advised her to postpone the use of this idea until she
+had tried her apprentice hand on other and simpler scenarios. The time
+seemed ripe now, however, for the writing of "Crossed Wires," and he had
+encouraged her to go ahead.</p>
+
+<p>All the visible effect Edith Phelps' joke had upon Ruth was to send her
+to the unfinished scenario. After returning from the college offices on
+this occasion she worked on her play until lunch time.</p>
+
+<p>"There's too much new to see and to do for you to pore over letter
+writing, Ruth," Helen declared, misunderstanding her friend's
+occupation. "We want to see Ardmore. We want to go out on the lake if we
+can get a boat. We've got to see the gym and the library. And to-night
+we must turn up at this meeting, it seems, and see what Miss Dunstan,
+the soph president, has to say to us freshies."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I want to go out on the lake!" cried Ruth, agreeing. "And I want to
+explore that island."</p>
+
+<p>"What island?" demanded Jennie, coming into the chums' study.</p>
+
+<p>"Bliss Island."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tisn't part of the college grounds," said the fleshy girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't care. Want to see it," declared Ruth. "I hope we can get a boat.
+I didn't see many in use this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the girls own their own. Especially canoes," said Jennie Stone.
+"But it's <i>the</i> thing to make the 'eight.' Let me tell you, us Ardmores
+are supposed to be some rowists! Our first eight beat the Gillings
+College first eight last June."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll all try for the eight then," Helen said.</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>you</i>, Jennie?" asked Ruth, mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, <i>me</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"String beans for yours, Heavy," Helen cried, clapping her hands.
+"You'll have to diet on them until you have reduced to little more than
+a string yourself if you expect to make the eight."</p>
+
+<p>"Bet I could do it," grumbled Heavy.</p>
+
+<p>"A bet's a bet!" cried Helen. "I take you."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be rude, girls," advised Ruth. "You sound like regular,
+sure-enough gamblers. And, anyway, Heavy will never be able to make the
+eight. She might as well pay her wager now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! oh! oh!" laughed Helen. "A palpable hit!"</p>
+
+<p>"You just see!" said Heavy, firmly. "I'll show you."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," Ruth said, "if you show us a sylph-like form in time to make
+the freshman eight&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It will be the eighth wonder of the world," finished Helen.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie tossed her head. "I don't know about the sylph-like form, but at
+least I mean to possess a slender figure when I have followed Miss
+Cullam's advice on diet. You'll see!"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Heavy!" groaned Helen. "She is letting herself in for a most awful
+time, and no mistake."</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon the three girls set forth to explore the place.</p>
+
+<p>"If I keep this up I'll need nothing else to get me thin. We have
+tramped miles," the fleshy girl announced at length. "Oh! my poor, poor
+feet!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wear sensible shoes, then," said Helen, who was the very last person to
+follow her own advice on this point.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy enough to say," groaned Jennie. "There ain't any such an animal!
+You know that in this day and generation shoe makers have ceased to make
+sensible shoes. I look at 'em in the shop windows," pursued the aching
+girl, "and I wonder what sort of foot the human pedal extremity will
+become in a generation or two. Those pointed toes!</p>
+
+<p>"Why," declared the suddenly warmed up Jennie Stone, "they tell us about
+a two-toed sloth living in Central and South America. Believe <i>me</i>! the
+present-day shoemaker seems to have secured a last to fit a <i>one</i>-toed
+sloth."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know about the number of their toes," Ruth said, laughing; "but
+many of those who wear the fancy shoes are <i>sloths</i>, all right."</p>
+
+<p>They had looked over the library before this, and walked down past
+Hoskin and Hemmingway Halls on the west side of the campus, and so
+reached the lake. There were some girls at the boathouse, and a few
+craft were out. It was possible for the three friends to get a boat and
+Ruth and Helen rowed, with Heavy lazily reclining in the stern.</p>
+
+<p>"Beginning that strenuous life that is to reduce your weight, Heavy?"
+questioned Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I am practising deep breathing," Jennie said. "They say that helps a
+lot."</p>
+
+<p>They headed the light skiff directly for Bliss Island. It was not more
+than a mile off shore, and was a beautiful place. At the landing they
+saw several girls whom they knew were sophomores, for among them was May
+MacGreggor.</p>
+
+<p>"Here are some more of Cook's Trippers," said the Scotch girl, gaily.
+"Seeing the sights, <i>mes infantes</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Trying to," Jennie announced. "But you're really not so bad looking,
+Miss MacGreggor. I wouldn't call you a 'sight.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that will be all of that, Miss Stone!" exclaimed the sophomore,
+but her brown eyes danced as the other girls laughed. "I believe you
+three girls are Briarwoods, are you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Helen said.</p>
+
+<p>"I can believe it," said May. "I have felt the briers. Now, let us call
+a truce."</p>
+
+<p>"With all my heart, Miss MacGreggor," Ruth said quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a good little thing!" returned the Scotch girl. "I know your
+heart is big enough. And we sophs really shouldn't nag you freshies, you
+know, for we must pull together against the seniors and juniors. But
+you'll hear about that to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Miss MacGreggor," Ruth said. "And now that we are at this
+island, would you mind telling us where the Stone Face is situated?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! one of the wonders of the place," said May. "And who told you about
+the Stone Face, Freshie?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard it is well worth seeing," said Ruth, demurely.</p>
+
+<p>"I will be your escort," said May.</p>
+
+<p>They found the Scotch girl very companionable. She led them up a rugged
+path through the trees and around the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"And did that girl have to come up here&mdash;<i>and in the dark</i>?" murmured
+Ruth at last.</p>
+
+<p>"What girl?" Helen asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you talking about, Miss Fielding?" asked the sophomore.</p>
+
+<p>"That girl&mdash;Miss Rolff."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! don't mention her name!" groaned May MacGreggor. "If it hadn't been
+for <i>her</i>, you-uns and we-uns wouldn't be cut out of the sororities. A
+wicked shame!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've heard about that," said Jennie, puffing because of the hard
+climb. "Did she really have to come here, and <i>alone</i>, when she was
+initiated?"</p>
+
+<p>"She started for here," said May, gloomily. "With a flashlight, I
+believe. But she lost her nerve&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There! there's the rock you're looking for."</p>
+
+<p>It was a huge boulder in an open field. At the angle from which they
+viewed it, the face of the rock really bore some semblance to a human
+countenance&mdash;the features of an old, old woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Ugly old hag!" was May MacGreggor's comment upon the odd boulder.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>GETTING ON</h3>
+
+
+<p>The three freshmen friends from Briarwood learned a good deal more that
+evening than the Year Book would ever have taught them. The girls began
+to crowd into the Hoskin Hall dining-room right after dinner. The
+seniors and the juniors disappeared, but there were a large number of
+sophomores present, besides the president of that class who addressed
+the freshmen.</p>
+
+<p>The latter learned that in athletics especially the rivalry between the
+two lower and the two upper classes was intense. It was hardly possible,
+of course, for any of the freshmen, and for few of the sophomores to
+gain positions on any of the first college teams in basket ball, rowing,
+tennis, archery, or other important activities of a physical nature.</p>
+
+<p>All athletic sports, which included, as well as those named above,
+running and jumping and other track work, were under the direct
+supervision of the college athletic association. All the girls could
+belong to that. Indeed, they were expected to, and the fees were small.
+But for a freshman to show sufficient athletic training to make any of
+the first teams, would almost seem impossible. They could get on the
+scrubs and possess their souls with patience, hoping to win places on
+the first teams perhaps in their sophomore year.</p>
+
+<p>However, there had once been a girl in a freshman class at Ardmore who
+succeeded in throwing the hammer a record-making distance; and once a
+freshman had been bow oar in the first eight. These were targets to aim
+for, Miss Dunstan, the sophomore president, told the new girls.</p>
+
+<p>She was, of course, a member of the athletic committee, and having told
+the new girls all about the sports she proceeded to advise them about
+organizing their class and electing officers. This should be done by the
+end of the first fortnight. Meanwhile, the freshman should get together,
+become acquainted, and electioneer for the election of officers.</p>
+
+<p>Class politics at Ardmore meant something. There were already groups and
+cliques forming among the freshmen. It was an honor to hold office in
+the class, and those who were ambitious, or who wished to control the
+policy of the class, were already at work.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and her friends were so ambitious in quite another direction&mdash;in
+two, in fact&mdash;that they rather overlooked these class activities. The
+following day actually opened the work of the semester, and as they
+already had their books the trio settled immediately to their lessons.</p>
+
+<p>They were taking the classical course, a four-years' course. During this
+first year their studies would be English, a language (their choice of
+French or German) besides the never-to-be-escaped Latin; mathematics,
+including geometry, trigonometry and higher algebra. They had not yet
+decided whether to take botany or chemistry as the additional study.</p>
+
+<p>"We want to keep together as much as possible, in classes as well as
+out," Helen said. "Let's take the same specials, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I vote for botany," Ruth suggested. "That will take us into the woods
+and fields more."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, it will give us an excuse for going into the woods and
+fields," Jennie said. "I'm with you. And if I have to walk much to cut
+down weight, it will help."</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "Heavy really <i>has</i> come to college to
+get rid of her superabundance of fat."</p>
+
+<p>"Surest thing you know," agreed the fleshy girl.</p>
+
+<p>The freshmen learned that they would have from fifteen to eighteen
+recitation periods weekly, of forty-five minutes each. The recitation
+periods occurred between nine and twelve in the forenoon and one and
+three-thirty in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>It took several days to get all these things arranged rightly; the three
+friends managed to get together in all classes. The classes numbered
+from twenty to forty students and the girls began to get acquainted with
+the teachers very quickly. Trust youth for judging middle-age almost
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"I like Dr. McCurdy," Helen said, speaking of their English instructor,
+who was a man. "He knows what he's about and goes right at it. No
+fooling with him. None of this, 'Now young ladies, I hope you are
+pleasantly situated and that we are going to be good friends.' Pah!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth laughed. "The dear old things!" she said gaily. "They mean
+well&mdash;even that Miss Mara, whom you are imitating. And she <i>does</i> have a
+beautiful French accent, if she <i>is</i> Irish."</p>
+
+<p>They liked Dr. Frances Milroth. Her talk in chapel was an inspiration,
+and that first morning some of the girls came out into the sunshine with
+wet eyelashes. They began to realize that they were here at college for
+something besides either play or ordinary study. They were at Ardmore to
+learn to get a grip on life.</p>
+
+<p>Instrumental and vocal music could be taken at any time which did not
+interfere with the regular recitations, and of course Ruth took the
+latter as a special, while Helen did not neglect her violin.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I'll take up the study of the oboe," grumbled Jennie Stone. "I
+don't seem to know just what to do with myself while you girls are
+making sweet sounds."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you roll, Heavy?" demanded Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Roll <i>what</i>? Roll a hoop?" asked the fleshy girl.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Roll a barrel, I should say would be nearer to it," Helen
+responded, eyeing Jennie's plump waistline reflectively. "Get down and
+roll. Move back the furniture, give yourself plenty of room, and <i>roll</i>.
+They say that will reduce one's curves."</p>
+
+<p>"Wow! And what would the girl say downstairs under me?" asked Jennie
+Stone. "I'd begin by being the most unpopular girl in this freshman
+class."</p>
+
+<p>These first few days were busy ones; but the girls of the freshman class
+were fast learning just where they stood. Then happened something that
+awoke most of the class to the fact that they needed to get together,
+that they must, after all, take up cudgels for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"Just like a flock of silly sheep, running together when they see a
+dog," Helen at first said.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess there is a good reason in nature for sheep to do that," Ruth
+said, on reflection. "Sheep fear wolves more than any other animal, and
+a dog is a wolf, after all, only domesticated."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" grunted Jennie. "Then we are sheep and the seniors are wolves,
+are they? I could eat up most of these seniors I've seen, myself. I will
+be a savage sheep&mdash;woof! woof!"</p>
+
+<p>The matter that had made the disturbance, however, was not to be
+ignored.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT</h3>
+
+
+<p>Arrangements for the organization of the freshman class had lagged.</p>
+
+<p>This fact may have been behind the notice put upon the bulletin boards
+all over the Ardmore grounds some time after bedtime one evening and
+before the rising bell rang the next morning. It intimated a bit of
+hazing, but hazing of a quality that the faculty could only wink at.</p>
+
+<p>The notice was as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>FRESHMEN</p>
+
+<p><i>It is the command of the Senior Class of Ardmore that no Freshman
+shall appear within the college grounds wearing a tam-o'-shanter of
+any other hue save the herewith designated color, to wit: Baby
+Blue. This order is for the mental and spiritual good of the
+incoming class of Freshmen. Any member of said class refusing to
+obey this order will be summarily dealt with by the upper classes
+of Ardmore.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>Groups gathered immediately after breakfast about the bulletin boards.
+Of course, the seniors and juniors passed by with dignified bearing, and
+without comment. The sophomores remained upon the outskirts of the
+groups of excited freshmen to laugh and jeer.</p>
+
+<p>"A disturbed bumblebees' nest could have hummed no louder," Helen
+declared, as the three friends walked up to chapel, which they made a
+point of attending.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! to think of the <i>cheek</i> of those seniors!" ejaculated Jennie. "And
+the juniors are just as bad!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do about that tam of yours, Heavy?" asked Ruth,
+slily. "It's a gay thing&mdash;nothing like baby blue."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh well," growled the fleshy girl, "baby blue is one of my favorite
+colors."</p>
+
+<p>"Mine, too," said Ruth, drily.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, girls! Are you going to give right in&mdash;<i>so</i> easy?" gasped Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't feel like making myself conspicuous," Ruth said. "You can wager
+that most of our class will hustle right off and get the proper hue in
+tams."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'd better go to town this very afternoon," Jennie cried, in
+haste, "and see if we can find three of baby blue shade. The stores will
+be drained of them by to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"But to give&mdash;right&mdash;in!" wailed Helen, who dearly loved a fight.</p>
+
+<p>"No. It isn't that. But, as the advertisements say: 'Eventually, so why
+not now?' We'll have to come to it. Let's get our tams while the
+tamming's good."</p>
+
+<p>Helen could not see the reason for obeying the senior order; but she
+could see no reason, either, for not following her chum's lead. The
+three girls telephoned for a taxicab, which came to Dare Hall for them
+at half past three.</p>
+
+<p>They were not the only girls going to town; but some of the freshmen,
+like Helen, wished to display their independence and refused&mdash;as yet&mdash;to
+obey the senior command.</p>
+
+<p>A line at the bottom of the notice announced that three days were
+allowed the freshmen to obtain their proper tam-o'-shanters.</p>
+
+<p>"Three days!" gasped Heavy, as they started off in the little car. "Why,
+it will take the stores in Greenburg two weeks to supply sufficient tams
+of the proper color."</p>
+
+<p>"Then if we don't get ours," laughed Ruth, "we'd better go bareheaded
+until the new tams can be sent us from home."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't do that!" cried the annoyed Helen. "Oh! oh!" she exclaimed, the
+next moment, and before they were out of the grounds. "See Miss Frayne!
+She has her scrambled-egg tam on."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you suppose she has read the notice?" worried Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why hasn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she seems to flock together with herself so much. Nobody seems to
+be chummy with her&mdash;yet," Ruth explained.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, old Mother Worry!" exclaimed Helen, "bother about <i>her</i>, will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Ruth, demurely. "I shall, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness, Ruth!" cried Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>They discovered a rather strange thing when they arrived in Greenburg
+and entered the first store that dealt in ladies' apparel. Oh, yes,
+indeed! the proprietor had tam-o'-shanters of just the required shade,
+baby blue. The friends bought immediately for fear some of the other
+girls who had come to town would find these and buy the proprietor out.</p>
+
+<p>And then, prone to the usual feminine frailty, they went "window
+shopping." And in every store seeking trade from the college girls they
+found the baby blue tam-o'-shanters.</p>
+
+<p>"It's the most astonishing thing!" gasped Helen. "What do you suppose it
+means? Did you ever see so many caps of one kind and color in all your
+life?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is amazing," agreed Ruth. Yet she was reflective.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie began to laugh. "Wonder if the seniors are just helping out their
+friends among the tradespeople? It looks as though the storekeepers had
+bought a superabundance of baby blue caps and the seniors were putting
+it up to us to save the stores from bankruptcy."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth, however, thought it must be something other than that. Was it that
+the storekeepers had been notified by the senior "powers that be" to be
+ready to supply a sudden large demand for tam-o'-shanters of that
+particular hue?</p>
+
+<p>At least, one little Hebrew asked the three friends if they had already
+bought their tam-o'-shanters. "For vy, I haf a whole case of your class
+colors, ladies, that my poy iss opening."</p>
+
+<p>"What class color?" demanded Helen, grumpily enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mees! A peau-ti-ful plue!"</p>
+
+<p>"They're all doing it! They're all doing it!" murmured Jennie,
+staggering out of the "emporium." "This is going to affect my brain,
+girls. <i>Did</i> the seniors know the storekeepers had the tams in stock, or
+have the storekeepers been put wise by our elder sisters at Ardmore?"</p>
+
+<p>"What's the odds?" finally laughed Helen, as they got into the waiting
+car. "We've got <i>our</i> tams. I only hope there are enough to go around."</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of more than a score of baby-blue caps on the campus
+before evening showed that our trio of freshmen were not the only
+members of their class who considered it wise to obey the mandate of the
+lordly seniors, and without question.</p>
+
+<p>The tempest in the teapot, however, continued to rage. Many girls
+declared they had not come to Ardmore to "be made monkeys of."</p>
+
+<p>"No," May MacGreggor was heard to say. "Some of you were already
+assisted by nature. But get together, freshies! Can't you read the
+handwriting on the wall?"</p>
+
+<p>"We can read the typewriting on the billboards," sniffed Helen Cameron.
+"Don't ask us to strain our eyesight farther."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this was really the intention behind the senior order&mdash;that the
+entering girls should become more quickly riveted into a compact body.
+How the rooms occupied by the more popular freshmen buzzed during the
+next few days!</p>
+
+<p>Our trio of friends, Ruth, Helen and Jennie, had been in danger of
+establishing a clique of three, if they had but known it. Now they were
+forced to extend their borders of acquaintanceship.</p>
+
+<p>As they were three, and were usually seen about the study-room Ruth and
+Helen had established, it was natural that other girls of their class on
+that corridor of Dale Hall should flock to them. They thus became the
+nucleus at this side of the campus of the freshman class. From
+discussing the rule of the haughty seniors, the freshmen began to talk
+of their own organization and the approaching election.</p>
+
+<p>Had Ruth allowed her friends to do so, there would have been started a
+boom by Helen and Jennie Stone for the girl of the Red Mill for
+president of the freshman class. This honor Ruth did not desire. There
+were several girls whom she had noted already among her mates, older
+than she, and who evidently possessed qualities for the position.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, Ruth Fielding felt that if she became unduly prominent at first
+at Ardmore, girls like Edith Phelps would consider her a particularly
+bright target. She told herself again, but this time in private, that
+fame was not always an asset.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ONE REBEL</h3>
+
+
+<p>However much the natural independence of the freshmen balked at the
+mandate promulgated by the seniors, baby-blue tam-o'-shanters grew more
+numerous every hour on the Ardmore campus.</p>
+
+<p>The sophomores were evidently filled with glee; the juniors and seniors
+smiled significantly, but said nothing. The freshmen had been put in
+their place at once, it was considered. But the attack upon them had
+made the newcomers eager for an organization of their own.</p>
+
+<p>"If we are going to be bossed this way&mdash;and it is disgraceful!&mdash;we must
+be prepared to withstand imposition," Helen announced.</p>
+
+<p>So they began busily settling the matter of the organization of the
+class and the choosing of its officers. Before these matters were
+arranged completely, however, there was an incident of note.</p>
+
+<p>The freshmen, as a body, were invited to attend a sophomore "roar." It
+was to be the first out-of-door "roar" of the year and occurred right
+after classes and lectures one afternoon. The two lower classes scamped
+their gymnasium work to make it a success.</p>
+
+<p>Now, a "roar" at Ardmore was much nicer than it sounds. It was merely an
+open-air singing festival, and this one was for the purpose of making
+the freshmen familiar with the popular songs of the college.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Leidenburg, the musical director, himself led the outdoor
+concert. The sophomores stood in a compact body before the main entrance
+to the college hall. Massed in the background, and in a half circle,
+were the freshmen.</p>
+
+<p>The weather had become cool and all the girls wore their
+tam-o'-shanters. For the first time it was noticeable how pretty the
+pale blue caps on the freshmen's heads looked. And the new girls
+likewise noted that most of the tam-o'-shanters worn-by their sophomore
+hostesses were pale yellow.</p>
+
+<p>It was whispered then (and strange none of the freshmen had discovered
+it before) that the class preceding theirs at Ardmore&mdash;the present
+sophomores&mdash;had been forced to wear caps of a distinctive color, too.
+These pale yellow ones were their old caps, left over from the previous
+winter.</p>
+
+<p>The open-air assemblages of the college were made more attractive by
+this scheme of a particular class color in head-wear.</p>
+
+<p>There was a blot in the assembly of the freshmen on this occasion. It
+was not discovered in the beginning. Soon, however, there was much
+whispering, and looking about and pointing.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see <i>that</i>?" gasped Jennie, who had been straining her neck and
+hopping up and down on her toes to see what the other girls were looking
+at.</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>are</i> you rubbering at, Heavy?" demanded Helen, inelegantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; what's all the disturbance?" asked Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"That girl!" ejaculated the fleshy one.</p>
+
+<p>"What girl now? Any particular girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"She's not very particular, I guess," returned Jennie, "or she wouldn't
+do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Jennie!" demanded Helen. "<i>Who</i> do <i>what</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"That Frayne girl," explained her plump friend.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca Frayne stood well back in the lines of freshmen. It could not be
+said that she thrust herself forward, or sought to gain the attention of
+the crowd. Nevertheless, among the mass of pale blue tam-o'-shanters,
+her parti-colored one was very prominent.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" gasped Ruth. "Doesn't she know better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose she is one of those stubborn girls who just 'won't be
+driv'?" giggled Helen.</p>
+
+<p>It was no laughing matter. The three days of grace written upon the
+seniors' order regarding the caps had now passed. There seemed no good
+reason for one member of the freshman class to refuse to obey the
+command. Indeed, they had all tacitly agreed to do as they were
+told&mdash;upon this single point, at least.</p>
+
+<p>"There certainly are enough of them left in town so that she can buy
+one," Jennie Stone said.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" snapped Helen. "If <i>my</i> complexion can stand such a silly
+color, <i>hers</i> certainly can."</p>
+
+<p>Before the out-of-doors concert was over, news of this rebellion on the
+part of a single freshman had run through the crowd like a breath of
+wind over ripe wheat. It almost broke up the "roar."</p>
+
+<p>As the last verse of the last song was ended and the company began to
+disperse, the freshmen themselves, and the sophomores as well, stared at
+Rebecca Frayne in open wonder. She started for her room, which was in
+Dare Hall on the same corridor as that of the three girls from
+Briarwood, and Ruth and Helen and Jennie were right behind her.</p>
+
+<p>"That certainly is an awful tam," groaned Jennie. "What do you suppose
+makes her wear it, anyway? Let alone the trouble&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She broke off. Miss Dexter, the first senior who had spoken to Ruth and
+Helen coming over from the railway station on the auto-bus, stopped the
+strange girl whose initials were the same as those of the girl of the
+Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell me, please, why you are wearing that tam-o'-shanter?"
+asked Miss Dexter.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca Frayne's head came up and a spot of vivid red appeared in either
+of her sallow cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that <i>your</i> business?" she demanded, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know that I am a senior?" asked Miss Dexter, levelly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care if you are two seniors," returned Rebecca Frayne, saucily.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dexter turned her back upon the freshman and walked promptly away.
+The listeners were appalled. None of them cared to go forward and speak
+to Rebecca Frayne.</p>
+
+<p>"Cracky!" gasped Helen. "She's an awful spitfire."</p>
+
+<p>"She's an awful chump!" groaned Jennie. "The seniors won't do a thing to
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>But nothing came at once of Rebecca's refusal to obey the seniors'
+command regarding tam-o'-shanters. It was known, however, that the
+executive committees of both the senior and junior classes met that next
+night and supposedly took the matter up.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! They don't haze any more at Ardmore," said Jennie, shaking her
+head. "But just wait!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>RUTH IS NOT SATISFIED</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding was not at all satisfied. Not that her experiences in
+these first few weeks of college were not wholly "up to sample," as the
+slangy Jennie Stone remarked. Ruth was getting personally all out of
+college life that she could expect.</p>
+
+<p>The mere fact that a little handful of the girls looked at her somewhat
+askance because of her success as a motion picture writer, did not
+greatly trouble the girl of the Red Mill. She could wait for them to
+forget her small "fame" or for them to learn that she was quite as
+simple and unaffected as any other girl of her age. It was about Rebecca
+Frayne that Ruth was disturbed in her mind. Here was the case of a
+student who, Ruth believed, was much misunderstood.</p>
+
+<p>She could not imagine a girl deliberately making trouble for herself.
+Rebecca Frayne by the expenditure of a couple of dollars in the purchase
+of a new tam-o'-shanter might have easily overcome this dislike that had
+been bred not alone in the minds of the girls of the two upper classes,
+but among the sophomores and her own classmates as well. The sophomores
+thought her ridiculous; the freshmen themselves felt that she was
+bringing upon the whole class unmerited criticism.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth looked deeper. She saw the strange girl walk past her mates
+unnoticed, scarcely spoken to, indeed, by the freshmen and ignored
+completely by members of the other classes. And yet, to Ruth's mind,
+there seemed to be an air about Rebecca Frayne&mdash;a look in her eyes,
+perhaps&mdash;that seemed to beg for sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>It was no hardship for Ruth to speak to the girl and try to be friendly
+with her. But opportunities for this were not frequent.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place Ruth's own time was much occupied with her studies,
+her own personal friends, Helen and Jennie, and the new scenario on
+which she worked during every odd hour.</p>
+
+<p>Several times Ruth went to the door of Rebecca's room and knocked. She
+positively knew the girl was at home, but there had been no answer to
+her summons and the door was locked.</p>
+
+<p>The situation troubled Ruth. When she was among her classmates, Rebecca
+seemed nervously anxious to please and eager to be spoken to, although
+she had little to say. Here, on the other hand, once alone in her room,
+she deliberately shut herself away from all society.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after the outdoor song festival that had been so successful, and
+immediately following the organization of the freshman class and its
+election of officers, Ruth and Helen went over to the library one
+evening to consult some reference books.</p>
+
+<p>The reference room was well filled with busy girls of all classes, who
+came bustling in, got down the books they required, dipped into them for
+a minute and then departed to their own studies, or else settled down to
+work on their topics for a more extended period.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cold evening, and whenever a girl entered from the hall a
+breath of frosty air came with her, and most of those gathered in the
+room were likely to look up and shiver. Few of those assembled failed to
+notice Rebecca Frayne when she came in.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! See who has came," whispered Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Rebecca!" murmured Ruth, looking up as the girl in question crossed
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't she the cheek of all cheeks to breeze in here this way?" Helen
+went on to say with more force than elegance. "That awful tam again."</p>
+
+<p>One could not fail to see the tam-o'-shanter very well. It was
+noticeable in any assembly.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps half of the girls in the reference room were seniors and
+juniors. Several of the members of the younger classes nodded to the
+newcomer, though not many noticed her in this way.</p>
+
+<p>There was, however, almost immediately a general movement by the girls
+belonging to the senior and junior classes. They got up grimly, put away
+the books they were at work upon, and filed out, one by one, and without
+saying a word.</p>
+
+<p>Helen stared after them, and nudged Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked her chum, who had been too busy to notice.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see that?" asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I see what?"</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't a senior or a jun left in the room. That&mdash;that's something
+more than a coincidence."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was puzzled. "I really wish you would explain," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Helen was not the only girl remaining who had noticed the immediate
+departure of the members of the two older classes. Some of the
+sophomores were whispering together. Rebecca's fellow-classmen glanced
+at her sharply to see if she had noticed what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't believe it," Ruth said worriedly, after Helen explained. "They
+would not go out because she came in."</p>
+
+<p>The next day, however, the matter was more marked. Rebecca could sing;
+she evidently loved singing. In the classes for vocal music there was
+often a mixture of all grades, some of the seniors and juniors attending
+with the sophomores and freshmen.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding, of course, never missed these classes. She hoped to be
+noticed and have her voice tried out for the Glee Club. Professor
+Leidenburg was to give a little talk on this day that would be helpful,
+and the class was well attended.</p>
+
+<p>But when Rebecca Frayne came into the small hall just before the
+professor himself appeared, there was a stir throughout the audience.
+The girls, of course, were hatless here; but that morning Rebecca had
+been seen wearing the "scrambled-egg tam," as Helen insisted upon
+calling it.</p>
+
+<p>There was an intake of breath all over the room. Rebecca walked down the
+aisle in search of an empty seat.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly half the seats were empty. She could have her choice&mdash;and a
+large one.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" Helen gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Every senior and junior in the room had arisen and had left her seat.
+Not a word had been spoken, nor had they glanced at Rebecca Frayne, who
+at first was unaware of what it portended.</p>
+
+<p>The older girls filed out silently. Professor Leidenburg entered by the
+door beside the organ just in time to see the last of them disappear. He
+looked a bit surprised, but said nothing and took up the matter at hand
+with but half an audience.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca Frayne had seen and understood at last. She sat still in her
+seat, and Ruth saw that she did not open her lips when, later, the
+choruses were sung. Her face was very pale.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody spoke to her when the class was dismissed. This was not an
+intentional slight on the part of her mates; simply, the girls did not
+know what to say.</p>
+
+<p>The seniors and juniors were showing Rebecca that she was taboo. Their
+attitude could not be mistaken. And so great was the influence of these
+older girls of Ardmore upon the whole college that Rebecca walked
+entirely alone.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen walked down the hill behind Rebecca that afternoon. Ruth
+was very silent, while Helen buzzed about a dozen things.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I wonder how that poor girl feels?" murmured the girl of the Red
+Mill after a while.</p>
+
+<p>"Cold, I imagine!" declared her chum, vigorously. "I'm half frozen
+myself, Ruth. There's going to be a big frost to-night and the lake is
+already skimmed over. Say, Ruth!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked her friend, absently.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's take our skates first thing in the morning down to that man who
+sharpens things at the boathouse; will you?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GIRL IN THE STORM</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding was quite as eager for fun between lessons as either Helen
+or Jennie, and the prospect of skating on such a large lake as Remona
+delighted her. The second day following the incident in the chorus
+class, the ice which had bound Lake Remona was officially pronounced
+safe.</p>
+
+<p>Gymnasium athletics lost their charm for those girls who were truly
+active and could skate. There were luxurious damsels who preferred to be
+pushed about in ice-chairs by more active girls or by hired attendants;
+but our trio of friends did not look upon that as enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>Even Jennie Stone was a vigorous skater. After a day or two on the ice,
+when their ankles had become strong enough, the three made a circuit of
+Bliss Island&mdash;and that was "some skate," to quote Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>The island was more than a mile from the boathouse, and it was five or
+six miles in circumference. Therefore, the task was quite all of an
+eight-mile jaunt.</p>
+
+<p>"But 'do or die' is our motto," remarked Helen, as they set forth on
+this determined journey. "Let's show these pussy girls what it means to
+have trained at Briarwood."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right! that's all right!" grumbled Jennie. "But your motto
+is altogether too grim and significant. Let's limit it. I want to <i>do</i>
+if I can; but mercy me! I don't want to <i>die</i> yet. You girls have got to
+stop and rest when I say so, or I won't go at all."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth and Helen agreed. That is why it took them until almost dinner-time
+to encircle the island. Jennie Stone was determined to rest upon the
+least provocation.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be starved to death before we get back," Helen began to complain
+while they were upon the south side of the island. "I should think you
+would feel the pinch of privation, Heavy."</p>
+
+<p>"I do," admitted the other hollowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why didn't you escape it by refusing to come, or else by bringing
+a lunch?" demanded the black-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>"No. This is a part of the system," groaned Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"What system, I'd like to know?" Ruth asked, in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"System of martyrdom, I guess," sniffed Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"You've said it," agreed the plump girl. "That is the truest word yet
+spoken. Martyrdom! that is what it means for me."</p>
+
+<p>"What means to you?" snapped Helen, exasperated because she could not
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>"This dieting and exercising," Jennie said more cheerfully. "I
+deliberately came so far and without food to see if I couldn't really
+lose some weight. Do you know, girls, I am so hollow and so tired right
+now, that I believe I must have lost a few ounces, anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"You ridiculous thing!" laughed Helen, recovering her good nature.</p>
+
+<p>"Should we sacrifice ourselves for your benefit, do you think, Jennie?"
+Ruth asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' only more so. I need the
+inspiration of you girls to help me," Jennie declared. "Do you know,
+sometimes I am almost discouraged?"</p>
+
+<p>"About what?" asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"About my weight. I watch the bathroom scales with eagle eye. But
+instead of coming down by pounds, I only fall by ounces. It is awfully
+discouraging. And then," added the fleshy girl, "the other day when we
+had such a scrumptuous dinner&mdash;was it Columbus Day? I believe so&mdash;I was
+tempted to eat one of my old-time 'full and plenty' meals, and what do
+you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"You had the nightmare," said Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a chance! But I went up <i>two pounds and a half</i>&mdash;or else the scales
+were crazy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Girls!" exclaimed Ruth, suddenly. "Do you know it is snowing?"</p>
+
+<p>"My! I never expected that," cried Helen, as a feathery flake lit upon
+the very point of her pretty nose. "Ow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'd better go on, I guess," Ruth observed. "Put your best foot
+forward, please, Miss Jennie."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know which is my best foot now," complained the heavy girl.
+"They are both getting lame."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll just have to make you sit down on the ice while we drag you,"
+announced Helen, increasing the length of her stroke.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much you won't!" exclaimed Jennie Stone, "I'm cold enough as it
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we take off our skates and walk over the island, girls?"
+suggested Ruth. "That will save some time and more than a little work
+for Heavy."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't worry about me," put in Jennie. "I need the exercise. And walking
+would be worse than skating, I do believe."</p>
+
+<p>It was snowing quite thickly now; but the shore of the island was not
+far away. The trio hugged it closely in encircling the wooded and hilly
+piece of land.</p>
+
+<p>"Say!" Helen cried, "we're not the only girls out here to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh?" grunted Jennie, head down and skating doggedly.</p>
+
+<p>"See there, Ruth!" called the black-eyed girl.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth turned her face to one side and looked under the shade of her hand,
+which she held above her eyes. There was a figure moving along the shore
+of Bliss Island just abreast of them.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a girl," she said. "But she's not skating."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is it? A freshie?" asked Jennie, but little interested.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth did not reply. She seemed wonderfully interested by the appearance
+of the girl on shore. She fell behind her mates while she watched the
+figure.</p>
+
+<p>The snow was increasing; and that with the abruptly rising island,
+furnished a background for the strange girl which threw her into relief.</p>
+
+<p>At first Ruth was attracted only by her figure. She could not see her
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Who can she be? Not one of the girls at Dare Hall&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>This idea spun to nothingness very quickly. No! The figure ashore
+reminded Ruth Fielding of nobody whom she had seen recently. The
+feeling, however, that she knew the person grew.</p>
+
+<p>The snow blew sharply into the faces of the skating girls; but she on
+shore was somewhat sheltered from the gale. The wind was out of the
+north and west and the highland of the island broke the zest of the gale
+for the strange girl.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet she isn't strange&mdash;I <i>know</i> she isn't," murmured Ruth Fielding,
+casting another glance back at the figure on the shore.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Ruth! <i>Do</i> hurry!" cried Helen, looking back. "Even Heavy is
+beating you."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth quickened her efforts. The strange girl disappeared, mounting a
+path it seemed toward the center of the island. Ruth, head bent and lips
+tightly closed, skated on intent upon her mystifying thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>The trio rounded the island at last. They got the wind somewhat at their
+backs and on a long slant made for the boathouse landing. It was growing
+dusk, but there was a fire at the landing that beckoned them on.</p>
+
+<p>"Glad it isn't any farther," Helen panted. "This snow is gathering so
+fast it clogs one's skates."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I must be losing pounds!" puffed Jennie Stone. "I bet none of my
+clothes will fit me to-morrow. I shall have to throw them all away."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Heavy!" giggled Helen. "That lovely new silk?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;well&mdash;I shall take <i>that</i> in!" drawled Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got it!" exclaimed Ruth, in a most startling way.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness me! are you hurt?" demanded Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"What you got? A cramp?" asked Jennie, quite as solicitous.</p>
+
+<p>"I know now who that girl looked like," declared Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"What girl?" rejoined Helen Cameron. "The one over yonder, on the other
+side of the island?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. She looks just like that Maggie who came to the mill, Helen. You
+remember, don't you? The girl I left to help Aunt Alvirah when I came to
+college."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, for the land's sake!" said Jennie Stone. "If she's up there at
+the Red Mill, how can she possibly be down here, too? You're talking out
+of order, Miss Fielding. Sit down!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>"OFT IN THE STILLY NIGHT"</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding could not get that surprising, that almost unbelievable,
+discovery out of her mind.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed ridiculous to think that girl could be Maggie, "the waif," she
+had seen on Bliss Island. Aunt Alvirah had written Ruth a letter only a
+few days before and in it she said that Maggie was very helpful and
+seemed wholly content.</p>
+
+<p>"Only," the little old housekeeper at the Red Mill wrote, "I don't know
+a mite more about the child now than I did when Mr. Tom Cameron and our
+Ben brought her in, all white and fainty-like."</p>
+
+<p>The girls had to hurry on or be late to dinner. But the very first thing
+Ruth did when she reached their rooms in Dare Hall was to look up Aunt
+Alvirah's letter and see when it was dated and mailed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's obvious," Ruth told herself, "that Maggie could have reached here
+almost as soon as the letter if she had wished to. But why come at all?
+If it was Maggie over on that island, why was she there?"</p>
+
+<p>Of course, these ruminations were all in private. Ruth knew better than
+to take her two close friends into her confidence. If she did the
+mystery would have been the chief topic of conversation after dinner,
+instead of the studies slated for that evening.</p>
+
+<p>An incident occurred, however, at dinner which served to take Ruth's
+mind, too, from the mystery. There were a number of seniors and juniors
+quartered at Dare Hall. Nor were all the seniors table-captains at
+dinner.</p>
+
+<p>This evening the dining hall had filled early. Perhaps the brisk air and
+their outdoor exercise had given the girls sharper appetites than usual.
+It had the three girls from Briarwood. They were wearied after their
+long skate around the island and as ravenous as wolves. They could
+scarcely wait for Miss Comstock, at the head of their particular table,
+to begin eating so they might do so, too.</p>
+
+<p>And just at this moment, as the pleasant bustle of dinner began, and the
+lightly tripping waitresses were stepping hither and yon with their
+trays, the door opened and a single belated girl entered the dining
+hall.</p>
+
+<p>As though the entrance of this girl were expected, a hush fell over the
+room. Everybody but Jennie looked up, their soup spoons poised as they
+watched Rebecca Frayne walk down the long room to her place at the
+housekeeper's table.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh!" hissed Helen, admonishing Jennie Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" demanded the fleshy girl in surprise. "Is my soup
+noisy? I'll have to train it better."</p>
+
+<p>But nobody laughed. All eyes were fastened on the girl who had made
+herself so obnoxious to the seniors and the juniors of Ardmore. She sat
+down and a waitress put her soup before her. Before poor Rebecca could
+lift her spoon there was a stir all over the room. Every senior and
+junior (and there were more than half a hundred in the dining hall)
+arose, save those acting as table-captains or monitors. The rustle of
+their rising was subdued; they murmured their excuses to the heads of
+their several tables in a perfectly polite manner; and not a glance from
+their eyes turned toward Rebecca Frayne. But as they walked out of the
+dining hall, their dinners scarcely tasted, the slight put upon the
+freshman who would not obey was too direct and obvious to be mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>Even Jennie Stone was at length aroused from her enjoyment of the very
+good soup.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about <i>that</i>?" she demanded of Ruth and Helen.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth said not a word. To tell the truth she felt so sorry for Rebecca
+Frayne that she lost taste for her own meal, hungry though she had been
+when she sat down.</p>
+
+<p>How Rebecca herself felt could only be imagined. She had already shown
+herself to be a painful mixture of sensitiveness and carelessness of
+criticism that made Ruth Fielding, at least, wonder greatly.</p>
+
+<p>Now she ate her dinner without seeming to observe the attitude the
+members of the older classes had taken.</p>
+
+<p>"Cracky!" murmured Jennie, in the middle of dinner. "She's got all the
+best of it&mdash;believe me! The seniors and the juns go hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"For a principle," snapped the girl beside her, who chanced to be a
+sophomore.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Jennie, smiling, "principles are far from filling. They're
+a good deal like the only part of the doughnut that agreed with the
+dyspeptic&mdash;the hole. Please pass the bread, dear. Somebody must have
+eaten mine&mdash;and it was nicely buttered, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! nothing disturbs your calm, does it, Miss Stone?" cried
+another girl.</p>
+
+<p>Few of the girls in the dining hall, however, could keep their minds or
+their gaze off Rebecca Frayne. In whispers all through the meal she was
+discussed by her close neighbors. Girls at tables farther away talked of
+the situation frankly.</p>
+
+<p>And the consensus of opinion was against her. It was the general feeling
+that she was entirely in the wrong. The very law which she had essayed
+to flaunt was that which had brought the freshmen together as a class,
+and was welding them into a homogeneous whole.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a goose!" exclaimed Helen Cameron.</p>
+
+<p>And perhaps this was true. It did look foolish. Yet Ruth felt that there
+must be some misunderstanding back of it all. It should be explained.
+The girl could not go on in this way.</p>
+
+<p>"First we know she'll be packing up and leaving Ardmore," Ruth said
+worriedly.</p>
+
+<p>"She'll leave nobody in tears, I guess," declared one girl within
+hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"But she's one of us&mdash;she's a freshman!" Ruth murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't seem to desire our company or friendship," said another and
+more thoughtful girl.</p>
+
+<p>"And she won't pack up in a hurry," drawled Jennie, still eating.
+"Remember all those bags and that enormous trunk she brought?"</p>
+
+<p>"But, say," began Helen, slowly, "where are all the frocks and things
+she was supposed to bring with her? We supposed she'd be the peacock of
+the class, and I don't believe I've seen her in more than three
+different dresses and only two hats, including that indescribably
+brilliant tam."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth said nothing. She was thinking. She planned to get out of the
+dining hall at the same time Rebecca did, but just as the dessert was
+being passed the odd girl rose quickly, bowed her excuses to the
+housekeeper, and almost ran out of the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"She was crying!" gasped Ruth, feeling both helpless and sympathetic.</p>
+
+<p>"I wager she bit her tongue, then," remarked Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth hurried through her dessert and left the dining hall ahead of most
+of the girls. She glanced through the long windows and saw that it was
+still snowing.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if that girl is over on the island yet?" she reflected as she
+ran upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>Her first thought just then was of an entirely different girl. She went
+to Rebecca's door and knocked. She knocked twice, then again. But no
+answer was returned. No light came through the keyhole, or from under
+the door; yet Ruth felt sure that Rebecca Frayne was in the room, and
+weeping. It was a situation in which Ruth Fielding longed to help, yet
+there seemed positively nothing she could do as long as the stubborn
+girl would not meet her half way. With a sigh she went to the study she
+and Helen jointly occupied.</p>
+
+<p>Before switching on the light she went to one of the windows that looked
+out on the lake. Bliss Island was easily visible from this point. The
+snow was still falling, but not heavily enough to obstruct her vision
+much. The white bulk of the island rose in the midst of the field of
+snow-covered ice. It seemed nearer than it ordinarily appeared.</p>
+
+<p>As Ruth gazed she saw a spark of light on the island, high up from the
+shore, but evidently among the trees, for it was intermittent. Now it
+was visible and again only a red glow showed there. She was still gazing
+upon this puzzling light when Helen opened the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Ruthie!" she cried. "All in the dark? Oh! isn't the outside
+world beautiful to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>She came to the window and put her arm about Ruth's waist.</p>
+
+<p>"See how solemnly the snow is falling&mdash;and the whole world is white,"
+murmured the black-eyed girl. "'Oft in the stilly night'&mdash;&mdash;Or is it
+'Oft in the silly night'?" and she laughed, for it was not often nor for
+long that the sentiment that lay deep in Helen's heart rose to the
+surface. "Oh! What's that light over there, Ruth?" she added, with quick
+apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I have been looking at," Ruth said.</p>
+
+<p>"But you don't tell me what it is!" cried Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I don't know. But I suspect."</p>
+
+<p>"Suspect what?"</p>
+
+<p>"That it is a campfire," said Ruth. "Yes. It seems to be in one spot.
+Only the wind makes the flames leap, and at one time they are plainly
+visible while again they are partly obscured."</p>
+
+<p>"Who ever would camp over on Bliss Island on a night like this?" gasped
+Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why you put such mysteries up to me," returned Ruth, with a
+shrug. "I'm no prophet. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember that girl we saw on the island this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, mightn't it be she, or a party she may be with?"</p>
+
+<p>"Campers on the island in a snow storm? No girls from this college would
+be so silly," Helen declared.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not at all sure she was an Ardmore girl," said Ruth, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"Who under the sun could she be, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Almost anybody else," laughed Ruth. "It is going to stop snowing
+altogether soon, Helen. See! the moon is breaking through the clouds."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be lovely out," sighed Helen. "But hard walking."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth gestured towards their two pairs of snowshoes crossed upon the
+wall. "Not on those," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ruthie! Would you?"</p>
+
+<p>"All we have to do is to tighten them and sally forth."</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious! I'd be willing to be Sally Fifth for a spark of fun,"
+declared Helen, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"How about Heavy?" asked Ruth, as Helen hastened to take down the
+snowshoes which both girls had learned to use years before at Snow Camp,
+in the Adirondacks.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead to the world already, I imagine," laughed Helen. "I saw her to her
+room, and I believe she was so tired and so full of dinner that she
+tumbled into bed almost before she got her clothes off. You'd never get
+her out on such a crazy venture!"</p>
+
+<p>Helen was as happy as a lark over the chance of "fun." The two girls
+skilfully tightened the stringing of the shoes, and then, having put on
+coats, mittens, and drawn the tam-o'-shanters down over their ears, they
+crept out of their rooms and hastened downstairs and out of the
+dormitory building.</p>
+
+<p>There was not a moving object in sight upon the campus or the sloping
+white lawns to the level of the frozen lake. The two chums thrust their
+toes into the straps of their snowshoes and set forth.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ODD ADVENTURE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Six inches or more of snow had fallen. It was feathery and packed well
+under the snowshoes. The girls sank about two inches into the fleecy
+mass and there the shoes made a complete bed for themselves and the
+weight of their wearers.</p>
+
+<p>"You know what I'd love to do this winter?" said Helen, as they trudged
+on.</p>
+
+<p>"What, my dear?" asked Ruth, who seemed much distraught.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to try skiing. The slope of College Hill would be just
+splendiferous for <i>that</i>! Away from the observatory to the lake&mdash;and
+then some!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll start a skiing club among the freshies," Ruth said, warmly
+accepting the idea. "Wonder nobody has thought of it before."</p>
+
+<p>"Ardmore hasn't waked up yet to all its possibilities," said Helen,
+demurely. "But this umpty-umph class of freshmen will show the college a
+thing or two before we pass from out its scholastic halls."</p>
+
+<p>"Question!" cried Ruth, laughing. Then: "There! you can see that light
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! You're never going over to that island?" cried Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"What did we come out for?" asked Ruth. "And scamp our study hour?"</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" cried Helen, again, "just for <i>fun</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it may be fun to find out just who built that fire and what for,"
+said Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"And then again," objected her chum, "it may be no fun at all, but
+<i>serious</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I have a serious reason for finding out&mdash;if I can," Ruth declared.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you later," said Ruth. "Follow me now."</p>
+
+<p>"If I do I'll not wear diamonds, and I may get into trouble," objected
+Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"You've never got into very serious trouble yet by following my
+leadership," laughed Ruth. "Come on, Fraid-cat."</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't! But we don't know who is over there. Just to think! A camp in
+the snow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we have camped in the snow ourselves," laughed Ruth, harking back
+to an adventure at Snow Camp that neither of them would ever be likely
+to forget.</p>
+
+<p>They scuffed along on the snowshoes, soon reaching the edge of the lake.
+Nobody was about the boathouse, for the ice would have to be swept and
+scraped by the horse-drawn machines before the girls could go skating
+again.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was pushing through the scurrying clouds, and the snow had
+ceased falling.</p>
+
+<p>"Look back!" crowed Helen. "Looks as though two enormous animals had
+come down the hillside, doesn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The girls will wake up and view our tracks with wonder in the morning,"
+said Ruth, with a smile. "Perhaps they'll think that some curious
+monsters have visited Ardmore."</p>
+
+<p>"That would cause more wonderment than the case of Rebecca Frayne. What
+do you suppose is finally going to happen to that foolish girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really cannot guess," Ruth returned, shaking her head sadly. "Poor
+thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why! she can't be <i>poor</i>," gasped Helen. "Look at all those trunks she
+brought with her to Ardmore. And her dresses are tremendously
+fancy&mdash;although we've not seen many of them yet."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth stared at her chum for a moment without replying. It was right
+there and then that she came near to guessing the secret of Rebecca
+Frayne's trouble. But she forbore to say anything about it at the time,
+and went on beside her chum toward the white island, much disturbed in
+her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then they caught sight of the dancing flames of the campfire.
+But when they were nearer the island, the hill was so steep that they
+lost sight completely of the light.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose it's a <i>man</i>?" breathed Helen, suddenly, as they began to climb
+the shore of Bliss Island.</p>
+
+<p>"He won't eat us," returned Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"No. They don't often. Only cannibals, and they are not prevalent in
+this locality," giggled Helen. "But if it <i>is</i> a man&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then we'll turn around and go back," said Ruth, coolly. "I haven't come
+out here to get acquainted with any male person."</p>
+
+<p>"Bluie! Suppose he's a real nice boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"There's no such an animal," laughed Ruth. "That is, not around here at
+the present moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. I see," Helen rejoined drily. "The nearest <i>nice</i> one is at the
+Seven Oaks Military Academy."</p>
+
+<p>"So you say," Ruth said demurely. "But if it were Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old Tom and some of his chums!" cried Helen. "Wouldn't it be
+great? This Adamless Eden is rather palling on me, Chum. The other girls
+have visitors, but our friends are too far away."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" advised Ruth. "Whoever it is up there will hear you."</p>
+
+<p>Helen was evidently not at all enamored of this adventure. She lagged
+behind a little. Yet she would not allow Ruth to go on alone to
+interview the mysterious camper.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what," the black-eyed girl said, after a moment and in a
+whisper. "I believe that fire is up near the big boulder we looked
+at&mdash;you remember? The Stone Face, do they call it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite possibly," Ruth rejoined briskly. "Come on if you're coming. I'm
+sure the Stone Face won't hurt us."</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless it falls on us," giggled Helen.</p>
+
+<p>The grove of big trees that covered this part of the hillside was open,
+and the chums very easily made their way toward the fire, even on
+snowshoes. But the shoes naturally made some noise as they scuffed over
+the snow, and in a minute Ruth stopped and slipped her feet out of the
+straps, motioning Helen to do the same. They wore overshoes so there was
+no danger of their getting their feet wet in the snow.</p>
+
+<p>Hand in hand, Ruth and Helen crept forward. They saw the fire flickering
+just before them. There was a single figure between the fire and the
+very boulder of which Helen had spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the edge of the grove the girls gazed without discovery at the
+camp in the snow. The boulder stood in a small open space, and it was so
+high and bulky that it sheltered the fire and the camper quite
+comfortably. As Ruth had suspected, the latter was the girl she had seen
+walking upon the southern shore of Bliss Island. She knew her by her
+figure, if not by her face, which was at the moment hidden.</p>
+
+<p>"She's alone," whispered Helen, making the words with her lips more than
+with her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>can</i> she be doing out here?" was the black-eyed girl's next
+demand.</p>
+
+<p>Her chum put out a hand in a gesture of warning and at once walked out
+of the shelter of the trees and approached the fire. Helen lingered
+behind. After all, it was so strange a situation that she did not feel
+very courageous.</p>
+
+<p>The moon had quite broken through the clouds now and as Ruth drew nearer
+to the fire and the girl, her shadow was projected before her upon the
+snow. The girl who looked like Maggie suddenly espied this shadow,
+raised her head, and leaped up with a cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be frightened, Maggie," said Ruth. "It's only us two girls."</p>
+
+<p>"My&mdash;my name is&mdash;isn't Maggie," stammered the strange girl.</p>
+
+<p>And sure enough, having once seen her closely, Ruth Fielding saw that
+she was quite wrong in her identification. This was not the girl who had
+drifted down the Lumano River to the Red Mill and taken refuge with Aunt
+Alvirah.</p>
+
+<p>This was a much more assertive person than Maggie&mdash;a girl with plenty of
+health, both of body and mind. Maggie impressed one as being mentally or
+nervously deficient. Not so this girl who was camping here in the snow
+on Bliss Island. Yet there was a resemblance to Maggie in the figure of
+the stranger, and Ruth noted a resemblance in her features, too.</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness me!" she said, laughing pleasantly. "If you're not our
+Maggie you look near enough like her to be her sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I haven't any sister in that college," said the strange girl,
+shortly. "You're from Ardmore, aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Ruth said, Helen now having joined them. "And we saw your
+light&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My <i>what</i>?" demanded the camping girl, who was warmly, though plainly
+dressed.</p>
+
+<p>"Your campfire. You see," explained Ruth, finding it rather difficult
+after all to talk to this very self-possessed girl, "we skated around
+the island to-day&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw you," said the stranger gruffly. "There were three of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And I thought you looked like Maggie, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't this Maggie one of you?" sharply demanded the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a girl whom&mdash;whom I know," Ruth said quickly. "A really nice
+girl. And you do look like her. Doesn't she, Helen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;yes&mdash;something like," drawled Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"And did you have to come out here to see if I were your friend?" asked
+the other girl.</p>
+
+<p>"When I saw the campfire&mdash;yes," Ruth admitted. "It seemed so strange,
+you know."</p>
+
+<p>"What seemed strange?" demanded the girl, very tartly. It was plain that
+she considered their visit an intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, think of it yourself," Ruth cried, while Helen sniffed audibly. "A
+girl camping alone on this island&mdash;and in a snowstorm."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't snowing now," said the girl, smiling grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"But it was when we saw the fire at first," Ruth hastened to say. "You
+know yourself you would be interested."</p>
+
+<p>"Not enough to come clear out here&mdash;must be over a mile!&mdash;to see about
+it," was the rejoinder. "I usually mind my own business."</p>
+
+<p>"So do we, you may be sure!" spoke up Helen, quick to take offence.
+"Come away, Ruth."</p>
+
+<p>But the girl of the Red Mill was not at all satisfied. She said,
+frankly:</p>
+
+<p>"I do wish that you would tell us why you are here? Surely, you won't
+remain all night in this lonely place? There is nobody else on the
+island, is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope not!" exclaimed the girl. "Only you two busybodies."</p>
+
+<p>"But, really, we came because we were interested in what went on here.
+It seems so strange for a girl, alone&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You've said that before," was the dry reply. "I am a girl alone. I am
+here on my own business. And <i>that</i> isn't yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" ejaculated Helen, angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if you don't like being spoken to plainly, you needn't stay," the
+strange girl flung at her.</p>
+
+<p>"I see that very well," returned Helen, tossing her head. "<i>Do</i> come
+away, Ruth."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" exclaimed the strange girl, suddenly looking at Ruth more
+intently. "Are you called Ruth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Ruth Fielding is my name."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" and the girl's face changed in its expression and a little flush
+came into her cheeks. "I've&mdash;I've heard of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! How?" cried Ruth, eagerly. She felt that this girl must really
+have some connection with Maggie at the mill, she looked so much like
+the waif.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said the other girl slowly, looking away, "I heard you wrote
+picture plays. I saw one of them. That's all."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was silent for a moment. Helen kept tugging at her arm and urging
+her to go.</p>
+
+<p>"We&mdash;we can do nothing for you?" queried the girl of the Red Mill at
+last.</p>
+
+<p>"You can get off the island&mdash;that's as much as I care," said the strange
+girl, with a harsh laugh. "You're only intruding where you're not
+wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I do declare!" burst out Helen again. "She is the most impolite
+thing. <i>Do</i> come away, Ruthie."</p>
+
+<p>"We really came with the best intentions," Ruth added, as she turned
+away with her chum. "It&mdash;it doesn't look right for a girl to be alone at
+a campfire on this island&mdash;and at night, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I sha'n't stay here all night," the girl said shortly. "You needn't
+fret. If you want to know, I just built the fire to get warm by before I
+started back."</p>
+
+<p>"Back where?" Ruth could not help asking.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That</i> you don't know&mdash;and you won't know," returned the strange girl,
+and turned her back upon them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT WAS IN REBECCA'S TRUNK</h3>
+
+
+<p>The two chums did not speak a word to each other until they had
+recovered their snowshoes and set out down the rough side of Bliss
+Island for the ice. Then Helen sputtered:</p>
+
+<p>"People like <i>that</i>! Did you ever see such a person? I never was so
+insulted&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! She was right&mdash;in a way," Ruth said coolly. "We had no real
+business to pry into her affairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Well!"</p>
+
+<p>"I got you into it. I'm sorry," the girl of the Red Mill said. "I
+thought it really was Maggie, or I wouldn't have come over here."</p>
+
+<p>"She's something like that Maggie girl," proclaimed Helen. "<i>She</i> was
+nice, I thought."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe this girl is nice, taken under other circumstances," laughed
+Ruth. "I really would like to know what she is over here for."</p>
+
+<p>"No good, I'll be bound," said the pessimistic Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"And another thing," Ruth went on to say, as she and her chum reached
+the level of the frozen lake, "did you notice that pick handle?"</p>
+
+<p>"That what?" demanded Helen, in amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Pickaxe handle&mdash;I believe it was," Ruth said thoughtfully. "It was
+thrust out of the snow pile she had scraped away from the boulder. And,
+moreover, the ground looked as though it had been dug into."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the ground is as hard as the rock itself," Helen cried. "There are
+six or eight inches of frost right now."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess that's so," agreed Ruth. "Perhaps that's why she built such a
+big fire."</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>do</i> you mean, Ruth Fielding?" cried her chum.</p>
+
+<p>"I think she wanted to dig there for something," Ruth replied
+reflectively. "I wonder what for?"</p>
+
+<p>When they had returned to Dare Hall and had got their things off and
+were warm again, they looked out of the window. The campfire on the
+island had died out.</p>
+
+<p>"She's gone away, of course," sighed Ruth. "But I would like to know
+what she was there for."</p>
+
+<p>"One of the mysteries of life," said Helen, as she made ready for bed.
+"Dear me, but I'm tired!"</p>
+
+<p>She was asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. Not so
+Ruth. The latter lay awake some time wondering about the odd girl on the
+island and her errand there.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding had another girl's troubles on her mind, however&mdash;and a
+girl much closer to her. The girl on the island merely teased her
+imagination. Rebecca Frayne's difficulties seemed much more important to
+Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there was no real reason for Ruth to take up cudgels for her
+odd classmate. Indeed, she did not feel that she could do that, for she
+was quite convinced that Rebecca Frayne was wrong. Nevertheless, she was
+very sorry for the girl. The trouble over the tam-o'-shanter had become
+the most talked-of incident of the school term. For the several
+following days Rebecca was scarcely seen outside her room, save in going
+to and from her classes.</p>
+
+<p>She did not again appear in the dining hall. How she arranged about
+meals Ruth and her friends could not imagine. Then the housekeeper
+admitted to Ruth that she had allowed the lonely girl to get her own
+little meals in her room, as she had cooking utensils and an alcohol
+lamp.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not usually allowed, I know. But Miss Frayne seems to have come
+to college prepared to live in just that way. She is a small eater,
+anyway. And&mdash;well, anything to avoid friction."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," Ruth said to Helen and Jennie Stone, "lots of girls live in
+furnished rooms and get their own meals&mdash;working girls and students. But
+it is not a system generally allowed at college, and at Ardmore
+especially. We shall hear from the faculty about it before the matter is
+done with."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we're not doing it," scoffed Jennie. "And that Rebecca Frayne is
+behaving like a chump."</p>
+
+<p>"But how she does stick to that awful tam!" groaned Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Stubborn as a mule," agreed Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her with another hat on to-day," said Ruth, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"That's so! It was the one she wore the day she arrived," Helen said
+quickly. "A summer hat. I wonder what she did bring in that trunk,
+anyway? She has displayed no such charming array of finery as I
+expected."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth did not discuss this point. She was more interested in the state of
+Rebecca's mind, though, of course, there was not much time for her to
+give to anything but her studies and regular duties now, for as the term
+advanced the freshmen found their hours pretty well filled.</p>
+
+<p>Scrub teams for certain indoor sports had been made up, and even Jennie
+Stone took up the playing of basketball with vigor. She was really
+losing flesh. She kept a card tacked upon her door on which she set down
+the fluctuations of her bodily changes daily. When she lost a whole
+pound in weight she wrote it down in red ink.</p>
+
+<p>Their activities kept the three friends well occupied, both physically
+and mentally. Yet Ruth Fielding could not feel wholly satisfied or
+content when she knew that one of her mates was in trouble. She had
+taken an interest in Rebecca Frayne at the beginning of the semester;
+yet of all the freshmen Rebecca was the one whom she knew the least.</p>
+
+<p>"And that poor girl needs somebody for a friend&mdash;I feel it!" Ruth told
+herself. "Of course, she is to blame for the situation in which she now
+is. But for that very reason she ought to have somebody with whom to
+talk it over."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth determined to be that confidant of the girl who seemed to wish no
+associate and no confidant. She began to loiter in the corridors between
+recitation hours and at odd times. Whenever she knocked on Rebecca's
+door there was no reply. Other girls who had tried it quickly gave up
+their sympathetic attentions. If the foolish girl wished for no friends,
+let her go her own way. That became the attitude of the freshman class.
+Of course, the sophomores followed the lead of the seniors and the
+juniors, having as little to do with the unfortunate girl as possible.</p>
+
+<p>But the day and hour came at last when Ruth chanced to be right at hand
+when Rebecca Frayne came in and unlocked her room door. Her arms were
+full of small packages. Ruth knew that she had walked all the way to the
+grocery store on the edge of Greenburg, which the college girls often
+patronized.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a long, cold walk, and Rebecca's fingers were numb. She
+dropped a paper bag&mdash;and it contained eggs!</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is quite impossible to hide the fact of a dropped egg. At
+another time Ruth might have laughed; but now she soberly retrieved the
+paper bag before the broken eggs could do much damage, and stepped into
+the room after the nervous Rebecca.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you!" gasped the girl. "Put&mdash;put them down anywhere. Thank
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>"My goodness!" said Ruth, laughing, "you can't put broken eggs down
+<i>anywhere</i>. Don't you see they are runny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, Miss Fielding&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you've a regular kitchenette here, haven't you?" said Ruth,
+emboldened to look behind a curtain. "How cunning. I'll put these eggs
+in this clean dish. Mercy, but they are scrambled!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't trouble, Miss Fielding. You are very kind."</p>
+
+<p>"But scrambled eggs are pretty good, at that," Ruth went on, unheeding
+the other girl's nervousness. "If you can only get the broken shells out
+of them," and she began coolly to do this with a fork. "I should think
+you would not like eating alone, Rebecca."</p>
+
+<p>The other girl stared at her. "How can I help it?" she asked harshly.</p>
+
+<p>"Just by getting a proper tam and stop being stubborn," Ruth told her.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Fielding!" cried Rebecca, her face flushing. "Do you think I do
+this for&mdash;for fun?"</p>
+
+<p>"You must. It isn't a disease, is it?" and Ruth laughed aloud,
+determined to refuse to take the other's tragic words seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you are unbearable!" gasped Rebecca.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not. I want to be your friend," Ruth declared boldly. "I want
+you to have other friends, too. No use flocking by one's self at
+college. Why, my dear girl! you are missing all that is best in college
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know what <i>is</i> best in college life!" burst out Rebecca
+Frayne, sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Friendship. Companionship. The rubbing of one mind against another,"
+Ruth said promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!" returned the startled Rebecca. "I wouldn't want to rub my mind
+against some of these girls' minds. All I ever hear them talk about is
+dress or amusements."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you know many of the other girls well enough to judge the
+calibre of their minds," said Ruth, gently.</p>
+
+<p>"And why don't I?" demanded Rebecca, still with a sort of suppressed
+fury.</p>
+
+<p>"We all judge more or less by appearances," Ruth admitted slowly. "I
+presume <i>you</i>, too, were judged that way."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, Miss Fielding?" asked Rebecca, more mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"When you came here to Ardmore you made a first impression. We all do,"
+Ruth said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Rebecca admitted, with a slight curl of her lip. She was
+naturally a proud-looking girl, and she seemed actually haughty now. "I
+was mistaken for <i>you</i>, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth laughed heartily at that.</p>
+
+<p>"I should be a good friend of yours," she said. "It was a great sell on
+those sophomores. They had determined to make poor little me suffer for
+some small notoriety I had gained at boarding school."</p>
+
+<p>"I never went to boarding school," snapped Rebecca. "I never was
+<i>anywhere</i> till I came to college. Just to our local schools. I worked
+hard, let me tell you, to pass the examinations to get in here."</p>
+
+<p>"And why don't you let your mind broaden and get the best there is to be
+had at Ardmore?" Ruth demanded, quickly. "The girls misunderstand you. I
+can see that. We freshmen have got to bow our heads to the will of the
+upper classes. It doesn't hurt&mdash;much," and she laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I am wearing this old tam because I am stubborn?" demanded
+the other girl, again with that fierceness that seemed so strange in one
+so young.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you wear it, then?" asked Ruth, wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Because I cannot afford to buy another!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca Frayne said this in so tense a voice that Ruth was fairly
+staggered. The girl of the Red Mill gazed upon the other's flaming face
+for a full minute without making any reply. Then, faintly, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I didn't understand, Rebecca. We none of us do, I guess. You came
+here in such style! That heavy trunk and those bags&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"All out of our attic," said the other, sharply. "Did you think them
+filled with frocks and furbelows? See here!"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had already noticed the packages of papers piled along one wall of
+the room. Rebecca pointed to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Out of our attic, too," she said, with a scornful laugh that was really
+no laugh at all. "Old papers that have lain there since the Civil War."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Rebecca&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why did I do it?" put in the other, in the same hard voice. "Because I
+was a little fool. Because I did not understand.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't know just what college was like. I never talked with a girl
+from college in my life. I thought this was a place where only rich
+girls were welcome."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Rebecca!" cried Ruth. "That isn't so."</p>
+
+<p>"I see it now," agreed the other girl, shortly. "But we always have had
+to make a bluff at our house. Since <i>I</i> can remember, at least.
+Grandfather was wealthy; but our generation is as poor as Job's turkey.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't want to appear poor when I arrived here; so I got out the old
+bags and the big trunk, filled them with papers, and brought them along.
+A friend lent me that car I arrived in. I&mdash;I thought I'd make a splurge
+right at first, and then my social standing would not be questioned."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Rebecca! How foolish," murmured Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say that!" stormed the girl. "I see that I started all wrong. But
+I can't help it now," and suddenly she burst into a passion of weeping.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT WAS IN REBECCA'S HEART</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was some time before Ruth could quiet the almost hysterical girl.
+Rebecca Frayne had held herself in check so long, and the bitterness of
+her position had so festered in her mind, that now the barriers were
+burst she could not control herself.</p>
+
+<p>But Ruth Fielding was sympathetic. And her heart went out to this lonely
+and foolish girl as it seldom had to any person in distress. She felt,
+too, did Ruth, as though it was partly her fault and the fault of the
+other freshmen that Rebecca was in this state of mind.</p>
+
+<p>She was fearful that having actually forced herself upon Rebecca that
+the girl might, when she came to herself, turn against her. But at
+present Rebecca's heart was so full that it spilled over, once having
+found a confidant.</p>
+
+<p>In Ruth Fielding's arms the unfortunate girl told a story that, if
+supremely silly from one standpoint, was a perfectly natural and not
+uncommon story.</p>
+
+<p>She was a girl, born and brought up in a quiet, small town, living in
+the biggest and finest house in that town, yet having suffered actual
+privations all her life for the sake of keeping up appearances.</p>
+
+<p>The Frayne family was supposed to be wealthy. Not as wealthy as a
+generation or so before; still, the Fraynes were looked upon as the
+leaders in local society.</p>
+
+<p>There was now only an aunt, Rebecca, a younger sister, and a brother who
+was in New York struggling upward in a commission house.</p>
+
+<p>"And if it were not for the little Fred can spare me and sends me twice
+a month, I couldn't stay here," Rebecca confessed during this long talk
+with Ruth. "He's the best boy who ever lived."</p>
+
+<p>"He must be," Ruth agreed. "I'd be glad to have a brother like that."</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca had been hungry for books. She had always hoped to take a
+college course.</p>
+
+<p>"But I was ignorant of everything," she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth gathered, too, that the aunt, who was at the nominal head of the
+Frayne household, was also ignorant. This Aunt Emmy seemed to be an
+empty-headed creature who thought that the most essential thing for a
+girl in life was to be fancifully dressed, and to attain a position in
+society.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Emmy had evidently filled Rebecca's head with such notions. The
+girl had come to Ardmore with a totally wrong idea of what it meant to
+be in college.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! some of these girls act as waitresses," said Rebecca. "I couldn't
+do <i>that</i> even to obtain the education I want so much. Oh! Aunt Emmy
+would never hear to it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a perfectly legitimate way of helping earn one's tuition," Ruth
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"The Fraynes have never done such things," the other girl said
+haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>And right there and then Ruth decided that Rebecca Frayne was going to
+have a very hard time, indeed, at Ardmore unless she learned to look
+upon life quite differently from the way she had been taught at home.</p>
+
+<p>Already Ruth Fielding had seen enough at Ardmore to know that many of
+the very girls whose duties Rebecca scorned, were getting more out of
+their college life than Rebecca Frayne could possibly get unless she
+took a radically different view of life and its comparative values from
+that her present standards gave her.</p>
+
+<p>The girls who were waitresses, and did other work to help pay for their
+tuition or for their board were busy and happy and were respected by
+their mates. In addition, they were often the best scholars in the
+classes.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca was wrong in scorning those who combined domestic service with
+an attempt to obtain an education. But Ruth was wise enough to see that
+this feeling was inbred in Rebecca. It was useless to try to change her
+opinion upon it.</p>
+
+<p>If Rebecca were poverty-stricken, her purse could not be replenished by
+any such means as these other girls found to help them over the hard
+places. In this matter of the tam-o'-shanter, for instance, it would be
+very difficult to help the girl. Ruth knew better than to offer to pay
+for the new tam-o'-shanter the freshman could not afford to buy. To make
+such an offer would immediately close the door of the strange girl's
+friendship to Ruth. So she did not hint at such a thing. She talked on,
+beginning to laugh and joke with Rebecca, and finally brought her out of
+her tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Cheer up," Ruth said. "You are making the worst possible use of your
+time here&mdash;keeping to yourself and being so afraid of making friends.
+We're not all rich girls, I assure you. And the girls on this corridor
+are particularly nice."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that may be. But if everywhere I go they show so plainly they
+don't want me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That will stop!" cried Ruth, vigorously. "If I have to go to Dr.
+Milroth myself, it shall be stopped. It is hazing of the crudest kind.
+Oh! what a prettily crocheted table-mat. It's old-fashioned, but
+pretty."</p>
+
+<p>"Aunty does that, almost all the time," Rebecca said, with a little
+laugh. "Fred once said&mdash;in confidence, of course&mdash;that half the family
+income goes for Aunt Emmy's wool."</p>
+
+<p>"Do <i>you</i> do it, too?" Ruth asked suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes. I can."</p>
+
+<p>"Say! could you crochet one of these tams?" cried Ruth, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;I suppose so," admitted the other girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, why not? Do it to please the seniors and juniors. It won't hurt
+to bow to a custom, will it? And you only need buy a few hanks of wool
+at a time."</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca's face flamed again; but she took the suggestion, after all,
+with some meekness.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>might</i> do that," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"All right. Then you'll be doing your part. And talk to the girls. Let
+them talk to you. Come down to the dining-room for your meals again. You
+know, the housekeeper, Mrs. Ebbets, will soon be getting into trouble
+about you. Somebody will talk to Dr. Milroth or to some other member of
+the upper faculty."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," groaned Rebecca. "They won't let poor little me alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you can't expect to have your own way at school," cried Ruth,
+laughing. "Oh, and say!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Miss Fielding?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Do</i> call me Ruth," begged the girl of the Red Mill. "It won't cost you
+a cent more," but she said it so good-naturedly that Rebecca had to
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said the other girl, vehemently. "You are the very nicest
+little thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now that's settled," laughed Ruth, "do something for me, will
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any&mdash;anything I can," agreed Rebecca, with some doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"You know we girls on this corridor are going to have a sitting-room all
+to ourselves. That corner room that is empty. Everybody is going to
+buy&mdash;is going to give something to help furnish the room."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ruth! I can't&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes you can," interrupted Ruth, quickly. "When you stop this foolish
+eating by yourself, you can bring over your alcohol lamp. It's just what
+we want to make tea on. Now, say you will, Rebecca!"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I will. Why, yes, I can do that," Rebecca agreed.</p>
+
+<p>"Goody! I'll tell the girls. And you'll be as welcome as the flowers in
+May, lamp or no lamp," she cried, kissing Rebecca again and bustling out
+of the room.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>BEARDING THE LIONS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth had shown a very cheerful face before Rebecca Frayne, but when she
+was once out of the room the girl of the Red Mill did not show such a
+superabundance of cheerfulness.</p>
+
+<p>She knew well enough that Rebecca had become so unpopular that public
+opinion could not be changed regarding her in a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, there were the two upper classes to be considered. Their order
+regarding the freshmen's head-covering had been flagrantly disobeyed,
+and would have to be disobeyed for some time to come. A girl cannot
+crochet a tam-o'-shanter in a minute.</p>
+
+<p>Having undertaken to straighten out Rebecca Frayne's troubles, however,
+Ruth did not publicly shrink from the task. She was one who made up her
+mind quickly, and having made it up, set to work immediately to carry
+the matter through.</p>
+
+<p>Merry Dexter, the first senior she had met upon coming to Ardmore, was
+kindly disposed toward her, and Ruth knew that Miss Dexter was an
+influential member of her class. Therefore, Ruth took her trouble&mdash;and
+Rebecca's&mdash;directly to Miss Dexter.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, she did not feel that she had a right to explain, even to this one
+senior, all that Rebecca Frayne had confided to her. She realized that
+the girl, with her false standards of respectability and social
+standing, would never be able to hold up her head at college if her real
+financial situation were known to the girls in general. Ruth was bound,
+however, to take Miss Dexter somewhat into her confidence to obtain a
+hearing. She put the matter before the senior as nicely as possible,
+saying in conclusion:</p>
+
+<p>"And she will knit herself a tam of the proper color just as soon as
+possible. No girl, you know, Miss Dexter, likes to admit that she is
+poor. It is dreadfully embarrassing. So I hope that this matter will be
+adjusted without her situation being discussed."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! <i>I</i> can't change things," the senior declared. "Not unless
+that girl agrees to do as she is told&mdash;like the rest of you freshies."</p>
+
+<p>"Then my opinion of your class, Miss Dexter," Ruth said firmly, "must be
+entirely wrong. I did not believe that they ordered us to wear baby blue
+tams just out of an arbitrary desire to make us obey. Had I believed
+<i>that</i> I would not have bought a new tam myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Miss Dexter. Nor would a great many of us freshmen. We believed the
+order had a deeper significance&mdash;and it <i>had</i>. It helped our class get
+together. We are combined now, we are a social body. And I believe that
+if I took this matter up with Rebecca's class, and explained just her
+situation to them (which, of course, I do not want to do), the freshmen
+as a whole would back me in a revolt against the upper classes."</p>
+
+<p>"You're pretty sure of that, Ruth Fielding, are you?" demanded the
+senior.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am. We'd all refuse to wear the new tams. You seniors and
+juniors would have a nice time sending us all to Coventry, wouldn't you?
+If you didn't want to eat with us, you'd all go hungry for a long time
+before the freshmen would do as Rebecca foolishly did."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dexter laughed at that. And then she hugged Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you are a dear girl, with a lot of good sense in your head,"
+she said. "But you must come before our executive committee and talk to
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! Beard the lions in their den?" cried Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear. I cannot be your spokesman."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth found this a harder task than she had bargained for; but she went
+that same evening to a hastily called meeting of the senior committee.
+Perhaps Miss Dexter had done more for her than she agreed, however, for
+Ruth found these older girls very kind and she seemingly made them
+easily understand Rebecca's situation without being obliged to say in
+just so many words that the girl was actually poverty-stricken.</p>
+
+<p>And it was probable, too, that Ruth Fielding helped herself in this
+incident as much as she did her classmate. The members of the older
+classes thereafter gave the girl of the Red Mill considerably more
+attention than she had previously received. Ruth began to feel surprised
+that she had so many warm friends and pleasant acquaintances in the
+college, even among the sophomores of Edith Phelps' stamp. Edith Phelps
+found her tart jokes about the "canned-drama authoress" falling rather
+flat, so she dropped the matter.</p>
+
+<p>Older girls stopped on the walks to talk to Ruth. They sat beside her in
+chapel and at other assemblies, and seemed to like to talk with her.
+Although Ruth did not hold an office in her own class organization, yet
+she bade fair to become soon the most popular freshman at Ardmore.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was perfectly unconscious of this fact, for she had not a spark of
+vanity in her make-up. Her mind was so filled with other and more
+important things that her social conquests impressed her but little. She
+did, however, think a good bit about poor Rebecca Frayne's situation.
+She warned her personal friends among the freshmen, especially those at
+Dare Hall, to say nothing to Rebecca about the unfortunate affair.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca came into the dining-room again. Ruth knew that she had actually
+begun to crochet a baby blue tam-o'-shanter. But it was a question in
+Ruth's mind if the odd girl would be able to "keep up appearances" on
+the little money she had left and that which her brother could send her
+from time to time. It was quite tragic, after all. Rebecca was sure of
+good and sufficient food as long as she could pay her board; but the
+girl undoubtedly needed other things which she could not purchase.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, youth cannot give its entire attention to even so tragic a
+matter as this. Ruth's gay friends acted as counterweights in her mind
+to Rebecca's troubles.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were out on the lake very frequently as the cold weather
+continued; but Ruth never saw again the strange girl whom she and Helen
+had interviewed at night on Bliss Island.</p>
+
+<p>Hearing from Aunt Alvirah as she did with more or less frequency, the
+girl of the Red Mill was assured that Maggie seemed content and was
+proving a great help to the crippled old housekeeper. Maggie seemed
+quite settled in her situation.</p>
+
+<p>"Just because that queer girl looked like Maggie doesn't prove that
+Maggie knows her," Ruth told herself. "Still&mdash;it's odd."</p>
+
+<p>Stormy weather kept the college girls indoors a good deal; and the
+general sitting-room on Ruth's corridor became the most social spot in
+the whole college.</p>
+
+<p>The girls whose dormitory rooms were there, irrespective of class, all
+shared in the furnishing of the sitting-room. Second-hand furniture is
+always to be had of dealers near an institution like Ardmore. Besides,
+the girls all owned little things they could spare for the general
+comfort, like Rebecca Frayne's alcohol lamp.</p>
+
+<p>Helen had a tea set; somebody else furnished trays. In fact, all the
+"comforts of home" were supplied to that sitting-room; and the girls
+were considered very fortunate by their mates in other parts of the
+hall, and, indeed, in the other three dormitory buildings.</p>
+
+<p>But during the holiday recess something happened that bade fair to
+deprive Ruth and her friends of their special perquisite. Dr. McCurdy's
+wife's sister came to Ardmore. The McCurdys did not keep house,
+preferring to board. They could find no room for Mrs. Jaynes, until it
+was remembered that there was an unassigned dormitory room at Dare Hall.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the girls had gone home over the brief holidays; but our three
+friends from Briarwood had remained at Ardmore.</p>
+
+<p>So Ruth and Helen and Jennie Stone chanced to be among the girls present
+when the housekeeper of Dare Hall came into the sitting-room and, to
+quote Jennie, informed them that they must "vamoose the ranch."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what Ann Hicks would call it," Jennie said, defending her
+language when taken to task for it. "We've just got to get out&mdash;and it's
+a mean shame."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. McCurdy was one of the important members of the faculty. Of course,
+the girls on that corridor had no real right to the extra room. All they
+could do was to voice their disappointment&mdash;and they did that, one may
+be sure, with vociferation.</p>
+
+<p>"And just when we had come to be so comfortably fixed here," groaned
+one, when the housekeeper had departed. "I know I shall dis-<i>like</i> that
+Mrs. Jaynes extremely."</p>
+
+<p>"We won't speak to her!" cried Helen, in a somewhat vixenish tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe she won't care if we don't," laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>But it was no laughing matter, as they all felt. They made a gloomy
+party in the pretty sitting-room that last evening of its occupancy as a
+community resort.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Clara Mayberry in her rocker again on that squeaky board,"
+Rebecca Frayne remarked. "I hope she rocks on that board every evening
+over this woman's head who has turned us out."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's all hope so," murmured Helen.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie Stone suddenly sat upright in the rocker she was occupying, but
+continued to glare at the ceiling. A board in the floor of the room
+above had frequently annoyed them before. Clara Mayberry sometimes
+forgot and placed her rocker on that particular spot.</p>
+
+<p>"If&mdash;if she had to listen to that long," gasped Jennie suddenly, "she
+would go crazy. She's just that kind of nervous female. I saw her at
+chapel this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"But even Clara couldn't stand the squeak of that board long," Ruth
+observed, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>Without another word Jennie left the room. She came back later, so full
+of mystery, as Helen declared, that she seemed on the verge of bursting.</p>
+
+<p>However, Jennie refused to explain herself in any particular; but the
+board in Clara Mayberry's room did not squeak again that evening.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>A DEEP, DARK PLOT</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Heavy is actually losing flesh," Helen declared to Ruth. "I can see
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean you <i>can't</i> see it," laughed her chum. "That is, you can't see
+so much of it as there used to be. If she keeps on with the rowing
+machine work in the gym and the basket ball practise and dancing, she
+will soon be the thinnest girl who ever came to Ardmore."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never!" cried Helen. "I don't believe I should like Heavy so much
+if she wasn't a <i>little</i> fat."</p>
+
+<p>People who had not seen Jennie Stone for some time observed the change
+in her appearance more particularly than did her two close friends. This
+was proved when Mr. Cameron and Tom arrived.</p>
+
+<p>For, as the girls did not go home for just a few days, Helen's father
+and her twin unexpectedly appeared at college on Christmas Eve, and
+their company delighted the chums immensely.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday evenings the girls could have company, and on all Saturday
+afternoons, even during the college term. Also a girl could have a young
+man call on her Sunday evening, provided he took her to service at
+chapel.</p>
+
+<p>The three Briarwood friends had had no such company heretofore. They
+made the most of Mr. Cameron and Tom, therefore, during Christmas week.</p>
+
+<p>There was splendid sleighing, and the skating on the lake was at its
+very best. Ruth insisted upon including Rebecca Frayne in some of their
+parties, and Rebecca proved to be good fun.</p>
+
+<p>Tom stared at Jennie Stone, round-eyed, when first he saw her.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with you, Tom Cameron?" the fleshy girl asked, rather
+tartly. "Didn't you ever see a good-looking girl before?"</p>
+
+<p>"But say, Jennie!" he cried, "are you going into a decline?"</p>
+
+<p>"I decline to answer," she responded. But she dimpled when she said it,
+and evidently considered Tom's rather blunt remark a compliment.</p>
+
+<p>The Christmas holidays were over all too soon, it seemed to the girls.
+Yet they took up the class work again with vigor.</p>
+
+<p>Their acquaintanceship was broadening daily, both in the student body
+and among the instructors. Most of the strangeness of this new college
+world had worn off. Ruth and Helen and Jennie were full-fledged
+"Ardmores" now, quite as devoted to the college as they had been to dear
+old Briarwood.</p>
+
+<p>After New Year's there was a raw and rainy spell that spoiled many of
+the outdoor sports. Practice in the gymnasium increased, and Helen said
+that Jennie Stone was bound to work herself down to a veritable shadow
+if the bad weather continued long.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was in Rebecca's room one dingy, rainy afternoon, having skipped
+gymnasium work of all kind for the day. The proprietor of the room had
+finished her baby blue cap and had worn it the first time that week.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel that they are not all staring at me now," she confessed to Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth was at the piles of old papers which Rebecca had hidden under a
+half-worn portierre she had brought from home.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," the girl of the Red Mill said reflectively, "these old
+things are awfully interesting, Becky?"</p>
+
+<p>"What old things?"</p>
+
+<p>"These papers. I've opened one bundle. They were all printed in Richmond
+during the Civil War. Why, paper must have been awfully scarce then.
+Some of these are actually printed on wrapping paper&mdash;you can scarcely
+read the print."</p>
+
+<p>"Ought to look at those Charleston papers," said Rebecca, carelessly.
+"There are full files of those, too, I believe. Why, some of them are
+printed on wall paper."</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes they are. Ridiculous, wasn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Ruth sat silent for a while. Finally she asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure, Becky, that you have quite complete files here of this
+Richmond paper? For all the war time, I mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And of the South Carolina paper, too. Father collected them during
+and immediately following the war. He was down there for years, you
+see."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," Ruth said quietly, and for a long time said nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>But that evening she wrote several letters which she did not show Helen,
+and took them herself to the mailbag in the lower hall.</p>
+
+<p>Before this, Mrs. Jaynes, Dr. McCurdy's sister-in-law, was settled in
+the room which had formerly been used by the girls as their own
+particular sitting-room. She was not an attractive woman at all; so it
+was not hard for her youthful associates on that corridor of Dare Hall
+to declare war upon Mrs. Jaynes.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, without having been introduced to a single girl there, Mrs.
+Jaynes eyed them all as though she suspected they belonged to a tribe of
+Bushmen.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, during hours of relaxation, and occasionally at other times,
+the girls joked and laughed and raced through the halls and sang and
+otherwise acted as a crowd of young people usually act.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jaynes was plainly of that sort that believes that all youthfulness
+and ebullition of spirits should be suppressed. Luckily, she met the
+girls but seldom&mdash;only when she was going to and from her room. On
+stormy days she remained shut up in her apartment most of the time, and
+Mrs. Ebbetts sent a maid up with her tray at meal time. She never ate in
+the Dare Hall dining-room.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, Jennie Stone had several mysterious sessions with certain of
+the girls who felt quite as she did regarding the usurpation of Dr.
+McCurdy's sister-in-law of the spare room. Had Ruth not been so busy in
+other directions she would have realized that a plot of some kind was in
+process of formation, for Helen was in it, as well.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie Stone had made a friend of Clara Mayberry on the floor above. In
+fact, a number of the girls on the lower corridor affected by the
+presence of Mrs. Jaynes, were in and out of Clara's room all day long.
+None of these girls remained long at a time&mdash;not more than half an hour;
+but another visitor always appeared before the first left, right through
+the day, from breakfast call till "lights out." And after retiring hour
+there began to be seen figures stealing through the corridors and on the
+stairway between the two floors. That is, there would have been seen
+such ghostly marauders had there been anybody to watch.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jaynes crossly complained to Mrs. Ebbetts that she was kept awake
+all night long&mdash;and all day, for that matter! But as she never put her
+head out of her room after the lights were lowered in the corridors, she
+did not discover the soft-footed spectres of the night.</p>
+
+<p>"But," she complained to Mrs. Ebbetts, "it is the noisiest room I ever
+was in. Such a squeaking you never heard! And all the time, day and
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand that at all," said the puzzled housekeeper.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to know how the girl who had that room before I took it, stood
+that awful squeaking noise," said the visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Mrs. Jaynes," said the housekeeper, "no girl slept there. It was a
+sitting-room."</p>
+
+<p>"Even so, I cannot understand how anybody could endure the noise. If I
+believed in such things I should declare the room was haunted."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, Madam!" gasped the housekeeper. "I do not understand it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I cannot endure it. I shall tell my sister that I cannot remain
+here at Ardmore unless she finds me other lodgings. That awful <i>squeak,
+squeak, squeak</i> continues day and night. It is unbearable."</p>
+
+<p>In the end, Dr. McCurdy found lodgings for his sister-in-law in
+Greenburg. The girls of Ruth's corridor were delighted, and that night
+held a regular orgy in the recovered sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank goodness!" sighed Jennie Stone, "no more up and down all night
+for us, either. We may sleep in peace, as well as occupy the room in
+peace."</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>do</i> you mean, Heavy?" demanded Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ruthie! That's one time we put one over on you, dear," said the
+fleshy girl sweetly. "You were not asked to join in the conspiracy. We
+feared your known sympathetic nature would revolt."</p>
+
+<p>"But explain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Clara let us use her rocking chair," Jennie said demurely. "It's a
+very nice chair. We all rocked in it, one after another, half-hour
+watches being assigned&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at night?" cried the horror-stricken Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. All day and all night. Every little minute that rocker was
+going upon the squeaky board. It's a wonder the board is not worn out,"
+chuckled the wicked Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I never!" proclaimed Ruth, aghast. "What won't you think of next,
+Jennie Stone?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I know I'm awfully smart," sighed Jennie. "I did so much
+of the rocking myself, however, that I don't much care if I never see a
+rocking-chair again."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO SURPRISES</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding knew that Rebecca Frayne was painfully embarrassed for
+money. She managed to find the wherewithal for her board, and her
+textbooks of course had been paid for at the beginning of the college
+year. But there are always incidentals and unforeseen small expenses,
+which crop up in a most unexpected manner and clamor for payment.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca never opened her lips about these troubles, despite the fact
+that she loved Ruth and was much with the girl of the Red Mill. But Ruth
+was keen-eyed. She knew that Rebecca suffered for articles of clothing.
+She saw that her raiment was becoming very, very shabby.</p>
+
+<p>The girl in this trouble was foolish, of course. But foolishness is a
+disease not so easily cured. There was not the slightest chance of
+giving Rebecca anything that she needed; Ruth knew that quite well. Her
+finery&mdash;and cheap enough it was&mdash;the girl would flaunt to the bitter
+end.</p>
+
+<p>Deep down she was a good girl in every respect; but she did put on airs
+and ape the wealthy girls she saw. What garments she owned had been
+ultra-fashionable in cut, if poor in texture, when she had come to
+college. But fashions change so frequently nowadays that already poor
+Rebecca Frayne was behind the styles&mdash;and she knew it and grieved
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>Most of her mates at Dare Hall, the freshmen especially, usually dressed
+in short cloth skirts and middy blouses, with a warm coat over all in
+cold weather. Would Rebecca be caught going to classes in such an
+outfit? Not much! That was why her better clothes wore out so quickly
+and now looked so shabby. Jennie Stone said, with disgust, and with more
+than a little truth, perhaps:</p>
+
+<p>"That girl primps to go to recitations just as though she were bound for
+a party. I don't see how she finds time for study."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth realized that Rebecca was made that way, and that was all there was
+to it. She wasted no strength, nor did she run the risk of being bad
+friends with the unwise girl, by criticising these silly things. Ruth
+believed in being helpful, or else keeping still.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca could never be induced to try to do the things that other poor
+girls did at college to help pay their expenses. Perhaps she was not
+really fitted for such services, and would only have failed.</p>
+
+<p>Other girls acted as waitresses, did sewing, one looked after the linen
+for one of the dormitories, another darned hose and repaired lingerie.
+Dr. Frances Milroth's own personal secretary was a junior who was
+working her way through Ardmore and was taking a high mark, too, in her
+studies.</p>
+
+<p>One girl helped Mrs. Leidenburg with her children during several hours
+of each day. Some girls were agents for articles which their college
+mates were glad to secure easily and quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the field of endeavor seemed rather well covered, and it would
+have been hard to discover anything new for Rebecca Frayne to do, had
+the girl even been willing to "go into trade," a thing Rebecca had told
+Ruth a Frayne had never done.</p>
+
+<p>This attitude of the Frayne family seemed quite ridiculous to Ruth, but
+she knew it was absolutely useless to scold Rebecca.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, it was not Ruth Fielding's way to be a scold. If she could not
+be helpful she preferred to ignore that which she saw was wrong. And in
+Rebecca Frayne's case she was determined to be helpful if she could.
+Rebecca was a bright scholar. After all, she would shine in her class
+before all was said and done. They could not afford to lose such a
+really bright girl from among the freshmen.</p>
+
+<p>Often on stormy days Ruth spent the time between recitations and dinner
+in Rebecca's room.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw anybody so fond of old papers as you are, Ruthie," Rebecca
+said. "Do take 'em all if you like. Of course, I'll never be silly
+enough to carry them back home with me. They are only useful to help
+build the fire."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't dare destroy one of them, Rebecca Frayne!" Ruth had warned
+her&mdash;and actually made her promise that she would not do so.</p>
+
+<p>Then the replies to Ruth's letters came. She had gone all through the
+bundles of papers by this time, arranged them according to their dates
+of issue, and wrapped the different years' issues in strong paper.
+Rebecca could not see for the life of her, she said, what Ruth was
+about.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely they can't be worth much as old paper, Ruthie. I know you are a
+regular little business woman; but junk men aren't allowed on the
+college grounds."</p>
+
+<p>"Expressmen are, my dear," laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? What <i>are</i> you going to do with those papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"You said you didn't care&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't. They are yours to do with as you please," said the
+generous Rebecca Frayne.</p>
+
+<p>"To punish you," Ruth said seriously, "I ought really to take you at
+your word," and she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"What meanest thou, my fair young lady?" asked Rebecca, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Read this," commanded Ruth, handing her, with the air of the stage hero
+"producing the papers," one of the letters she had received. "Cast your
+glance over this, Miss Frayne."</p>
+
+<p>The other received the letter curiously, and read it with dawning
+surprise. She read it twice and then gazed at Ruth with almost
+speechless amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! what do you think of your Aunt Ruth <i>now</i>?" demanded the girl of
+the Red Mill, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"It&mdash;it can't be <i>so</i>, Ruthie!" murmured Rebecca Frayne, the hand which
+held the letter fairly shaking.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just as <i>so</i> as it can be," and Ruth continued to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>The tears suddenly flooded into Rebecca's eyes. She could not turn
+quickly enough to hide them from Ruth's keen vision. But all she said
+was:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Ruthie! I congratulate you. Think of it! Two hundred dollars
+offered for each set of those old papers. Well!"</p>
+
+<p>"You see, it would scarcely have been wise to have built the fire with
+them," Ruth said drily.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I should say not. And&mdash;and they have lain in our attic for years."</p>
+
+<p>"And you brought them to college as waste paper," Ruth added.</p>
+
+<p>Rebecca was silent. Ruth, smiling roguishly, stole up behind her.
+Suddenly she put both arms around Rebecca Frayne and hugged her tight.</p>
+
+<p>"Becky! Don't you understand?" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Understand what?" Rebecca asked gruffly, trying to dash away her few
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, honey, I did it for <i>you</i>. I believed the papers must be worth
+something. I had heard of a set of New York illustrated papers for the
+years of the Civil War selling for a big price. These, I believed, must
+be even more interesting to collectors of such things.</p>
+
+<p>"So I wrote to Mr. Cameron, and he sent me the names of old book
+dealers, and <i>they</i> sent me the addresses of several collectors. This
+Mr. Radley has a regular museum of such things, and he offers the best
+price&mdash;four hundred dollars for the lot if they prove to be as perfect
+as I said they were. And they <i>are</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And, of course, the money is yours, Rebecca," said Ruth, promptly. "You
+don't for a moment suppose that I would take your valuable papers and
+cheat you out of the reward just because I happened to know more about
+their worth than you did? What do you take me for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;oh, Ruthie!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you take me for?" again demanded Ruth Fielding, quite as though
+she were offended.</p>
+
+<p>"For the best and dearest girl who ever lived!" cried Rebecca Frayne,
+and cast herself upon Ruth's breast, holding her tightly while she
+sobbed there.</p>
+
+<p>This was one surprise. But there was another later, and this was a
+surprise for Ruth herself.</p>
+
+<p>She was very glad to have been the means of finding Rebecca such a nice
+little fortune as this that came to her for the old periodicals. With
+what the girl's brother could send her, Rebecca would be pretty sure of
+sufficient money to carry her through her freshman year and pay for her
+second year's tuition at Ardmore.</p>
+
+<p>"Something may be found then for Rebecca to do," thought Ruth, "that
+will not so greatly shock her notions of gentility. Dear me! she's as
+nice a girl as ever lived; but she is a problem."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth had other problems, however, on her mind. One of these brought
+about the personal surprise mentioned above. She had found time finally
+to complete the scenario of "Crossed Wires," and after some changes had
+been made in it, Mr. Hammond had informed her that it would be put in
+the hands of a director for production. It called for so many outdoor
+scenes, however, that the new film would not be made until spring.</p>
+
+<p>Spring was now fast approaching, and Ruth determined to be at the Red
+Mill on a visit when the first scenes were taken for her photo-drama.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, if she went, Helen must go. They stood excellently well in
+all their classes, and it was not hard to persuade Dr. Milroth, who had
+good reports of both freshmen, to let them go to Cheslow.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth's coming home was in the nature of a surprise to Uncle Jabez and
+Aunt Alvirah. The old housekeeper was outspoken in her joy at seeing
+"her pretty" once more. Uncle Jabez was startled into perhaps a warmer
+greeting of his niece than he ordinarily considered advisable.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare for't, Ruth! Ain't nothin' the matter, is there?" he asked,
+holding her hand and staring into her face with serious intent.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Uncle. Nothing at all the matter. Just ran home to see how you
+all were, and to watch them take the pictures of the old mill."</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't lost any of that money, have ye?" persisted the miller.</p>
+
+<p>"Not a penny. And Mr. Hammond sent me a nice check on account of
+royalties, too," and she dimpled and laughed at him.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," grunted Uncle Jabez. "Ye wanter watch out for that there
+money. Business is onsartain. Ain't no knowin' when everything'll go to
+pot <i>here</i>. I never see the times so hard."</p>
+
+<p>But Ruth was not much disturbed by such talk. Uncle Jabez had been
+prophesying disaster ever since she had known him.</p>
+
+<p>Maggie welcomed Ruth cordially, as well as Ben. Maggie was still the
+puzzling combination of characteristics that she had seemed to Ruth from
+the first. She was willing to work, and was kind to Aunt Alvirah; but
+she always withdrew into herself if anybody tried to talk much to her.</p>
+
+<p>The others at the Red Mill had become used to the girl's reticence; but
+to Ruth it remained just as tantalizing. She had the feeling that Maggie
+was by no means in her right environment.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't she ever write letters?" Ruth asked Aunt Alvirah. "Doesn't she
+ever have a visitor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, bless ye, my pretty! I don't know as she writes much," Aunt
+Alvirah said, as she moved about the kitchen in her old slow fashion.
+"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones! Well Ruthie, she reads a lot. She's all
+for books, I guess, like you be. But she don't never talk much. And a
+visitor? Why, come to think on't, she did have one visitor."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so?" cried the curious Ruth. "Let's hear about it. I feel
+gossipy, Aunt Alvirah," and she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>She knew that Maggie was away from the house, and they were alone. She
+could trust Aunt Alvirah to say nothing to the girl regarding her
+queries.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my pretty," the old woman said, "she did have one visitor. Another
+gal come to see her the very week you went away to college, Ruthie."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that so? Who was she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maggie didn't say. I didn't ask her. Ye see, she ain't one ter confide
+in a body," explained Aunt Alvirah, shaking her head and lowering
+herself into her rocking chair. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"</p>
+
+<p>"But didn't you see this visitor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, Ruthie. I seen her. It was funny, too," Aunt Alvirah said,
+shaking her head. "I meant to write to you about it; then I forgot.</p>
+
+<p>"I hears somebody knock on the door one day, and I opened the door and
+there I declare stood Maggie herself. Or, I thought 'twas her."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" gasped Ruth, very much interested.</p>
+
+<p>"She looked a sight like her," said Aunt Alvirah, laughing to herself at
+the remembrance. "Yet I knowed Maggie had gone upstairs to make the
+beds, and this here girl who had knocked on the door was all dressed
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"'Why, Maggie!' says I. And she says, kinder tart-like:</p>
+
+<p>"'I ain't Maggie. But I want to see her.'</p>
+
+<p>"So I axed her in; but she wouldn't come. I seen then maybe she was a
+little younger than Maggie is. Howsomever I called to Maggie, and she
+went out, and the two of 'em walked up and down the road for an hour.
+The other gal never come in. And I seen her start back toward Cheslow.
+Maggie never said no word about her from that day to this.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what I think about it, Ruthie?" concluded Aunt Alvirah.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Aunt Alvirah," said the girl of the Red Mill, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that was Maggie's sister. Maybe she works out for somebody in
+Cheslow."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth merely nodded. She did not think much of that phase of the matter.
+What she was really puzzling over was her memory of the girl she and
+Helen had interviewed on the island in Lake Remona before the Christmas
+holidays.</p>
+
+<p>That girl had looked very much like Maggie, too!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>MANY THINGS HAPPEN</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was, of course, hard to tell by merely seeing them taken what the
+pictures about the old Red Mill would be like; but Ruth and Helen both
+acted in them as "extras" and were greatly excited over the film, one
+may be sure.</p>
+
+<p>The director, not the cross Mr. Grimes this time, assured Ruth that he
+was confident "Crossed Wires" would make good on the screen. Hazel Gray
+played the lead in the picture, as she had in "The Heart of a School
+Girl," and Ruth and Helen were glad to meet the bright little screen
+actress again.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Gray seemed to have forgotten all about Tom Cameron and Ruth, for
+some reason, felt glad. She ventured to ask Helen if her twin was still
+as enamored of the young actress as he had seemed to be the year before.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no," Helen said thoughtfully. "You know how it is with boys; they
+have one craze after another, Ruthie."</p>
+
+<p>"No. Do they?" asked the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Tom made a collection of the photographs of a slap-stick comedian
+at first. Then he decorated his room at Seven Oaks with all the pictures
+he could find of Miss Gray. Now, when I was over there with father the
+other day, what do you suppose is his chief decoration on his room
+walls?"</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't the least idea," Ruth confessed.</p>
+
+<p>"Great, ugly, brutal boxers! Prize-fighters! Awful pictures, Ruth! I
+suppose next he will make a collection of the photographs of burglars!"
+and Helen laughed.</p>
+
+<p>The chums were whisked back to Ardmore, having been absent five days.
+They were so well prepared in their recitations, however, that they did
+not fall behind in any particular. Indeed, these two bright-minded girls
+found it not difficult to keep up with their classes.</p>
+
+<p>Even Jennie Stone, leisure loving as she naturally was, had no real
+difficulty in being well to the front in her studies. And she had become
+one of the most faithful of devotees of gymnastic practice.</p>
+
+<p>Ardmore's second basket ball five pushed the first team hard; and Jennie
+Stone was on the second five. As the spring training for the boats
+opened she, as well as Ruth and Helen, tried for the freshmen
+eight-oared shell. All three won places in that crew.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie was still somewhat over-weight. But the instructor put her at bow
+and her weight counted there. Ruth was stroke and Helen Number 2. As
+practice went on it was proved that the freshman crew was a very well
+balanced one.</p>
+
+<p>They more than once "bumped" the sophomore shell in trial races, and
+once came very near to catching the junior eight. The seniors and
+juniors began now to pay more attention to the freshman class;
+especially to those members who showed well in athletics.</p>
+
+<p>Because of their characters and their class standing, several of the
+instructors besides Miss Cullam, the mathematics teacher, were the
+friends of the Briarwoods. Miss Cullam had shown a warm appreciation of
+Ruth Fielding's character all through the year. Not that Ruth was a
+prize pupil in Miss Cullam's study, for she was not. Mathematics was the
+one study it was hard for Ruth to interest herself in. But when the girl
+of the Red Mill had a hard thing to do, she always put her whole mind to
+it; and, therefore, she made a good mark in mathematics in spite of her
+distaste for the study.</p>
+
+<p>"You are doing well, Miss Fielding," Miss Cullam declared. "Better than
+I expected. I have no doubt that you will pass well in the year's
+examinations."</p>
+
+<p>"And you won't be afraid that I'll crib the answers, Miss Cullam?" Ruth
+asked, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! don't repeat gossip," Miss Cullam said smiling, however, rather
+ruefully. "Even when the gossip emanates from an old cross-patch of a
+teacher who gets nervous and worries about improbabilities. No. I do not
+believe any of my girls would take advantage of the examination papers.
+Yet, I would give a good deal to know just where those papers and that
+vase went."</p>
+
+<p>"Has nothing ever been heard from Miss Rolff since she left Ardmore?"
+Ruth asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No. Not a word. And it is hard on the sororities, too. Heretofore, the
+girls have enjoyed the benefits of the associations for three years.
+<i>You</i>, I am sure, Ruth, would have been invited by this time to join one
+of the sororities."</p>
+
+<p>"And I should dearly love to," sighed Ruth. "The Kappa Alpha. It looks
+good to me. But there are other things in college&mdash;and out of it, too.
+Oh see, Miss Cullam! Here is what I wanted to show you," and the girl of
+the Red Mill brought forth a large envelope from her handbag.</p>
+
+<p>They were talking together in the library on this occasion, it being a
+Saturday afternoon when there was nothing particular to take up either
+the teacher's time or the pupil's. Ruth emptied the envelope on the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"See these photographs? They are stills taken in connection with my new
+scenario. I want you to see just how lovely a place the old Red Mill,
+where I live, is."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Cullam adjusted her eyeglasses with a smile, and picked up the
+topmost picture which Mr. Hammond had sent to Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"That's dear old Aunt Alvirah herself feeding the chickens. She doesn't
+know that we took that picture of her. If I had said 'photograph' to the
+dear old creature, she would have been determined to put on her best bib
+and tucker!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the back yard. Isn't it, dear? Who is that on the porch?"
+asked Miss Cullam.</p>
+
+<p>"On the porch? Why, <i>is</i> anybody on the porch? I don't remember that."</p>
+
+<p>Ruth stooped to peer closer at the unmounted photograph in the teacher's
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! there <i>is</i> somebody standing there," she murmured. "You can see
+the head and shoulders just as plain&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And the face," said Miss Cullam, with strange eagerness.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know!" cried Ruth, and she laughed heartily. "Of course. That's
+Maggie."</p>
+
+<p>"Maggie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The girl who helps Aunt Alvirah. And she's quite an interesting
+character, Miss Cullam. I'll tell you about her some day."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" said Miss Cullam, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, here is the front of the old house&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Allow me to keep this picture for a little while, will you, Miss
+Fielding?" broke in the teacher, still staring at the clearly exposed
+face of Maggie on the porch.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, certainly," responded the girl, curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to show this girl's face to somebody else. She seems very
+familiar to me," the mathematics teacher said.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>CAN IT BE A CLUE?</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ruth gave the matter of Maggie's photograph very little thought. Not at
+that time, at least. She merely handed the print over to Miss Cullam and
+forgot all about it.</p>
+
+<p>These were busy days, both in the classroom and out of it. The warmth of
+late spring was in the air; every girl who felt at all the blood
+coursing in her veins, tried to be out of doors.</p>
+
+<p>The whole college was eager regarding the coming boat races. Ardmore was
+to try out her first eight-oared crew with three of several colleges,
+and two of the trials would be held upon Lake Remona.</p>
+
+<p>There were local races between the class crews every Saturday afternoon.
+Jennie Stone had to choose between basket ball and rowing, for there
+were Saturdays when both sports were in ascendency.</p>
+
+<p>"No use. I can't be in two places at once," declared Jennie, regretfully
+resigning from the basketball team.</p>
+
+<p>"No, honey," said Helen. "You're not big enough for that now. A few
+months ago you might have played basket ball and sent your shadow to
+pull an oar with us. See what it means to get thin."</p>
+
+<p>"My! I feel like another girl," said the fleshy one ecstatically. "What
+do you suppose my father will say to me in June?"</p>
+
+<p>"He'll say," suggested Helen, giggling, "'you took so much away, why do
+you bring so little back from college?'"</p>
+
+<p>It was several days before Miss Cullam returned to Ruth the picture she
+had borrowed; and when she did she made a statement regarding it that
+very much astonished the girl of the Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you now, my dear; why I wished to keep the photograph," the
+teacher said. "I showed it to Dr. Milroth and to several of the other
+members of the faculty."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?" responded Ruth, quite puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of them agree with me. Dr. Milroth does not. Nevertheless, I wish
+you would tell me all about this Maggie who works for your aunt&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Maggie!" gasped Ruth. "What do you mean, Miss Cullam? Was it because
+her face is in the picture that you borrowed it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear. I think, as do some of the other instructors, that Maggie
+looks very much like the Miss Rolff who last year occupied the room you
+have and who left us so strangely before the close of the semester."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Cullam!"</p>
+
+<p>"Foolish, am I?" laughed the teacher. "Well, I suppose so. You know all
+about Maggie, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" gasped Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>Eagerly she explained to the mathematics teacher how the strange girl
+had appeared at the Red Mill and why she had remained there. Miss Cullam
+was no less excited than Ruth when she heard these particulars.</p>
+
+<p>"I must tell Dr. Milroth this," Miss Cullam declared. "Say nothing about
+it, Ruth Fielding. And she says her name is 'Maggie'? Of course!
+Margaret Rolff. I believe that is who she is."</p>
+
+<p>"But to go out to housework," Ruth said doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't matter. We must learn more about this Maggie. Say nothing
+until I have spoken to Dr. Milroth again."</p>
+
+<p>But if this was a clue to the identity and where-abouts of the girl who
+had left Ardmore so abruptly the year before, Ruth learned something the
+very next day that, unfortunately, put it quite beyond her ability to
+discover further details in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>A letter arrived from Aunt Alvirah and after reading it once through
+Ruth hurried away to Miss Cullam with the surprising news it contained.</p>
+
+<p>Maggie had left the Red Mill. Without any explanation save that she had
+been sent for and must go, the strange girl had left Aunt Alvirah and
+Uncle Jabez, and they did not know her destination. Ben, the hired man,
+had driven her to the Cheslow railway station and she had taken an
+eastbound train. Otherwise, nothing was known of the strange girl's
+movements.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear!" cried Miss Cullam. "I am certain, then, that she is
+Margaret Rolff. Even Dr. Milroth has come to agree that it may be that
+strange girl. I hoped there was a chance of learning what really became
+of those missing examination papers&mdash;and, of course, the vase. But how
+can we discover what became of them if the girl has disappeared again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's a very strange thing, I am sure," Ruth admitted. "Of course,
+I'll write the folks at the Red Mill that if Maggie&mdash;or whatever her
+real name is&mdash;ever turns up there again, they must let me know at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, do," begged the teacher. "Now that the subject has come up again I
+feel more disturbed than ever over those papers. <i>Were</i> they lost, or
+weren't they? My dear Ruth! you don't know how I feel about that
+mystery. All these girls whom I think so highly of, are still under
+suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope nothing like that will happen this year, dear Miss Cullam," Ruth
+said warmly. "I feel that we freshmen all want to pass our examinations
+honestly&mdash;or not at all."</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly what I believe about the other girls," groaned the
+teacher. "But the sorority members admit that Margaret Rolff was
+instructed to remove the Egyptian vase from the library as a part of the
+stunt she was expected to do during the initiation ceremonies.</p>
+
+<p>"And in that vase were my papers. Of course, the girls did not know the
+examination papers were there before the vase was taken. <i>But what
+became of them afterward?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Miss Cullam," Ruth said thoughtfully, "of course they must still
+be in the vase."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. Then, perhaps not," murmured the teacher. "Who knows?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SQUALL</h3>
+
+
+<p>The first college eight went off to Gillings, and, as it was only a few
+miles by rail, half the student body, at least, went to root for the
+crew. The Ardmore boat was beaten.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! To come home plucked in such a disgusting way," groaned
+Helen, who, with Jennie, as well as Ruth, was among the disgruntled and
+disappointed girls who had gone to see the race. "It is awful."</p>
+
+<p>"It's taught them a lesson, I wager," Ruth said practically. "We have
+all been rowing in still water. The river at Gillings is rough, and the
+local eight was used to it. I say, girls!"</p>
+
+<p>"Say it," said Jennie, gruffly. "It can't be anything that will hurt us
+after what we've seen to-day. Three whole boatlengths ahead!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," broke in Helen. "The races with Hampton and Beardsley will
+be on our own lake."</p>
+
+<p>"And if there is a flutter of wind, our first eight will be beaten
+again," from Jennie Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, girls!" Ruth cried. "I heard the coach tell them that hereafter
+she was going to make them row if there was a hurricane. And that's what
+<i>we</i> must do."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Who</i> must do, Ruthie? What do you mean?" asked Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"The freshman eight."</p>
+
+<p>"E-lu-ci-date," drawled Jennie.</p>
+
+<p>"We must learn to handle our shell in rough water. If there is a breath
+of wind stirring we mustn't beat it to land," said Ruth, vigorously.
+"Let's learn to handle our shell in really rough water."</p>
+
+<p>"Sounds reasonable," admitted Jennie. "Shall we all take out accident
+policies?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. All learn to swim. That's the wisest course," laughed Ruth.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't it the <i>trewth</i>?" agreed Jennie, making a face. "I'm not much of
+a swimmest in fresh water. But I never could sink."</p>
+
+<p>The freshmen with the chums in the eight-oared shell proved to be all
+fair swimmers. And that crew was not the only one that redoubled its
+practice after the disastrous race at Gillings College.</p>
+
+<p>Each class crew did its very best. The coaches were extremely stern with
+the girls. Ardmore had a reputation for turning out champion crews, and
+the year before, on their own water, the Ardmore eight had beaten
+Gillings emphatically.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"But if we can win races only on our own course," <i>The Jasper</i>, the
+Ardmore College paper declared, "what is the use of supporting an
+athletic association and four perfectly useless crews?"</p></div>
+
+<p>They had all been so sure of victory over Gillings&mdash;both the student
+body and the faculty&mdash;that the disgrace of their beating cut all the
+deeper.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is fortunate," said the same stern commenter, "that our races
+with Hampton, and again with Beardsley, will be on Lake Remona. At
+least, our crew knows the water here&mdash;on a perfectly calm day, at
+any rate."</p></div>
+
+<p>"I see Merry Dexter's fine Italian hand in <i>that</i>," Ruth declared, when
+she and her chums read the criticism of the chief college eight. "And if
+it is true of the senior shell, how much more so of our own? We must be
+ready to risk a little something for the sake of pulling a good race."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" murmured Helen. "When we're away off there in the middle of
+the course between the landing and Bliss Island, for instance, and a
+squall threatens, it is going to take pluck, my dear, to keep us all
+steady."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what!" exclaimed Jennie Stone.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell it, if you're sure it won't hurt us," laughed Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's get the coach to have us circle the island when we're out in
+practice. It's always a little rough off both ends of Bliss Island, and
+we should get used to rough water before our final home races."</p>
+
+<p>For, before the season was over, the four Ardmore eights would compete,
+and that race was the one which the three under-classes particularly
+trained for.</p>
+
+<p>Jennie's suggestion sounded practical to her chums; so there were three
+already agreed when it was broached to the freshmen eight. The coach
+thought well of it, too; for there was always a motor boat supposed to
+be in sight of the shells when they were out at practice.</p>
+
+<p>This was in April, and, in Ardmore's latitude, a very uncertain month
+April is&mdash;a time of showers and smiles, calms and uncertain gales.
+Nevertheless, so thoroughly were the freshmen eight devoted to practice
+that it had to be a pretty black looking afternoon, indeed, that kept
+them from stepping into their boat.</p>
+
+<p>The boatkeeper was a weather-wise old man, who had guarded the Ardmore
+girls against disaster on the lake for a decade. Being so well used to
+reading the signs he never let the boats out when he considered the
+weather threatening in any measure.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon, when there had been a call passed for the freshmen eight
+to gather at the boathouse immediately after recitations, Johnnie, as
+the boatman was called, had been called away from his post. Only a green
+assistant was there to look after the boats, and he was much too bashful
+to "look after the girls," as Jennie, giggling, observed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why they don't put blinders on that young man," she said.
+"Whenever he has to look at one of us girls his freckles light up as
+though there was an electric bulb behind each individual one."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Heavy! Behave!" murmured Helen, yet amused, too, by the bashfulness
+of the assistant.</p>
+
+<p>"We <i>are</i> a sight, I admit," went on Jennie. "Everything in the shell,
+girls? Now! up with it. Come on, little Trix," she added to the
+coxswain. "Don't get your tiller-lines snarled, and bring your
+'nose-warmer'"&mdash;by which inelegant term she referred to the megaphone
+which, when they were really trying for speed was strapped to the
+coxswain's head.</p>
+
+<p>The eight oarswomen picked the light shell up, shoulder high, and
+marched down the platform to the float. Taking their cue from the
+tam-o'-shanters the seniors had made them wear early in their college
+experience, the freshmen eight wore light blue bandannas wound around
+their heads, with the corners sticking up like rabbit-ears, blue
+blouses, short skirts over bloomers, and blue stockings with white
+shoes. Their appearance was exceedingly natty.</p>
+
+<p>"If we don't win in the races, we'll be worth looking at," Helen once
+said pridefully.</p>
+
+<p>The assistant boatkeeper remained at a distance and said not a word to
+them, although there was a bank of black cloud upon the western horizon
+into which the sun would plunge after a time.</p>
+
+<p>"We're the first out," cried one of the girls. "There isn't another boat
+on the lake."</p>
+
+<p>"Wrong, Sally," Ruth Fielding said. "I just saw a boat disappear behind
+Bliss Island."</p>
+
+<p>"Not one of <i>ours</i>?" cried Jennie, looking about as they lowered the
+shell into the water.</p>
+
+<p>"No. It was a skiff. Came from the other side, I guess. Or perhaps it
+came up the river from the railroad bridge."</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Trix Davenport, the coxswain, "are we going to ask that boy
+to get out the launch and follow us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, goodness me! No," said Helen, with assurance. "We don't want him
+tagging us. Do we, girls?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps it might be better," Ruth said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>But the chorus of the other girls cried her down. Besides, she did not
+believe there was any danger. Of course, a rowing shell is an uncertain
+thing; but she had never yet seen an accident on the lake.</p>
+
+<p>All stepped in, adjusted their oars, and the coxswain pushed off. Having
+adjusted the rudder-lines, Trix affixed the megaphone, and lifted her
+hand. The eight strained forward, and the coxswain began to beat time.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth set the pace in a long, swinging stroke, and the other seven fell
+into time. The shell shot out from the landing just as the coach
+appeared around the corner of Dare Hall, on her way down from the
+gymnasium. She gave one glance at the sky, and then started to run.</p>
+
+<p>"Those foolish girls!" she exclaimed. "Where's Johnny?"</p>
+
+<p>The freshman eight was far out upon the lake when she reached the
+boathouse, and she quickly saw that the old boatkeeper was not in sight.
+She tried to signal the crew of the shell to return; but the girls in
+the frail craft were too interested in their practice to look back
+toward the shore. Indeed, in a very few minutes, they swept through the
+slightly rough water at the eastern end of the island and disappeared
+behind it. The coach, Miss Mallory, beckoned the assistant boatman and
+ordered out the launch. But there was something wrong with the engine,
+and he lost some time before getting the craft started.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the cloudbank was rolling up from the west. The sun suddenly
+was quenched. A breath of cold wind swept down the lake and fretted the
+tiny waves. They sprang up in retaliation and slapped the bow of the
+launch, which finally got under its sputtering way.</p>
+
+<p>Then a squall of wind swooped down and Miss Mallory was almost swept off
+her feet. The boatman steered carefully, but the engine was not yet
+working in good fashion. The coach made a mistake, too, in directing the
+launch. Instead of starting directly up the lake, and rounding the head
+of the island to meet the freshman shell, she ordered the boatman to
+trail the boat that had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The launch was some time in beating around the lower end of the island.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>TREASURE HUNTING</h3>
+
+
+<p>The freshmen shell was well around the end of Bliss Island and behind
+it, before the squall broke. Pulling into the rising gale as they were
+and the water being always a little rough here, at first none of Ruth
+Fielding's associates in the craft realized that there was the least
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>They were well off shore, for near the island the water was shallow and
+there were rocks. These rowing shells are made so lightly that a mere
+scraping of the keel over a sunken boulder would probably completely
+wreck the craft, and well the girls knew this.</p>
+
+<p>Trix Davenport steered well out from the dangerous shallows. "Pull away,
+girls!" she shouted through her megaphone. "It's going to blow."</p>
+
+<p>And just then the real squall swept down upon them. Ruth, although
+setting a good, long stroke, found of a sudden that the shell was
+scarcely moving ahead. The wind was so strong that they were only
+holding their own against it.</p>
+
+<p>"Pull!" shouted the coxswain again.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth bent forward, braced her feet firmly and drove the long oar-blade
+deep into the jumping little waves. Those waves quickly became larger
+and "jumpier." A white wreath formed upon their crests. The shell in a
+very few seconds was in the midst of white water.</p>
+
+<p>Once with Uncle Jabez, and in a heavy punt, the girl of the Red Mill had
+been caught in the rapids of the Lumano below the mill, and had fought
+with skill and courage to help save the boat. This effort was soon to be
+as great&mdash;and she realized it.</p>
+
+<p>She set a pace that drove the shell on in the teeth of the squall; but
+the boat shivered with every stroke. It was as though they were trying
+to push the narrow, frail little shell into a solid wall.</p>
+
+<p>In pulling her oar Ruth scarcely ever raised her eyes to a level with
+the coxswain's face; but when she chanced to, she saw that Trix was
+pallid and her eyes were clouded with fear.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth hoped none of the other girls saw that mask of dread which the
+situation had forced upon their little coxswain. She wanted to cry out
+to Trix&mdash;to warn her to hide her emotion. But she had no breath to spare
+for this.</p>
+
+<p>Every ounce of breath and of muscle she owned, Ruth put into her stroke.
+She felt the rhythmic spring of the craft, and knew that her mates were
+keeping well up with her. They were doing their part bravely, even
+though they might be frightened.</p>
+
+<p>And then, suddenly and fortunately, the freshman craft found a sheltered
+bit of water. A high shoulder of the hilly island broke the force of the
+wind.</p>
+
+<p>"Ashore! Put us ashore!" Ruth managed to gasp so that Trix heard her.</p>
+
+<p>"We&mdash;we'll wreck the shell!" complained Trix. "It's so shallow."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll not drown in shallow water," ejaculated Ruth, expelling the words
+between strokes.</p>
+
+<p>The coxswain shot them shoreward. She caught a glimpse of another boat
+pulled up on the beach&mdash;the skiff they had earlier seen rounding the
+point of the island.</p>
+
+<p>In thirty seconds they were safe. The rain began to pour down upon them
+in a brisk torrent. But that did not matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather be half drowned in the rain than wholly drowned in the lake!"
+Jennie Stone declared, as they scrambled out into the shallow water,
+more than ankle deep, and lifted the treacherous shell out of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness! what a near one that was!" Helen declared.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth looked at the skiff drawn up on the shore, and then up into the
+grove of trees.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder where the girl is who was in that boat?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it a girl?" asked Helen, with interest.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. She must have found shelter somewhere from this rain. Come on! We
+may be able to keep reasonably dry up there in the woods."</p>
+
+<p>The other girls followed Ruth, for she was naturally their leader. The
+rain continued to beat down upon them; but before they reached the
+opening in which was situated the Stone Face, Ruth spied an evergreen,
+the drooping branches of which offered them reasonable shelter.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on into the green tent, girls!" shouted Jennie Stone, plunging
+into the dimly lighted circle under the tree. "Oh! Goodness! What's
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"A dog!"</p>
+
+<p>"A cow! and I'm afraid of co-o-ows!" wailed Sally Blanchard, seizing
+upon Ruth as the nearest savior.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be silly, child," vouchsafed Helen, who had followed Jennie. "How
+would a cow come upon this island&mdash;a mile from shore?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or a dog?" laughed Ruth. "What <i>did</i> you see, Jennie Stone?"</p>
+
+<p>"She just tried to fool us," Helen declared.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't either," the stout girl said warmly. "Something ran out at the
+far side as I came in."</p>
+
+<p>"An animal?" gasped Trix Davenport.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," returned Jennie Stone, "it certainly wasn't a vegetable. At
+least, I never saw a vegetable run as fast as that thing did."</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't try to scare us to death, Heavy," complained Helen. "Of
+course it must have been the girl Ruth said came ashore in that skiff."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I didn't think of her," admitted Jennie. "But she ran like a
+ferret. I'd like to know who she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Remember the girl we found over here that night in the snowstorm?"
+whispered Helen to Ruth. "The girl who looked like that Maggie?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't I!" exclaimed Ruth, shaking her head.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you suppose <i>she</i> was after&mdash;and what is this one over here on
+the island for?" pursued Helen, languidly.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth made no reply, but her cheeks flushed and her eyes grew brighter.
+She stooped and peered out at the decreasing rainfall. There was a path
+leading straight toward the Stone Face. Had this girl whom Jennie had
+seen gone in that direction?</p>
+
+<p>The other members of the freshman crew were so inordinately busy
+chattering and laughing and telling jokes and stories that nobody for
+the moment noticed Ruth Fielding, who stole out from the covert through
+the fast slackening rainfall without saying a word. Lightly running over
+the crest of the hill, she came in sight of the huge boulder at which
+she and Helen had experienced their never-to-be-forgotten adventure the
+winter before.</p>
+
+<p>She saw nobody at the foot of the boulder, but she pressed on to the
+edge of the grove to make sure. And then she saw that somebody had
+certainly and very recently been at work near the boulder.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pickaxe&mdash;perhaps the very one she had seen there in the
+winter&mdash;and a shovel. Some attempt had been made to dig over the
+gravelly soil for some yards from the foot of the boulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness me! what can this mean?" thought the girl of the Red Mill.
+"Something must be buried here! Treasure hunters! Fancy!" and she
+laughed a little uncertainly. "Can somebody believe that this is one of
+the hiding places of Captain Kidd's gold? Who ever heard the like?"</p>
+
+<p>The rain ceased falling. There was a tooting of a horn down behind the
+island. The launch had come in sight of the shell and Miss Mallory was
+trying to signal the girls to return to the shore.</p>
+
+<p>But Ruth did not go back. She heard the girls shout for her, but instead
+of complying she went straight across to the Stone Face and picked up
+the heavy pickaxe.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe whoever has been digging has found anything yet," she
+told herself. "No. She's been here before&mdash;for, of course, it is that
+girl. She couldn't have dug all this over in a few minutes. No. She has
+been here and dug unsuccessfully. Then she has come back to-day for
+another attempt at&mdash;at the treasure, shall we call it? Well!"</p>
+
+<p>There was already an excavation more than a foot in depth and several
+yards in circumference. Whatever it was the strange girl had been after
+she was not quite sure of its burial place.</p>
+
+<p>In the winter when she had essayed to dig for the hidden thing there had
+been too much frost in the ground. Besides, doubtless Ruth and Helen's
+inquisitiveness had frightened the strange girl away. Now she was back
+again&mdash;somewhere now on Bliss Island. She had not accomplished her
+purpose as yet. Ruth smote the hard ground at her feet with all her
+strength. The pick sunk to its helve in the earth, now softened by the
+spring rain.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I hit something!" she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>In all probability she would not have continued to dig had this success
+not met her at the beginning. Really, her swinging of the pickaxe had
+been idly done. But the steel rang sharply on something. She raised the
+pick and used it thereafter more cautiously. There certainly was
+something below the surface&mdash;not very far down&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Dropping the pickaxe, Ruth gained possession of the shovel and threw
+aside the loose earth. Yes! there was some object hidden there&mdash;some
+"treasure" which she desired to see.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments, becoming impatient of the shovel, she cast it aside
+and stooping, with her feet planted firmly in the muddy earth, she
+groped in the hole with both hands.</p>
+
+<p>Before she dragged the object into sight Ruth Fielding was positive by
+its shape and the feel of it, of the nature of the object. As she rose
+up at last, firmly grasping the object, a sharp voice said behind her:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now that you've interfered and found it, suppose you hand it over
+to me. You haven't any business with that vase, you know!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE END OF A PERFECT YEAR</h3>
+
+
+<p>Helen Cameron came running over the hill and down the sloppy path
+through the grove. When she reached the Stone Face where Ruth and the
+strange girl were standing, she cried:</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>is</i> the matter with you, Ruthie Fielding? Come on over to the
+boat. Miss Mallory sent me after you.... Why! who's this?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you remember this girl, Helen?" asked Ruth, seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why! it's the girl who was camping in the snow, isn't it?" said Helen,
+curiously eyeing the stranger. "How-do?"</p>
+
+<p>But the other was not pleased to allow the situation to develop into
+merely a well-bred meeting of three former acquaintances. She did not
+vouchsafe Helen a glance, but said, directing her words toward Ruth:</p>
+
+<p>"I want that vase. It doesn't belong to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness, Ruthie!" put in her chum, for the first time seeing the
+object in Ruth's hands. "What is that thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I just dug it up here. It is the Egyptian vase taken from the Ardmore
+library last year I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"It doesn't matter where it came from. I want it," cried the strange
+girl, and she stepped forward quickly as though to seize the muddy vase.</p>
+
+<p>But Helen sprang forward and pushed her back.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on! I guess if Ruth's got it, you'll have to wait and prove
+property," said Helen. "How about it, Ruth?"</p>
+
+<p>"She must tell us all about it," said Ruth, firmly. "Perhaps I may let
+her have it&mdash;if she tells us the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"The truth!" exclaimed Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't tell you a thing!" cried the strange girl. "You haven't any
+right to that vase."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor have you," Ruth told her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Nor has Margaret Rolff," went on Ruth, coolly. "I take it you are
+acting for her, aren't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," cried Helen, beginning to understand. "That is the girl who left
+Ardmore last year?"</p>
+
+<p>"And came to the Red Mill after spending the summer at a camp on the
+Lumano and helped Aunt Alvirah," Ruth added, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I never! Not Maggie?" demanded Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I am right," Ruth said quietly. "Am I not?" to the other girl.
+"Our Maggie is Margaret Rolff, and <i>you</i> must be her sister. At least,
+you look enough like her to be some relative."</p>
+
+<p>The other made a gesture of resignation and dropped her hands. "I might
+as well confess it," she admitted. "You are Ruth Fielding, and Margy
+told me long ago you might be trusted."</p>
+
+<p>"And this is my particular friend, Helen Cameron," Ruth said, "who is to
+be fully trusted, too."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose so," said the girl. "My name is Betty. I'm Margy's younger
+sister. Poor Margy. She never was very strong. I mean that she was
+always giving in to other people&mdash;was easily confused.</p>
+
+<p>"She's bright enough, you know," pursued the other girl, warmly; "but
+she is nervous and easily put out. What those girls did to her last year
+at this college was a shame!"</p>
+
+<p>Another hail from behind the hill warned Ruth that she must attend Miss
+Mallory's command or there would be trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot wait to hear it all, Miss&mdash;Betty, did you say your name was?
+Where are you staying?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have been working in Greenburg all winter. We're poor girls and have
+no parents. Margy is with me now," said the girl. "And I want that vase.
+I want it for Margy. She will never be satisfied until she can give it
+back to the dean of the college herself and explain how she came to hide
+it, and then forgot where she hid the vase."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me where to find you in Greenburg," said Ruth, hastily. "No! I'll
+not let you have the vase now. I will not show it to anybody else,
+however, and we'll come over to town this evening and bring it with us,
+and talk with Maggie."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Fielding&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That must satisfy you," said Ruth, firmly; and Betty Rolff had to be
+satisfied with this promise. She told the chums where she and Margaret
+were staying and then Ruth and Helen ran back to their friends, Ruth
+concealing the hastily wiped silver vase under the loose front of her
+blouse.</p>
+
+<p>"Goodness!" she said to Helen, "I hope nobody will see it. Do I bulge
+<i>much</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>There was so much excitement among the crew of the freshman eight,
+however, that Ruth's treasure-trove was not discovered. Under Miss
+Mallory's direction they launched the shell again, climbed aboard, and
+made a safe passage to the dock.</p>
+
+<p>A notice was put up that very evening, however, to the effect that none
+of the racing shells were to be taken out unless the launch was manned
+and went with the frailer craft.</p>
+
+<p>The students of Ardmore were allowed to leave the college grounds in the
+evening if they were properly chaperoned. And when Ruth went to Miss
+Cullam and explained a little of what was afoot, the mathematics
+instructor was only too glad to act in the capacity of chaperon.</p>
+
+<p>Helen had telephoned for a car, and the three rode down to Greenburg
+immediately after dinner. Ruth carried the recovered vase, just as she
+had dug it out of the hole by the Stone Face on Bliss Island, wrapped in
+a paper. She had not had time either to clean it or to examine it more
+thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>They easily found the boarding house, the address of which Betty Rolff
+had given to Ruth. It was a respectable place, but was far from
+sumptuous. It was evident, as Ruth had been previously informed, that
+the Rolff girls were not very well off in this world's goods.</p>
+
+<p>When the visitors climbed to the second floor bedroom where the sisters
+were lodged, Miss Cullam took the lead, walked straight in, seized
+Margaret Rolff in her arms and implanted a kiss upon the pale cheek of
+the girl who had for so many months been Aunt Alvirah's assistant at the
+Red Mill.</p>
+
+<p>"You poor girl!" said the mathematics teacher. "What you must have been
+through! Now, I am delighted to see you again, and you must tell me all
+about it&mdash;how you came to take the vase, and bury it, and all."</p>
+
+<p>There was a good deal of talk on both sides before all this that Miss
+Cullam asked was explained. But the facts were made clear at last.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, Margaret Rolff had always been very much afraid of
+the dark and of being alone at night. But she wanted so much to become a
+member of the Kappa Alpha that she did not try to cry off when she
+received her instructions as a candidate for membership in that
+sorority.</p>
+
+<p>The first part of her initiation test was easy enough. She secured the
+Egyptian vase from the reception room of the library without being
+apprehended. Then she was rowed across the lake to the island by several
+black-robed and hooded figures whom she did not know.</p>
+
+<p>Left with a flashlight and a spade to bury the stolen vase within a
+short distance of the Stone Face, Margaret had tried her best to control
+her nerves and do as she was commanded. But she could never really
+remember whether she had buried the vase or not. The idea had been for
+her to bury it, and then another candidate would be made to search for
+it the next night.</p>
+
+<p>Everything about the initiation went wrong, however, because Margaret
+lost her nerve. The members of the sorority could not find the place
+where the candidate had really dug her hole and buried the vase. And
+Margaret had fled in a panic from the college before further inquiry
+could be made.</p>
+
+<p>"All this time," explained the practical sister, Betty, "Margy has
+wanted to know if she did bury the vase or not. She felt she had stolen
+from the college and could be punished for it. I think those girls that
+set her the task should be punished."</p>
+
+<p>"They have been," said Miss Cullam, grimly. "Yet, it was really a
+misunderstanding all around. Now, let me see that vase, Ruth Fielding."</p>
+
+<p>The latter was glad to do this. The teacher opened the package and
+immediately turned the vase upside down and shook it. There was
+evidently something inside, and after some work with the handiest of all
+feminine tools, a hatpin, a soggy mass of paper was dislodged from the
+Egyptian vase.</p>
+
+<p>"The missing examination papers, girls!" sighed Miss Cullam, with much
+satisfaction. "There, Margaret! You may have the vase and return it to
+Dr. Milroth to-morrow if you like. And I hope you will return to the
+college and be with us next year.</p>
+
+<p>"I have what <i>I</i> am after and feel more contented in my mind than I have
+for some months. Dear me, girls! you don't at all understand what a
+number of trials and perplexities are heaped upon the minds of us poor
+teachers."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>There were many other incidents occurring at Ardmore before the end of
+what Helen Cameron declared was a "perfect year." But nothing created
+more interest than the recovery of the Egyptian vase with the missing
+examination papers, unless it was the boat races. Though to a few,
+perhaps, certain plans for the coming summer overtopped even these in
+importance. These were such a very great secret that the chums scarcely
+dared discuss them.</p>
+
+<p>But those readers who may so desire will read about the happenings that
+developed from these plans of Ruth and her friends in the subsequent
+volume of the series, entitled, "Ruth Fielding in the Saddle; or,
+College Girls in the Land of Gold."</p>
+
+<p>First of the races was that with the first eight of Beardsley; and the
+crew of Ardmore won. Then came the trial between Ardmore and Hampton
+College, and the former won that as well.</p>
+
+<p>Ardmore was in high fettle at that. <i>The Jasper</i> was quite as
+enthusiastically complimentary now as it had been critical after the
+race with Gillings, for in winning the race against Hampton College, the
+Ardmore crew had been forced to row through very rough water.</p>
+
+<p>Commencement came in June, and two days before the graduation exercises
+of the senior class, the local aquatic sports were held. The main
+incident of this carnival was the race between the class eights.</p>
+
+<p>The shells were started at twenty-yard intervals, and in the order of
+the classes. The freshman eight, in which rowed Ruth, Helen and Jennie,
+had practised vigorously all these weeks and now they displayed the
+value of their exertions.</p>
+
+<p>Within the first quarter they "bumped" the sophomore eight. This crew
+dropped out of the race immediately and the freshmen spun ahead, Ruth
+setting a wonderfully effective stroke, and little Trix Davenport
+swaying her body in time with the motion of the boat and shouting
+encouragement through her megaphone.</p>
+
+<p>On and on crept the freshman eight until there was barely a hand's
+breadth between the nose of their shell and the stern of the junior
+craft. The crowd along shore cheered the younger girls vociferously, and
+although they did not quite "bump" the juniors before crossing the mile
+line&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"We came so near it there was no fun in it!" declared Jennie Stone,
+delightedly. "Oh, girls! some of us are going to be great rowists after
+a few more years at Ardmore."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me," panted Helen, making the last pun of the term. "It should be
+called <i>Hard</i>-more. I never worked so hard in my life as I have this
+first year at college."</p>
+
+<p>"But it will never hurt us," laughed Ruth, later. "We have got on
+famously."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> have, my dear," interposed Helen. "You stand A, number one in
+classes. And look at that new play of yours&mdash;a big success! Money is
+rolling in on you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Think a little of yourself," proposed Ruth. "Don't you consider your
+time well spent here, my dear chum?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure! It <i>is</i> the end of a perfect year," agreed Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"And think of me&mdash;<i>little</i> me!" cried Jennie Stone, bursting into the
+chums' study at that moment, and in time to hear the last of the
+conversation. "Do you know what's happened, girls?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! What?" demanded the curious Helen.</p>
+
+<p>"I have lost another pound," said the ex-fat girl, in a sepulchral
+voice.</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE END</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_RUTH_FIELDING_SERIES" id="THE_RUTH_FIELDING_SERIES"></a>THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES</h2>
+
+<h3>By ALICE B. EMERSON</h3>
+
+<h4><i>12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors. Price 50 cents per volume.
+Postage 10 cents additional</i>.</h4>
+
+<h4>Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle.<br /> Her
+adventures and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every
+reader.</h4>
+
+<h4>Ruth Fielding is a character that will live in juvenile fiction.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREAT SCENARIO<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AT CAMERON HALL<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING CLEARING HER NAME<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING IN TALKING PICTURES<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AND BABY JUNE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AND HER DOUBLE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREATEST TRIUMPH<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">RUTH FIELDING AND HER CROWNING VICTORY<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<h4>These books may be purchased wherever books are sold</h4>
+
+<h4><i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></h4>
+
+<h4>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, Publishers  New York</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_BARTON_BOOKS_FOR_GIRLS" id="THE_BARTON_BOOKS_FOR_GIRLS"></a>THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS</h2>
+
+<h3>By MAY HOLLIS BARTON</h3>
+
+<h4><i>12mo.  Cloth. Illustrated.  With colored Jacket.</i></h4>
+
+<h4><i>Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional.</i></h4>
+
+<h4><i>May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls who is bound to win
+instant popularity. Her style is somewhat of a reminder of that of
+Louisa M. Alcott, but thoroughly up-to-date in plot and action.
+Clean tales that all the girls will enjoy reading.</i></h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">NELL GRAYSON'S RANCHING DAYS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">HAZEL HOOD'S STRANGE DISCOVERY<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">TWO GIRLS AND A MYSTERY<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">THE GIRLS OF LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">KATE MARTIN'S PROBLEM<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">THE GIRL IN THE TOP FLAT<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">THE SEARCH FOR PEGGY ANN<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">SALLIE'S TEST OF SKILL<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">CHARLOTTE CROSS AND AUNT DEB<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">VIRGINIA'S VENTURE<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<h4><i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></h4>
+
+<h4>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, Publishers   New York</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_BETTY_GORDON_SERIES" id="THE_BETTY_GORDON_SERIES"></a>THE BETTY GORDON SERIES</h2>
+
+<h3>By ALICE B. EMERSON</h3>
+
+<h4>Author of the "<span class="smcap">Ruth Fielding Series</span>"</h4>
+
+<h4><i>12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors. Price 50 cents per volume.
+Postage 10 cents additional.</i></h4>
+
+<h4><i>A new series of stories bound to make this writer more popular than
+ever with her host of girl readers. <br />Every one will want to know Betty
+Gordon, and every one will be sure to love her.</i></h4>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARLS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON ON THE CAMPUS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AND THE HALE TWINS<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AT MYSTERY FARM<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON ON NO-TRAIL ISLAND<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">BETTY GORDON AND THE MYSTERY GIRL<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<h4><i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></h4>
+
+<h4>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, Publishers  New York</h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At College, by Alice B. Emerson
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,6366 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ruth Fielding At College, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding At College
+       or The Missing Examination Papers
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: September 14, 2008 [EBook #26613]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
+from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                        Ruth Fielding At College
+
+                                   OR
+
+                      THE MISSING EXAMINATION PAPERS
+
+                           BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill," "Ruth Fielding on Cliff
+Island," Etc.
+
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_
+
+NEW YORK
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Copyright, 1917, by
+Cupples & Leon Company
+
+Ruth Fielding at College
+
+Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "ASHORE! PUT US ASHORE!" RUTH GASPED.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I. Looking Collegeward
+
+      II. Maggie
+
+     III. Expectations
+
+      IV. First Impressions
+
+       V. Getting Settled
+
+      VI. Miss Cullam's Trouble
+
+     VII. Fame Is Not Always an Asset
+
+    VIII. The Stone Face
+
+      IX. Getting on
+
+       X. A Tempest in a Teapot
+
+      XI. The One Rebel
+
+     XII. Ruth Is Not Satisfied
+
+    XIII. The Girl in the Storm
+
+     XIV. "Oft in the Stilly Night"
+
+      XV. An Odd Adventure
+
+     XVI. What Was in Rebecca's Trunk
+
+    XVII. What Was in Rebecca's Heart
+
+   XVIII. Bearding the Lions
+
+     XIX. A Deep, Dark Plot
+
+      XX. Two Surprises
+
+     XXI. Many Things Happen
+
+    XXII. Can It Be a Clue?
+
+   XXIII. The Squall
+
+    XXIV. Treasure Hunting
+
+     XXV. The End of a Perfect Year
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+LOOKING COLLEGEWARD
+
+
+"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
+
+By no possibility could Aunt Alvirah Boggs have risen from her low
+rocking chair in the Red Mill kitchen without murmuring this complaint.
+
+She was a little, hoop-backed woman, with crippled limbs; but she
+possessed a countenance that was very much alive, nut-brown and
+innumerably wrinkled though it was.
+
+She had been Mr. Jabez Potter's housekeeper at the Red Mill for more
+than fifteen years, and if anybody knew the "moods and tenses" of the
+miserly miller, it must have been Aunt Alvirah. She even professed to
+know the miller's feelings toward his grand-niece, Ruth Fielding, better
+than Ruth knew them herself.
+
+The little old woman was expecting the return of Ruth now, and she went
+to the porch to see if she could spy her down the road, and thus be
+warned in time to set the tea to draw. Ruth and her friends, who had
+gone for a tramp in the September woods, would come in ravenous for tea
+and cakes and bread-and-butter sandwiches.
+
+Aunt Alvirah looked out upon a very beautiful autumn landscape when she
+opened the farmhouse door. The valley of the Lumano was attractive at
+all times--in storm or sunshine. Now it was a riot of color, from the
+deep crimson of the sumac to the pale amber of certain maple leaves
+which fell in showers whenever the wanton breeze shook the boughs.
+
+"Here they come!" murmured Aunt Alvirah. "Here's my pretty!"
+
+She identified the trio striding up the roadway, distant as they were.
+Ruth, her cheeks rosy, her hair flying, came on ahead, while the
+black-haired and black-eyed twins, Helen and Tom Cameron, walked
+hand-in-hand behind her. This was their final outing together in the
+vicinity of the Red Mill for many months. Helen and Tom were always very
+close companions, and although they had already been separated during
+school terms, Tom had run over from Seven Oaks to see his sister at
+Briarwood for almost every week-end.
+
+"No more of 'sich doin's now, old man," Helen said to him, smiling
+rather tremulously. "And even when you get to Harvard next year, you
+will not be allowed often at Ardmore. They say there is a sign 'No Boys
+Allowed' stuck up beside every 'Keep Off the Grass' sign on the Ardmore
+lawns."
+
+"Nonsense!" laughed Tom.
+
+"Oh, I only repeat what I've been told."
+
+"Well, Sis, you won't be entirely alone," Tom said kindly. "Ruth will be
+with you. You and she will have your usual good times."
+
+"Of course. But _you'll_ be awfully lonely, Tommy."
+
+"True enough," agreed Tom.
+
+Then Ruth's gay voice hailed them from the porch upon which she had
+mounted yards ahead of them.
+
+"Come on, slow-pokes. Aunt Alvirah has put on the tea. I smell it!"
+
+Ruth Fielding did not possess her chum's measure of beauty. Helen was a
+dainty, compelling brunette with flashing eyes--eyes she had already
+learned to use to the undoing of what Ruth called "the youthful male of
+the species."
+
+As for Ruth herself, she considered boys no mystery. She was fond of
+Tom, for he was the first friend she had made in that long-ago time when
+she arrived, a little girl and a stranger, at the Red Mill. Other boys
+did not interest Ruth in the least.
+
+Without Helen's beauty, she was, nevertheless, a decidedly attractive
+girl. Her figure was well rounded, her eyes shone, her hair was just
+wavy enough to be pretty, and she was very, very much alive. If Ruth
+Fielding took an interest in anything that thing, Tom declared, "went
+with a bang!"
+
+She was positive, energetic, and usually finished anything that she
+began. She had already done some things that few girls of her age could
+have accomplished.
+
+The trio of friends trooped into Aunt Alvirah's clean and shining
+kitchen.
+
+"Dear me! dear me!" murmured the little old woman, "I sha'n't have the
+pleasure of your company for long. I'll miss my pretty," and she smiled
+fondly at Ruth.
+
+"That's the only drawback about coming home from school," grumbled Tom,
+looking really forlorn, even with his mouth full of Aunt Alvirah's pound
+cake.
+
+"What's the drawback?" demanded his twin.
+
+"Going away again. Just think! We sha'n't see each other for so long."
+
+He was staring at Ruth, and Helen, with a roguish twinkle in her eye,
+passed him her pocket-handkerchief--a wee and useless bit of
+lace--saying:
+
+"Weep, if you must, Tommy; but get it over with. Ruth and I are not
+gnashing _our_ teeth about going away. Just to think! ARDMORE!"
+
+Nothing but capital letters would fully express the delight she put into
+the name of the college she and Ruth were to attend.
+
+"Huh!" grunted Tom.
+
+Aunt Alvirah said: "It wouldn't matter, deary, if you was both goin' off
+to be Queens of Sheby; it's the goin' away that hurts."
+
+Ruth had her arms about the little old woman and her own voice was
+caressing if not lachrymose.
+
+"Don't take it so to heart, Aunt Alvirah. We shall not forget you. You
+shall send us a box of goodies once in a while as you always do; and I
+will write to you and to Uncle Jabez. Keep up your heart, dear."
+
+"Easy said, my pretty," sighed the old woman. "Not so easy follered out.
+An' Jabe Potter is dreadful tryin' when you ain't here."
+
+"Poor Uncle Jabez," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Poor Aunt Alvirah, you'd better say!" exclaimed Helen, sharply, for she
+had not the patience with the miserly miller that his niece possessed.
+
+At the moment the back door was pushed open. Helen jumped. She feared
+that Uncle Jabez had overheard her criticism.
+
+But it was only Ben, the hired man, who thrust his face bashfully around
+the edge of the door. The young people hailed him gaily, and Ruth
+offered him a piece of cake.
+
+"Thank'e, Miss Ruth," Ben said. "I can't come in. Jest came to the shed
+for the oars."
+
+"Is uncle going across the river in the punt?" asked Ruth.
+
+"No, Miss Ruth. There's a boat adrift on the river."
+
+"What kind of boat?" asked Tom, jumping up. "What d'you mean?"
+
+"She's gone adrift, Mr. Tom," said Ben. "Looks like she come from one o'
+them camps upstream."
+
+"Oh! let's go and see!" cried Helen, likewise eager for something new.
+
+Neither of the Cameron twins ever remained in one position or were
+interested solely in one thing for long.
+
+The young folk trooped out after Ben through the long, covered passage
+to the rear door of the Red Mill. The water-wheel was turning and the
+jar of the stones set every beam and plank in the structure to
+trembling. The air was a haze of fine white particles. Uncle Jabez came
+forward, as dusty and crusty an old miller as one might ever expect to
+see.
+
+He was a tall, crabbed looking man, the dust of the mill seemingly so
+ground into the lines of his face that it was grey all over and one
+wondered if it could ever be washed clean again. He only nodded to his
+niece and her friends, seizing the oars Ben had brought with the
+observation:
+
+"Go 'tend to Gil Martin, Ben. He's waitin' for his flour. Where ye been
+all this time? That boat'll drift by."
+
+Ben knew better than to reply as he hastened to the shipping door where
+Mr. Martin waited with his wagon for the sacks of flour. The miller went
+to the platform on the riverside, Ruth and her friends following him.
+
+"I see it!" cried Tom. "Can't be anybody in it for it's sailing
+broadside."
+
+Uncle Jabez put the oars in the punt and began to untie the painter.
+
+"All the more reason we should get it," he said drily. "Salvage, ye
+know."
+
+"You mustn't go alone, Uncle Jabez," Ruth said mildly.
+
+"Huh! why not?" snarled the old miller.
+
+"Something might happen. If Ben can't go, I will take an oar."
+
+He knew she was quite capable of handling the punt, even in the rapids,
+so he merely growled his acquiescence. At that moment Ruth discovered
+something.
+
+"Why! the boat isn't empty!" she cried.
+
+"You're right, Ruth! I see something in it," said Tom.
+
+Uncle Jabez straightened up, holding the painter doubtfully.
+
+"Aw, well," he grunted. "If there's somebody in it----"
+
+He saw no reason for going after the drifting boat if it were manned. He
+could not claim the boat or claim salvage for it under such
+circumstances.
+
+But the strange boat was drifting toward the rapids of the Lumano that
+began just below the mill. In the present state of the river this "white
+water," as lumbermen call it, was dangerous.
+
+"Why, how foolish!" Helen cried. "Whoever is in that boat is lying in
+the bottom of it."
+
+"And drifting right toward the middle of the river!" added her twin.
+
+"Hurry up, Uncle Jabez!" urged Ruth. "We must go out there."
+
+"What fur, I'd like to know?" demanded the miller sharply. "We ain't
+hired ter go out an' wake up every reckless fule that goes driftin' by."
+
+"Of course not. But maybe he's not asleep," Ruth said quickly. "Maybe
+he's hurt. Maybe he has fainted. Why, a dozen things might have
+happened!"
+
+"An' a dozen things might _not_ have happened," said old Jabez Potter,
+coolly retying the painter.
+
+"Uncle! we mustn't do that!" cried his niece. "We must go out in the
+punt and make sure all is right with that boat."
+
+"Who says so?" demanded the miller.
+
+"Of course we must. I'll go with you. Come, do! There is somebody in
+danger."
+
+Ruth Fielding, as she spoke, leaped into the punt. Tom would have been
+glad to go with her, but she had motioned him back before he could
+speak. She was ashamed to have the miller so display the mean side of
+his nature before her friends.
+
+Grumblingly he climbed into the heavy boat after her. Tom cast off and
+Ruth pushed the boat's nose upstream, then settled herself to one of the
+oars while Uncle Jabez took the other.
+
+"Huh! they ain't anything in it for us," grumbled Mr. Potter as the punt
+slanted toward mid-stream.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MAGGIE
+
+
+Ruth Fielding knew very well the treacherous current of the Lumano. She
+saw that the drifting boat with its single occupant was very near to the
+point where the fierce pull of the mid-stream current would seize it.
+
+So she rowed her best and having the stroke oar, Uncle Jabez was obliged
+to pull _his_ best to keep up with her.
+
+"Huh!" he snorted, "it ain't so pertic'lar, is it, Niece Ruth? That
+feller----"
+
+She made no reply, but in a few minutes they were near enough to the
+drifting boat for Ruth to glance over her shoulder and see into it. At
+once she uttered a little cry of pity.
+
+"What now?" gruffly demanded Uncle Jabez.
+
+"Oh, Uncle! It's a girl!" Ruth gasped.
+
+"A gal! _Another gal?_" exclaimed the old miller. "I swanny! The Red
+Mill is allus littered up with gals when you're to hum."
+
+This was a favorite complaint of his; but he pulled more vigorously,
+nevertheless, and the punt was quickly beside the drifting boat.
+
+A girl in very commonplace garments--although she was not at all a
+commonplace looking girl--lay in the bottom of the boat. Her eyes were
+closed and she was very pale.
+
+"She's fainted," Ruth whispered.
+
+"Who in 'tarnation let a gal like that go out in a boat alone, and
+without airy oar?" demanded Uncle Jabez, crossly. "Here! hold steady.
+I'll take that painter and 'tach it to the boat. We'll tow her in. But
+lemme tell ye," added Uncle Jabez, decidedly, "somebody's got ter pay me
+fur my time, or else they don't git the boat back. She seems to be all
+right."
+
+"Why, she isn't conscious!" cried Ruth.
+
+"Huh!" grunted Uncle Jabez, "I mean the boat, not the gal."
+
+Ruth always suspected that Uncle Jabez Potter made a pretense of being
+really worse than he was. When a little girl she had been almost afraid
+of her cross-grained relative--the only relative she had in the world.
+
+But there were times when the ugly crust of the old man's character was
+rubbed off and his niece believed she saw the true gold beneath. She was
+frequently afraid that others would hear and not understand him. Now
+that she was financially independent of Uncle Jabez Ruth was not so
+sensitive for herself.
+
+They towed the boat back to the mill landing. Tom and Ben carried the
+strange girl, still unconscious into the Red Mill farmhouse, and
+bustling little Aunt Alvirah had her put at once to bed.
+
+"Shall I hustle right over to Cheslow for the doctor?" Tom asked.
+
+"Who's goin' to pay him?" growled Uncle Jabez, who heard this.
+
+"Don't let that worry you, Mr. Potter," said the youth, his black eyes
+flashing. "If I hire a doctor I always pay him."
+
+"It's a good thing to have that repertation," Uncle Jabez said drily.
+"One should pay the debts he contracts."
+
+But Aunt Alvirah scoffed at the need of a doctor.
+
+"The gal's only fainted. Scare't it's likely, findin' herself adrift in
+that boat. You needn't trouble yourself about it, Jabez."
+
+Thus reassured the miller went back to examine the boat. Although it was
+somewhat marred, it was not damaged, and Uncle Jabez was satisfied that
+if nobody claimed the boat he would be amply repaid for his trouble.
+
+Naturally, the two girls fluttered about the stranger a good deal when
+Aunt Alvirah had brought her out of her faint. Ruth was particularly
+attracted by "Maggie" as the stranger announced her name to be.
+
+"I was working at one of those summer-folks' camps up the river. Mr.
+Bender's, it was," she explained to Ruth, later. "But all the folks went
+last night, and this morning I was going across the river with my
+bag--oh, did you find my bag, Miss?"
+
+"Surely," Ruth laughed. "It is here, beside your bed."
+
+"Oh, thank you," said the girl. "Mr. Bender paid me last night. One of
+the men was to take me across the river, and I sat down and waited, and
+nobody came, and by and by I fell into a nap and when I woke up I was
+out in the river, all alone. My! I was frightened."
+
+"Then you have no reason for going back to the camp?" asked Ruth,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"No--Miss. I'm through up there for the season. I'll look for another
+situation--I--I mean job," she added stammeringly.
+
+"We will telephone up the river and tell them you are all right," Ruth
+said.
+
+"Oh, thank you--Miss."
+
+Ruth asked her several other questions, and although Maggie was
+reserved, her answers were satisfactory.
+
+"But what's goin' to become of the gal?" Uncle Jabez asked that evening
+after supper, when he and his niece were in the farmhouse kitchen alone.
+
+Aunt Alvirah had carried tea and toast in to the patient and was sitting
+by her.
+
+The girl of the Red Mill thought Maggie did not seem like the usual
+"hired help" whom she had seen. She seemed much more refined than one
+might expect a girl to be of the class to which she claimed to belong.
+
+Ruth looked across the table at her cross-grained old relative and made
+no direct reply to his question. She was very sure that, after all, he
+would be kind to the strange girl if Maggie actually needed to be
+helped. But Ruth had an idea that Maggie was quite capable of helping
+herself.
+
+"Uncle Jabez," the girl of the Red Mill said to the old man, softly, "do
+you know something?"
+
+"Huh?" grunted Uncle Jabez. "I know a hull lot more than you young
+sprigs gimme credit for knowin'."
+
+"Oh! I didn't mean it that way," and Ruth laughed cheerily at him. "I
+mean that I have discovered something, and I wondered if you had
+discovered the same thing?"
+
+"Out with it, Niece Ruth," he ordered, eyeing her curiously. "I'll tell
+ye if it's anything I already know."
+
+"Well, Aunt Alvirah is growing old."
+
+"Ye don't say!" snapped the miller. "And who ain't, I'd like to know?"
+
+"Her rheumatism is much worse, and it will soon be winter."
+
+"Say! what air ye tryin' to do?" he demanded. "Tellin' me these here
+puffictly obvious things! Of course she's gittin' older; and of course
+her rheumatiz is bound to grow wuss. Doctors ain't never yet found
+nothin' to cure rheumatiz. And winter us'ally follers fall--even in this
+here tarnation climate."
+
+"Well, but the combination is going to be very bad for Aunt Alvirah,"
+Ruth said gently, determined to pursue her idea to the finish, no matter
+how cross he appeared to be.
+
+"Wal, is it _my_ fault?" asked Uncle Jabez.
+
+"It's nobody's fault," Ruth told him, shaking her head, and very
+serious. "But it's Aunt Alvirah's misfortune."
+
+"Huh!"
+
+"And we must do something about it."
+
+"Huh! Must we? What, I'd like to have ye tell me?" said the old miller,
+eyeing Ruth much as one strange dog might another that he suspected was
+after his best marrow bone.
+
+"We must get somebody to help her do the work while I am at college,"
+Ruth said firmly.
+
+The dull red flooded into Uncle Jabez's cheeks, and for once gave him a
+little color. His narrow eyes sparkled, too.
+
+"There's one thing I've allus said, Niece Ruth," he declared hotly. "Ye
+air a great one for spending other folks' money."
+
+It was Ruth's turn to flush now, and although she might not possess what
+Aunt Alvirah called "the Potter economical streak," she did own to a
+spark of the Potter temper. Ruth Fielding was not namby-pamby, although
+she was far from quarrelsome.
+
+"Uncle Jabez," she returned rather tartly, "have I been spending much of
+_your_ money lately?"
+
+"No," he growled. "But ye ain't l'arnt how to take proper keer of yer
+own--trapsin' 'round the country the way you do."
+
+She laughed then. "I'm getting knowledge. Some of it comes high, I have
+found; but it will all help me _live_."
+
+"Huh! I've lived without that brand of l'arnin'," grunted Uncle Jabez.
+
+Ruth looked at him amusedly. She was tempted to tell him that he had not
+lived, only existed. But she was not impudent, and merely went on to
+say:
+
+"Aunt Alvirah is getting too old to do all the work here----"
+
+"I send Ben in to help her some when she's alone," said the miller.
+
+"And by so doing put extra work on poor Ben," Ruth told him, decidedly.
+"No, Aunt Alvirah must have another woman around, or a girl."
+
+"Where ye goin' to find the gal?" snapped the miller. "Work gals don't
+like to stay in the country."
+
+"She's found, I believe," Ruth told him.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"This Maggie we just got out of the river. She has no job, she says, and
+she wants one. I believe she'll stay."
+
+"Who's goin' to pay her wages?" demanded Uncle Jabez, getting back to
+"first principles" again.
+
+"I'll pay the girl's wages, Uncle Jabez," Ruth said seriously. "But you
+must feed her. And she must be fed well, too. I can see that part of her
+trouble is malnutrition."
+
+"Huh? Has she got some ketchin' disease?" Uncle Jabez demanded.
+
+"It isn't contagious," Ruth replied drily. "But unless she is well fed
+she cannot be cured of it."
+
+"Wal, there's plenty of milk and eggs," the miller said.
+
+"But you must not hide the key of the meat-house, Uncle," and now Ruth
+laughed outright at him. "Four people at table means a depletion of your
+smoked meat and a dipping occasionally into the corned-beef barrel."
+
+"Wal----"
+
+"Now, if I pay the girl's wages, you must supply the food," his niece
+said, firmly, "Otherwise, Aunt Alvirah will go without help, and then
+she will break down, and _then_----"
+
+"Huh!" grunted the miller. "I couldn't let her go back to the poorfarm,
+I s'pose?"
+
+He actually made it a question; but Ruth could not see his face, for he
+had turned aside.
+
+"No. She could not return to the poorhouse--after fifteen years!"
+exclaimed the girl. "Do you know what _I_ should do?" and she asked the
+question warmly.
+
+"Somethin' fullish, I allow."
+
+"I should take her to Ardmore with me, and find a tiny cottage for her,
+and maybe she would keep house for Helen and me."
+
+"That'd be jest like ye, Niece Ruth," he responded coolly. "You think
+you have all the money in the world. That's because ye didn't aim what
+ye got--it was give to ye."
+
+The statement was in large part true, and for the moment Ruth's lips
+were closed. Tears stood in her eyes, too. She realized that she could
+not be independent of the old miller had not chance and kind-hearted and
+grateful Mrs. Rachel Parsons given her the bulk of the amount now
+deposited in her name in the bank.
+
+Ruth Fielding's circumstances had been very different when she had first
+come to Cheslow and the Red Mill. Then she was a little, homeless,
+orphan girl who was "taken in out of charity" by Uncle Jabez. And very
+keenly and bitterly had she been made to feel during those first few
+months her dependence upon the crabbed old miller.
+
+The introductory volume of this series, "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,
+or, Jacob Parloe's Secret," details in full the little girl's trials and
+triumphs under these unfortunate conditions--how she makes friends,
+smooths over difficulties, and in a measure wins old Uncle Jabez's
+approval. The miller was a very honest man and always paid his debts.
+Because of something Ruth did for him he felt it to be his duty to pay
+her first year's tuition at boarding school, where she went with her new
+friend, Helen Cameron. In "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall," the Red
+Mill girl really begins her school career, and begins, too, to satisfy
+that inbred longing for independence which was so strong a part of her
+character.
+
+In succeeding volumes of the "Ruth Fielding Series," we follow Ruth's
+adventures in Snow Camp, a winter lodge in the Adirondack wilderness; at
+Lighthouse Point, the summer home of a girl friend on the Atlantic
+coast; at Silver Ranch, in Montana; at Cliff Island; at Sunrise Farm;
+with the Gypsies, which was a very important adventure, indeed, for Ruth
+Fielding. In this eighth story Ruth was able to recover for Mrs. Rachel
+Parsons, an aunt of one of her school friends, a very valuable pearl
+necklace, and as a reward of five thousand dollars had been offered for
+the recovery of the necklace, the entire sum came to Ruth. This money
+made Ruth financially independent of Uncle Jabez.
+
+The ninth volume of the series, entitled, "Ruth Fielding in Moving
+Pictures; or, Helping the Dormitory Fund," shows Ruth and her chums
+engaged in film production. Ruth discovered that she could write a good
+scenario--a very good scenario, indeed. Mr. Hammond, president of the
+Alectrion Film Corporation, encouraged her to write others. When the
+West Dormitory of Briarwood Hall was burned and it was discovered that
+there had been no insurance on the building, the girls determined to do
+all in their power to rebuild the structure.
+
+Ruth was inspired to write a scenario, a five-reel drama of schoolgirl
+life, and Mr. Hammond produced it, Ruth's share of the profits going
+toward the building fund. "The Heart of a Schoolgirl" was not only
+locally famous, but was shown all over the country and was even now,
+after six months, paying the final construction bills of the West
+Dormitory, at Briarwood.
+
+In this ninth volume of the series, Ruth and Helen and many of their
+chums graduated from Briarwood Hall. Immediately after the graduation
+the girl of the Red Mill and Helen Cameron were taken south by Nettie
+Parsons and her Aunt Rachel to visit the Merredith plantation in South
+Carolina. Their adventures were fully related in the story immediately
+preceding the present narrative, the tenth of the "Ruth Fielding
+Series," entitled, "Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie; or, Great Times in the
+Land of Cotton."
+
+Home again, after that delightful journey, Ruth had spent most of the
+remaining weeks of her vacation quietly at the Red Mill. She was engaged
+upon another scenario for Mr. Hammond, in which the beautiful old mill
+on the Lumano would figure largely. She also had had many preparations
+to make for her freshman year at Ardmore.
+
+Ruth and Helen were quite "young ladies" now, so Tom scoffingly said.
+And going to college was quite another thing from looking forward to a
+term at a preparatory school. Nevertheless, Ruth had found plenty of
+time to help Aunt Alvirah during the past few weeks.
+
+She had noted how much feebler the old woman was becoming. Therefore,
+she was determined to win Uncle Jabez to her plan of securing help in
+the Red Mill kitchen. The coming of the girl, Maggie, though a strange
+coincidence, Ruth looked upon as providential. She urged Uncle Jabez to
+agree to her proposal, and the very next morning she sounded Maggie upon
+the subject. The strange girl was sitting up, but Aunt Alvirah would not
+hear to her doing anything as yet. Ruth found Maggie in the
+sitting-room, engaged in looking at the Ardmore Year Book which Ruth had
+left upon the sitting-room table.
+
+"Pretty landscapes about the college, aren't they?" Ruth suggested.
+
+"Oh yes--Miss. Very pretty," agreed Maggie.
+
+"That is where I am going to college," Ruth explained. "I enter as a
+freshman next week."
+
+"Is that so--Miss?" hesitated Maggie. Her heretofore colorless face
+flushed warmly. "I've heard of that--that place," she added.
+
+"Indeed, have you?"
+
+Maggie was looking at the photograph of Lake Remona, with a part of
+Bliss Island at one side. She continued to stare at the picture while
+Ruth put before her the suggestion of work at the Red Mill.
+
+"Oh, of course, Miss Fielding, I'd be glad of the work. And you're very
+liberal. But you don't know anything about me."
+
+"No. And I shouldn't know much more about you if you brought a dozen
+recommendations," laughed Ruth.
+
+"I suppose not--Miss." It seemed hard for the girl to get out that
+"Miss," and Ruth, who was keenly observant, wondered if she really had
+been accustomed to using it.
+
+They talked it over and finally reached an agreement. Aunt Alvirah was
+sweetly grateful to Ruth, knowing full well that there must have been a
+"battle royal" between the miller and his niece before the former had
+agreed to the new arrangement.
+
+Ruth was quite sure that Maggie was a nice girl, even if she was queer.
+At least, she gave deference to the quaint little old housekeeper, and
+seemed to like Aunt Alvirah very much. And who would not love the woman,
+who was everybody's aunt but nobody's relative?
+
+Once or twice Ruth found Maggie poring over the Year Book of Ardmore
+College, rather an odd interest for a girl of her class. But Maggie was
+rather an odd girl anyway, and Ruth forgot the matter in her final
+preparations for departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+EXPECTATIONS
+
+
+"I expect she'll be a haughty, stuck-up thing," declared Edith Phelps,
+with vigor.
+
+"'Just like _that_,'" drawled May MacGreggor. "We should worry about the
+famous authoress of canned drama! A budding lady hack writer, I fancy."
+
+"Oh, dear me, no!" cried Edith. "Didn't you see 'The Heart of a
+Schoolgirl' she wrote? Why, it was a good photo-play, I assure you."
+
+"And put out by the Alectrion Film Corporation," joined in another of
+the group of girls standing upon the wide porch of Dare Hall, one of the
+four large dormitories of Ardmore College.
+
+The college buildings were set most artistically upon the slope of
+College Hill, each building facing sparkling Lake Remona. Save the
+boathouse and the bathing pavilions, Dare and Dorrance Halls at the east
+side of the grounds, and Hoskin and Hemmingway Halls at the west side,
+were the structures nearest to the lake.
+
+Farther to the east an open grove intervened between the dormitories and
+the meadows along the Remona River where bog hay was cut, and which were
+sometimes flooded in the freshet season.
+
+To the west the lake extended as far as the girls on the porch could
+see, a part of its sparkling surface being hidden by the green and hilly
+bulk of Bliss Island. The shaded green lawns of the campus between Dare
+and Hoskin Halls were crossed by winding paths.
+
+A fleshy girl who was near the group but not of it, had been viewing
+this lovely landscape with pleasure. Now she frankly listened to the
+chatter of the "inquisitors."
+
+"Well," Edith Phelps insisted, "this Ruth Fielding was so petted at that
+backwoods' school where she has been that I suppose there will be no
+living in the same house with her."
+
+Edith was one of the older sophomores--quite old, indeed, to the eyes of
+the plump girl who was listening. But the latter smiled quietly,
+nevertheless, as she listened to the sophomore's speech.
+
+"We shall have to take her down a peg or two, of course. It's bad enough
+to have the place littered up with a lot of freshies----"
+
+"Just as we littered it up last year at this time, Edie," suggested May,
+with a chuckle.
+
+"Well," Edith said, laughing, "if I don't put this Ruth Fielding, the
+authoress, in her place in a hurry, it won't be because I sha'n't try."
+
+"Have a care, dearie," admonished one quiet girl who had not spoken
+before. "Remember the warning we had at commencement."
+
+"About what?" demanded two or three.
+
+"About that Rolff girl, you know," said the thoughtful girl.
+
+"Oh! I know what you mean," Edith said. "But that was a warning to the
+sororities."
+
+"To everybody," put in May.
+
+"At any rate," Dora Parton said, "Dr. Milroth forbade anything in the
+line of hazing."
+
+"Pooh!" said Edith. "Who mentioned hazing? That's old-fashioned. We're
+too ladylike at Ardmore, I should hope, to _haze_--my!"
+
+"'My heye, blokey!'" drawled May.
+
+"You are positively coarse, Miss MacGreggor," Dora said, severely.
+
+"And Edie is so awfully emphatic," laughed the Scotch girl. "But she
+will have to take it out in threatenings, I fear. We can't haze this
+Fielding chit, and that's all there is to it."
+
+"Positively," said the quiet girl, "that was a terrible thing they did
+to Margaret Rolff. She was a nervous girl, anyway. Do you remember her,
+May?"
+
+"Of course. And I remember being jealous because she was chosen by the
+Kappa Alpha as a candidate. Glad _I_ wasn't one if they put all their
+new members through the same rigmarole."
+
+"That is irreverent!" gasped Edith. "The Kappa Alpha!"
+
+"I see Dr. Milroth took them down all right, all right!" remarked
+another of the group. "And now none of the sororities can solicit
+members among either the sophs or the freshies."
+
+"And it's a shame!" cried Edith. "The sorority girls have such fun."
+
+"Half murdering innocents--yes," drawled May. "That Margaret Rolff was
+just about scared out of her wits, they say. They found her wandering
+about Bliss Island----"
+
+"Sh! We're not to talk of it," advised Edith, with a glance at the fat
+girl in the background who, although taking no part in the discussion,
+was very much amused, especially every time Ruth Fielding's name was
+brought up.
+
+"Well, I don't know why we shouldn't speak of it," said Dora Parton, who
+was likewise a sophomore. "The whole college knew it at the time. When
+Margaret Rolff left they discovered that the beautiful silver vase was
+gone, too, from the library----"
+
+"Oh, hush!" exclaimed May MacGreggor, sharply.
+
+"Won't hush--so now!" said the other girl, smartly, making a face at the
+Scotch lassie. "Didn't Miss Cullam go wailing all over the college about
+it?"
+
+"That's so," Edith agreed. "You'd have thought it was her vase that had
+been stolen."
+
+"I don't believe the vase was stolen at all," May said. "It was mixed up
+in that initiation and lost. I know that the Kappa Alpha girls are
+raising a fund to pay for it."
+
+"Pay for it!" scoffed some one. "Why, they couldn't do that in a
+thousand years. That was an Egyptian curio--very old and very valuable.
+Pay for it, indeed! Those Kappa Alphas, as well as the other sororities,
+are paying for their fun in another way."
+
+"But, anyway," said the quiet girl, "it was a terrible experience for
+Miss Rolff."
+
+"Unless she 'put it on' and got away with the loot herself," said Edith.
+
+"Oh, scissors! _now_ who's coarse?" demanded May MacGreggor.
+
+But the conversation came back to the expected Ruth Fielding. These
+girls had all arrived at Ardmore several days in advance of the opening
+of the semester. Indeed, it is always advisable for freshmen,
+especially, to be on hand at least two days before the opening, for
+there is much preparation for newcomers.
+
+The fleshy girl who had thus far taken no part in the conversation
+recorded, save to be amused by it, had already been on the ground long
+enough to know her way about. But she was not yet acquainted with any of
+her classmates or with the sophomores.
+
+If she knew Ruth Fielding, she said nothing about it when Edith Phelps
+began to discuss the girl of the Red Mill again.
+
+"Miss Cullam spoke to me about this Fielding. It seems she has an
+acquaintance who teaches at that backwoods' school the child went
+to----"
+
+"Briarwood a backwoods' school!" said May. "Not much!"
+
+"Well, it's somewhere up in New York State among the yaps," declared
+Edith. "And Cullam's friend wrote her that Fielding is a wonder. Dear
+me! how I _do_ abominate wonders."
+
+"Perhaps we are maligning the girl," said Dora. "Perhaps Ruth Fielding
+is quite modest."
+
+"What? After writing a moving picture drama? Is there anything modest
+about the motion picture business in _any_ of its branches?"
+
+"Oh, dear me, Edie!" cried one of her listeners, "you're dreadful."
+
+"I presume this canned drama authoress," pursued Edith, "will have
+ink-stains on her fingers and her hair will be eternally flying about
+her careworn features. Well! and what are _you_ laughing at?" she
+suddenly and tartly demanded of the plump girl in the background.
+
+"At you," chuckled the stranger.
+
+"Am I so funny to look at?"
+
+"No. But you are the funniest-talking girl I ever listened to. Let me
+laugh, won't you?"
+
+Before this observation could be more particularly inquired into, some
+one shouted:
+
+"Oh, look who's here! And in style, bless us!"
+
+"And see the freight! Excess baggage, for a fact," May MacGreggor said,
+under her breath. "Who _can_ she be?"
+
+"The Queen of Sheba in all her glory had nothing on this lady," cried
+Edith with conviction.
+
+It was not often that any of the Ardmore girls, and especially a
+freshman, arrived during the opening week of the term in a private
+equipage. This car that came chugging down the hill to the entrance of
+Dare Hall was a very fine touring automobile. The girl in the tonneau,
+barricaded with a huge trunk and several bags, besides a huge leather
+hat-box perched beside the chauffeur, was very gaily appareled as well.
+
+"Goodness! look at the labels on that trunk," whispered Dora Parton.
+"Why, that girl must have been all over Europe."
+
+"The trunk has, at any rate," chuckled May.
+
+"Hist!" now came from the excited Edith Phelps. "See the initials, 'R.
+F.' What did I tell you? It is that Fielding girl!"
+
+"Oh, my aunt!" groaned the plump girl in the background, and she
+actually had to stuff her handkerchief in her mouth to keep from
+laughing outright again.
+
+The car had halted and the chauffeur got down promptly, for he had to
+remove some of the "excess baggage" before the girl in the tonneau could
+alight.
+
+"I guess she must think she belongs here," whispered Dora.
+
+"More likely she thinks she owns the whole place," snapped Edith, who
+had evidently made up her mind not to like the new girl whose baggage
+was marked "R. F."
+
+The girl got out and shook out her draperies. A close inspection would
+have revealed the fact that, although dressed in the very height of
+fashion (whatever _that_ may mean), the materials of which the
+stranger's costume were made were rather cheap.
+
+"This is Dare Hall, isn't it?" she asked the group of girls above her on
+the porch. "I suppose there is a porter to help--er--the man with my
+baggage?"
+
+"It is a rule of the college," said Edith, promptly, "that each girl
+shall carry her own baggage to her room. No male person is allowed
+within the dormitory building."
+
+There was a chorused, if whispered, "Oh!" from the other girls, and the
+newcomer looked at Edith, suspiciously.
+
+"I guess you are spoofing me, aren't you?" she inquired.
+
+"Help! help!" murmured May MacGreggor. "That's the very latest English
+slang."
+
+"She's brought it direct from 'dear ol' Lunnon'," gasped one of the
+other sophomores.
+
+"Dear me!" said Edith, addressing her friends, "wouldn't it be nice to
+have a 'close up' taken of that heap of luggage? It really needs a
+camera man and a director to make this arrival a success."
+
+The girl who had just come looked very much puzzled. The chauffeur
+seemed eager to be gone.
+
+"If I can't help take in the boxes, Miss, I might as well be going," he
+said to the new arrival.
+
+"Very well," she rejoined, stiffly, and opening her purse gave him a
+bill. He lifted his cap, entered the car, touched the starter and in a
+moment the car whisked away.
+
+"I declare!" said May MacGreggor, "she looks just like a castaway on the
+shore of a desert island, with all the salvage she has been able to
+recover from the wreck."
+
+And perhaps the mysterious R. F. felt a good deal that way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FIRST IMPRESSIONS
+
+
+Greenburg was the station on the N. Y. F. & B. Railroad nearest to
+Ardmore College. It was a small city of some thirty or forty thousand
+inhabitants. The people, not alone in the city but in the surrounding
+country, were a rather wealthy class. Ardmore was a mile from the
+outskirts of the town.
+
+Ruth Fielding and Helen Cameron, her chum, had arrived with other girls
+bound for the college on the noon train. Of course, the chums knew none
+of their fellow pupils by name, but it was easily seen which of those
+alighting from the train were bound for Ardmore.
+
+There were two large auto-stages in waiting, and Ruth and Helen followed
+the crowd of girls briskly getting aboard the buses. As they saw other
+girls do, the two chums from Cheslow gave their trunk checks to a man on
+the platform, but they clung to their hand-baggage.
+
+"Such a nice looking lot of girls," murmured Helen in Ruth's ear. "It's
+fine! I'm sure we shall have a delightful time at college, Ruthie."
+
+"And some hard work," observed Ruth, laughing, "if we expect to keep up
+with them. There are no dunces in this crowd, my dear."
+
+"Goodness, no!" agreed her friend. "They all look as sharp as needles."
+
+There were girls of all the classes at the station, as was easily seen.
+Ruth and Helen chanced to get into a seat with two of the seniors, who
+seemed most awfully sophisticated to the recent graduates of Briarwood
+Hall.
+
+"You are just entering, are you not--you and your friend?" asked the
+nearest senior of Ruth.
+
+"Yes," admitted the girl of the Red Mill, feeling and looking very shy.
+
+The young women smiled quietly, saying:
+
+"I am Miss Dexter, and am beginning my senior year. I am glad to be the
+first to welcome you to Ardmore."
+
+"Thank you so much!" Ruth said, recovering her self-possession. Then she
+told Miss Dexter her own name and introduced Helen.
+
+"You girls have drawn your room numbers, I presume?"
+
+"They were drawn for us," Ruth said. "We are to be in Dare Hall and hope
+to have adjoining rooms."
+
+"That is nice," said Miss Dexter. "It is so much pleasanter when two
+friends enter together. I am at Hoskin Hall myself. I shall be glad to
+have you two freshmen look me up when you are once settled."
+
+"Thank you," Ruth said again, and Helen found her voice to ask:
+
+"Are all the seniors in Hoskin Hall, and all the freshmen at Dare Hall?"
+
+"Oh, no. There are members of each class in all four of the
+dormitories," Miss Dexter explained.
+
+"I suppose there will be much for us to learn," sighed Ruth. "It is
+different from a boarding school."
+
+"Do you both come from a boarding school?" asked their new acquaintance.
+
+"We are graduates of Briarwood Hall," Helen said, with pride.
+
+"Oh, indeed?" Miss Dexter looked sharply at Ruth again. "Did you say
+your name was Ruth Fielding?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Dexter."
+
+"Why, you must be the girl who wrote a picture play to help build a
+dormitory for your school!" exclaimed the senior. "Really, how nice."
+
+"There, Ruth!" said Helen, teasingly, "see what it is to be famous."
+
+"I--I hope my reputation will not be held against me," Ruth said,
+laughing. "Let me tell you, Miss Dexter, we all at Briarwood helped to
+swell that dormitory fund."
+
+"I fancy so," said the senior. "But all of your schoolmates could not
+have written a scenario which would have been approved by the Alectrion
+Film Corporation."
+
+"I should say not!" cried Helen, warmly. "And it was a great picture,
+too."
+
+"It was clever, indeed," agreed Miss Dexter. "I saw it on the screen."
+
+Miss Dexter introduced the girl at the other end of the seat--another
+senior, Miss Purvis. The two entering freshmen felt flattered--how could
+they help it? They had expected, as freshmen, to be quite haughtily
+ignored by the seniors and juniors.
+
+But there were other matters to interest Ruth and Helen as the auto-bus
+rolled out of the city. The way was very pleasant; there were beautiful
+homes in the suburbs of Greenburg. And after they were passed, there
+were lovely fields and groves on either hand. The chums thought they had
+seldom seen more attractive country, although they had traveled more
+than most girls of their age.
+
+The road over which the auto-bus rolled was wide and well oiled--a
+splendid automobile track. But only one private equipage passed them on
+the ride to Ardmore. That car came along, going the same way as
+themselves, just as they reached the first of the row of faculty
+dwellings.
+
+There was but one passenger in the car--a girl; and she was packed
+around with baggage in a most surprising way.
+
+"Oh!" gasped Helen, in Ruth's ear, "I guess there goes one of the real
+fancy girls--the kind that sets the pace at college."
+
+Ruth noticed that Miss Dexter and Miss Purvis craned their necks to see
+the car and the girl, and she ventured to ask who she was.
+
+"I can't tell you," Miss Dexter said briskly. "I never saw her before."
+
+"Oh! Perhaps, then, she isn't going to the college."
+
+"Yes; she must be. This road goes nowhere else. But she is a freshman,
+of course."
+
+"An eccentric, I fancy," drawled Miss Purvis. "You must know that each
+freshman class is bound to have numbered with it some most surprising
+individuals. _Rarae aves_, as it were."
+
+Miss Dexter laughed. "But the corners are soon rubbed off and their
+peculiarities fade into the background. When I was a freshman, there
+entered a woman over fifty, with perfectly white hair. She was a _dear_;
+but, of course, she was an anomaly at college."
+
+"My!" exclaimed Helen. "What did she want to go to college for?"
+
+"The poor thing had always wanted to go to college. When she was young
+there were few women's colleges. And she had a big family to help, and
+finally a bedridden sister to care for. So she remained faithful to her
+home duties, but each year kept up with the graduating class of a local
+preparatory school. She was really a very well educated and bright
+woman; only peculiar."
+
+"And what happened when she came to Ardmore?" asked Ruth, interested,
+"is she still here?"
+
+"Oh, no. She remained only a short time. She found, she said, that her
+mind was not nimble enough, at her age, to keep up with the classes.
+Which was very probably true, you know. Unless one is constantly engaged
+in hard mental labor, one's mind must get into ruts by the time one is
+fifty. But she was very lovely, and quite popular--while she lasted."
+
+Helen was more interested just then in the row of cottages occupied by
+the members of the faculty, and here strung along the left side of the
+highway. They were pretty houses, set in pretty grounds.
+
+"Oh, look, Helen!" cried Ruth, suddenly.
+
+"The lake!" responded Helen.
+
+The dancing blue waters of Lake Remona were visible for a minute between
+two of the houses. Ruth, too, caught a glimpse of the small island which
+raised its hilly head in the middle of the lake.
+
+"Is that Bliss Island?" she inquired of Miss Dexter.
+
+"Yes. You can see it from here. That doesn't belong to the college."
+
+"No?" said Ruth, in surprise: "But, of course, the girls can go there?"
+
+"It is 'No Man's Land,' I believe. Belongs to none of the estates
+surrounding the lake. We go there--yes," Miss Dexter told her. "The
+Stone Face is there."
+
+"What is that, please?" asked Ruth, interested. "What is the Stone
+Face?"
+
+"A landmark, Miss Fielding. That Stone Face was quite an important spot
+last May--wasn't it, Purvis?" the senior asked the other girl.
+
+"Oh, goodness me, yes!" said Miss Purvis. "Don't mention it. Think what
+it has done to our Kappa Alpha."
+
+"What do you suppose ever became of that girl?" murmured Miss Dexter,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I can't imagine. It was a sorry time, take it all in all. Let's not
+talk of it, Merry. Our sorority has a setback from which it will never
+recover."
+
+All this was literally Greek to Ruth, of course. Nor did she listen with
+any attention. There were other things for her and Helen to be
+interested in, for the main building of the college had come into view.
+
+They had been gradually climbing the easy slope of College Hill from the
+east. The main edifice of Ardmore did not stand upon the summit of the
+eminence. Behind and above the big, winged building the hill rose to a
+wooded, rounding summit, sheltering the whole estate from the north
+winds.
+
+Just upon the edge of the forest at the top was an octagon-shaped
+observatory. Ruth had read about it in the Year Book. From the balcony
+of this observatory one could see, on a clear day, to the extreme west
+end of Lake Remona--quite twenty-five miles away.
+
+The newcomers, however, were more interested at present in the big
+building which faced the lake, half-way down the southern slope of
+College Hill, and which contained the hall and classrooms, as well as
+the principal offices. The beautiful campus was in front of this
+building.
+
+"All off for Dare and Dorrance," shouted the stage driver, stopping his
+vehicle.
+
+The driveway here split, one branch descending the hill, while the main
+thread wound on past the front of the main building. Ruth and Helen
+scrambled down with their bags.
+
+"Good-bye," said Miss Dexter smiling on them. "Perhaps I shall see you
+when you come over to the registrar's office. We seniors have to do the
+honors for you freshies."
+
+Miss Purvis, too, bade them a pleasant good-bye. The chums set off down
+the driveway. On their left was the great, sandstone, glass-roofed bulk
+of the gymnasium, and they caught a glimpse of the fenced athletic field
+behind it.
+
+Ahead were the two big dormitories upon this side of the campus--Dare
+and Dorrance Halls. The driveway curved around to the front of these
+buildings, and now the private touring car the girls had before noticed,
+came shooting around from the lake side of the dormitories, passing Ruth
+and Helen, empty save for the chauffeur.
+
+"Goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "I wonder if that dressy girl with all the
+goods and chattels is bunked in _our_ dormitory?"
+
+"'Our' dormitory, no less!" laughed Ruth. "Do you feel as much at home
+already as _that_?"
+
+"Goodness! No. I'm only trying to make myself believe it. Ruth, what an
+e-_nor_-mous place this is! I feel just as small as--as a little mouse
+in an elephant's stall."
+
+Ruth laughed, but before she could reply they rounded the corner of the
+building nearest to the campus and saw the group of girls upon its broad
+porch, the stranger at the foot of the steps, and the heap of baggage
+piled where the chauffeur had left it.
+
+"Hello!" May MacGreggor said, aloud, "here are a couple more kittens.
+Look at the pretty girl with the brown eyes and hair. And the
+smart-looking, black-eyed one. Now! _here_ are freshies after my own
+heart."
+
+Edith Phelps refused to be called off from the girl and the baggage,
+however. She said coolly:
+
+"I really don't know what you will do with all that truck, Miss
+Fielding. The rooms at Dare are rather small. You could not possibly get
+all those bags and the trunk--and certainly not that hat-box--into one
+of these rooms."
+
+"My name isn't Fielding," said the strange girl, paling now, but whether
+from anger or as a forerunner to tears it would have been hard to tell.
+Her face was not one to be easily read.
+
+"Your name isn't _Fielding_?" gasped Edie Phelps, while the latter's
+friends burst into laughter. "'R. F.'! What does that stand for, pray?"
+
+At this moment the fleshy girl who had been all this time in the
+background on the porch, flung herself forward, burst through the group,
+and ran down the steps. She had spied Ruth and Helen approaching.
+
+"Ruthie! Helen! _Ruth Fielding!_ Isn't this delightsome?"
+
+The fleshy girl tried to hug both the chums from Cheslow at once. Edie
+Phelps and the rest of the girls on the porch gazed and listened in
+amazement. Edie turned upon the girl with the heap of baggage,
+accusingly.
+
+"You're a good one! What do you mean by coming here and fooling us all
+in this way? What's your name?"
+
+"Rebecca Frayne--if you think you have a right to ask," said the new
+girl, sharply.
+
+"And you're not the canned drama authoress?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean, I'm sure," said Rebecca Frayne. "But I
+_would_ like to know what I'm to do with this baggage."
+
+Ruth had come to the foot of the steps now with Helen and the fleshy
+girl, whom the chums had hailed gladly as "Jennie Stone." The girl of
+the Red Mill heard the speech of the stranger and noted her woebegone
+accent. She turned with a smile to Rebecca Frayne.
+
+"Oh! I know about that," she said. "Just leave your trunk and bags here
+and put your card and the number of your room on them. The men will be
+along very soon to carry them up for you. I read that in the Year Book."
+
+"Thank you," said Rebecca Frayne.
+
+The group of sophomores and freshmen on the porch opened a way for the
+Briarwood trio to enter the house, and said never a word. Jennie Stone
+was, as she confessed, grinning broadly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+GETTING SETTLED
+
+
+"What does this mean, Heavy Jennie?" demanded Helen, pinching the very
+comfortable arm of their fleshy friend.
+
+"What does that mean? Ouch, Helen! You know you're pinching something
+when you pinch _me_."
+
+"That's why I like to. No fun in trying to make an impression on bones,
+you know."
+
+"But it doesn't hurt bones so much," grumbled Jennie. "Remember what the
+fruit-stand man printed on his sign: 'If you musta pincha da fruit,
+pincha da cocoanut.' You can't so easy bruise bony folk, Helen."
+
+"You are dodging the issue, Heavy," declared Helen. "What does this
+mean?"
+
+"What does what mean?" demanded the fleshy girl, grinning widely again.
+
+"How came you here, of course?" Ruth put in, smiling upon their gay and
+usually thoughtless friend. "You said you did not think you could come
+to Ardmore."
+
+"And you had conditions to make up if you did come," declared Helen.
+
+"I made 'em up," said Jennie, laughing.
+
+"And you're here ahead of us! Oh, Heavy, what sport!" cried Helen,
+undertaking to pinch the plump girl again.
+
+"Now, that's enough of that," said Jennie Stone. "I have feelings, as
+well as other folk, Helen Cameron, despite my name. Have a heart!"
+
+"We are so glad to see you, Heavy," said Ruth. "You mustn't mind Helen's
+exuberance."
+
+"And you never said a word about coming here when you wrote to us down
+South," Helen said, eyeing the fleshy girl curiously.
+
+"I didn't know what to do," confessed Jennie Stone. "I talked it over
+with Aunt Kate. She agreed with me that, if I had finished school, I'd
+put on about five pounds a month, and that's all I _would_ do."
+
+"Goodness!" gasped Ruth and Helen, together.
+
+"Yes," said Heavy, nodding with emphasis. "That's what I did the first
+month. Nothing to do, you see, but eat and sleep. If I'd had to go to
+work----"
+
+"But couldn't you find something to do?" demanded the energetic Ruth.
+
+"At Lighthouse Point? You know just how lazy a spot that is. And in
+winter in the city it would be worse. So I determined to come here."
+
+"To keep from getting fatter!" cried Helen. "A new reason for coming to
+college."
+
+"Well," said Jennie, seriously, "I missed the gym work and I missed
+being uncomfortable."
+
+"Uncomfortable?" gasped Ruth and Helen.
+
+"Yes. You know, my father's a big man, and so are my older brothers big.
+Everything in our house is big and well stuffed and comfortable--chairs
+and beds and all. I never was comfortable in my bed at Briarwood."
+
+"Horrible!" cried Helen, while Ruth laughed heartily.
+
+"And _here_!" went on Heavy, lugubriously. "Wait till you see. Do you
+know, all they give us here is _cots_ to sleep on? _Cots_, mind!
+Goodness! when I try to turn over I roll right out on the floor. You
+ought to see my sides already, how black-and-blue they are. I've been
+here two nights."
+
+"Why did you come so early?"
+
+"So as to try to get used to the food and the beds," groaned Heavy. "But
+I never will. One teacher already has advised me about my diet. She says
+vegetables are best for me. I ate a peck of string beans this noon for
+lunch--strings and all--and I expect you can pick basting threads out of
+me almost anywhere!"
+
+"The teacher didn't advise you to eat _all_ the vegetables there were,
+did she?" asked Ruth, as they climbed the stairs.
+
+"She did not signify the amount. I just ate till I couldn't get down
+another one. I sha'n't want to see another string bean for some time."
+
+Ruth and Helen easily found the rooms that had been drawn for them the
+June previous. Of course, they were not the best rooms in the hall, for
+the seniors had first choice, and then the juniors and sophomores had
+their innings before the freshmen had a chance.
+
+But there was a door between Ruth's and Helen's rooms, as they had
+hoped, and Jennie's room was just across the corridor.
+
+"We Sweetbriars will stick together, all right," said the fleshy girl.
+"For defence and offence, if necessary."
+
+"You evidently expect to have a strenuous time here, Heavy," laughed
+Ruth.
+
+"No telling," returned Jennie Stone, wagging her head. "I fancy there
+are some 'cut-ups' among the sophs who will try to make our sweet young
+lives miserable. That Edie Phelps, for instance." She told them how the
+sophomores had met the new girl, Rebecca Frayne, and why.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Ruth. "But that was all on _my_ account. We shall have
+to be particularly nice to Miss Frayne. I hope she's on our corridor."
+
+"Do you suppose they will haze you, Ruth, just because you wrote that
+scenario?" asked Helen, somewhat troubled.
+
+"There's no hazing at Ardmore," laughed Ruth. "They can't bother me.
+'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!'"
+she singsonged.
+
+"Just the same," Jennie said, morosely, "that Edie Phelps has a sharp
+tongue."
+
+"We, too, have tongues," proclaimed Helen, who had no intention of being
+put upon.
+
+"Now, girls, we want to take just what is handed us good-naturedly,"
+Ruth advised. "We are freshmen. Next year we will be sophomores, and can
+take it out on the new girls then," and she laughed. "You know, we've
+all been through it at Briarwood."
+
+"Goodness, yes!" agreed Helen. "It can't be as bad at college as it was
+during our first term at Briarwood Hall."
+
+"This Edie Phelps can't be as mean as The Fox 'useter was,' I suppose,"
+added Jennie Stone. "Besides, I fancy the sophs need us freshmen--our
+good will and help, I mean. The two lower classes here have to line up
+against the juniors and seniors."
+
+"Oh, dear, me," sighed Ruth. "I hoped we had come here to study, not to
+fight."
+
+"Pooh!" said the fleshy girl, "where do you go in this world that you
+don't have to fight for your rights? You never get something for
+nothing."
+
+However, the possibility of trouble disturbed their minds but slightly.
+For the rest of the day the trio were very busy. At least, Ruth and
+Helen were busy arranging their rooms and unpacking, and Jennie Stone
+was busy watching them.
+
+They went to the registrar's office that day, as this was required.
+Otherwise, they were in their rooms, after their baggage was delivered,
+occupied until almost dinner time. Heavy had been on the ground long
+enough, as she said, to know most of the ropes. They were supposed to
+dress rather formally for dinner, although not more than two-thirds of
+the girls had arrived.
+
+There were in Dare Hall alone as many pupils as had attended Briarwood
+altogether. This was, indeed, a much larger school life on which they
+were entering.
+
+So many of the girls they saw were older than themselves--and the trio
+of girls had been among the oldest girls at Briarwood during their last
+semester.
+
+"Why, we're only _kids_," sighed Helen. "There's a girl on this
+corridor--at the other end, thank goodness!--who looks old enough to be
+a teacher."
+
+"Miss Comstock," said Heavy. "I know. She's a senior. There are no
+teachers rooming at Dare. Only the housekeeper downstairs. But you'll
+find a senior at the head of each table--and Miss Comstock looks awfully
+stern."
+
+Ruth and Helen found the rooms they were to occupy rather different from
+those they had chummed in at Briarwood. In the first place, these rooms
+were smaller, and the furniture was very plain. As Jennie had warned
+them, there were only cots to sleep upon--very nice cots, it was true,
+and there was a heavy coverlet for each, to turn the cots into divans in
+the daytime.
+
+"I tell you what we can do," Ruth suggested at the start. "Let's make
+one room the study, and both sleep in the other."
+
+"Bully idea," agreed Helen.
+
+They proceeded to do this, the result being a very plain sleeping room,
+indeed, but a well-furnished study. They had brought with them all the
+pennants and other keepsakes from Briarwood, and sofa pillows and
+cushions for the chairs, and innumerable pictures.
+
+Before night the study looked as homelike as the old room had at the
+preparatory school. They had rugs, too, and one big lounging chair,
+purchased second-hand, that Heavy had, of course, occupied most of the
+afternoon.
+
+"Well! I hope you've finished at last," sighed the fleshy girl when the
+warning bell for dinner rang. "I'm about tired out."
+
+"You should be," agreed Ruth, commiseratingly. "You've helped so much."
+
+"Advising is harder than moving furniture and tacking up pictures,"
+proclaimed Jennie. "Brain-fag is the trouble with me and hunger."
+
+"We admit the final symptom," said Helen. "But if your brain is ever
+fagged, Heavy, it will only be from thinking up new and touching menus.
+Come on, now, we're going to scramble into some fresh frocks. You go and
+do the same, Miss Lazybones."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MISS CULLAM'S TROUBLE
+
+
+Ruth and Helen were much more amply supplied with frocks of a somewhat
+dressy order than when they began a semester at Briarwood Hall. Their
+wardrobes here were well filled, and of course there was no supervision
+of what they wore as there had been at the preparatory school.
+
+When they went downstairs to the dining-room with Jennie Stone, they
+found they had made no mistake in "putting their best foot forward," as
+Helen called it.
+
+"My! I feel quite as though I were going to a party," Ruth confessed.
+
+The girls rustled through the corridors and down the wide stairways,
+laughing and talking, many of the freshmen, it was evident, already
+having made friends.
+
+"There's that girl," whispered Jennie Stone, suddenly.
+
+"What girl?" asked Helen.
+
+"Oh! the girl with all the luggage," laughed Ruth.
+
+"Yes," said the fleshy girl. "What was her name?"
+
+"Rebecca Frayne," said Ruth, who had a good memory.
+
+She bowed to the rather over-dressed freshman. She saw that nobody was
+walking with Rebecca Frayne.
+
+"I hope she sits at our table," Ruth added.
+
+"Of course," Helen rejoined, with a smile, "Ruth has already spied
+somebody to be good to."
+
+"Shucks!" said Jennie. "I don't think she'd make a particularly pleasant
+addition to our party."
+
+"What does _that_ matter?" demanded Helen, roguishly. "Ruth is always
+picking up the sore-eyed kittens."
+
+"I think that is unkind," returned Ruth, shaking her head. "Maybe Miss
+Frayne is a very nice girl."
+
+"I wonder what she's got in all those bags and the big trunk?" said
+Jennie. "I see she's wearing the same dress she traveled in."
+
+"I wager she misses her maid," sighed Helen. "Can't dress without one, I
+s'pose."
+
+But there were too many other girls to watch and to comment on for the
+trio to give much attention to Rebecca Frayne. Ruth, however, said, with
+a little laugh:
+
+"I must feel some interest in her. Her initials are the same as mine."
+
+"And her arrival certainly took the curse off yours, my dear," Jennie
+agreed. "Edie Phelps and her crowd were laying for you and no mistake."
+
+"I wonder if we shouldn't eschew all slang now that we have come to
+Ardmore?" Helen suggested demurely.
+
+"You set the example then, my lady!" cried Heavy.
+
+Miss Comstock, the very severe looking senior, sat at the table at which
+the Briarwood trio of freshmen found their numbers; but Miss Frayne was
+at the housekeeper's table. There were ten or twelve girls at each table
+and throughout the meal a pleasant hum of voices filled the room.
+
+Ruth and Helen, not to mention their fleshy chum, were soon at their
+ease with their neighbors; nor did Miss Comstock prove such a bugaboo as
+they feared. Although the senior was a particularly silent girl, she had
+a pleasant smile and was no wet blanket upon the enjoyment of the
+dinner. At least, she did not serve as a wet blanket upon Jennie Stone.
+The fleshy girl's appetite betrayed the fact that she had been stinted
+at noon, and that a diet of string beans was scarcely a satisfactory
+one.
+
+As they left the dining-room and came out into the wide, well-lighted
+entrance hall of the house, a lady just entering bowed to Jennie Stone.
+
+"There she is!" groaned the fleshy girl. "Caught in the act!"
+
+"Who is she, Heavy?" demanded Helen, in an undertone.
+
+"She looks nice," observed Ruth.
+
+"Miss Cullam. She's the one that advised the string beans," declared
+Jennie out of the corner of her mouth. Then she added, most cordially:
+"Oh! how do you do! These are my two chums from Briarwood--Ruth Fielding
+and Helen Cameron. Miss Cullam, girls."
+
+The teacher, who was rather elderly, but very brisk and neat, if not
+wholly attractive, approached smiling.
+
+"You will meet me in mathematics, young ladies," she said, shaking hands
+with the two introduced freshmen. "And how are you to-night, Miss Stone?
+Have you stuck to your vegetable diet, as I advised?"
+
+Heavy made her jolly, round face seem as long as possible, and groaned
+hollowly.
+
+"Oh, Miss Cullam!" she said, "I believe I could have stuck to the diet,
+if----"
+
+"Well, if what?" demanded the teacher.
+
+"If the diet would only stick to _me_. But it doesn't. I ate _pecks_ of
+string beans for lunch, and by the middle of the afternoon I felt like a
+castaway after two weeks upon a desert island."
+
+"Nonsense, Miss Stone!" exclaimed the teacher, yet laughing too. Heavy
+was so ridiculous that it was impossible not to be amused. "You should
+practise abstinence. Really, you are the very fattest girl at Ardmore, I
+do believe."
+
+"That sounds horrid!" declared Jennie with sudden vigor, and she did not
+look pleased.
+
+"You may as well face the truth, my dear," said the mathematics teacher,
+eyeing the distressing curves of the fleshy girl without prejudice.
+"Here are upwards of a thousand girls--or will be when all have arrived
+and registered. And you will be locally famous."
+
+"Oh, don't!" groaned Ruth.
+
+"Poor Heavy!" gasped Helen.
+
+Miss Cullam uttered a short laugh.
+
+"Your friends evidently love you, my dear," she said, patting the fleshy
+girl's plump cheek. "But you want to make new friends--you wish to be
+admired, I know. It will not be pleasant to gain the reputation of being
+Ardmore's heavyweight, will it?"
+
+"It sounds pretty bad," admitted Heavy, coming out of her momentary
+slough of despond. "But we all have our little troubles, don't we, Miss
+Cullam?"
+
+Somehow this question seemed to quench the teacher of mathematics' good
+spirits. A cloud settled upon her countenance, and she nodded seriously.
+
+"We all have; true enough, Miss Stone," she said. "And I hope you, as
+pupils at Ardmore, will never suffer such disturbance of mind as I, a
+teacher, sometimes do."
+
+Ruth, who had started up the stairway next to the teacher, put a
+friendly hand upon Miss Cullam's arm. "I hope we three will never add to
+your burdens, my dear Miss Cullam," she whispered.
+
+The instructor flashed a rather wondering look at the girl of the Red
+Mill; then she smiled. It was a grouty person, indeed, who could look
+into Ruth Fielding's frank countenance and not return her smile.
+
+"Bless you! I have heard of you already, Ruth Fielding. I have no idea I
+shall be troubled by you or your friends." They had fallen behind the
+others a few steps. "But we never can tell. Since last term--well!"
+
+Much, evidently, was on Miss Cullam's mind; yet she kept step with Ruth
+when they came to the corridor on which the rooms of the three
+Briarwoods opened. Ruth could always find something pleasant to say.
+This woman with the care-graved countenance smiled whimsically as she
+listened, keeping at the girl's shoulder.
+
+Evidently somewhat oppressed by the attentions of the instructor, Helen
+and Heavy had disappeared into the fleshy girl's room.
+
+"Do come in and see how nicely we have fixed our sitting-room--study, I
+mean, of course," and Ruth laughed, opening the door.
+
+"Looks homelike," confessed Miss Cullam. Then, with a startled glance
+around the room, she murmured: "Why, it's the very room!"
+
+"What is that you say?" asked Ruth, curiously.
+
+"Do you know who had this room last year?"
+
+"Of course I haven't the first idea," returned the girl of the Red Mill.
+
+"Miss Rolff."
+
+"Do I know her?" asked Ruth, somewhat puzzled.
+
+"She left before the end of the term. I--I am not sure just what the
+matter was with her. But she is connected in my mind with a great
+misfortune."
+
+"Indeed, Miss Cullam?" said the sympathetic Ruth.
+
+It was, perhaps, the sympathy in her tone that urged the instructor to
+confide her trouble to a strange girl--a freshman, at that!
+
+"I hope I shall never have the same fears and doubts regarding you and
+your friends, Miss Fielding, that I have felt about some of these girls
+who are now sophomores--and some of the juniors, too."
+
+"Oh, Miss Cullam! What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you, my dear," the teacher said, taking the comfortable
+chair at Ruth's gestured recommendation, as the girl switched on the
+electricity. "You seem like an above-the-average sensible girl----"
+
+Ruth laughed at that, but she dimpled, too, and Miss Cullam joined in
+the laughter.
+
+"Some of these girls were mere flyaways," she said. "But not many, after
+all. Girls who come as far as college, even to the freshman course in
+college, usually have something in their pretty noddles besides ideas
+for dressing their hair.
+
+"Well, I will confide in you, as I say, because I have a fancy to. I
+like you. Listen to the troubles of a poor mathematics instructor."
+
+"Yes, Miss Cullam," said Ruth, demurely.
+
+"You see, my dear," said Miss Cullam, who had a whimsical way about her
+that Ruth had begun to delight in, "after all, we college instructors
+are all necessarily of the race of watch dogs."
+
+"Oh, Miss Cullam!"
+
+"Our girls are put upon their honor and are in the main worthy of our
+confidence. But we have experiences that show us how frail human virtue
+is.
+
+"For instance, there are examinations. A most trying necessity are
+examinations. They come mainly toward the close of the college year, and
+a few of our girls are not prepared to pass.
+
+"Last year I felt that some of my freshmen and sophomores could not
+possibly comply with the mathematical requirements. When I received from
+the printers my copies of the questions to be proposed to the classes I
+really felt that a few of my girls were going to have a hard time," and
+she smiled again, yet there was still trouble in her eyes.
+
+"I chanced to be in the library when I received the papers. You have not
+seen our library yet, have you, Miss Fielding?"
+
+"No, Miss Cullam. You know, Helen and I arrived only this afternoon at
+Ardmore."
+
+"That is so. Well, the library is a very beautifully furnished building.
+It was a gift from certain alumni. I was alone in the reception-room
+when I examined the papers, and being called suddenly to a duty and not
+wishing to take the papers with me, I rolled them up and thrust them
+into a vase standing upon the table. When I returned in a few minutes,
+still hurried by a task before me, I found that I had thrust the papers
+so far into the small-mouthed vase that I could not reach them. Quite a
+ridiculous situation, was it not?
+
+"But now the plot thickens," went on the teacher, with a sigh. "The
+papers were safe enough there, of course. The vase was a very beautiful
+and valuable silver one, and had its place of honor on that table. I
+could not stop to retrieve the question papers with a pair of tongs--as
+I might, had I not been hurried. When I returned armed with the tongs in
+the morning----"
+
+"Yes, Miss Cullam?" rejoined Ruth, interestedly, as the teacher paused
+in her story.
+
+"The vase--and, of course, the question papers--was gone," said the
+lady, in a sepulchral tone.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"And almost all the girls I had marked for failure in mathematics went
+through the examination with colors flying!"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Ruth again, and quite blankly.
+
+"Do you see the terrible suspicion that has been eating at my mind ever
+since? There happened to be other unfortunate matters connected with the
+disappearance of the vase, too. _It_ has never been found. One of the
+very freshmen who I feared would fail in the examination left the
+college under a cloud."
+
+"Oh, Miss Cullam!" gasped Ruth. "Is she suspected of stealing the
+vase--and the examination papers?"
+
+"I scarcely know what to say in answer to that," said Miss Cullam,
+gravely. "It seems that one of the sororities was initiating candidates
+on that night. One of the--er--'stunts,' as they call their ridiculous
+ceremonies, included the filching of this vase after dark and its burial
+somewhere on Bliss Island. So Dr. Milroth later informed me.
+
+"The girl chosen for this ridiculous performance, Miss Rolff, who
+occupied this very room, was found at daybreak wandering alone upon the
+island in a hysterical condition. She insisted upon leaving the college
+immediately, before I had discovered the absence of the vase and the
+missing papers.
+
+"I felt that I could not arouse suspicion in Dr. Milroth's mind by
+mentioning the papers. I secured copies from the printer. Of course, it
+is all ancient history now, my dear," ended the mathematics teacher,
+with a sigh. "But you see, suspicion once fastened upon my mind, it
+still troubles me."
+
+"But what became of the poor girl?" asked Ruth, sympathetically.
+
+"That I cannot tell you," Miss Cullam said, rising. "She has not
+returned this year, and I understand that Dr. Milroth lost trace of
+her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FAME IS NOT ALWAYS AN ASSET
+
+
+Just why the teacher of mathematics had taken Ruth Fielding into her
+confidence upon this rather curious event, it would be hard to say.
+Teachers are human like other people, and perhaps sometimes prone to
+gossip.
+
+However, Ruth felt that it was a confidence, and she did not mention the
+matter of the missing examination papers to her chum or to Jennie Stone.
+The other Briarwood girls were the only members of the freshman class
+Ruth was likely to be intimate with for some days.
+
+Friendships are not made so quickly at college as at smaller schools.
+There were so many girls that it took some time for the trio to adjust
+themselves and to become acquainted with their mates.
+
+In the morning they went again to the registrar's office, and there they
+met Miss Dexter, who was appointed to escort them about, show them the
+college offices, the bookstore, and introduce them to such of the
+instructors as came in the path of the new girls.
+
+Of course, their tuition fees--one hundred and seventy-five dollars
+each--for the year had been already paid. Their board would be nine
+dollars weekly, and all books, stationery, gymnastic suits and supplies,
+as well as medical and hospital fees (if they chanced to be ill) would
+be extra.
+
+There were only a few simple rules of behavior to note. If a girl is not
+well trained in ladylike demeanor before arriving at the college age she
+is, of course, hopeless. The faculty have other things to do besides
+watching the manners as well as the mental attributes, of the students.
+
+Ruth and her friends learned that they were not to leave the college
+grounds before six in the morning.
+
+"And who'd want to?" demanded Heavy. "That's the best time to sleep."
+
+However, the fleshy girl soon learned that if she was to have a
+reasonable time for breakfast she must be up betimes. The meal was
+served from seven to a quarter to eight. Chapel was at eight-thirty, but
+not compulsory. Recitations began at nine and lunch was at twelve.
+
+Recitations and lectures (these latter did not interest our freshmen,
+for they had no lectures the first year) ended at three-thirty, when,
+all the girls were supposed to take gymnastics of some kind. Otherwise,
+their time was their own until dinner at six o'clock.
+
+The girls had the time free from seven till seven-thirty. The following
+two hours were those devoted to quiet study (or should be) in their own
+rooms, or in the reference department of the library. At ten all were
+supposed to retire.
+
+The students might leave the grounds at any time during the day, but
+never in the evening without a chaperon. These rules and requirements
+seemed easy enough to the trio from Briarwood Hall, used as they were to
+the far stricter oversight of the teachers in the preparatory
+institution.
+
+More girls appeared at Ardmore that day, and the one following would see
+the opening of the semester and, as Jennie Stone said, "the buckling
+down to real work." A notice was posted on the bulletin boards already
+commanding all freshmen to meet at Hoskin Hall after dinner that
+evening, signed by the president of the sophomore class.
+
+"What's _she_ got to do with _us_?" Helen demanded, with a sniff.
+
+"Aren't we allowed to run our own class affairs here?" Heavy asked.
+
+"I fancy not," Ruth rejoined. "Miss Dexter told me that the sophs and
+freshies were usually lined up against the two older classes. The sophs
+need us, and we need them."
+
+"I have an idea," said Heavy, with a warning shake of her head, "that
+some of the sophs don't care so much for us."
+
+The trio were returning from the college hall as they chatted. Helen
+suddenly exclaimed:
+
+"Girls! did you ever see so many tam-o'-shanters in your little lives?
+And such a wealth of colors?"
+
+It was true that every girl in sight (and there were "just hundreds!" to
+quote Heavy again), unless she were bareheaded, wore a tam-o'-shanter.
+
+"The most popular thing in head covering at Ardmore this year, that is
+sure," said Ruth.
+
+"Oh! will you look at the one that Frayne girl is wearing?" Helen
+gasped.
+
+"Goodness!" said Heavy. "Looks like an Italian sunset."
+
+"Or a badly scrambled egg," put in Helen. "There! I believe that girl
+would look a fright whatever she put on."
+
+"She can't help her taste, poor girl," Ruth said.
+
+"My!" sighed Heavy. "I like to hear you talk, Ruth. You're as full of
+excuses for everybody criticised as a chestnut is of meat," and she
+nibbled one of the nuts in question as she spoke. Then:
+
+"Wow! Oh, the nasty thing!"
+
+Helen laughed uproariously. "Something besides meat in that chestnut,
+Heavy. Did it squirm much?"
+
+"Don't ask me," said the fleshy girl, gloomily. "Of such is life! 'I
+never owned a gay gazelle----'"
+
+"Cut it out. You never owned a gazelle of any kind," said Helen. "You
+know you never did."
+
+It was just here that the trio came upon a group of girls of whom Edith
+Phelps was evidently the leader. It was opposite the gymnasium, under
+the wide-spreading oaks that gave shade to that quarter of the campus.
+The Briarwood girls had been about to enter the gymnasium building to
+look around.
+
+Edith and her friends were mostly in gymnasium costumes. They had been
+tossing the medicine ball; but it was plain that they had gathered here
+near the path the three freshmen friends followed, for a purpose.
+
+"Oh, here comes the leading lady!" cried Edith Phelps, in a high and
+affected voice. "Get set! Camera!"
+
+The girls, or most of them, struck most ridiculous attitudes at Edie's
+word, while an oblong, black box suddenly appeared, affixed upon a
+tripod, and May MacGreggor, who was out for fun as much as any of the
+sophomores, began to turn a tiny crank on one side of the box.
+
+"Hi! what are you trying to do--you fat person there?" demanded Edie,
+excitedly, imitating a movie director, and waving back the amazed and
+somewhat angry Jennie Stone. "Want to crab the film?"
+
+"Oh, the mean things!" gasped Helen, growing as red as though the joke
+were aimed directly at herself.
+
+"Cracky!" murmured the fleshy girl, who couldn't help seeing the
+ridiculous side of it. "Isn't that funny?"
+
+At the moment, too, a thin little tune began to wander from the black
+box, none other than "The Wearing of the Green." Inside the box was one
+of those little, old-fashioned Swiss music boxes, and May was
+industriously turning the crank.
+
+"Register fear, Miss Fielding!" shouted Edith, energetically. "Fear, I
+say! Don't you realize that you are about to be flung over a cliff and
+that a mad bull is waiting bel-o-o-w to catch you on his horns? Close up
+of the bull, please!"
+
+Ruth had been first surprised, then not a little displeased; but she
+knew instinctively if she showed that this buffoonry offended and
+troubled her it would only be repeated again and again.
+
+Much better able than her chum, Helen Cameron, to control her features,
+she began now to smile broadly.
+
+"Girls!" she said aloud to her two friends, "it must be that that girl
+knows Mr. Grimes personally or has seen him at work. You remember Mr.
+Grimes, the Alectrion director who filmed our play at Briarwood?"
+
+"And was so nasty to Hazel Gray? I should say!" exclaimed Jennie,
+instantly falling in with Ruth's attempt to pass the incident off as a
+joke.
+
+"I think _she's_ nasty-mean," muttered Helen, her black eyes snapping.
+
+"If you played that tune while making a film for me, Miss MacGreggor, I
+should want to jig," Heavy cried, and started to do a few ridiculous
+steps in front of the black box.
+
+Ruth continued to smile, too, saying to Edith Phelps: "You might have
+warned us of this. I'd have liked to primp a little before posing for
+the camera."
+
+The other girls laughed. It did not take much to make them laugh, and it
+is possible that they laughed as much at Edie as with her. But as the
+trio of freshmen went on toward Dare Hall, Ruth shook her head
+doubtfully.
+
+"What's the matter, Ruthie?" asked Helen, squeezing her arm. "The mean
+things!"
+
+"I wonder," murmured Ruth.
+
+"You wonder what?" demanded Helen.
+
+Ruth sighed. "I guess fame isn't always an asset," she said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE STONE FACE
+
+
+Ruth knew better than to show anger over any such silly joke. If she was
+to be made the laughing stock of her class by the sophomores, she might
+as well face it and bear the cross good-naturedly.
+
+Ruth was as sensitive as any refined girl. It hurt her to be ridiculed.
+But she had not spent years at boarding school without learning that the
+best way--indeed, the only way--to bear successfully such indignity
+is to ignore it. That is, to ignore the fun poked at one as far as
+possible. To bear the jokes with a smile. So she would not allow her
+friends to comment much upon this scene before the gymnasium building.
+
+She had never given herself airs because of her success in writing
+scenarios. Another girl might have done so. But Ruth was naturally
+modest, and had never really ceased to be surprised at her own success.
+
+The new scenario she was at work upon, the scenes of which were laid at
+the Red Mill, was born of an idea she had evolved when her attention had
+first been turned to motion-picture writing.
+
+Mr. Hammond, her kind friend and the president of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation, had advised her to postpone the use of this idea until she
+had tried her apprentice hand on other and simpler scenarios. The time
+seemed ripe now, however, for the writing of "Crossed Wires," and he had
+encouraged her to go ahead.
+
+All the visible effect Edith Phelps' joke had upon Ruth was to send her
+to the unfinished scenario. After returning from the college offices on
+this occasion she worked on her play until lunch time.
+
+"There's too much new to see and to do for you to pore over letter
+writing, Ruth," Helen declared, misunderstanding her friend's
+occupation. "We want to see Ardmore. We want to go out on the lake if we
+can get a boat. We've got to see the gym and the library. And to-night
+we must turn up at this meeting, it seems, and see what Miss Dunstan,
+the soph president, has to say to us freshies."
+
+"Oh, I want to go out on the lake!" cried Ruth, agreeing. "And I want to
+explore that island."
+
+"What island?" demanded Jennie, coming into the chums' study.
+
+"Bliss Island."
+
+"'Tisn't part of the college grounds," said the fleshy girl.
+
+"Don't care. Want to see it," declared Ruth. "I hope we can get a boat.
+I didn't see many in use this morning."
+
+"Some of the girls own their own. Especially canoes," said Jennie Stone.
+"But it's _the_ thing to make the 'eight.' Let me tell you, us Ardmores
+are supposed to be some rowists! Our first eight beat the Gillings
+College first eight last June."
+
+"We'll all try for the eight then," Helen said.
+
+"And _you_, Jennie?" asked Ruth, mildly.
+
+"Oh, _me_!"
+
+"String beans for yours, Heavy," Helen cried, clapping her hands.
+"You'll have to diet on them until you have reduced to little more than
+a string yourself if you expect to make the eight."
+
+"Bet I could do it," grumbled Heavy.
+
+"A bet's a bet!" cried Helen. "I take you."
+
+"Don't be rude, girls," advised Ruth. "You sound like regular,
+sure-enough gamblers. And, anyway, Heavy will never be able to make the
+eight. She might as well pay her wager now."
+
+"Oh! oh! oh!" laughed Helen. "A palpable hit!"
+
+"You just see!" said Heavy, firmly. "I'll show you."
+
+"My dear," Ruth said, "if you show us a sylph-like form in time to make
+the freshman eight----"
+
+"It will be the eighth wonder of the world," finished Helen.
+
+Jennie tossed her head. "I don't know about the sylph-like form, but at
+least I mean to possess a slender figure when I have followed Miss
+Cullam's advice on diet. You'll see!"
+
+"Poor Heavy!" groaned Helen. "She is letting herself in for a most awful
+time, and no mistake."
+
+After luncheon the three girls set forth to explore the place.
+
+"If I keep this up I'll need nothing else to get me thin. We have
+tramped miles," the fleshy girl announced at length. "Oh! my poor, poor
+feet!"
+
+"Wear sensible shoes, then," said Helen, who was the very last person to
+follow her own advice on this point.
+
+"Easy enough to say," groaned Jennie. "There ain't any such an animal!
+You know that in this day and generation shoe makers have ceased to make
+sensible shoes. I look at 'em in the shop windows," pursued the aching
+girl, "and I wonder what sort of foot the human pedal extremity will
+become in a generation or two. Those pointed toes!
+
+"Why," declared the suddenly warmed up Jennie Stone, "they tell us about
+a two-toed sloth living in Central and South America. Believe _me_! the
+present-day shoemaker seems to have secured a last to fit a _one_-toed
+sloth."
+
+"I don't know about the number of their toes," Ruth said, laughing; "but
+many of those who wear the fancy shoes are _sloths_, all right."
+
+They had looked over the library before this, and walked down past
+Hoskin and Hemmingway Halls on the west side of the campus, and so
+reached the lake. There were some girls at the boathouse, and a few
+craft were out. It was possible for the three friends to get a boat and
+Ruth and Helen rowed, with Heavy lazily reclining in the stern.
+
+"Beginning that strenuous life that is to reduce your weight, Heavy?"
+questioned Helen.
+
+"I am practising deep breathing," Jennie said. "They say that helps a
+lot."
+
+They headed the light skiff directly for Bliss Island. It was not more
+than a mile off shore, and was a beautiful place. At the landing they
+saw several girls whom they knew were sophomores, for among them was May
+MacGreggor.
+
+"Here are some more of Cook's Trippers," said the Scotch girl, gaily.
+"Seeing the sights, _mes infantes_?"
+
+"Trying to," Jennie announced. "But you're really not so bad looking,
+Miss MacGreggor. I wouldn't call you a 'sight.'"
+
+"Now, that will be all of that, Miss Stone!" exclaimed the sophomore,
+but her brown eyes danced as the other girls laughed. "I believe you
+three girls are Briarwoods, are you not?"
+
+"Yes," Helen said.
+
+"I can believe it," said May. "I have felt the briers. Now, let us call
+a truce."
+
+"With all my heart, Miss MacGreggor," Ruth said quickly.
+
+"You're a good little thing!" returned the Scotch girl. "I know your
+heart is big enough. And we sophs really shouldn't nag you freshies, you
+know, for we must pull together against the seniors and juniors. But
+you'll hear about that to-night."
+
+"Thank you, Miss MacGreggor," Ruth said. "And now that we are at this
+island, would you mind telling us where the Stone Face is situated?"
+
+"Ah! one of the wonders of the place," said May. "And who told you about
+the Stone Face, Freshie?"
+
+"I have heard it is well worth seeing," said Ruth, demurely.
+
+"I will be your escort," said May.
+
+They found the Scotch girl very companionable. She led them up a rugged
+path through the trees and around the rocks.
+
+"And did that girl have to come up here--_and in the dark_?" murmured
+Ruth at last.
+
+"What girl?" Helen asked.
+
+"Who are you talking about, Miss Fielding?" asked the sophomore.
+
+"That girl--Miss Rolff."
+
+"Oh! don't mention her name!" groaned May MacGreggor. "If it hadn't been
+for _her_, you-uns and we-uns wouldn't be cut out of the sororities. A
+wicked shame!"
+
+"Oh, I've heard about that," said Jennie, puffing because of the hard
+climb. "Did she really have to come here, and _alone_, when she was
+initiated?"
+
+"She started for here," said May, gloomily. "With a flashlight, I
+believe. But she lost her nerve----
+
+"There! there's the rock you're looking for."
+
+It was a huge boulder in an open field. At the angle from which they
+viewed it, the face of the rock really bore some semblance to a human
+countenance--the features of an old, old woman.
+
+"Ugly old hag!" was May MacGreggor's comment upon the odd boulder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+GETTING ON
+
+
+The three freshmen friends from Briarwood learned a good deal more that
+evening than the Year Book would ever have taught them. The girls began
+to crowd into the Hoskin Hall dining-room right after dinner. The
+seniors and the juniors disappeared, but there were a large number of
+sophomores present, besides the president of that class who addressed
+the freshmen.
+
+The latter learned that in athletics especially the rivalry between the
+two lower and the two upper classes was intense. It was hardly possible,
+of course, for any of the freshmen, and for few of the sophomores to
+gain positions on any of the first college teams in basket ball, rowing,
+tennis, archery, or other important activities of a physical nature.
+
+All athletic sports, which included, as well as those named above,
+running and jumping and other track work, were under the direct
+supervision of the college athletic association. All the girls could
+belong to that. Indeed, they were expected to, and the fees were small.
+But for a freshman to show sufficient athletic training to make any of
+the first teams, would almost seem impossible. They could get on the
+scrubs and possess their souls with patience, hoping to win places on
+the first teams perhaps in their sophomore year.
+
+However, there had once been a girl in a freshman class at Ardmore who
+succeeded in throwing the hammer a record-making distance; and once a
+freshman had been bow oar in the first eight. These were targets to aim
+for, Miss Dunstan, the sophomore president, told the new girls.
+
+She was, of course, a member of the athletic committee, and having told
+the new girls all about the sports she proceeded to advise them about
+organizing their class and electing officers. This should be done by the
+end of the first fortnight. Meanwhile, the freshman should get together,
+become acquainted, and electioneer for the election of officers.
+
+Class politics at Ardmore meant something. There were already groups and
+cliques forming among the freshmen. It was an honor to hold office in
+the class, and those who were ambitious, or who wished to control the
+policy of the class, were already at work.
+
+Ruth and her friends were so ambitious in quite another direction--in
+two, in fact--that they rather overlooked these class activities. The
+following day actually opened the work of the semester, and as they
+already had their books the trio settled immediately to their lessons.
+
+They were taking the classical course, a four-years' course. During this
+first year their studies would be English, a language (their choice of
+French or German) besides the never-to-be-escaped Latin; mathematics,
+including geometry, trigonometry and higher algebra. They had not yet
+decided whether to take botany or chemistry as the additional study.
+
+"We want to keep together as much as possible, in classes as well as
+out," Helen said. "Let's take the same specials, too."
+
+"I vote for botany," Ruth suggested. "That will take us into the woods
+and fields more."
+
+"You mean, it will give us an excuse for going into the woods and
+fields," Jennie said. "I'm with you. And if I have to walk much to cut
+down weight, it will help."
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed Helen. "Heavy really _has_ come to college to
+get rid of her superabundance of fat."
+
+"Surest thing you know," agreed the fleshy girl.
+
+The freshmen learned that they would have from fifteen to eighteen
+recitation periods weekly, of forty-five minutes each. The recitation
+periods occurred between nine and twelve in the forenoon and one and
+three-thirty in the afternoon.
+
+It took several days to get all these things arranged rightly; the three
+friends managed to get together in all classes. The classes numbered
+from twenty to forty students and the girls began to get acquainted with
+the teachers very quickly. Trust youth for judging middle-age almost
+immediately.
+
+"I like Dr. McCurdy," Helen said, speaking of their English instructor,
+who was a man. "He knows what he's about and goes right at it. No
+fooling with him. None of this, 'Now young ladies, I hope you are
+pleasantly situated and that we are going to be good friends.' Pah!"
+
+Ruth laughed. "The dear old things!" she said gaily. "They mean
+well--even that Miss Mara, whom you are imitating. And she _does_ have a
+beautiful French accent, if she _is_ Irish."
+
+They liked Dr. Frances Milroth. Her talk in chapel was an inspiration,
+and that first morning some of the girls came out into the sunshine with
+wet eyelashes. They began to realize that they were here at college for
+something besides either play or ordinary study. They were at Ardmore to
+learn to get a grip on life.
+
+Instrumental and vocal music could be taken at any time which did not
+interfere with the regular recitations, and of course Ruth took the
+latter as a special, while Helen did not neglect her violin.
+
+"I guess I'll take up the study of the oboe," grumbled Jennie Stone. "I
+don't seem to know just what to do with myself while you girls are
+making sweet sounds."
+
+"Why don't you roll, Heavy?" demanded Helen.
+
+"Roll _what_? Roll a hoop?" asked the fleshy girl.
+
+"No. Roll a barrel, I should say would be nearer to it," Helen
+responded, eyeing Jennie's plump waistline reflectively. "Get down and
+roll. Move back the furniture, give yourself plenty of room, and _roll_.
+They say that will reduce one's curves."
+
+"Wow! And what would the girl say downstairs under me?" asked Jennie
+Stone. "I'd begin by being the most unpopular girl in this freshman
+class."
+
+These first few days were busy ones; but the girls of the freshman class
+were fast learning just where they stood. Then happened something that
+awoke most of the class to the fact that they needed to get together,
+that they must, after all, take up cudgels for themselves.
+
+"Just like a flock of silly sheep, running together when they see a
+dog," Helen at first said.
+
+"I guess there is a good reason in nature for sheep to do that," Ruth
+said, on reflection. "Sheep fear wolves more than any other animal, and
+a dog is a wolf, after all, only domesticated."
+
+"Huh!" grunted Jennie. "Then we are sheep and the seniors are wolves,
+are they? I could eat up most of these seniors I've seen, myself. I will
+be a savage sheep--woof! woof!"
+
+The matter that had made the disturbance, however, was not to be
+ignored.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT
+
+
+Arrangements for the organization of the freshman class had lagged.
+
+This fact may have been behind the notice put upon the bulletin boards
+all over the Ardmore grounds some time after bedtime one evening and
+before the rising bell rang the next morning. It intimated a bit of
+hazing, but hazing of a quality that the faculty could only wink at.
+
+The notice was as follows:
+
+     FRESHMEN
+
+     _It is the command of the Senior Class of Ardmore that no Freshman
+     shall appear within the college grounds wearing a tam-o'-shanter of
+     any other hue save the herewith designated color, to wit: Baby
+     Blue. This order is for the mental and spiritual good of the
+     incoming class of Freshmen. Any member of said class refusing to
+     obey this order will be summarily dealt with by the upper classes
+     of Ardmore._
+
+Groups gathered immediately after breakfast about the bulletin boards.
+Of course, the seniors and juniors passed by with dignified bearing, and
+without comment. The sophomores remained upon the outskirts of the
+groups of excited freshmen to laugh and jeer.
+
+"A disturbed bumblebees' nest could have hummed no louder," Helen
+declared, as the three friends walked up to chapel, which they made a
+point of attending.
+
+"Why! to think of the _cheek_ of those seniors!" ejaculated Jennie. "And
+the juniors are just as bad!"
+
+"What are you going to do about that tam of yours, Heavy?" asked Ruth,
+slily. "It's a gay thing--nothing like baby blue."
+
+"Oh well," growled the fleshy girl, "baby blue is one of my favorite
+colors."
+
+"Mine, too," said Ruth, drily.
+
+"Oh, girls! Are you going to give right in--_so_ easy?" gasped Helen.
+
+"I don't feel like making myself conspicuous," Ruth said. "You can wager
+that most of our class will hustle right off and get the proper hue in
+tams."
+
+"Then we'd better go to town this very afternoon," Jennie cried, in
+haste, "and see if we can find three of baby blue shade. The stores will
+be drained of them by to-morrow."
+
+"But to give--right--in!" wailed Helen, who dearly loved a fight.
+
+"No. It isn't that. But, as the advertisements say: 'Eventually, so why
+not now?' We'll have to come to it. Let's get our tams while the
+tamming's good."
+
+Helen could not see the reason for obeying the senior order; but she
+could see no reason, either, for not following her chum's lead. The
+three girls telephoned for a taxicab, which came to Dare Hall for them
+at half past three.
+
+They were not the only girls going to town; but some of the freshmen,
+like Helen, wished to display their independence and refused--as yet--to
+obey the senior command.
+
+A line at the bottom of the notice announced that three days were
+allowed the freshmen to obtain their proper tam-o'-shanters.
+
+"Three days!" gasped Heavy, as they started off in the little car. "Why,
+it will take the stores in Greenburg two weeks to supply sufficient tams
+of the proper color."
+
+"Then if we don't get ours," laughed Ruth, "we'd better go bareheaded
+until the new tams can be sent us from home."
+
+"I won't do that!" cried the annoyed Helen. "Oh! oh!" she exclaimed, the
+next moment, and before they were out of the grounds. "See Miss Frayne!
+She has her scrambled-egg tam on."
+
+"Don't you suppose she has read the notice?" worried Ruth.
+
+"Why hasn't she?"
+
+"Well, she seems to flock together with herself so much. Nobody seems to
+be chummy with her--yet," Ruth explained.
+
+"Now, old Mother Worry!" exclaimed Helen, "bother about _her_, will
+you?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Ruth, demurely. "I shall, I suppose."
+
+"Goodness, Ruth!" cried Jennie.
+
+They discovered a rather strange thing when they arrived in Greenburg
+and entered the first store that dealt in ladies' apparel. Oh, yes,
+indeed! the proprietor had tam-o'-shanters of just the required shade,
+baby blue. The friends bought immediately for fear some of the other
+girls who had come to town would find these and buy the proprietor out.
+
+And then, prone to the usual feminine frailty, they went "window
+shopping." And in every store seeking trade from the college girls they
+found the baby blue tam-o'-shanters.
+
+"It's the most astonishing thing!" gasped Helen. "What do you suppose it
+means? Did you ever see so many caps of one kind and color in all your
+life?"
+
+"It is amazing," agreed Ruth. Yet she was reflective.
+
+Jennie began to laugh. "Wonder if the seniors are just helping out their
+friends among the tradespeople? It looks as though the storekeepers had
+bought a superabundance of baby blue caps and the seniors were putting
+it up to us to save the stores from bankruptcy."
+
+Ruth, however, thought it must be something other than that. Was it that
+the storekeepers had been notified by the senior "powers that be" to be
+ready to supply a sudden large demand for tam-o'-shanters of that
+particular hue?
+
+At least, one little Hebrew asked the three friends if they had already
+bought their tam-o'-shanters. "For vy, I haf a whole case of your class
+colors, ladies, that my poy iss opening."
+
+"What class color?" demanded Helen, grumpily enough.
+
+"Oh, Mees! A peau-ti-ful plue!"
+
+"They're all doing it! They're all doing it!" murmured Jennie,
+staggering out of the "emporium." "This is going to affect my brain,
+girls. _Did_ the seniors know the storekeepers had the tams in stock, or
+have the storekeepers been put wise by our elder sisters at Ardmore?"
+
+"What's the odds?" finally laughed Helen, as they got into the waiting
+car. "We've got _our_ tams. I only hope there are enough to go around."
+
+The appearance of more than a score of baby-blue caps on the campus
+before evening showed that our trio of freshmen were not the only
+members of their class who considered it wise to obey the mandate of the
+lordly seniors, and without question.
+
+The tempest in the teapot, however, continued to rage. Many girls
+declared they had not come to Ardmore to "be made monkeys of."
+
+"No," May MacGreggor was heard to say. "Some of you were already
+assisted by nature. But get together, freshies! Can't you read the
+handwriting on the wall?"
+
+"We can read the typewriting on the billboards," sniffed Helen Cameron.
+"Don't ask us to strain our eyesight farther."
+
+Perhaps this was really the intention behind the senior order--that the
+entering girls should become more quickly riveted into a compact body.
+How the rooms occupied by the more popular freshmen buzzed during the
+next few days!
+
+Our trio of friends, Ruth, Helen and Jennie, had been in danger of
+establishing a clique of three, if they had but known it. Now they were
+forced to extend their borders of acquaintanceship.
+
+As they were three, and were usually seen about the study-room Ruth and
+Helen had established, it was natural that other girls of their class on
+that corridor of Dale Hall should flock to them. They thus became the
+nucleus at this side of the campus of the freshman class. From
+discussing the rule of the haughty seniors, the freshmen began to talk
+of their own organization and the approaching election.
+
+Had Ruth allowed her friends to do so, there would have been started a
+boom by Helen and Jennie Stone for the girl of the Red Mill for
+president of the freshman class. This honor Ruth did not desire. There
+were several girls whom she had noted already among her mates, older
+than she, and who evidently possessed qualities for the position.
+
+Besides, Ruth Fielding felt that if she became unduly prominent at first
+at Ardmore, girls like Edith Phelps would consider her a particularly
+bright target. She told herself again, but this time in private, that
+fame was not always an asset.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE ONE REBEL
+
+
+However much the natural independence of the freshmen balked at the
+mandate promulgated by the seniors, baby-blue tam-o'-shanters grew more
+numerous every hour on the Ardmore campus.
+
+The sophomores were evidently filled with glee; the juniors and seniors
+smiled significantly, but said nothing. The freshmen had been put in
+their place at once, it was considered. But the attack upon them had
+made the newcomers eager for an organization of their own.
+
+"If we are going to be bossed this way--and it is disgraceful!--we must
+be prepared to withstand imposition," Helen announced.
+
+So they began busily settling the matter of the organization of the
+class and the choosing of its officers. Before these matters were
+arranged completely, however, there was an incident of note.
+
+The freshmen, as a body, were invited to attend a sophomore "roar." It
+was to be the first out-of-door "roar" of the year and occurred right
+after classes and lectures one afternoon. The two lower classes scamped
+their gymnasium work to make it a success.
+
+Now, a "roar" at Ardmore was much nicer than it sounds. It was merely an
+open-air singing festival, and this one was for the purpose of making
+the freshmen familiar with the popular songs of the college.
+
+Professor Leidenburg, the musical director, himself led the outdoor
+concert. The sophomores stood in a compact body before the main entrance
+to the college hall. Massed in the background, and in a half circle,
+were the freshmen.
+
+The weather had become cool and all the girls wore their
+tam-o'-shanters. For the first time it was noticeable how pretty the
+pale blue caps on the freshmen's heads looked. And the new girls
+likewise noted that most of the tam-o'-shanters worn-by their sophomore
+hostesses were pale yellow.
+
+It was whispered then (and strange none of the freshmen had discovered
+it before) that the class preceding theirs at Ardmore--the present
+sophomores--had been forced to wear caps of a distinctive color, too.
+These pale yellow ones were their old caps, left over from the previous
+winter.
+
+The open-air assemblages of the college were made more attractive by
+this scheme of a particular class color in head-wear.
+
+There was a blot in the assembly of the freshmen on this occasion. It
+was not discovered in the beginning. Soon, however, there was much
+whispering, and looking about and pointing.
+
+"Do you see _that_?" gasped Jennie, who had been straining her neck and
+hopping up and down on her toes to see what the other girls were looking
+at.
+
+"What _are_ you rubbering at, Heavy?" demanded Helen, inelegantly.
+
+"Yes; what's all the disturbance?" asked Ruth.
+
+"That girl!" ejaculated the fleshy one.
+
+"What girl now? Any particular girl?"
+
+"She's not very particular, I guess," returned Jennie, "or she wouldn't
+do it."
+
+"Jennie!" demanded Helen. "_Who_ do _what_?"
+
+"That Frayne girl," explained her plump friend.
+
+Rebecca Frayne stood well back in the lines of freshmen. It could not be
+said that she thrust herself forward, or sought to gain the attention of
+the crowd. Nevertheless, among the mass of pale blue tam-o'-shanters,
+her parti-colored one was very prominent.
+
+"Goodness!" gasped Ruth. "Doesn't she know better?"
+
+"Do you suppose she is one of those stubborn girls who just 'won't be
+driv'?" giggled Helen.
+
+It was no laughing matter. The three days of grace written upon the
+seniors' order regarding the caps had now passed. There seemed no good
+reason for one member of the freshman class to refuse to obey the
+command. Indeed, they had all tacitly agreed to do as they were
+told--upon this single point, at least.
+
+"There certainly are enough of them left in town so that she can buy
+one," Jennie Stone said.
+
+"Goodness!" snapped Helen. "If _my_ complexion can stand such a silly
+color, _hers_ certainly can."
+
+Before the out-of-doors concert was over, news of this rebellion on the
+part of a single freshman had run through the crowd like a breath of
+wind over ripe wheat. It almost broke up the "roar."
+
+As the last verse of the last song was ended and the company began to
+disperse, the freshmen themselves, and the sophomores as well, stared at
+Rebecca Frayne in open wonder. She started for her room, which was in
+Dare Hall on the same corridor as that of the three girls from
+Briarwood, and Ruth and Helen and Jennie were right behind her.
+
+"That certainly is an awful tam," groaned Jennie. "What do you suppose
+makes her wear it, anyway? Let alone the trouble----"
+
+She broke off. Miss Dexter, the first senior who had spoken to Ruth and
+Helen coming over from the railway station on the auto-bus, stopped the
+strange girl whose initials were the same as those of the girl of the
+Red Mill.
+
+"Will you tell me, please, why you are wearing that tam-o'-shanter?"
+asked Miss Dexter.
+
+Rebecca Frayne's head came up and a spot of vivid red appeared in either
+of her sallow cheeks.
+
+"Is that _your_ business?" she demanded, slowly.
+
+"Do you know that I am a senior?" asked Miss Dexter, levelly.
+
+"I don't care if you are two seniors," returned Rebecca Frayne, saucily.
+
+Miss Dexter turned her back upon the freshman and walked promptly away.
+The listeners were appalled. None of them cared to go forward and speak
+to Rebecca Frayne.
+
+"Cracky!" gasped Helen. "She's an awful spitfire."
+
+"She's an awful chump!" groaned Jennie. "The seniors won't do a thing to
+her!"
+
+But nothing came at once of Rebecca's refusal to obey the seniors'
+command regarding tam-o'-shanters. It was known, however, that the
+executive committees of both the senior and junior classes met that next
+night and supposedly took the matter up.
+
+"Oh, no! They don't haze any more at Ardmore," said Jennie, shaking her
+head. "But just wait!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+RUTH IS NOT SATISFIED
+
+
+Ruth Fielding was not at all satisfied. Not that her experiences in
+these first few weeks of college were not wholly "up to sample," as the
+slangy Jennie Stone remarked. Ruth was getting personally all out of
+college life that she could expect.
+
+The mere fact that a little handful of the girls looked at her somewhat
+askance because of her success as a motion picture writer, did not
+greatly trouble the girl of the Red Mill. She could wait for them to
+forget her small "fame" or for them to learn that she was quite as
+simple and unaffected as any other girl of her age. It was about Rebecca
+Frayne that Ruth was disturbed in her mind. Here was the case of a
+student who, Ruth believed, was much misunderstood.
+
+She could not imagine a girl deliberately making trouble for herself.
+Rebecca Frayne by the expenditure of a couple of dollars in the purchase
+of a new tam-o'-shanter might have easily overcome this dislike that had
+been bred not alone in the minds of the girls of the two upper classes,
+but among the sophomores and her own classmates as well. The sophomores
+thought her ridiculous; the freshmen themselves felt that she was
+bringing upon the whole class unmerited criticism.
+
+Ruth looked deeper. She saw the strange girl walk past her mates
+unnoticed, scarcely spoken to, indeed, by the freshmen and ignored
+completely by members of the other classes. And yet, to Ruth's mind,
+there seemed to be an air about Rebecca Frayne--a look in her eyes,
+perhaps--that seemed to beg for sympathy.
+
+It was no hardship for Ruth to speak to the girl and try to be friendly
+with her. But opportunities for this were not frequent.
+
+In the first place Ruth's own time was much occupied with her studies,
+her own personal friends, Helen and Jennie, and the new scenario on
+which she worked during every odd hour.
+
+Several times Ruth went to the door of Rebecca's room and knocked. She
+positively knew the girl was at home, but there had been no answer to
+her summons and the door was locked.
+
+The situation troubled Ruth. When she was among her classmates, Rebecca
+seemed nervously anxious to please and eager to be spoken to, although
+she had little to say. Here, on the other hand, once alone in her room,
+she deliberately shut herself away from all society.
+
+Soon after the outdoor song festival that had been so successful, and
+immediately following the organization of the freshman class and its
+election of officers, Ruth and Helen went over to the library one
+evening to consult some reference books.
+
+The reference room was well filled with busy girls of all classes, who
+came bustling in, got down the books they required, dipped into them for
+a minute and then departed to their own studies, or else settled down to
+work on their topics for a more extended period.
+
+It was a cold evening, and whenever a girl entered from the hall a
+breath of frosty air came with her, and most of those gathered in the
+room were likely to look up and shiver. Few of those assembled failed to
+notice Rebecca Frayne when she came in.
+
+"Goodness! See who has came," whispered Helen.
+
+"Oh, Rebecca!" murmured Ruth, looking up as the girl in question crossed
+the room.
+
+"Hasn't she the cheek of all cheeks to breeze in here this way?" Helen
+went on to say with more force than elegance. "That awful tam again."
+
+One could not fail to see the tam-o'-shanter very well. It was
+noticeable in any assembly.
+
+Perhaps half of the girls in the reference room were seniors and
+juniors. Several of the members of the younger classes nodded to the
+newcomer, though not many noticed her in this way.
+
+There was, however, almost immediately a general movement by the girls
+belonging to the senior and junior classes. They got up grimly, put away
+the books they were at work upon, and filed out, one by one, and without
+saying a word.
+
+Helen stared after them, and nudged Ruth.
+
+"What is it?" asked her chum, who had been too busy to notice.
+
+"Did you see that?" asked Helen.
+
+"Did I see what?"
+
+"There isn't a senior or a jun left in the room. That--that's something
+more than a coincidence."
+
+Ruth was puzzled. "I really wish you would explain," she said.
+
+Helen was not the only girl remaining who had noticed the immediate
+departure of the members of the two older classes. Some of the
+sophomores were whispering together. Rebecca's fellow-classmen glanced
+at her sharply to see if she had noticed what had occurred.
+
+"I can't believe it," Ruth said worriedly, after Helen explained. "They
+would not go out because she came in."
+
+The next day, however, the matter was more marked. Rebecca could sing;
+she evidently loved singing. In the classes for vocal music there was
+often a mixture of all grades, some of the seniors and juniors attending
+with the sophomores and freshmen.
+
+Ruth Fielding, of course, never missed these classes. She hoped to be
+noticed and have her voice tried out for the Glee Club. Professor
+Leidenburg was to give a little talk on this day that would be helpful,
+and the class was well attended.
+
+But when Rebecca Frayne came into the small hall just before the
+professor himself appeared, there was a stir throughout the audience.
+The girls, of course, were hatless here; but that morning Rebecca had
+been seen wearing the "scrambled-egg tam," as Helen insisted upon
+calling it.
+
+There was an intake of breath all over the room. Rebecca walked down the
+aisle in search of an empty seat.
+
+And suddenly half the seats were empty. She could have her choice--and a
+large one.
+
+"Goodness!" Helen gasped.
+
+Every senior and junior in the room had arisen and had left her seat.
+Not a word had been spoken, nor had they glanced at Rebecca Frayne, who
+at first was unaware of what it portended.
+
+The older girls filed out silently. Professor Leidenburg entered by the
+door beside the organ just in time to see the last of them disappear. He
+looked a bit surprised, but said nothing and took up the matter at hand
+with but half an audience.
+
+Rebecca Frayne had seen and understood at last. She sat still in her
+seat, and Ruth saw that she did not open her lips when, later, the
+choruses were sung. Her face was very pale.
+
+Nobody spoke to her when the class was dismissed. This was not an
+intentional slight on the part of her mates; simply, the girls did not
+know what to say.
+
+The seniors and juniors were showing Rebecca that she was taboo. Their
+attitude could not be mistaken. And so great was the influence of these
+older girls of Ardmore upon the whole college that Rebecca walked
+entirely alone.
+
+Ruth and Helen walked down the hill behind Rebecca that afternoon. Ruth
+was very silent, while Helen buzzed about a dozen things.
+
+"I--I wonder how that poor girl feels?" murmured the girl of the Red
+Mill after a while.
+
+"Cold, I imagine!" declared her chum, vigorously. "I'm half frozen
+myself, Ruth. There's going to be a big frost to-night and the lake is
+already skimmed over. Say, Ruth!"
+
+"Well?" asked her friend, absently.
+
+"Let's take our skates first thing in the morning down to that man who
+sharpens things at the boathouse; will you?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GIRL IN THE STORM
+
+
+Ruth Fielding was quite as eager for fun between lessons as either Helen
+or Jennie, and the prospect of skating on such a large lake as Remona
+delighted her. The second day following the incident in the chorus
+class, the ice which had bound Lake Remona was officially pronounced
+safe.
+
+Gymnasium athletics lost their charm for those girls who were truly
+active and could skate. There were luxurious damsels who preferred to be
+pushed about in ice-chairs by more active girls or by hired attendants;
+but our trio of friends did not look upon that as enjoyment.
+
+Even Jennie Stone was a vigorous skater. After a day or two on the ice,
+when their ankles had become strong enough, the three made a circuit of
+Bliss Island--and that was "some skate," to quote Jennie.
+
+The island was more than a mile from the boathouse, and it was five or
+six miles in circumference. Therefore, the task was quite all of an
+eight-mile jaunt.
+
+"But 'do or die' is our motto," remarked Helen, as they set forth on
+this determined journey. "Let's show these pussy girls what it means to
+have trained at Briarwood."
+
+"That's all right! that's all right!" grumbled Jennie. "But your motto
+is altogether too grim and significant. Let's limit it. I want to _do_
+if I can; but mercy me! I don't want to _die_ yet. You girls have got to
+stop and rest when I say so, or I won't go at all."
+
+Ruth and Helen agreed. That is why it took them until almost dinner-time
+to encircle the island. Jennie Stone was determined to rest upon the
+least provocation.
+
+"We'll be starved to death before we get back," Helen began to complain
+while they were upon the south side of the island. "I should think you
+would feel the pinch of privation, Heavy."
+
+"I do," admitted the other hollowly.
+
+"Well, why didn't you escape it by refusing to come, or else by bringing
+a lunch?" demanded the black-eyed girl.
+
+"No. This is a part of the system," groaned Jennie.
+
+"What system, I'd like to know?" Ruth asked, in surprise.
+
+"System of martyrdom, I guess," sniffed Helen.
+
+"You've said it," agreed the plump girl. "That is the truest word yet
+spoken. Martyrdom! that is what it means for me."
+
+"What means to you?" snapped Helen, exasperated because she could not
+understand.
+
+"This dieting and exercising," Jennie said more cheerfully. "I
+deliberately came so far and without food to see if I couldn't really
+lose some weight. Do you know, girls, I am so hollow and so tired right
+now, that I believe I must have lost a few ounces, anyway."
+
+"You ridiculous thing!" laughed Helen, recovering her good nature.
+
+"Should we sacrifice ourselves for your benefit, do you think, Jennie?"
+Ruth asked.
+
+"Why not? 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' only more so. I need the
+inspiration of you girls to help me," Jennie declared. "Do you know,
+sometimes I am almost discouraged?"
+
+"About what?" asked Helen.
+
+"About my weight. I watch the bathroom scales with eagle eye. But
+instead of coming down by pounds, I only fall by ounces. It is awfully
+discouraging. And then," added the fleshy girl, "the other day when we
+had such a scrumptuous dinner--was it Columbus Day? I believe so--I was
+tempted to eat one of my old-time 'full and plenty' meals, and what do
+you think?"
+
+"You had the nightmare," said Helen.
+
+"Not a chance! But I went up _two pounds and a half_--or else the scales
+were crazy!"
+
+"Girls!" exclaimed Ruth, suddenly. "Do you know it is snowing?"
+
+"My! I never expected that," cried Helen, as a feathery flake lit upon
+the very point of her pretty nose. "Ow!"
+
+"Well, we'd better go on, I guess," Ruth observed. "Put your best foot
+forward, please, Miss Jennie."
+
+"I don't know which is my best foot now," complained the heavy girl.
+"They are both getting lame."
+
+"We'll just have to make you sit down on the ice while we drag you,"
+announced Helen, increasing the length of her stroke.
+
+"Not much you won't!" exclaimed Jennie Stone, "I'm cold enough as it
+is."
+
+"Shall we take off our skates and walk over the island, girls?"
+suggested Ruth. "That will save some time and more than a little work
+for Heavy."
+
+"Don't worry about me," put in Jennie. "I need the exercise. And walking
+would be worse than skating, I do believe."
+
+It was snowing quite thickly now; but the shore of the island was not
+far away. The trio hugged it closely in encircling the wooded and hilly
+piece of land.
+
+"Say!" Helen cried, "we're not the only girls out here to-day."
+
+"Huh?" grunted Jennie, head down and skating doggedly.
+
+"See there, Ruth!" called the black-eyed girl.
+
+Ruth turned her face to one side and looked under the shade of her hand,
+which she held above her eyes. There was a figure moving along the shore
+of Bliss Island just abreast of them.
+
+"It's a girl," she said. "But she's not skating."
+
+"Who is it? A freshie?" asked Jennie, but little interested.
+
+Ruth did not reply. She seemed wonderfully interested by the appearance
+of the girl on shore. She fell behind her mates while she watched the
+figure.
+
+The snow was increasing; and that with the abruptly rising island,
+furnished a background for the strange girl which threw her into relief.
+
+At first Ruth was attracted only by her figure. She could not see her
+face.
+
+"Who can she be? Not one of the girls at Dare Hall----"
+
+This idea spun to nothingness very quickly. No! The figure ashore
+reminded Ruth Fielding of nobody whom she had seen recently. The
+feeling, however, that she knew the person grew.
+
+The snow blew sharply into the faces of the skating girls; but she on
+shore was somewhat sheltered from the gale. The wind was out of the
+north and west and the highland of the island broke the zest of the gale
+for the strange girl.
+
+"And yet she isn't strange--I _know_ she isn't," murmured Ruth Fielding,
+casting another glance back at the figure on the shore.
+
+"Come on, Ruth! _Do_ hurry!" cried Helen, looking back. "Even Heavy is
+beating you."
+
+Ruth quickened her efforts. The strange girl disappeared, mounting a
+path it seemed toward the center of the island. Ruth, head bent and lips
+tightly closed, skated on intent upon her mystifying thoughts.
+
+The trio rounded the island at last. They got the wind somewhat at their
+backs and on a long slant made for the boathouse landing. It was growing
+dusk, but there was a fire at the landing that beckoned them on.
+
+"Glad it isn't any farther," Helen panted. "This snow is gathering so
+fast it clogs one's skates."
+
+"Oh, I must be losing pounds!" puffed Jennie Stone. "I bet none of my
+clothes will fit me to-morrow. I shall have to throw them all away."
+
+"Oh, Heavy!" giggled Helen. "That lovely new silk?"
+
+"Oh--well--I shall take _that_ in!" drawled Jennie.
+
+"I've got it!" exclaimed Ruth, in a most startling way.
+
+"Goodness me! are you hurt?" demanded Helen.
+
+"What you got? A cramp?" asked Jennie, quite as solicitous.
+
+"I know now who that girl looked like," declared Ruth.
+
+"What girl?" rejoined Helen Cameron. "The one over yonder, on the other
+side of the island?"
+
+"Yes. She looks just like that Maggie who came to the mill, Helen. You
+remember, don't you? The girl I left to help Aunt Alvirah when I came to
+college."
+
+"Well, for the land's sake!" said Jennie Stone. "If she's up there at
+the Red Mill, how can she possibly be down here, too? You're talking out
+of order, Miss Fielding. Sit down!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+"OFT IN THE STILLY NIGHT"
+
+
+Ruth Fielding could not get that surprising, that almost unbelievable,
+discovery out of her mind.
+
+It seemed ridiculous to think that girl could be Maggie, "the waif," she
+had seen on Bliss Island. Aunt Alvirah had written Ruth a letter only a
+few days before and in it she said that Maggie was very helpful and
+seemed wholly content.
+
+"Only," the little old housekeeper at the Red Mill wrote, "I don't know
+a mite more about the child now than I did when Mr. Tom Cameron and our
+Ben brought her in, all white and fainty-like."
+
+The girls had to hurry on or be late to dinner. But the very first thing
+Ruth did when she reached their rooms in Dare Hall was to look up Aunt
+Alvirah's letter and see when it was dated and mailed.
+
+"It's obvious," Ruth told herself, "that Maggie could have reached here
+almost as soon as the letter if she had wished to. But why come at all?
+If it was Maggie over on that island, why was she there?"
+
+Of course, these ruminations were all in private. Ruth knew better than
+to take her two close friends into her confidence. If she did the
+mystery would have been the chief topic of conversation after dinner,
+instead of the studies slated for that evening.
+
+An incident occurred, however, at dinner which served to take Ruth's
+mind, too, from the mystery. There were a number of seniors and juniors
+quartered at Dare Hall. Nor were all the seniors table-captains at
+dinner.
+
+This evening the dining hall had filled early. Perhaps the brisk air and
+their outdoor exercise had given the girls sharper appetites than usual.
+It had the three girls from Briarwood. They were wearied after their
+long skate around the island and as ravenous as wolves. They could
+scarcely wait for Miss Comstock, at the head of their particular table,
+to begin eating so they might do so, too.
+
+And just at this moment, as the pleasant bustle of dinner began, and the
+lightly tripping waitresses were stepping hither and yon with their
+trays, the door opened and a single belated girl entered the dining
+hall.
+
+As though the entrance of this girl were expected, a hush fell over the
+room. Everybody but Jennie looked up, their soup spoons poised as they
+watched Rebecca Frayne walk down the long room to her place at the
+housekeeper's table.
+
+"Sh!" hissed Helen, admonishing Jennie Stone.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded the fleshy girl in surprise. "Is my soup
+noisy? I'll have to train it better."
+
+But nobody laughed. All eyes were fastened on the girl who had made
+herself so obnoxious to the seniors and the juniors of Ardmore. She sat
+down and a waitress put her soup before her. Before poor Rebecca could
+lift her spoon there was a stir all over the room. Every senior and
+junior (and there were more than half a hundred in the dining hall)
+arose, save those acting as table-captains or monitors. The rustle of
+their rising was subdued; they murmured their excuses to the heads of
+their several tables in a perfectly polite manner; and not a glance from
+their eyes turned toward Rebecca Frayne. But as they walked out of the
+dining hall, their dinners scarcely tasted, the slight put upon the
+freshman who would not obey was too direct and obvious to be mistaken.
+
+Even Jennie Stone was at length aroused from her enjoyment of the very
+good soup.
+
+"What do you know about _that_?" she demanded of Ruth and Helen.
+
+Ruth said not a word. To tell the truth she felt so sorry for Rebecca
+Frayne that she lost taste for her own meal, hungry though she had been
+when she sat down.
+
+How Rebecca herself felt could only be imagined. She had already shown
+herself to be a painful mixture of sensitiveness and carelessness of
+criticism that made Ruth Fielding, at least, wonder greatly.
+
+Now she ate her dinner without seeming to observe the attitude the
+members of the older classes had taken.
+
+"Cracky!" murmured Jennie, in the middle of dinner. "She's got all the
+best of it--believe me! The seniors and the juns go hungry."
+
+"For a principle," snapped the girl beside her, who chanced to be a
+sophomore.
+
+"Well," said Jennie, smiling, "principles are far from filling. They're
+a good deal like the only part of the doughnut that agreed with the
+dyspeptic--the hole. Please pass the bread, dear. Somebody must have
+eaten mine--and it was nicely buttered, too."
+
+"Goodness! nothing disturbs your calm, does it, Miss Stone?" cried
+another girl.
+
+Few of the girls in the dining hall, however, could keep their minds or
+their gaze off Rebecca Frayne. In whispers all through the meal she was
+discussed by her close neighbors. Girls at tables farther away talked of
+the situation frankly.
+
+And the consensus of opinion was against her. It was the general feeling
+that she was entirely in the wrong. The very law which she had essayed
+to flaunt was that which had brought the freshmen together as a class,
+and was welding them into a homogeneous whole.
+
+"She's a goose!" exclaimed Helen Cameron.
+
+And perhaps this was true. It did look foolish. Yet Ruth felt that there
+must be some misunderstanding back of it all. It should be explained.
+The girl could not go on in this way.
+
+"First we know she'll be packing up and leaving Ardmore," Ruth said
+worriedly.
+
+"She'll leave nobody in tears, I guess," declared one girl within
+hearing.
+
+"But she's one of us--she's a freshman!" Ruth murmured.
+
+"She doesn't seem to desire our company or friendship," said another and
+more thoughtful girl.
+
+"And she won't pack up in a hurry," drawled Jennie, still eating.
+"Remember all those bags and that enormous trunk she brought?"
+
+"But, say," began Helen, slowly, "where are all the frocks and things
+she was supposed to bring with her? We supposed she'd be the peacock of
+the class, and I don't believe I've seen her in more than three
+different dresses and only two hats, including that indescribably
+brilliant tam."
+
+Ruth said nothing. She was thinking. She planned to get out of the
+dining hall at the same time Rebecca did, but just as the dessert was
+being passed the odd girl rose quickly, bowed her excuses to the
+housekeeper, and almost ran out of the hall.
+
+"She was crying!" gasped Ruth, feeling both helpless and sympathetic.
+
+"I wager she bit her tongue, then," remarked Jennie.
+
+Ruth hurried through her dessert and left the dining hall ahead of most
+of the girls. She glanced through the long windows and saw that it was
+still snowing.
+
+"I wonder if that girl is over on the island yet?" she reflected as she
+ran upstairs.
+
+Her first thought just then was of an entirely different girl. She went
+to Rebecca's door and knocked. She knocked twice, then again. But no
+answer was returned. No light came through the keyhole, or from under
+the door; yet Ruth felt sure that Rebecca Frayne was in the room, and
+weeping. It was a situation in which Ruth Fielding longed to help, yet
+there seemed positively nothing she could do as long as the stubborn
+girl would not meet her half way. With a sigh she went to the study she
+and Helen jointly occupied.
+
+Before switching on the light she went to one of the windows that looked
+out on the lake. Bliss Island was easily visible from this point. The
+snow was still falling, but not heavily enough to obstruct her vision
+much. The white bulk of the island rose in the midst of the field of
+snow-covered ice. It seemed nearer than it ordinarily appeared.
+
+As Ruth gazed she saw a spark of light on the island, high up from the
+shore, but evidently among the trees, for it was intermittent. Now it
+was visible and again only a red glow showed there. She was still gazing
+upon this puzzling light when Helen opened the door.
+
+"Hello, Ruthie!" she cried. "All in the dark? Oh! isn't the outside
+world beautiful to-night?"
+
+She came to the window and put her arm about Ruth's waist.
+
+"See how solemnly the snow is falling--and the whole world is white,"
+murmured the black-eyed girl. "'Oft in the stilly night'----Or is it
+'Oft in the silly night'?" and she laughed, for it was not often nor for
+long that the sentiment that lay deep in Helen's heart rose to the
+surface. "Oh! What's that light over there, Ruth?" she added, with quick
+apprehension.
+
+"That is what I have been looking at," Ruth said.
+
+"But you don't tell me what it is!" cried Helen.
+
+"Because I don't know. But I suspect."
+
+"Suspect what?"
+
+"That it is a campfire," said Ruth. "Yes. It seems to be in one spot.
+Only the wind makes the flames leap, and at one time they are plainly
+visible while again they are partly obscured."
+
+"Who ever would camp over on Bliss Island on a night like this?" gasped
+Helen.
+
+"I don't see why you put such mysteries up to me," returned Ruth, with a
+shrug. "I'm no prophet. But----"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"Do you remember that girl we saw on the island this afternoon?"
+
+"Goodness! Yes."
+
+"Well, mightn't it be she, or a party she may be with?"
+
+"Campers on the island in a snow storm? No girls from this college would
+be so silly," Helen declared.
+
+"I'm not at all sure she was an Ardmore girl," said Ruth, reflectively.
+
+"Who under the sun could she be, then?"
+
+"Almost anybody else," laughed Ruth. "It is going to stop snowing
+altogether soon, Helen. See! the moon is breaking through the clouds."
+
+"It will be lovely out," sighed Helen. "But hard walking."
+
+Ruth gestured towards their two pairs of snowshoes crossed upon the
+wall. "Not on those," she said.
+
+"Oh, Ruthie! Would you?"
+
+"All we have to do is to tighten them and sally forth."
+
+"Gracious! I'd be willing to be Sally Fifth for a spark of fun,"
+declared Helen, eagerly.
+
+"How about Heavy?" asked Ruth, as Helen hastened to take down the
+snowshoes which both girls had learned to use years before at Snow Camp,
+in the Adirondacks.
+
+"Dead to the world already, I imagine," laughed Helen. "I saw her to her
+room, and I believe she was so tired and so full of dinner that she
+tumbled into bed almost before she got her clothes off. You'd never get
+her out on such a crazy venture!"
+
+Helen was as happy as a lark over the chance of "fun." The two girls
+skilfully tightened the stringing of the shoes, and then, having put on
+coats, mittens, and drawn the tam-o'-shanters down over their ears, they
+crept out of their rooms and hastened downstairs and out of the
+dormitory building.
+
+There was not a moving object in sight upon the campus or the sloping
+white lawns to the level of the frozen lake. The two chums thrust their
+toes into the straps of their snowshoes and set forth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AN ODD ADVENTURE
+
+
+Six inches or more of snow had fallen. It was feathery and packed well
+under the snowshoes. The girls sank about two inches into the fleecy
+mass and there the shoes made a complete bed for themselves and the
+weight of their wearers.
+
+"You know what I'd love to do this winter?" said Helen, as they trudged
+on.
+
+"What, my dear?" asked Ruth, who seemed much distraught.
+
+"I'd like to try skiing. The slope of College Hill would be just
+splendiferous for _that_! Away from the observatory to the lake--and
+then some!"
+
+"We'll start a skiing club among the freshies," Ruth said, warmly
+accepting the idea. "Wonder nobody has thought of it before."
+
+"Ardmore hasn't waked up yet to all its possibilities," said Helen,
+demurely. "But this umpty-umph class of freshmen will show the college a
+thing or two before we pass from out its scholastic halls."
+
+"Question!" cried Ruth, laughing. Then: "There! you can see that light
+again."
+
+"Goodness! You're never going over to that island?" cried Helen.
+
+"What did we come out for?" asked Ruth. "And scamp our study hour?"
+
+"Goodness!" cried Helen, again, "just for _fun_."
+
+"Well, it may be fun to find out just who built that fire and what for,"
+said Ruth.
+
+"And then again," objected her chum, "it may be no fun at all, but
+_serious_."
+
+"I have a serious reason for finding out--if I can," Ruth declared.
+
+"What is it, dear?"
+
+"I'll tell you later," said Ruth. "Follow me now."
+
+"If I do I'll not wear diamonds, and I may get into trouble," objected
+Helen.
+
+"You've never got into very serious trouble yet by following my
+leadership," laughed Ruth. "Come on, Fraid-cat."
+
+"Ain't! But we don't know who is over there. Just to think! A camp in
+the snow!"
+
+"Well, we have camped in the snow ourselves," laughed Ruth, harking back
+to an adventure at Snow Camp that neither of them would ever be likely
+to forget.
+
+They scuffed along on the snowshoes, soon reaching the edge of the lake.
+Nobody was about the boathouse, for the ice would have to be swept and
+scraped by the horse-drawn machines before the girls could go skating
+again.
+
+The moon was pushing through the scurrying clouds, and the snow had
+ceased falling.
+
+"Look back!" crowed Helen. "Looks as though two enormous animals had
+come down the hillside, doesn't it?"
+
+"The girls will wake up and view our tracks with wonder in the morning,"
+said Ruth, with a smile. "Perhaps they'll think that some curious
+monsters have visited Ardmore."
+
+"That would cause more wonderment than the case of Rebecca Frayne. What
+do you suppose is finally going to happen to that foolish girl?"
+
+"I really cannot guess," Ruth returned, shaking her head sadly. "Poor
+thing!"
+
+"Why! she can't be _poor_," gasped Helen. "Look at all those trunks she
+brought with her to Ardmore. And her dresses are tremendously
+fancy--although we've not seen many of them yet."
+
+Ruth stared at her chum for a moment without replying. It was right
+there and then that she came near to guessing the secret of Rebecca
+Frayne's trouble. But she forbore to say anything about it at the time,
+and went on beside her chum toward the white island, much disturbed in
+her mind.
+
+Now and then they caught sight of the dancing flames of the campfire.
+But when they were nearer the island, the hill was so steep that they
+lost sight completely of the light.
+
+"Suppose it's a _man_?" breathed Helen, suddenly, as they began to climb
+the shore of Bliss Island.
+
+"He won't eat us," returned Ruth.
+
+"No. They don't often. Only cannibals, and they are not prevalent in
+this locality," giggled Helen. "But if it _is_ a man----"
+
+"Then we'll turn around and go back," said Ruth, coolly. "I haven't come
+out here to get acquainted with any male person."
+
+"Bluie! Suppose he's a real nice boy?"
+
+"There's no such an animal," laughed Ruth. "That is, not around here at
+the present moment."
+
+"Oh yes. I see," Helen rejoined drily. "The nearest _nice_ one is at the
+Seven Oaks Military Academy."
+
+"So you say," Ruth said demurely. "But if it were Tom?"
+
+"Dear old Tom and some of his chums!" cried Helen. "Wouldn't it be
+great? This Adamless Eden is rather palling on me, Chum. The other girls
+have visitors, but our friends are too far away."
+
+"Hush!" advised Ruth. "Whoever it is up there will hear you."
+
+Helen was evidently not at all enamored of this adventure. She lagged
+behind a little. Yet she would not allow Ruth to go on alone to
+interview the mysterious camper.
+
+"I tell you what," the black-eyed girl said, after a moment and in a
+whisper. "I believe that fire is up near the big boulder we looked
+at--you remember? The Stone Face, do they call it?"
+
+"Quite possibly," Ruth rejoined briskly. "Come on if you're coming. I'm
+sure the Stone Face won't hurt us."
+
+"Not unless it falls on us," giggled Helen.
+
+The grove of big trees that covered this part of the hillside was open,
+and the chums very easily made their way toward the fire, even on
+snowshoes. But the shoes naturally made some noise as they scuffed over
+the snow, and in a minute Ruth stopped and slipped her feet out of the
+straps, motioning Helen to do the same. They wore overshoes so there was
+no danger of their getting their feet wet in the snow.
+
+Hand in hand, Ruth and Helen crept forward. They saw the fire flickering
+just before them. There was a single figure between the fire and the
+very boulder of which Helen had spoken.
+
+Reaching the edge of the grove the girls gazed without discovery at the
+camp in the snow. The boulder stood in a small open space, and it was so
+high and bulky that it sheltered the fire and the camper quite
+comfortably. As Ruth had suspected, the latter was the girl she had seen
+walking upon the southern shore of Bliss Island. She knew her by her
+figure, if not by her face, which was at the moment hidden.
+
+"She's alone," whispered Helen, making the words with her lips more than
+with her voice.
+
+"What _can_ she be doing out here?" was the black-eyed girl's next
+demand.
+
+Her chum put out a hand in a gesture of warning and at once walked out
+of the shelter of the trees and approached the fire. Helen lingered
+behind. After all, it was so strange a situation that she did not feel
+very courageous.
+
+The moon had quite broken through the clouds now and as Ruth drew nearer
+to the fire and the girl, her shadow was projected before her upon the
+snow. The girl who looked like Maggie suddenly espied this shadow,
+raised her head, and leaped up with a cry.
+
+"Don't be frightened, Maggie," said Ruth. "It's only us two girls."
+
+"My--my name is--isn't Maggie," stammered the strange girl.
+
+And sure enough, having once seen her closely, Ruth Fielding saw that
+she was quite wrong in her identification. This was not the girl who had
+drifted down the Lumano River to the Red Mill and taken refuge with Aunt
+Alvirah.
+
+This was a much more assertive person than Maggie--a girl with plenty of
+health, both of body and mind. Maggie impressed one as being mentally or
+nervously deficient. Not so this girl who was camping here in the snow
+on Bliss Island. Yet there was a resemblance to Maggie in the figure of
+the stranger, and Ruth noted a resemblance in her features, too.
+
+"My goodness me!" she said, laughing pleasantly. "If you're not our
+Maggie you look near enough like her to be her sister."
+
+"Well, I haven't any sister in that college," said the strange girl,
+shortly. "You're from Ardmore, aren't you?"
+
+"Yes," Ruth said, Helen now having joined them. "And we saw your
+light----"
+
+"My _what_?" demanded the camping girl, who was warmly, though plainly
+dressed.
+
+"Your campfire. You see," explained Ruth, finding it rather difficult
+after all to talk to this very self-possessed girl, "we skated around
+the island to-day----"
+
+"I saw you," said the stranger gruffly. "There were three of you."
+
+"Yes. And I thought you looked like Maggie, then."
+
+"Isn't this Maggie one of you?" sharply demanded the stranger.
+
+"She's a girl whom--whom I know," Ruth said quickly. "A really nice
+girl. And you do look like her. Doesn't she, Helen?"
+
+"Why--yes--something like," drawled Helen.
+
+"And did you have to come out here to see if I were your friend?" asked
+the other girl.
+
+"When I saw the campfire--yes," Ruth admitted. "It seemed so strange,
+you know."
+
+"What seemed strange?" demanded the girl, very tartly. It was plain that
+she considered their visit an intrusion.
+
+"Why, think of it yourself," Ruth cried, while Helen sniffed audibly. "A
+girl camping alone on this island--and in a snowstorm."
+
+"It isn't snowing now," said the girl, smiling grimly.
+
+"But it was when we saw the fire at first," Ruth hastened to say. "You
+know yourself you would be interested."
+
+"Not enough to come clear out here--must be over a mile!--to see about
+it," was the rejoinder. "I usually mind my own business."
+
+"So do we, you may be sure!" spoke up Helen, quick to take offence.
+"Come away, Ruth."
+
+But the girl of the Red Mill was not at all satisfied. She said,
+frankly:
+
+"I do wish that you would tell us why you are here? Surely, you won't
+remain all night in this lonely place? There is nobody else on the
+island, is there?"
+
+"I should hope not!" exclaimed the girl. "Only you two busybodies."
+
+"But, really, we came because we were interested in what went on here.
+It seems so strange for a girl, alone----"
+
+"You've said that before," was the dry reply. "I am a girl alone. I am
+here on my own business. And _that_ isn't yours."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Helen, angrily.
+
+"Well, if you don't like being spoken to plainly, you needn't stay," the
+strange girl flung at her.
+
+"I see that very well," returned Helen, tossing her head. "_Do_ come
+away, Ruth."
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed the strange girl, suddenly looking at Ruth more
+intently. "Are you called Ruth?"
+
+"Yes. Ruth Fielding is my name."
+
+"Oh!" and the girl's face changed in its expression and a little flush
+came into her cheeks. "I've--I've heard of you."
+
+"Indeed! How?" cried Ruth, eagerly. She felt that this girl must really
+have some connection with Maggie at the mill, she looked so much like
+the waif.
+
+"Oh," said the other girl slowly, looking away, "I heard you wrote
+picture plays. I saw one of them. That's all."
+
+Ruth was silent for a moment. Helen kept tugging at her arm and urging
+her to go.
+
+"We--we can do nothing for you?" queried the girl of the Red Mill at
+last.
+
+"You can get off the island--that's as much as I care," said the strange
+girl, with a harsh laugh. "You're only intruding where you're not
+wanted."
+
+"Well, I do declare!" burst out Helen again. "She is the most impolite
+thing. _Do_ come away, Ruthie."
+
+"We really came with the best intentions," Ruth added, as she turned
+away with her chum. "It--it doesn't look right for a girl to be alone at
+a campfire on this island--and at night, too."
+
+"I sha'n't stay here all night," the girl said shortly. "You needn't
+fret. If you want to know, I just built the fire to get warm by before I
+started back."
+
+"Back where?" Ruth could not help asking.
+
+"_That_ you don't know--and you won't know," returned the strange girl,
+and turned her back upon them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WHAT WAS IN REBECCA'S TRUNK
+
+
+The two chums did not speak a word to each other until they had
+recovered their snowshoes and set out down the rough side of Bliss
+Island for the ice. Then Helen sputtered:
+
+"People like _that_! Did you ever see such a person? I never was so
+insulted----"
+
+"Pshaw! She was right--in a way," Ruth said coolly. "We had no real
+business to pry into her affairs."
+
+"Well!"
+
+"I got you into it. I'm sorry," the girl of the Red Mill said. "I
+thought it really was Maggie, or I wouldn't have come over here."
+
+"She's something like that Maggie girl," proclaimed Helen. "_She_ was
+nice, I thought."
+
+"Maybe this girl is nice, taken under other circumstances," laughed
+Ruth. "I really would like to know what she is over here for."
+
+"No good, I'll be bound," said the pessimistic Helen.
+
+"And another thing," Ruth went on to say, as she and her chum reached
+the level of the frozen lake, "did you notice that pick handle?"
+
+"That what?" demanded Helen, in amazement.
+
+"Pickaxe handle--I believe it was," Ruth said thoughtfully. "It was
+thrust out of the snow pile she had scraped away from the boulder. And,
+moreover, the ground looked as though it had been dug into."
+
+"Why, the ground is as hard as the rock itself," Helen cried. "There are
+six or eight inches of frost right now."
+
+"I guess that's so," agreed Ruth. "Perhaps that's why she built such a
+big fire."
+
+"What _do_ you mean, Ruth Fielding?" cried her chum.
+
+"I think she wanted to dig there for something," Ruth replied
+reflectively. "I wonder what for?"
+
+When they had returned to Dare Hall and had got their things off and
+were warm again, they looked out of the window. The campfire on the
+island had died out.
+
+"She's gone away, of course," sighed Ruth. "But I would like to know
+what she was there for."
+
+"One of the mysteries of life," said Helen, as she made ready for bed.
+"Dear me, but I'm tired!"
+
+She was asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. Not so
+Ruth. The latter lay awake some time wondering about the odd girl on the
+island and her errand there.
+
+Ruth Fielding had another girl's troubles on her mind, however--and a
+girl much closer to her. The girl on the island merely teased her
+imagination. Rebecca Frayne's difficulties seemed much more important to
+Ruth.
+
+Of course, there was no real reason for Ruth to take up cudgels for her
+odd classmate. Indeed, she did not feel that she could do that, for she
+was quite convinced that Rebecca Frayne was wrong. Nevertheless, she was
+very sorry for the girl. The trouble over the tam-o'-shanter had become
+the most talked-of incident of the school term. For the several
+following days Rebecca was scarcely seen outside her room, save in going
+to and from her classes.
+
+She did not again appear in the dining hall. How she arranged about
+meals Ruth and her friends could not imagine. Then the housekeeper
+admitted to Ruth that she had allowed the lonely girl to get her own
+little meals in her room, as she had cooking utensils and an alcohol
+lamp.
+
+"It is not usually allowed, I know. But Miss Frayne seems to have come
+to college prepared to live in just that way. She is a small eater,
+anyway. And--well, anything to avoid friction."
+
+"Of course," Ruth said to Helen and Jennie Stone, "lots of girls live in
+furnished rooms and get their own meals--working girls and students. But
+it is not a system generally allowed at college, and at Ardmore
+especially. We shall hear from the faculty about it before the matter is
+done with."
+
+"Well, we're not doing it," scoffed Jennie. "And that Rebecca Frayne is
+behaving like a chump."
+
+"But how she does stick to that awful tam!" groaned Helen.
+
+"Stubborn as a mule," agreed Jennie.
+
+"I saw her with another hat on to-day," said Ruth, reflectively.
+
+"That's so! It was the one she wore the day she arrived," Helen said
+quickly. "A summer hat. I wonder what she did bring in that trunk,
+anyway? She has displayed no such charming array of finery as I
+expected."
+
+Ruth did not discuss this point. She was more interested in the state of
+Rebecca's mind, though, of course, there was not much time for her to
+give to anything but her studies and regular duties now, for as the term
+advanced the freshmen found their hours pretty well filled.
+
+Scrub teams for certain indoor sports had been made up, and even Jennie
+Stone took up the playing of basketball with vigor. She was really
+losing flesh. She kept a card tacked upon her door on which she set down
+the fluctuations of her bodily changes daily. When she lost a whole
+pound in weight she wrote it down in red ink.
+
+Their activities kept the three friends well occupied, both physically
+and mentally. Yet Ruth Fielding could not feel wholly satisfied or
+content when she knew that one of her mates was in trouble. She had
+taken an interest in Rebecca Frayne at the beginning of the semester;
+yet of all the freshmen Rebecca was the one whom she knew the least.
+
+"And that poor girl needs somebody for a friend--I feel it!" Ruth told
+herself. "Of course, she is to blame for the situation in which she now
+is. But for that very reason she ought to have somebody with whom to
+talk it over."
+
+Ruth determined to be that confidant of the girl who seemed to wish no
+associate and no confidant. She began to loiter in the corridors between
+recitation hours and at odd times. Whenever she knocked on Rebecca's
+door there was no reply. Other girls who had tried it quickly gave up
+their sympathetic attentions. If the foolish girl wished for no friends,
+let her go her own way. That became the attitude of the freshman class.
+Of course, the sophomores followed the lead of the seniors and the
+juniors, having as little to do with the unfortunate girl as possible.
+
+But the day and hour came at last when Ruth chanced to be right at hand
+when Rebecca Frayne came in and unlocked her room door. Her arms were
+full of small packages. Ruth knew that she had walked all the way to the
+grocery store on the edge of Greenburg, which the college girls often
+patronized.
+
+It had been a long, cold walk, and Rebecca's fingers were numb. She
+dropped a paper bag--and it contained eggs!
+
+Now, it is quite impossible to hide the fact of a dropped egg. At
+another time Ruth might have laughed; but now she soberly retrieved the
+paper bag before the broken eggs could do much damage, and stepped into
+the room after the nervous Rebecca.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" gasped the girl. "Put--put them down anywhere. Thank
+you!"
+
+"My goodness!" said Ruth, laughing, "you can't put broken eggs down
+_anywhere_. Don't you see they are runny?"
+
+"Never mind, Miss Fielding----"
+
+"Oh! you've a regular kitchenette here, haven't you?" said Ruth,
+emboldened to look behind a curtain. "How cunning. I'll put these eggs
+in this clean dish. Mercy, but they are scrambled!"
+
+"Don't trouble, Miss Fielding. You are very kind."
+
+"But scrambled eggs are pretty good, at that," Ruth went on, unheeding
+the other girl's nervousness. "If you can only get the broken shells out
+of them," and she began coolly to do this with a fork. "I should think
+you would not like eating alone, Rebecca."
+
+The other girl stared at her. "How can I help it?" she asked harshly.
+
+"Just by getting a proper tam and stop being stubborn," Ruth told her.
+
+"Miss Fielding!" cried Rebecca, her face flushing. "Do you think I do
+this for--for fun?"
+
+"You must. It isn't a disease, is it?" and Ruth laughed aloud,
+determined to refuse to take the other's tragic words seriously.
+
+"You--you are unbearable!" gasped Rebecca.
+
+"No, I'm not. I want to be your friend," Ruth declared boldly. "I want
+you to have other friends, too. No use flocking by one's self at
+college. Why, my dear girl! you are missing all that is best in college
+life."
+
+"I'd like to know what _is_ best in college life!" burst out Rebecca
+Frayne, sullenly.
+
+"Friendship. Companionship. The rubbing of one mind against another,"
+Ruth said promptly.
+
+"Pooh!" returned the startled Rebecca. "I wouldn't want to rub my mind
+against some of these girls' minds. All I ever hear them talk about is
+dress or amusements."
+
+"I don't think you know many of the other girls well enough to judge the
+calibre of their minds," said Ruth, gently.
+
+"And why don't I?" demanded Rebecca, still with a sort of suppressed
+fury.
+
+"We all judge more or less by appearances," Ruth admitted slowly. "I
+presume _you_, too, were judged that way."
+
+"What do you mean, Miss Fielding?" asked Rebecca, more mildly.
+
+"When you came here to Ardmore you made a first impression. We all do,"
+Ruth said.
+
+"Yes," Rebecca admitted, with a slight curl of her lip. She was
+naturally a proud-looking girl, and she seemed actually haughty now. "I
+was mistaken for _you_, I believe."
+
+Ruth laughed heartily at that.
+
+"I should be a good friend of yours," she said. "It was a great sell on
+those sophomores. They had determined to make poor little me suffer for
+some small notoriety I had gained at boarding school."
+
+"I never went to boarding school," snapped Rebecca. "I never was
+_anywhere_ till I came to college. Just to our local schools. I worked
+hard, let me tell you, to pass the examinations to get in here."
+
+"And why don't you let your mind broaden and get the best there is to be
+had at Ardmore?" Ruth demanded, quickly. "The girls misunderstand you. I
+can see that. We freshmen have got to bow our heads to the will of the
+upper classes. It doesn't hurt--much," and she laughed again.
+
+"Do you think I am wearing this old tam because I am stubborn?" demanded
+the other girl, again with that fierceness that seemed so strange in one
+so young.
+
+"Why--aren't you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why do you wear it, then?" asked Ruth, wonderingly.
+
+"_Because I cannot afford to buy another!_"
+
+Rebecca Frayne said this in so tense a voice that Ruth was fairly
+staggered. The girl of the Red Mill gazed upon the other's flaming face
+for a full minute without making any reply. Then, faintly, she said:
+
+"I--I didn't understand, Rebecca. We none of us do, I guess. You came
+here in such style! That heavy trunk and those bags----"
+
+"All out of our attic," said the other, sharply. "Did you think them
+filled with frocks and furbelows? See here!"
+
+Ruth had already noticed the packages of papers piled along one wall of
+the room. Rebecca pointed to them.
+
+"Out of our attic, too," she said, with a scornful laugh that was really
+no laugh at all. "Old papers that have lain there since the Civil War."
+
+"But, Rebecca----"
+
+"Why did I do it?" put in the other, in the same hard voice. "Because I
+was a little fool. Because I did not understand.
+
+"I didn't know just what college was like. I never talked with a girl
+from college in my life. I thought this was a place where only rich
+girls were welcome."
+
+"Oh, Rebecca!" cried Ruth. "That isn't so."
+
+"I see it now," agreed the other girl, shortly. "But we always have had
+to make a bluff at our house. Since _I_ can remember, at least.
+Grandfather was wealthy; but our generation is as poor as Job's turkey.
+
+"I didn't want to appear poor when I arrived here; so I got out the old
+bags and the big trunk, filled them with papers, and brought them along.
+A friend lent me that car I arrived in. I--I thought I'd make a splurge
+right at first, and then my social standing would not be questioned."
+
+"Oh, Rebecca! How foolish," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Don't say that!" stormed the girl. "I see that I started all wrong. But
+I can't help it now," and suddenly she burst into a passion of weeping.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+WHAT WAS IN REBECCA'S HEART
+
+
+It was some time before Ruth could quiet the almost hysterical girl.
+Rebecca Frayne had held herself in check so long, and the bitterness of
+her position had so festered in her mind, that now the barriers were
+burst she could not control herself.
+
+But Ruth Fielding was sympathetic. And her heart went out to this lonely
+and foolish girl as it seldom had to any person in distress. She felt,
+too, did Ruth, as though it was partly her fault and the fault of the
+other freshmen that Rebecca was in this state of mind.
+
+She was fearful that having actually forced herself upon Rebecca that
+the girl might, when she came to herself, turn against her. But at
+present Rebecca's heart was so full that it spilled over, once having
+found a confidant.
+
+In Ruth Fielding's arms the unfortunate girl told a story that, if
+supremely silly from one standpoint, was a perfectly natural and not
+uncommon story.
+
+She was a girl, born and brought up in a quiet, small town, living in
+the biggest and finest house in that town, yet having suffered actual
+privations all her life for the sake of keeping up appearances.
+
+The Frayne family was supposed to be wealthy. Not as wealthy as a
+generation or so before; still, the Fraynes were looked upon as the
+leaders in local society.
+
+There was now only an aunt, Rebecca, a younger sister, and a brother who
+was in New York struggling upward in a commission house.
+
+"And if it were not for the little Fred can spare me and sends me twice
+a month, I couldn't stay here," Rebecca confessed during this long talk
+with Ruth. "He's the best boy who ever lived."
+
+"He must be," Ruth agreed. "I'd be glad to have a brother like that."
+
+Rebecca had been hungry for books. She had always hoped to take a
+college course.
+
+"But I was ignorant of everything," she sighed.
+
+Ruth gathered, too, that the aunt, who was at the nominal head of the
+Frayne household, was also ignorant. This Aunt Emmy seemed to be an
+empty-headed creature who thought that the most essential thing for a
+girl in life was to be fancifully dressed, and to attain a position in
+society.
+
+Aunt Emmy had evidently filled Rebecca's head with such notions. The
+girl had come to Ardmore with a totally wrong idea of what it meant to
+be in college.
+
+"Why! some of these girls act as waitresses," said Rebecca. "I couldn't
+do _that_ even to obtain the education I want so much. Oh! Aunt Emmy
+would never hear to it."
+
+"It's a perfectly legitimate way of helping earn one's tuition," Ruth
+said.
+
+"The Fraynes have never done such things," the other girl said
+haughtily.
+
+And right there and then Ruth decided that Rebecca Frayne was going to
+have a very hard time, indeed, at Ardmore unless she learned to look
+upon life quite differently from the way she had been taught at home.
+
+Already Ruth Fielding had seen enough at Ardmore to know that many of
+the very girls whose duties Rebecca scorned, were getting more out of
+their college life than Rebecca Frayne could possibly get unless she
+took a radically different view of life and its comparative values from
+that her present standards gave her.
+
+The girls who were waitresses, and did other work to help pay for their
+tuition or for their board were busy and happy and were respected by
+their mates. In addition, they were often the best scholars in the
+classes.
+
+Rebecca was wrong in scorning those who combined domestic service with
+an attempt to obtain an education. But Ruth was wise enough to see that
+this feeling was inbred in Rebecca. It was useless to try to change her
+opinion upon it.
+
+If Rebecca were poverty-stricken, her purse could not be replenished by
+any such means as these other girls found to help them over the hard
+places. In this matter of the tam-o'-shanter, for instance, it would be
+very difficult to help the girl. Ruth knew better than to offer to pay
+for the new tam-o'-shanter the freshman could not afford to buy. To make
+such an offer would immediately close the door of the strange girl's
+friendship to Ruth. So she did not hint at such a thing. She talked on,
+beginning to laugh and joke with Rebecca, and finally brought her out of
+her tears.
+
+"Cheer up," Ruth said. "You are making the worst possible use of your
+time here--keeping to yourself and being so afraid of making friends.
+We're not all rich girls, I assure you. And the girls on this corridor
+are particularly nice."
+
+"I suppose that may be. But if everywhere I go they show so plainly they
+don't want me----"
+
+"That will stop!" cried Ruth, vigorously. "If I have to go to Dr.
+Milroth myself, it shall be stopped. It is hazing of the crudest kind.
+Oh! what a prettily crocheted table-mat. It's old-fashioned, but
+pretty."
+
+"Aunty does that, almost all the time," Rebecca said, with a little
+laugh. "Fred once said--in confidence, of course--that half the family
+income goes for Aunt Emmy's wool."
+
+"Do _you_ do it, too?" Ruth asked suspiciously.
+
+"Oh yes. I can."
+
+"Say! could you crochet one of these tams?" cried Ruth, eagerly.
+
+"Why--I suppose so," admitted the other girl.
+
+"Then, why not? Do it to please the seniors and juniors. It won't hurt
+to bow to a custom, will it? And you only need buy a few hanks of wool
+at a time."
+
+Rebecca's face flamed again; but she took the suggestion, after all,
+with some meekness.
+
+"I _might_ do that," she admitted.
+
+"All right. Then you'll be doing your part. And talk to the girls. Let
+them talk to you. Come down to the dining-room for your meals again. You
+know, the housekeeper, Mrs. Ebbets, will soon be getting into trouble
+about you. Somebody will talk to Dr. Milroth or to some other member of
+the upper faculty."
+
+"I suppose so," groaned Rebecca. "They won't let poor little me alone."
+
+"Oh, you can't expect to have your own way at school," cried Ruth,
+laughing. "Oh, and say!"
+
+"Well, Miss Fielding?"
+
+"_Do_ call me Ruth," begged the girl of the Red Mill. "It won't cost you
+a cent more," but she said it so good-naturedly that Rebecca had to
+laugh.
+
+"I will," said the other girl, vehemently. "You are the very nicest
+little thing!"
+
+"Well, now that's settled," laughed Ruth, "do something for me, will
+you?"
+
+"Any--anything I can," agreed Rebecca, with some doubt.
+
+"You know we girls on this corridor are going to have a sitting-room all
+to ourselves. That corner room that is empty. Everybody is going to
+buy--is going to give something to help furnish the room."
+
+"Oh, Ruth! I can't----"
+
+"Yes you can," interrupted Ruth, quickly. "When you stop this foolish
+eating by yourself, you can bring over your alcohol lamp. It's just what
+we want to make tea on. Now, say you will, Rebecca!"
+
+"I--I will. Why, yes, I can do that," Rebecca agreed.
+
+"Goody! I'll tell the girls. And you'll be as welcome as the flowers in
+May, lamp or no lamp," she cried, kissing Rebecca again and bustling out
+of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+BEARDING THE LIONS
+
+
+Ruth had shown a very cheerful face before Rebecca Frayne, but when she
+was once out of the room the girl of the Red Mill did not show such a
+superabundance of cheerfulness.
+
+She knew well enough that Rebecca had become so unpopular that public
+opinion could not be changed regarding her in a moment.
+
+Besides, there were the two upper classes to be considered. Their order
+regarding the freshmen's head-covering had been flagrantly disobeyed,
+and would have to be disobeyed for some time to come. A girl cannot
+crochet a tam-o'-shanter in a minute.
+
+Having undertaken to straighten out Rebecca Frayne's troubles, however,
+Ruth did not publicly shrink from the task. She was one who made up her
+mind quickly, and having made it up, set to work immediately to carry
+the matter through.
+
+Merry Dexter, the first senior she had met upon coming to Ardmore, was
+kindly disposed toward her, and Ruth knew that Miss Dexter was an
+influential member of her class. Therefore, Ruth took her trouble--and
+Rebecca's--directly to Miss Dexter.
+
+Yet, she did not feel that she had a right to explain, even to this one
+senior, all that Rebecca Frayne had confided to her. She realized that
+the girl, with her false standards of respectability and social
+standing, would never be able to hold up her head at college if her real
+financial situation were known to the girls in general. Ruth was bound,
+however, to take Miss Dexter somewhat into her confidence to obtain a
+hearing. She put the matter before the senior as nicely as possible,
+saying in conclusion:
+
+"And she will knit herself a tam of the proper color just as soon as
+possible. No girl, you know, Miss Dexter, likes to admit that she is
+poor. It is dreadfully embarrassing. So I hope that this matter will be
+adjusted without her situation being discussed."
+
+"Goodness! _I_ can't change things," the senior declared. "Not unless
+that girl agrees to do as she is told--like the rest of you freshies."
+
+"Then my opinion of your class, Miss Dexter," Ruth said firmly, "must be
+entirely wrong. I did not believe that they ordered us to wear baby blue
+tams just out of an arbitrary desire to make us obey. Had I believed
+_that_ I would not have bought a new tam myself!"
+
+"You wouldn't?"
+
+"No, Miss Dexter. Nor would a great many of us freshmen. We believed the
+order had a deeper significance--and it _had_. It helped our class get
+together. We are combined now, we are a social body. And I believe that
+if I took this matter up with Rebecca's class, and explained just her
+situation to them (which, of course, I do not want to do), the freshmen
+as a whole would back me in a revolt against the upper classes."
+
+"You're pretty sure of that, Ruth Fielding, are you?" demanded the
+senior.
+
+"Yes, I am. We'd all refuse to wear the new tams. You seniors and
+juniors would have a nice time sending us all to Coventry, wouldn't you?
+If you didn't want to eat with us, you'd all go hungry for a long time
+before the freshmen would do as Rebecca foolishly did."
+
+Miss Dexter laughed at that. And then she hugged Ruth.
+
+"I believe you are a dear girl, with a lot of good sense in your head,"
+she said. "But you must come before our executive committee and talk to
+them."
+
+"Oh, dear! Beard the lions in their den?" cried Ruth.
+
+"Yes, my dear. I cannot be your spokesman."
+
+Ruth found this a harder task than she had bargained for; but she went
+that same evening to a hastily called meeting of the senior committee.
+Perhaps Miss Dexter had done more for her than she agreed, however, for
+Ruth found these older girls very kind and she seemingly made them
+easily understand Rebecca's situation without being obliged to say in
+just so many words that the girl was actually poverty-stricken.
+
+And it was probable, too, that Ruth Fielding helped herself in this
+incident as much as she did her classmate. The members of the older
+classes thereafter gave the girl of the Red Mill considerably more
+attention than she had previously received. Ruth began to feel surprised
+that she had so many warm friends and pleasant acquaintances in the
+college, even among the sophomores of Edith Phelps' stamp. Edith Phelps
+found her tart jokes about the "canned-drama authoress" falling rather
+flat, so she dropped the matter.
+
+Older girls stopped on the walks to talk to Ruth. They sat beside her in
+chapel and at other assemblies, and seemed to like to talk with her.
+Although Ruth did not hold an office in her own class organization, yet
+she bade fair to become soon the most popular freshman at Ardmore.
+
+Ruth was perfectly unconscious of this fact, for she had not a spark of
+vanity in her make-up. Her mind was so filled with other and more
+important things that her social conquests impressed her but little. She
+did, however, think a good bit about poor Rebecca Frayne's situation.
+She warned her personal friends among the freshmen, especially those at
+Dare Hall, to say nothing to Rebecca about the unfortunate affair.
+
+Rebecca came into the dining-room again. Ruth knew that she had actually
+begun to crochet a baby blue tam-o'-shanter. But it was a question in
+Ruth's mind if the odd girl would be able to "keep up appearances" on
+the little money she had left and that which her brother could send her
+from time to time. It was quite tragic, after all. Rebecca was sure of
+good and sufficient food as long as she could pay her board; but the
+girl undoubtedly needed other things which she could not purchase.
+
+Naturally, youth cannot give its entire attention to even so tragic a
+matter as this. Ruth's gay friends acted as counterweights in her mind
+to Rebecca's troubles.
+
+The girls were out on the lake very frequently as the cold weather
+continued; but Ruth never saw again the strange girl whom she and Helen
+had interviewed at night on Bliss Island.
+
+Hearing from Aunt Alvirah as she did with more or less frequency, the
+girl of the Red Mill was assured that Maggie seemed content and was
+proving a great help to the crippled old housekeeper. Maggie seemed
+quite settled in her situation.
+
+"Just because that queer girl looked like Maggie doesn't prove that
+Maggie knows her," Ruth told herself. "Still--it's odd."
+
+Stormy weather kept the college girls indoors a good deal; and the
+general sitting-room on Ruth's corridor became the most social spot in
+the whole college.
+
+The girls whose dormitory rooms were there, irrespective of class, all
+shared in the furnishing of the sitting-room. Second-hand furniture is
+always to be had of dealers near an institution like Ardmore. Besides,
+the girls all owned little things they could spare for the general
+comfort, like Rebecca Frayne's alcohol lamp.
+
+Helen had a tea set; somebody else furnished trays. In fact, all the
+"comforts of home" were supplied to that sitting-room; and the girls
+were considered very fortunate by their mates in other parts of the
+hall, and, indeed, in the other three dormitory buildings.
+
+But during the holiday recess something happened that bade fair to
+deprive Ruth and her friends of their special perquisite. Dr. McCurdy's
+wife's sister came to Ardmore. The McCurdys did not keep house,
+preferring to board. They could find no room for Mrs. Jaynes, until it
+was remembered that there was an unassigned dormitory room at Dare Hall.
+
+Many of the girls had gone home over the brief holidays; but our three
+friends from Briarwood had remained at Ardmore.
+
+So Ruth and Helen and Jennie Stone chanced to be among the girls present
+when the housekeeper of Dare Hall came into the sitting-room and, to
+quote Jennie, informed them that they must "vamoose the ranch."
+
+"That is what Ann Hicks would call it," Jennie said, defending her
+language when taken to task for it. "We've just got to get out--and it's
+a mean shame."
+
+Dr. McCurdy was one of the important members of the faculty. Of course,
+the girls on that corridor had no real right to the extra room. All they
+could do was to voice their disappointment--and they did that, one may
+be sure, with vociferation.
+
+"And just when we had come to be so comfortably fixed here," groaned
+one, when the housekeeper had departed. "I know I shall dis-_like_ that
+Mrs. Jaynes extremely."
+
+"We won't speak to her!" cried Helen, in a somewhat vixenish tone.
+
+"Maybe she won't care if we don't," laughed Ruth.
+
+But it was no laughing matter, as they all felt. They made a gloomy
+party in the pretty sitting-room that last evening of its occupancy as a
+community resort.
+
+"There's Clara Mayberry in her rocker again on that squeaky board,"
+Rebecca Frayne remarked. "I hope she rocks on that board every evening
+over this woman's head who has turned us out."
+
+"Let's all hope so," murmured Helen.
+
+Jennie Stone suddenly sat upright in the rocker she was occupying, but
+continued to glare at the ceiling. A board in the floor of the room
+above had frequently annoyed them before. Clara Mayberry sometimes
+forgot and placed her rocker on that particular spot.
+
+"If--if she had to listen to that long," gasped Jennie suddenly, "she
+would go crazy. She's just that kind of nervous female. I saw her at
+chapel this morning."
+
+"But even Clara couldn't stand the squeak of that board long," Ruth
+observed, smiling.
+
+Without another word Jennie left the room. She came back later, so full
+of mystery, as Helen declared, that she seemed on the verge of bursting.
+
+However, Jennie refused to explain herself in any particular; but the
+board in Clara Mayberry's room did not squeak again that evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A DEEP, DARK PLOT
+
+
+"Heavy is actually losing flesh," Helen declared to Ruth. "I can see
+it."
+
+"You mean you _can't_ see it," laughed her chum. "That is, you can't see
+so much of it as there used to be. If she keeps on with the rowing
+machine work in the gym and the basket ball practise and dancing, she
+will soon be the thinnest girl who ever came to Ardmore."
+
+"Oh, never!" cried Helen. "I don't believe I should like Heavy so much
+if she wasn't a _little_ fat."
+
+People who had not seen Jennie Stone for some time observed the change
+in her appearance more particularly than did her two close friends. This
+was proved when Mr. Cameron and Tom arrived.
+
+For, as the girls did not go home for just a few days, Helen's father
+and her twin unexpectedly appeared at college on Christmas Eve, and
+their company delighted the chums immensely.
+
+On Friday evenings the girls could have company, and on all Saturday
+afternoons, even during the college term. Also a girl could have a young
+man call on her Sunday evening, provided he took her to service at
+chapel.
+
+The three Briarwood friends had had no such company heretofore. They
+made the most of Mr. Cameron and Tom, therefore, during Christmas week.
+
+There was splendid sleighing, and the skating on the lake was at its
+very best. Ruth insisted upon including Rebecca Frayne in some of their
+parties, and Rebecca proved to be good fun.
+
+Tom stared at Jennie Stone, round-eyed, when first he saw her.
+
+"What's the matter with you, Tom Cameron?" the fleshy girl asked, rather
+tartly. "Didn't you ever see a good-looking girl before?"
+
+"But say, Jennie!" he cried, "are you going into a decline?"
+
+"I decline to answer," she responded. But she dimpled when she said it,
+and evidently considered Tom's rather blunt remark a compliment.
+
+The Christmas holidays were over all too soon, it seemed to the girls.
+Yet they took up the class work again with vigor.
+
+Their acquaintanceship was broadening daily, both in the student body
+and among the instructors. Most of the strangeness of this new college
+world had worn off. Ruth and Helen and Jennie were full-fledged
+"Ardmores" now, quite as devoted to the college as they had been to dear
+old Briarwood.
+
+After New Year's there was a raw and rainy spell that spoiled many of
+the outdoor sports. Practice in the gymnasium increased, and Helen said
+that Jennie Stone was bound to work herself down to a veritable shadow
+if the bad weather continued long.
+
+Ruth was in Rebecca's room one dingy, rainy afternoon, having skipped
+gymnasium work of all kind for the day. The proprietor of the room had
+finished her baby blue cap and had worn it the first time that week.
+
+"I feel that they are not all staring at me now," she confessed to Ruth.
+
+Ruth was at the piles of old papers which Rebecca had hidden under a
+half-worn portierre she had brought from home.
+
+"Do you know," the girl of the Red Mill said reflectively, "these old
+things are awfully interesting, Becky?"
+
+"What old things?"
+
+"These papers. I've opened one bundle. They were all printed in Richmond
+during the Civil War. Why, paper must have been awfully scarce then.
+Some of these are actually printed on wrapping paper--you can scarcely
+read the print."
+
+"Ought to look at those Charleston papers," said Rebecca, carelessly.
+"There are full files of those, too, I believe. Why, some of them are
+printed on wall paper."
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes they are. Ridiculous, wasn't it?"
+
+Ruth sat silent for a while. Finally she asked:
+
+"Are you sure, Becky, that you have quite complete files here of this
+Richmond paper? For all the war time, I mean?"
+
+"Yes. And of the South Carolina paper, too. Father collected them during
+and immediately following the war. He was down there for years, you
+see."
+
+"I see," Ruth said quietly, and for a long time said nothing more.
+
+But that evening she wrote several letters which she did not show Helen,
+and took them herself to the mailbag in the lower hall.
+
+Before this, Mrs. Jaynes, Dr. McCurdy's sister-in-law, was settled in
+the room which had formerly been used by the girls as their own
+particular sitting-room. She was not an attractive woman at all; so it
+was not hard for her youthful associates on that corridor of Dare Hall
+to declare war upon Mrs. Jaynes.
+
+Indeed, without having been introduced to a single girl there, Mrs.
+Jaynes eyed them all as though she suspected they belonged to a tribe of
+Bushmen.
+
+Naturally, during hours of relaxation, and occasionally at other times,
+the girls joked and laughed and raced through the halls and sang and
+otherwise acted as a crowd of young people usually act.
+
+Mrs. Jaynes was plainly of that sort that believes that all youthfulness
+and ebullition of spirits should be suppressed. Luckily, she met the
+girls but seldom--only when she was going to and from her room. On
+stormy days she remained shut up in her apartment most of the time, and
+Mrs. Ebbetts sent a maid up with her tray at meal time. She never ate in
+the Dare Hall dining-room.
+
+Meantime, Jennie Stone had several mysterious sessions with certain of
+the girls who felt quite as she did regarding the usurpation of Dr.
+McCurdy's sister-in-law of the spare room. Had Ruth not been so busy in
+other directions she would have realized that a plot of some kind was in
+process of formation, for Helen was in it, as well.
+
+Jennie Stone had made a friend of Clara Mayberry on the floor above. In
+fact, a number of the girls on the lower corridor affected by the
+presence of Mrs. Jaynes, were in and out of Clara's room all day long.
+None of these girls remained long at a time--not more than half an hour;
+but another visitor always appeared before the first left, right through
+the day, from breakfast call till "lights out." And after retiring hour
+there began to be seen figures stealing through the corridors and on the
+stairway between the two floors. That is, there would have been seen
+such ghostly marauders had there been anybody to watch.
+
+Mrs. Jaynes crossly complained to Mrs. Ebbetts that she was kept awake
+all night long--and all day, for that matter! But as she never put her
+head out of her room after the lights were lowered in the corridors, she
+did not discover the soft-footed spectres of the night.
+
+"But," she complained to Mrs. Ebbetts, "it is the noisiest room I ever
+was in. Such a squeaking you never heard! And all the time, day and
+night."
+
+"I do not understand that at all," said the puzzled housekeeper.
+
+"I'd like to know how the girl who had that room before I took it, stood
+that awful squeaking noise," said the visitor.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Jaynes," said the housekeeper, "no girl slept there. It was a
+sitting-room."
+
+"Even so, I cannot understand how anybody could endure the noise. If I
+believed in such things I should declare the room was haunted."
+
+"Indeed, Madam!" gasped the housekeeper. "I do not understand it."
+
+"Well, I cannot endure it. I shall tell my sister that I cannot remain
+here at Ardmore unless she finds me other lodgings. That awful _squeak,
+squeak, squeak_ continues day and night. It is unbearable."
+
+In the end, Dr. McCurdy found lodgings for his sister-in-law in
+Greenburg. The girls of Ruth's corridor were delighted, and that night
+held a regular orgy in the recovered sitting-room.
+
+"Thank goodness!" sighed Jennie Stone, "no more up and down all night
+for us, either. We may sleep in peace, as well as occupy the room in
+peace."
+
+"What _do_ you mean, Heavy?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Oh, Ruthie! That's one time we put one over on you, dear," said the
+fleshy girl sweetly. "You were not asked to join in the conspiracy. We
+feared your known sympathetic nature would revolt."
+
+"But explain!"
+
+"Why, Clara let us use her rocking chair," Jennie said demurely. "It's a
+very nice chair. We all rocked in it, one after another, half-hour
+watches being assigned----"
+
+"Not at night?" cried the horror-stricken Ruth.
+
+"Oh, yes. All day and all night. Every little minute that rocker was
+going upon the squeaky board. It's a wonder the board is not worn out,"
+chuckled the wicked Jennie.
+
+"Well, I never!" proclaimed Ruth, aghast. "What won't you think of next,
+Jennie Stone?"
+
+"I don't know. I know I'm awfully smart," sighed Jennie. "I did so much
+of the rocking myself, however, that I don't much care if I never see a
+rocking-chair again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+TWO SURPRISES
+
+
+Ruth Fielding knew that Rebecca Frayne was painfully embarrassed for
+money. She managed to find the wherewithal for her board, and her
+textbooks of course had been paid for at the beginning of the college
+year. But there are always incidentals and unforeseen small expenses,
+which crop up in a most unexpected manner and clamor for payment.
+
+Rebecca never opened her lips about these troubles, despite the fact
+that she loved Ruth and was much with the girl of the Red Mill. But Ruth
+was keen-eyed. She knew that Rebecca suffered for articles of clothing.
+She saw that her raiment was becoming very, very shabby.
+
+The girl in this trouble was foolish, of course. But foolishness is a
+disease not so easily cured. There was not the slightest chance of
+giving Rebecca anything that she needed; Ruth knew that quite well. Her
+finery--and cheap enough it was--the girl would flaunt to the bitter
+end.
+
+Deep down she was a good girl in every respect; but she did put on airs
+and ape the wealthy girls she saw. What garments she owned had been
+ultra-fashionable in cut, if poor in texture, when she had come to
+college. But fashions change so frequently nowadays that already poor
+Rebecca Frayne was behind the styles--and she knew it and grieved
+bitterly.
+
+Most of her mates at Dare Hall, the freshmen especially, usually dressed
+in short cloth skirts and middy blouses, with a warm coat over all in
+cold weather. Would Rebecca be caught going to classes in such an
+outfit? Not much! That was why her better clothes wore out so quickly
+and now looked so shabby. Jennie Stone said, with disgust, and with more
+than a little truth, perhaps:
+
+"That girl primps to go to recitations just as though she were bound for
+a party. I don't see how she finds time for study."
+
+Ruth realized that Rebecca was made that way, and that was all there was
+to it. She wasted no strength, nor did she run the risk of being bad
+friends with the unwise girl, by criticising these silly things. Ruth
+believed in being helpful, or else keeping still.
+
+Rebecca could never be induced to try to do the things that other poor
+girls did at college to help pay their expenses. Perhaps she was not
+really fitted for such services, and would only have failed.
+
+Other girls acted as waitresses, did sewing, one looked after the linen
+for one of the dormitories, another darned hose and repaired lingerie.
+Dr. Frances Milroth's own personal secretary was a junior who was
+working her way through Ardmore and was taking a high mark, too, in her
+studies.
+
+One girl helped Mrs. Leidenburg with her children during several hours
+of each day. Some girls were agents for articles which their college
+mates were glad to secure easily and quickly.
+
+Indeed, the field of endeavor seemed rather well covered, and it would
+have been hard to discover anything new for Rebecca Frayne to do, had
+the girl even been willing to "go into trade," a thing Rebecca had told
+Ruth a Frayne had never done.
+
+This attitude of the Frayne family seemed quite ridiculous to Ruth, but
+she knew it was absolutely useless to scold Rebecca.
+
+Indeed, it was not Ruth Fielding's way to be a scold. If she could not
+be helpful she preferred to ignore that which she saw was wrong. And in
+Rebecca Frayne's case she was determined to be helpful if she could.
+Rebecca was a bright scholar. After all, she would shine in her class
+before all was said and done. They could not afford to lose such a
+really bright girl from among the freshmen.
+
+Often on stormy days Ruth spent the time between recitations and dinner
+in Rebecca's room.
+
+"I never saw anybody so fond of old papers as you are, Ruthie," Rebecca
+said. "Do take 'em all if you like. Of course, I'll never be silly
+enough to carry them back home with me. They are only useful to help
+build the fire."
+
+"Don't dare destroy one of them, Rebecca Frayne!" Ruth had warned
+her--and actually made her promise that she would not do so.
+
+Then the replies to Ruth's letters came. She had gone all through the
+bundles of papers by this time, arranged them according to their dates
+of issue, and wrapped the different years' issues in strong paper.
+Rebecca could not see for the life of her, she said, what Ruth was
+about.
+
+"Surely they can't be worth much as old paper, Ruthie. I know you are a
+regular little business woman; but junk men aren't allowed on the
+college grounds."
+
+"Expressmen are, my dear," laughed Ruth.
+
+"What do you mean? What _are_ you going to do with those papers?"
+
+"You said you didn't care----"
+
+"And I don't. They are yours to do with as you please," said the
+generous Rebecca Frayne.
+
+"To punish you," Ruth said seriously, "I ought really to take you at
+your word," and she shook her head.
+
+"What meanest thou, my fair young lady?" asked Rebecca, laughing.
+
+"Read this," commanded Ruth, handing her, with the air of the stage hero
+"producing the papers," one of the letters she had received. "Cast your
+glance over this, Miss Frayne."
+
+The other received the letter curiously, and read it with dawning
+surprise. She read it twice and then gazed at Ruth with almost
+speechless amazement.
+
+"Well! what do you think of your Aunt Ruth _now_?" demanded the girl of
+the Red Mill, laughing.
+
+"It--it can't be _so_, Ruthie!" murmured Rebecca Frayne, the hand which
+held the letter fairly shaking.
+
+"It's just as _so_ as it can be," and Ruth continued to laugh.
+
+The tears suddenly flooded into Rebecca's eyes. She could not turn
+quickly enough to hide them from Ruth's keen vision. But all she said
+was:
+
+"Well, Ruthie! I congratulate you. Think of it! Two hundred dollars
+offered for each set of those old papers. Well!"
+
+"You see, it would scarcely have been wise to have built the fire with
+them," Ruth said drily.
+
+"I--I should say not. And--and they have lain in our attic for years."
+
+"And you brought them to college as waste paper," Ruth added.
+
+Rebecca was silent. Ruth, smiling roguishly, stole up behind her.
+Suddenly she put both arms around Rebecca Frayne and hugged her tight.
+
+"Becky! Don't you understand?" she cried.
+
+"Understand what?" Rebecca asked gruffly, trying to dash away her few
+tears.
+
+"Why, honey, I did it for _you_. I believed the papers must be worth
+something. I had heard of a set of New York illustrated papers for the
+years of the Civil War selling for a big price. These, I believed, must
+be even more interesting to collectors of such things.
+
+"So I wrote to Mr. Cameron, and he sent me the names of old book
+dealers, and _they_ sent me the addresses of several collectors. This
+Mr. Radley has a regular museum of such things, and he offers the best
+price--four hundred dollars for the lot if they prove to be as perfect
+as I said they were. And they _are_."
+
+"Yes--but----"
+
+"And, of course, the money is yours, Rebecca," said Ruth, promptly. "You
+don't for a moment suppose that I would take your valuable papers and
+cheat you out of the reward just because I happened to know more about
+their worth than you did? What do you take me for?"
+
+"Oh--oh, Ruthie!"
+
+"What do you take me for?" again demanded Ruth Fielding, quite as though
+she were offended.
+
+"For the best and dearest girl who ever lived!" cried Rebecca Frayne,
+and cast herself upon Ruth's breast, holding her tightly while she
+sobbed there.
+
+This was one surprise. But there was another later, and this was a
+surprise for Ruth herself.
+
+She was very glad to have been the means of finding Rebecca such a nice
+little fortune as this that came to her for the old periodicals. With
+what the girl's brother could send her, Rebecca would be pretty sure of
+sufficient money to carry her through her freshman year and pay for her
+second year's tuition at Ardmore.
+
+"Something may be found then for Rebecca to do," thought Ruth, "that
+will not so greatly shock her notions of gentility. Dear me! she's as
+nice a girl as ever lived; but she is a problem."
+
+Ruth had other problems, however, on her mind. One of these brought
+about the personal surprise mentioned above. She had found time finally
+to complete the scenario of "Crossed Wires," and after some changes had
+been made in it, Mr. Hammond had informed her that it would be put in
+the hands of a director for production. It called for so many outdoor
+scenes, however, that the new film would not be made until spring.
+
+Spring was now fast approaching, and Ruth determined to be at the Red
+Mill on a visit when the first scenes were taken for her photo-drama.
+
+Of course, if she went, Helen must go. They stood excellently well in
+all their classes, and it was not hard to persuade Dr. Milroth, who had
+good reports of both freshmen, to let them go to Cheslow.
+
+Ruth's coming home was in the nature of a surprise to Uncle Jabez and
+Aunt Alvirah. The old housekeeper was outspoken in her joy at seeing
+"her pretty" once more. Uncle Jabez was startled into perhaps a warmer
+greeting of his niece than he ordinarily considered advisable.
+
+"I declare for't, Ruth! Ain't nothin' the matter, is there?" he asked,
+holding her hand and staring into her face with serious intent.
+
+"Oh, no, Uncle. Nothing at all the matter. Just ran home to see how you
+all were, and to watch them take the pictures of the old mill."
+
+"Ain't lost any of that money, have ye?" persisted the miller.
+
+"Not a penny. And Mr. Hammond sent me a nice check on account of
+royalties, too," and she dimpled and laughed at him.
+
+"All right," grunted Uncle Jabez. "Ye wanter watch out for that there
+money. Business is onsartain. Ain't no knowin' when everything'll go to
+pot _here_. I never see the times so hard."
+
+But Ruth was not much disturbed by such talk. Uncle Jabez had been
+prophesying disaster ever since she had known him.
+
+Maggie welcomed Ruth cordially, as well as Ben. Maggie was still the
+puzzling combination of characteristics that she had seemed to Ruth from
+the first. She was willing to work, and was kind to Aunt Alvirah; but
+she always withdrew into herself if anybody tried to talk much to her.
+
+The others at the Red Mill had become used to the girl's reticence; but
+to Ruth it remained just as tantalizing. She had the feeling that Maggie
+was by no means in her right environment.
+
+"Doesn't she ever write letters?" Ruth asked Aunt Alvirah. "Doesn't she
+ever have a visitor?"
+
+"Why, bless ye, my pretty! I don't know as she writes much," Aunt
+Alvirah said, as she moved about the kitchen in her old slow fashion.
+"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones! Well Ruthie, she reads a lot. She's all
+for books, I guess, like you be. But she don't never talk much. And a
+visitor? Why, come to think on't, she did have one visitor."
+
+"Is that so?" cried the curious Ruth. "Let's hear about it. I feel
+gossipy, Aunt Alvirah," and she laughed.
+
+She knew that Maggie was away from the house, and they were alone. She
+could trust Aunt Alvirah to say nothing to the girl regarding her
+queries.
+
+"Yes, my pretty," the old woman said, "she did have one visitor. Another
+gal come to see her the very week you went away to college, Ruthie."
+
+"Is that so? Who was she?"
+
+"Maggie didn't say. I didn't ask her. Ye see, she ain't one ter confide
+in a body," explained Aunt Alvirah, shaking her head and lowering
+herself into her rocking chair. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
+
+"But didn't you see this visitor?"
+
+"Why, yes, Ruthie. I seen her. It was funny, too," Aunt Alvirah said,
+shaking her head. "I meant to write to you about it; then I forgot.
+
+"I hears somebody knock on the door one day, and I opened the door and
+there I declare stood Maggie herself. Or, I thought 'twas her."
+
+"What?" gasped Ruth, very much interested.
+
+"She looked a sight like her," said Aunt Alvirah, laughing to herself at
+the remembrance. "Yet I knowed Maggie had gone upstairs to make the
+beds, and this here girl who had knocked on the door was all dressed
+up."
+
+"'Why, Maggie!' says I. And she says, kinder tart-like:
+
+"'I ain't Maggie. But I want to see her.'
+
+"So I axed her in; but she wouldn't come. I seen then maybe she was a
+little younger than Maggie is. Howsomever I called to Maggie, and she
+went out, and the two of 'em walked up and down the road for an hour.
+The other gal never come in. And I seen her start back toward Cheslow.
+Maggie never said no word about her from that day to this.
+
+"Do you know what I think about it, Ruthie?" concluded Aunt Alvirah.
+
+"No, Aunt Alvirah," said the girl of the Red Mill, reflectively.
+
+"I think that was Maggie's sister. Maybe she works out for somebody in
+Cheslow."
+
+Ruth merely nodded. She did not think much of that phase of the matter.
+What she was really puzzling over was her memory of the girl she and
+Helen had interviewed on the island in Lake Remona before the Christmas
+holidays.
+
+That girl had looked very much like Maggie, too!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+MANY THINGS HAPPEN
+
+
+It was, of course, hard to tell by merely seeing them taken what the
+pictures about the old Red Mill would be like; but Ruth and Helen both
+acted in them as "extras" and were greatly excited over the film, one
+may be sure.
+
+The director, not the cross Mr. Grimes this time, assured Ruth that he
+was confident "Crossed Wires" would make good on the screen. Hazel Gray
+played the lead in the picture, as she had in "The Heart of a School
+Girl," and Ruth and Helen were glad to meet the bright little screen
+actress again.
+
+Miss Gray seemed to have forgotten all about Tom Cameron and Ruth, for
+some reason, felt glad. She ventured to ask Helen if her twin was still
+as enamored of the young actress as he had seemed to be the year before.
+
+"Why, no," Helen said thoughtfully. "You know how it is with boys; they
+have one craze after another, Ruthie."
+
+"No. Do they?" asked the other.
+
+"Yes. Tom made a collection of the photographs of a slap-stick comedian
+at first. Then he decorated his room at Seven Oaks with all the pictures
+he could find of Miss Gray. Now, when I was over there with father the
+other day, what do you suppose is his chief decoration on his room
+walls?"
+
+"I haven't the least idea," Ruth confessed.
+
+"Great, ugly, brutal boxers! Prize-fighters! Awful pictures, Ruth! I
+suppose next he will make a collection of the photographs of burglars!"
+and Helen laughed.
+
+The chums were whisked back to Ardmore, having been absent five days.
+They were so well prepared in their recitations, however, that they did
+not fall behind in any particular. Indeed, these two bright-minded girls
+found it not difficult to keep up with their classes.
+
+Even Jennie Stone, leisure loving as she naturally was, had no real
+difficulty in being well to the front in her studies. And she had become
+one of the most faithful of devotees of gymnastic practice.
+
+Ardmore's second basket ball five pushed the first team hard; and Jennie
+Stone was on the second five. As the spring training for the boats
+opened she, as well as Ruth and Helen, tried for the freshmen
+eight-oared shell. All three won places in that crew.
+
+Jennie was still somewhat over-weight. But the instructor put her at bow
+and her weight counted there. Ruth was stroke and Helen Number 2. As
+practice went on it was proved that the freshman crew was a very well
+balanced one.
+
+They more than once "bumped" the sophomore shell in trial races, and
+once came very near to catching the junior eight. The seniors and
+juniors began now to pay more attention to the freshman class;
+especially to those members who showed well in athletics.
+
+Because of their characters and their class standing, several of the
+instructors besides Miss Cullam, the mathematics teacher, were the
+friends of the Briarwoods. Miss Cullam had shown a warm appreciation of
+Ruth Fielding's character all through the year. Not that Ruth was a
+prize pupil in Miss Cullam's study, for she was not. Mathematics was the
+one study it was hard for Ruth to interest herself in. But when the girl
+of the Red Mill had a hard thing to do, she always put her whole mind to
+it; and, therefore, she made a good mark in mathematics in spite of her
+distaste for the study.
+
+"You are doing well, Miss Fielding," Miss Cullam declared. "Better than
+I expected. I have no doubt that you will pass well in the year's
+examinations."
+
+"And you won't be afraid that I'll crib the answers, Miss Cullam?" Ruth
+asked, laughing.
+
+"Hush! don't repeat gossip," Miss Cullam said smiling, however, rather
+ruefully. "Even when the gossip emanates from an old cross-patch of a
+teacher who gets nervous and worries about improbabilities. No. I do not
+believe any of my girls would take advantage of the examination papers.
+Yet, I would give a good deal to know just where those papers and that
+vase went."
+
+"Has nothing ever been heard from Miss Rolff since she left Ardmore?"
+Ruth asked.
+
+"No. Not a word. And it is hard on the sororities, too. Heretofore, the
+girls have enjoyed the benefits of the associations for three years.
+_You_, I am sure, Ruth, would have been invited by this time to join one
+of the sororities."
+
+"And I should dearly love to," sighed Ruth. "The Kappa Alpha. It looks
+good to me. But there are other things in college--and out of it, too.
+Oh see, Miss Cullam! Here is what I wanted to show you," and the girl of
+the Red Mill brought forth a large envelope from her handbag.
+
+They were talking together in the library on this occasion, it being a
+Saturday afternoon when there was nothing particular to take up either
+the teacher's time or the pupil's. Ruth emptied the envelope on the
+table.
+
+"See these photographs? They are stills taken in connection with my new
+scenario. I want you to see just how lovely a place the old Red Mill,
+where I live, is."
+
+Miss Cullam adjusted her eyeglasses with a smile, and picked up the
+topmost picture which Mr. Hammond had sent to Ruth.
+
+"That's dear old Aunt Alvirah herself feeding the chickens. She doesn't
+know that we took that picture of her. If I had said 'photograph' to the
+dear old creature, she would have been determined to put on her best bib
+and tucker!"
+
+"That's the back yard. Isn't it, dear? Who is that on the porch?"
+asked Miss Cullam.
+
+"On the porch? Why, _is_ anybody on the porch? I don't remember that."
+
+Ruth stooped to peer closer at the unmounted photograph in the teacher's
+hand.
+
+"Why! there _is_ somebody standing there," she murmured. "You can see
+the head and shoulders just as plain----"
+
+"And the face," said Miss Cullam, with strange eagerness.
+
+"Oh, I know!" cried Ruth, and she laughed heartily. "Of course. That's
+Maggie."
+
+"Maggie?"
+
+"Yes. The girl who helps Aunt Alvirah. And she's quite an interesting
+character, Miss Cullam. I'll tell you about her some day."
+
+"Yes?" said Miss Cullam, reflectively.
+
+"Now, here is the front of the old house----"
+
+"Allow me to keep this picture for a little while, will you, Miss
+Fielding?" broke in the teacher, still staring at the clearly exposed
+face of Maggie on the porch.
+
+"Why, yes, certainly," responded the girl, curiously.
+
+"I wish to show this girl's face to somebody else. She seems very
+familiar to me," the mathematics teacher said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+CAN IT BE A CLUE?
+
+
+Ruth gave the matter of Maggie's photograph very little thought. Not at
+that time, at least. She merely handed the print over to Miss Cullam and
+forgot all about it.
+
+These were busy days, both in the classroom and out of it. The warmth of
+late spring was in the air; every girl who felt at all the blood
+coursing in her veins, tried to be out of doors.
+
+The whole college was eager regarding the coming boat races. Ardmore was
+to try out her first eight-oared crew with three of several colleges,
+and two of the trials would be held upon Lake Remona.
+
+There were local races between the class crews every Saturday afternoon.
+Jennie Stone had to choose between basket ball and rowing, for there
+were Saturdays when both sports were in ascendency.
+
+"No use. I can't be in two places at once," declared Jennie, regretfully
+resigning from the basketball team.
+
+"No, honey," said Helen. "You're not big enough for that now. A few
+months ago you might have played basket ball and sent your shadow to
+pull an oar with us. See what it means to get thin."
+
+"My! I feel like another girl," said the fleshy one ecstatically. "What
+do you suppose my father will say to me in June?"
+
+"He'll say," suggested Helen, giggling, "'you took so much away, why do
+you bring so little back from college?'"
+
+It was several days before Miss Cullam returned to Ruth the picture she
+had borrowed; and when she did she made a statement regarding it that
+very much astonished the girl of the Red Mill.
+
+"I will tell you now, my dear; why I wished to keep the photograph," the
+teacher said. "I showed it to Dr. Milroth and to several of the other
+members of the faculty."
+
+"Indeed?" responded Ruth, quite puzzled.
+
+"Some of them agree with me. Dr. Milroth does not. Nevertheless, I wish
+you would tell me all about this Maggie who works for your aunt----"
+
+"Maggie!" gasped Ruth. "What do you mean, Miss Cullam? Was it because
+her face is in the picture that you borrowed it?"
+
+"Yes, my dear. I think, as do some of the other instructors, that Maggie
+looks very much like the Miss Rolff who last year occupied the room you
+have and who left us so strangely before the close of the semester."
+
+"Oh, Miss Cullam!"
+
+"Foolish, am I?" laughed the teacher. "Well, I suppose so. You know all
+about Maggie, do you?"
+
+"No!" gasped Ruth.
+
+Eagerly she explained to the mathematics teacher how the strange girl
+had appeared at the Red Mill and why she had remained there. Miss Cullam
+was no less excited than Ruth when she heard these particulars.
+
+"I must tell Dr. Milroth this," Miss Cullam declared. "Say nothing about
+it, Ruth Fielding. And she says her name is 'Maggie'? Of course!
+Margaret Rolff. I believe that is who she is."
+
+"But to go out to housework," Ruth said doubtfully.
+
+"That doesn't matter. We must learn more about this Maggie. Say nothing
+until I have spoken to Dr. Milroth again."
+
+But if this was a clue to the identity and where-abouts of the girl who
+had left Ardmore so abruptly the year before, Ruth learned something the
+very next day that, unfortunately, put it quite beyond her ability to
+discover further details in the matter.
+
+A letter arrived from Aunt Alvirah and after reading it once through
+Ruth hurried away to Miss Cullam with the surprising news it contained.
+
+Maggie had left the Red Mill. Without any explanation save that she had
+been sent for and must go, the strange girl had left Aunt Alvirah and
+Uncle Jabez, and they did not know her destination. Ben, the hired man,
+had driven her to the Cheslow railway station and she had taken an
+eastbound train. Otherwise, nothing was known of the strange girl's
+movements.
+
+"Oh, my dear!" cried Miss Cullam. "I am certain, then, that she is
+Margaret Rolff. Even Dr. Milroth has come to agree that it may be that
+strange girl. I hoped there was a chance of learning what really became
+of those missing examination papers--and, of course, the vase. But how
+can we discover what became of them if the girl has disappeared again?"
+
+"Well, it's a very strange thing, I am sure," Ruth admitted. "Of course,
+I'll write the folks at the Red Mill that if Maggie--or whatever her
+real name is--ever turns up there again, they must let me know at once."
+
+"Yes, do," begged the teacher. "Now that the subject has come up again I
+feel more disturbed than ever over those papers. _Were_ they lost, or
+weren't they? My dear Ruth! you don't know how I feel about that
+mystery. All these girls whom I think so highly of, are still under
+suspicion."
+
+"I hope nothing like that will happen this year, dear Miss Cullam," Ruth
+said warmly. "I feel that we freshmen all want to pass our examinations
+honestly--or not at all."
+
+"That is exactly what I believe about the other girls," groaned the
+teacher. "But the sorority members admit that Margaret Rolff was
+instructed to remove the Egyptian vase from the library as a part of the
+stunt she was expected to do during the initiation ceremonies.
+
+"And in that vase were my papers. Of course, the girls did not know the
+examination papers were there before the vase was taken. _But what
+became of them afterward?_"
+
+"Why, Miss Cullam," Ruth said thoughtfully, "of course they must still
+be in the vase."
+
+"Perhaps. Then, perhaps not," murmured the teacher. "Who knows?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE SQUALL
+
+
+The first college eight went off to Gillings, and, as it was only a few
+miles by rail, half the student body, at least, went to root for the
+crew. The Ardmore boat was beaten.
+
+"Oh, dear! To come home plucked in such a disgusting way," groaned
+Helen, who, with Jennie, as well as Ruth, was among the disgruntled and
+disappointed girls who had gone to see the race. "It is awful."
+
+"It's taught them a lesson, I wager," Ruth said practically. "We have
+all been rowing in still water. The river at Gillings is rough, and the
+local eight was used to it. I say, girls!"
+
+"Say it," said Jennie, gruffly. "It can't be anything that will hurt us
+after what we've seen to-day. Three whole boatlengths ahead!"
+
+"Never mind," broke in Helen. "The races with Hampton and Beardsley will
+be on our own lake."
+
+"And if there is a flutter of wind, our first eight will be beaten
+again," from Jennie Stone.
+
+"No, no, girls!" Ruth cried. "I heard the coach tell them that hereafter
+she was going to make them row if there was a hurricane. And that's what
+_we_ must do."
+
+"_Who_ must do, Ruthie? What do you mean?" asked Helen.
+
+"The freshman eight."
+
+"E-lu-ci-date," drawled Jennie.
+
+"We must learn to handle our shell in rough water. If there is a breath
+of wind stirring we mustn't beat it to land," said Ruth, vigorously.
+"Let's learn to handle our shell in really rough water."
+
+"Sounds reasonable," admitted Jennie. "Shall we all take out accident
+policies?"
+
+"No. All learn to swim. That's the wisest course," laughed Ruth.
+
+"Ain't it the _trewth_?" agreed Jennie, making a face. "I'm not much of
+a swimmest in fresh water. But I never could sink."
+
+The freshmen with the chums in the eight-oared shell proved to be all
+fair swimmers. And that crew was not the only one that redoubled its
+practice after the disastrous race at Gillings College.
+
+Each class crew did its very best. The coaches were extremely stern with
+the girls. Ardmore had a reputation for turning out champion crews, and
+the year before, on their own water, the Ardmore eight had beaten
+Gillings emphatically.
+
+     "But if we can win races only on our own course," _The Jasper_, the
+     Ardmore College paper declared, "what is the use of supporting an
+     athletic association and four perfectly useless crews?"
+
+They had all been so sure of victory over Gillings--both the student
+body and the faculty--that the disgrace of their beating cut all the
+deeper.
+
+     "It is fortunate," said the same stern commenter, "that our races
+     with Hampton, and again with Beardsley, will be on Lake Remona. At
+     least, our crew knows the water here--on a perfectly calm day, at
+     any rate."
+
+"I see Merry Dexter's fine Italian hand in _that_," Ruth declared, when
+she and her chums read the criticism of the chief college eight. "And if
+it is true of the senior shell, how much more so of our own? We must be
+ready to risk a little something for the sake of pulling a good race."
+
+"Goodness!" murmured Helen. "When we're away off there in the middle of
+the course between the landing and Bliss Island, for instance, and a
+squall threatens, it is going to take pluck, my dear, to keep us all
+steady."
+
+"I tell you what!" exclaimed Jennie Stone.
+
+"Tell it, if you're sure it won't hurt us," laughed Helen.
+
+"Let's get the coach to have us circle the island when we're out in
+practice. It's always a little rough off both ends of Bliss Island, and
+we should get used to rough water before our final home races."
+
+For, before the season was over, the four Ardmore eights would compete,
+and that race was the one which the three under-classes particularly
+trained for.
+
+Jennie's suggestion sounded practical to her chums; so there were three
+already agreed when it was broached to the freshmen eight. The coach
+thought well of it, too; for there was always a motor boat supposed to
+be in sight of the shells when they were out at practice.
+
+This was in April, and, in Ardmore's latitude, a very uncertain month
+April is--a time of showers and smiles, calms and uncertain gales.
+Nevertheless, so thoroughly were the freshmen eight devoted to practice
+that it had to be a pretty black looking afternoon, indeed, that kept
+them from stepping into their boat.
+
+The boatkeeper was a weather-wise old man, who had guarded the Ardmore
+girls against disaster on the lake for a decade. Being so well used to
+reading the signs he never let the boats out when he considered the
+weather threatening in any measure.
+
+One afternoon, when there had been a call passed for the freshmen eight
+to gather at the boathouse immediately after recitations, Johnnie, as
+the boatman was called, had been called away from his post. Only a green
+assistant was there to look after the boats, and he was much too bashful
+to "look after the girls," as Jennie, giggling, observed.
+
+"I don't see why they don't put blinders on that young man," she said.
+"Whenever he has to look at one of us girls his freckles light up as
+though there was an electric bulb behind each individual one."
+
+"Oh, Heavy! Behave!" murmured Helen, yet amused, too, by the bashfulness
+of the assistant.
+
+"We _are_ a sight, I admit," went on Jennie. "Everything in the shell,
+girls? Now! up with it. Come on, little Trix," she added to the
+coxswain. "Don't get your tiller-lines snarled, and bring your
+'nose-warmer'"--by which inelegant term she referred to the megaphone
+which, when they were really trying for speed was strapped to the
+coxswain's head.
+
+The eight oarswomen picked the light shell up, shoulder high, and
+marched down the platform to the float. Taking their cue from the
+tam-o'-shanters the seniors had made them wear early in their college
+experience, the freshmen eight wore light blue bandannas wound around
+their heads, with the corners sticking up like rabbit-ears, blue
+blouses, short skirts over bloomers, and blue stockings with white
+shoes. Their appearance was exceedingly natty.
+
+"If we don't win in the races, we'll be worth looking at," Helen once
+said pridefully.
+
+The assistant boatkeeper remained at a distance and said not a word to
+them, although there was a bank of black cloud upon the western horizon
+into which the sun would plunge after a time.
+
+"We're the first out," cried one of the girls. "There isn't another boat
+on the lake."
+
+"Wrong, Sally," Ruth Fielding said. "I just saw a boat disappear behind
+Bliss Island."
+
+"Not one of _ours_?" cried Jennie, looking about as they lowered the
+shell into the water.
+
+"No. It was a skiff. Came from the other side, I guess. Or perhaps it
+came up the river from the railroad bridge."
+
+"Now," said Trix Davenport, the coxswain, "are we going to ask that boy
+to get out the launch and follow us?"
+
+"Oh, goodness me! No," said Helen, with assurance. "We don't want him
+tagging us. Do we, girls?"
+
+"Perhaps it might be better," Ruth said slowly.
+
+But the chorus of the other girls cried her down. Besides, she did not
+believe there was any danger. Of course, a rowing shell is an uncertain
+thing; but she had never yet seen an accident on the lake.
+
+All stepped in, adjusted their oars, and the coxswain pushed off. Having
+adjusted the rudder-lines, Trix affixed the megaphone, and lifted her
+hand. The eight strained forward, and the coxswain began to beat time.
+
+Ruth set the pace in a long, swinging stroke, and the other seven fell
+into time. The shell shot out from the landing just as the coach
+appeared around the corner of Dare Hall, on her way down from the
+gymnasium. She gave one glance at the sky, and then started to run.
+
+"Those foolish girls!" she exclaimed. "Where's Johnny?"
+
+The freshman eight was far out upon the lake when she reached the
+boathouse, and she quickly saw that the old boatkeeper was not in sight.
+She tried to signal the crew of the shell to return; but the girls in
+the frail craft were too interested in their practice to look back
+toward the shore. Indeed, in a very few minutes, they swept through the
+slightly rough water at the eastern end of the island and disappeared
+behind it. The coach, Miss Mallory, beckoned the assistant boatman and
+ordered out the launch. But there was something wrong with the engine,
+and he lost some time before getting the craft started.
+
+Meanwhile, the cloudbank was rolling up from the west. The sun suddenly
+was quenched. A breath of cold wind swept down the lake and fretted the
+tiny waves. They sprang up in retaliation and slapped the bow of the
+launch, which finally got under its sputtering way.
+
+Then a squall of wind swooped down and Miss Mallory was almost swept off
+her feet. The boatman steered carefully, but the engine was not yet
+working in good fashion. The coach made a mistake, too, in directing the
+launch. Instead of starting directly up the lake, and rounding the head
+of the island to meet the freshman shell, she ordered the boatman to
+trail the boat that had disappeared.
+
+The launch was some time in beating around the lower end of the island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+TREASURE HUNTING
+
+
+The freshmen shell was well around the end of Bliss Island and behind
+it, before the squall broke. Pulling into the rising gale as they were
+and the water being always a little rough here, at first none of Ruth
+Fielding's associates in the craft realized that there was the least
+danger.
+
+They were well off shore, for near the island the water was shallow and
+there were rocks. These rowing shells are made so lightly that a mere
+scraping of the keel over a sunken boulder would probably completely
+wreck the craft, and well the girls knew this.
+
+Trix Davenport steered well out from the dangerous shallows. "Pull away,
+girls!" she shouted through her megaphone. "It's going to blow."
+
+And just then the real squall swept down upon them. Ruth, although
+setting a good, long stroke, found of a sudden that the shell was
+scarcely moving ahead. The wind was so strong that they were only
+holding their own against it.
+
+"Pull!" shouted the coxswain again.
+
+Ruth bent forward, braced her feet firmly and drove the long oar-blade
+deep into the jumping little waves. Those waves quickly became larger
+and "jumpier." A white wreath formed upon their crests. The shell in a
+very few seconds was in the midst of white water.
+
+Once with Uncle Jabez, and in a heavy punt, the girl of the Red Mill had
+been caught in the rapids of the Lumano below the mill, and had fought
+with skill and courage to help save the boat. This effort was soon to be
+as great--and she realized it.
+
+She set a pace that drove the shell on in the teeth of the squall; but
+the boat shivered with every stroke. It was as though they were trying
+to push the narrow, frail little shell into a solid wall.
+
+In pulling her oar Ruth scarcely ever raised her eyes to a level with
+the coxswain's face; but when she chanced to, she saw that Trix was
+pallid and her eyes were clouded with fear.
+
+Ruth hoped none of the other girls saw that mask of dread which the
+situation had forced upon their little coxswain. She wanted to cry out
+to Trix--to warn her to hide her emotion. But she had no breath to spare
+for this.
+
+Every ounce of breath and of muscle she owned, Ruth put into her stroke.
+She felt the rhythmic spring of the craft, and knew that her mates were
+keeping well up with her. They were doing their part bravely, even
+though they might be frightened.
+
+And then, suddenly and fortunately, the freshman craft found a sheltered
+bit of water. A high shoulder of the hilly island broke the force of the
+wind.
+
+"Ashore! Put us ashore!" Ruth managed to gasp so that Trix heard her.
+
+"We--we'll wreck the shell!" complained Trix. "It's so shallow."
+
+"We'll not drown in shallow water," ejaculated Ruth, expelling the words
+between strokes.
+
+The coxswain shot them shoreward. She caught a glimpse of another boat
+pulled up on the beach--the skiff they had earlier seen rounding the
+point of the island.
+
+In thirty seconds they were safe. The rain began to pour down upon them
+in a brisk torrent. But that did not matter.
+
+"Rather be half drowned in the rain than wholly drowned in the lake!"
+Jennie Stone declared, as they scrambled out into the shallow water,
+more than ankle deep, and lifted the treacherous shell out of the lake.
+
+"Goodness! what a near one that was!" Helen declared.
+
+Ruth looked at the skiff drawn up on the shore, and then up into the
+grove of trees.
+
+"I wonder where the girl is who was in that boat?" she said.
+
+"Was it a girl?" asked Helen, with interest.
+
+"Yes. She must have found shelter somewhere from this rain. Come on! We
+may be able to keep reasonably dry up there in the woods."
+
+The other girls followed Ruth, for she was naturally their leader. The
+rain continued to beat down upon them; but before they reached the
+opening in which was situated the Stone Face, Ruth spied an evergreen,
+the drooping branches of which offered them reasonable shelter.
+
+"Come on into the green tent, girls!" shouted Jennie Stone, plunging
+into the dimly lighted circle under the tree. "Oh! Goodness! What's
+that?"
+
+"A dog!"
+
+"A cow! and I'm afraid of co-o-ows!" wailed Sally Blanchard, seizing
+upon Ruth as the nearest savior.
+
+"Don't be silly, child," vouchsafed Helen, who had followed Jennie. "How
+would a cow come upon this island--a mile from shore?"
+
+"Or a dog?" laughed Ruth. "What _did_ you see, Jennie Stone?"
+
+"She just tried to fool us," Helen declared.
+
+"Didn't either," the stout girl said warmly. "Something ran out at the
+far side as I came in."
+
+"An animal?" gasped Trix Davenport.
+
+"Well," returned Jennie Stone, "it certainly wasn't a vegetable. At
+least, I never saw a vegetable run as fast as that thing did."
+
+"You needn't try to scare us to death, Heavy," complained Helen. "Of
+course it must have been the girl Ruth said came ashore in that skiff."
+
+"Well, I didn't think of her," admitted Jennie. "But she ran like a
+ferret. I'd like to know who she is."
+
+"Remember the girl we found over here that night in the snowstorm?"
+whispered Helen to Ruth. "The girl who looked like that Maggie?"
+
+"Oh, don't I!" exclaimed Ruth, shaking her head.
+
+"What do you suppose _she_ was after--and what is this one over here on
+the island for?" pursued Helen, languidly.
+
+Ruth made no reply, but her cheeks flushed and her eyes grew brighter.
+She stooped and peered out at the decreasing rainfall. There was a path
+leading straight toward the Stone Face. Had this girl whom Jennie had
+seen gone in that direction?
+
+The other members of the freshman crew were so inordinately busy
+chattering and laughing and telling jokes and stories that nobody for
+the moment noticed Ruth Fielding, who stole out from the covert through
+the fast slackening rainfall without saying a word. Lightly running over
+the crest of the hill, she came in sight of the huge boulder at which
+she and Helen had experienced their never-to-be-forgotten adventure the
+winter before.
+
+She saw nobody at the foot of the boulder, but she pressed on to the
+edge of the grove to make sure. And then she saw that somebody had
+certainly and very recently been at work near the boulder.
+
+There was a pickaxe--perhaps the very one she had seen there in the
+winter--and a shovel. Some attempt had been made to dig over the
+gravelly soil for some yards from the foot of the boulder.
+
+"Goodness me! what can this mean?" thought the girl of the Red Mill.
+"Something must be buried here! Treasure hunters! Fancy!" and she
+laughed a little uncertainly. "Can somebody believe that this is one of
+the hiding places of Captain Kidd's gold? Who ever heard the like?"
+
+The rain ceased falling. There was a tooting of a horn down behind the
+island. The launch had come in sight of the shell and Miss Mallory was
+trying to signal the girls to return to the shore.
+
+But Ruth did not go back. She heard the girls shout for her, but instead
+of complying she went straight across to the Stone Face and picked up
+the heavy pickaxe.
+
+"I don't believe whoever has been digging has found anything yet," she
+told herself. "No. She's been here before--for, of course, it is that
+girl. She couldn't have dug all this over in a few minutes. No. She has
+been here and dug unsuccessfully. Then she has come back to-day for
+another attempt at--at the treasure, shall we call it? Well!"
+
+There was already an excavation more than a foot in depth and several
+yards in circumference. Whatever it was the strange girl had been after
+she was not quite sure of its burial place.
+
+In the winter when she had essayed to dig for the hidden thing there had
+been too much frost in the ground. Besides, doubtless Ruth and Helen's
+inquisitiveness had frightened the strange girl away. Now she was back
+again--somewhere now on Bliss Island. She had not accomplished her
+purpose as yet. Ruth smote the hard ground at her feet with all her
+strength. The pick sunk to its helve in the earth, now softened by the
+spring rain.
+
+"Oh! I hit something!" she gasped.
+
+In all probability she would not have continued to dig had this success
+not met her at the beginning. Really, her swinging of the pickaxe had
+been idly done. But the steel rang sharply on something. She raised the
+pick and used it thereafter more cautiously. There certainly was
+something below the surface--not very far down----
+
+Dropping the pickaxe, Ruth gained possession of the shovel and threw
+aside the loose earth. Yes! there was some object hidden there--some
+"treasure" which she desired to see.
+
+In a few moments, becoming impatient of the shovel, she cast it aside
+and stooping, with her feet planted firmly in the muddy earth, she
+groped in the hole with both hands.
+
+Before she dragged the object into sight Ruth Fielding was positive by
+its shape and the feel of it, of the nature of the object. As she rose
+up at last, firmly grasping the object, a sharp voice said behind her:
+
+"Well, now that you've interfered and found it, suppose you hand it over
+to me. You haven't any business with that vase, you know!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE END OF A PERFECT YEAR
+
+
+Helen Cameron came running over the hill and down the sloppy path
+through the grove. When she reached the Stone Face where Ruth and the
+strange girl were standing, she cried:
+
+"What _is_ the matter with you, Ruthie Fielding? Come on over to the
+boat. Miss Mallory sent me after you.... Why! who's this?"
+
+"Don't you remember this girl, Helen?" asked Ruth, seriously.
+
+"Why! it's the girl who was camping in the snow, isn't it?" said Helen,
+curiously eyeing the stranger. "How-do?"
+
+But the other was not pleased to allow the situation to develop into
+merely a well-bred meeting of three former acquaintances. She did not
+vouchsafe Helen a glance, but said, directing her words toward Ruth:
+
+"I want that vase. It doesn't belong to you."
+
+"Goodness, Ruthie!" put in her chum, for the first time seeing the
+object in Ruth's hands. "What is that thing?"
+
+"I just dug it up here. It is the Egyptian vase taken from the Ardmore
+library last year I believe."
+
+"It doesn't matter where it came from. I want it," cried the strange
+girl, and she stepped forward quickly as though to seize the muddy vase.
+
+But Helen sprang forward and pushed her back.
+
+"Hold on! I guess if Ruth's got it, you'll have to wait and prove
+property," said Helen. "How about it, Ruth?"
+
+"She must tell us all about it," said Ruth, firmly. "Perhaps I may let
+her have it--if she tells us the truth."
+
+"The truth!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"I won't tell you a thing!" cried the strange girl. "You haven't any
+right to that vase."
+
+"Nor have you," Ruth told her.
+
+"Well----"
+
+"Nor has Margaret Rolff," went on Ruth, coolly. "I take it you are
+acting for her, aren't you?"
+
+"Why," cried Helen, beginning to understand. "That is the girl who left
+Ardmore last year?"
+
+"And came to the Red Mill after spending the summer at a camp on the
+Lumano and helped Aunt Alvirah," Ruth added, with a smile.
+
+"Well, I never! Not Maggie?" demanded Helen.
+
+"I think I am right," Ruth said quietly. "Am I not?" to the other girl.
+"Our Maggie is Margaret Rolff, and _you_ must be her sister. At least,
+you look enough like her to be some relative."
+
+The other made a gesture of resignation and dropped her hands. "I might
+as well confess it," she admitted. "You are Ruth Fielding, and Margy
+told me long ago you might be trusted."
+
+"And this is my particular friend, Helen Cameron," Ruth said, "who is to
+be fully trusted, too."
+
+"I suppose so," said the girl. "My name is Betty. I'm Margy's younger
+sister. Poor Margy. She never was very strong. I mean that she was
+always giving in to other people--was easily confused.
+
+"She's bright enough, you know," pursued the other girl, warmly; "but
+she is nervous and easily put out. What those girls did to her last year
+at this college was a shame!"
+
+Another hail from behind the hill warned Ruth that she must attend Miss
+Mallory's command or there would be trouble.
+
+"We cannot wait to hear it all, Miss--Betty, did you say your name was?
+Where are you staying?"
+
+"I have been working in Greenburg all winter. We're poor girls and have
+no parents. Margy is with me now," said the girl. "And I want that vase.
+I want it for Margy. She will never be satisfied until she can give it
+back to the dean of the college herself and explain how she came to hide
+it, and then forgot where she hid the vase."
+
+"Tell me where to find you in Greenburg," said Ruth, hastily. "No! I'll
+not let you have the vase now. I will not show it to anybody else,
+however, and we'll come over to town this evening and bring it with us,
+and talk with Maggie."
+
+"Oh, Miss Fielding----"
+
+"That must satisfy you," said Ruth, firmly; and Betty Rolff had to be
+satisfied with this promise. She told the chums where she and Margaret
+were staying and then Ruth and Helen ran back to their friends, Ruth
+concealing the hastily wiped silver vase under the loose front of her
+blouse.
+
+"Goodness!" she said to Helen, "I hope nobody will see it. Do I bulge
+_much_?"
+
+There was so much excitement among the crew of the freshman eight,
+however, that Ruth's treasure-trove was not discovered. Under Miss
+Mallory's direction they launched the shell again, climbed aboard, and
+made a safe passage to the dock.
+
+A notice was put up that very evening, however, to the effect that none
+of the racing shells were to be taken out unless the launch was manned
+and went with the frailer craft.
+
+The students of Ardmore were allowed to leave the college grounds in the
+evening if they were properly chaperoned. And when Ruth went to Miss
+Cullam and explained a little of what was afoot, the mathematics
+instructor was only too glad to act in the capacity of chaperon.
+
+Helen had telephoned for a car, and the three rode down to Greenburg
+immediately after dinner. Ruth carried the recovered vase, just as she
+had dug it out of the hole by the Stone Face on Bliss Island, wrapped in
+a paper. She had not had time either to clean it or to examine it more
+thoroughly.
+
+They easily found the boarding house, the address of which Betty Rolff
+had given to Ruth. It was a respectable place, but was far from
+sumptuous. It was evident, as Ruth had been previously informed, that
+the Rolff girls were not very well off in this world's goods.
+
+When the visitors climbed to the second floor bedroom where the sisters
+were lodged, Miss Cullam took the lead, walked straight in, seized
+Margaret Rolff in her arms and implanted a kiss upon the pale cheek of
+the girl who had for so many months been Aunt Alvirah's assistant at the
+Red Mill.
+
+"You poor girl!" said the mathematics teacher. "What you must have been
+through! Now, I am delighted to see you again, and you must tell me all
+about it--how you came to take the vase, and bury it, and all."
+
+There was a good deal of talk on both sides before all this that Miss
+Cullam asked was explained. But the facts were made clear at last.
+
+In the first place, Margaret Rolff had always been very much afraid of
+the dark and of being alone at night. But she wanted so much to become a
+member of the Kappa Alpha that she did not try to cry off when she
+received her instructions as a candidate for membership in that
+sorority.
+
+The first part of her initiation test was easy enough. She secured the
+Egyptian vase from the reception room of the library without being
+apprehended. Then she was rowed across the lake to the island by several
+black-robed and hooded figures whom she did not know.
+
+Left with a flashlight and a spade to bury the stolen vase within a
+short distance of the Stone Face, Margaret had tried her best to control
+her nerves and do as she was commanded. But she could never really
+remember whether she had buried the vase or not. The idea had been for
+her to bury it, and then another candidate would be made to search for
+it the next night.
+
+Everything about the initiation went wrong, however, because Margaret
+lost her nerve. The members of the sorority could not find the place
+where the candidate had really dug her hole and buried the vase. And
+Margaret had fled in a panic from the college before further inquiry
+could be made.
+
+"All this time," explained the practical sister, Betty, "Margy has
+wanted to know if she did bury the vase or not. She felt she had stolen
+from the college and could be punished for it. I think those girls that
+set her the task should be punished."
+
+"They have been," said Miss Cullam, grimly. "Yet, it was really a
+misunderstanding all around. Now, let me see that vase, Ruth Fielding."
+
+The latter was glad to do this. The teacher opened the package and
+immediately turned the vase upside down and shook it. There was
+evidently something inside, and after some work with the handiest of all
+feminine tools, a hatpin, a soggy mass of paper was dislodged from the
+Egyptian vase.
+
+"The missing examination papers, girls!" sighed Miss Cullam, with much
+satisfaction. "There, Margaret! You may have the vase and return it to
+Dr. Milroth to-morrow if you like. And I hope you will return to the
+college and be with us next year.
+
+"I have what _I_ am after and feel more contented in my mind than I have
+for some months. Dear me, girls! you don't at all understand what a
+number of trials and perplexities are heaped upon the minds of us poor
+teachers."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were many other incidents occurring at Ardmore before the end of
+what Helen Cameron declared was a "perfect year." But nothing created
+more interest than the recovery of the Egyptian vase with the missing
+examination papers, unless it was the boat races. Though to a few,
+perhaps, certain plans for the coming summer overtopped even these in
+importance. These were such a very great secret that the chums scarcely
+dared discuss them.
+
+But those readers who may so desire will read about the happenings that
+developed from these plans of Ruth and her friends in the subsequent
+volume of the series, entitled, "Ruth Fielding in the Saddle; or,
+College Girls in the Land of Gold."
+
+First of the races was that with the first eight of Beardsley; and the
+crew of Ardmore won. Then came the trial between Ardmore and Hampton
+College, and the former won that as well.
+
+Ardmore was in high fettle at that. _The Jasper_ was quite as
+enthusiastically complimentary now as it had been critical after the
+race with Gillings, for in winning the race against Hampton College, the
+Ardmore crew had been forced to row through very rough water.
+
+Commencement came in June, and two days before the graduation exercises
+of the senior class, the local aquatic sports were held. The main
+incident of this carnival was the race between the class eights.
+
+The shells were started at twenty-yard intervals, and in the order of
+the classes. The freshman eight, in which rowed Ruth, Helen and Jennie,
+had practised vigorously all these weeks and now they displayed the
+value of their exertions.
+
+Within the first quarter they "bumped" the sophomore eight. This crew
+dropped out of the race immediately and the freshmen spun ahead, Ruth
+setting a wonderfully effective stroke, and little Trix Davenport
+swaying her body in time with the motion of the boat and shouting
+encouragement through her megaphone.
+
+On and on crept the freshman eight until there was barely a hand's
+breadth between the nose of their shell and the stern of the junior
+craft. The crowd along shore cheered the younger girls vociferously, and
+although they did not quite "bump" the juniors before crossing the mile
+line----
+
+"We came so near it there was no fun in it!" declared Jennie Stone,
+delightedly. "Oh, girls! some of us are going to be great rowists after
+a few more years at Ardmore."
+
+"Dear me," panted Helen, making the last pun of the term. "It should be
+called _Hard_-more. I never worked so hard in my life as I have this
+first year at college."
+
+"But it will never hurt us," laughed Ruth, later. "We have got on
+famously."
+
+"_You_ have, my dear," interposed Helen. "You stand A, number one in
+classes. And look at that new play of yours--a big success! Money is
+rolling in on you----"
+
+"Think a little of yourself," proposed Ruth. "Don't you consider your
+time well spent here, my dear chum?"
+
+"Sure! It _is_ the end of a perfect year," agreed Helen.
+
+"And think of me--_little_ me!" cried Jennie Stone, bursting into the
+chums' study at that moment, and in time to hear the last of the
+conversation. "Do you know what's happened, girls?"
+
+"No! What?" demanded the curious Helen.
+
+"I have lost another pound," said the ex-fat girl, in a sepulchral
+voice.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors. Price 50 cents per volume.
+Postage 10 cents additional_.
+
+Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. Her
+adventures and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every
+reader.
+
+Ruth Fielding is a character that will live in juvenile fiction.
+
+    1. RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+
+    2. RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+
+    3. RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+
+    4. RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+
+    5. RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+
+    6. RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+
+    7. RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+
+    8. RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+
+    9. RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
+
+    10. RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
+
+    11. RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+
+    12. RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
+
+    13. RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+
+    14. RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+
+    15. RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+
+    16. RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+
+    17. RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+
+    18. RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+
+    19. RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
+
+    20. RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
+
+    21. RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS
+
+    22. RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA
+
+    23. RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREAT SCENARIO
+
+    24. RUTH FIELDING AT CAMERON HALL
+
+    25. RUTH FIELDING CLEARING HER NAME
+
+    26. RUTH FIELDING IN TALKING PICTURES
+
+    27. RUTH FIELDING AND BABY JUNE
+
+    28. RUTH FIELDING AND HER DOUBLE
+
+    29. RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREATEST TRIUMPH
+
+    30. RUTH FIELDING AND HER CROWNING VICTORY
+
+These books may be purchased wherever books are sold
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers  New York
+
+
+
+
+THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+By MAY HOLLIS BARTON
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_12mo.  Cloth. Illustrated.  With colored Jacket._
+
+_Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional._
+
+_May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls who is bound to win
+instant popularity. Her style is somewhat of a reminder of that of
+Louisa M. Alcott, but thoroughly up-to-date in plot and action.
+Clean tales that all the girls will enjoy reading._
+
+    1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY
+
+    2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL
+
+    3. NELL GRAYSON'S RANCHING DAYS
+
+    4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY
+
+    5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY
+
+    6. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
+
+    7. HAZEL HOOD'S STRANGE DISCOVERY
+
+    8. TWO GIRLS AND A MYSTERY
+
+    9. THE GIRLS OF LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
+
+    10. KATE MARTIN'S PROBLEM
+
+    11. THE GIRL IN THE TOP FLAT
+
+    12. THE SEARCH FOR PEGGY ANN
+
+    13. SALLIE'S TEST OF SKILL
+
+    14. CHARLOTTE CROSS AND AUNT DEB
+
+    15. VIRGINIA'S VENTURE
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers   New York
+
+
+
+
+THE BETTY GORDON SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Author of the "Ruth Fielding Series"
+
+_12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors. Price 50 cents per volume.
+Postage 10 cents additional._
+
+_A new series of stories bound to make this writer more popular than
+ever with her host of girl readers. Every one will want to know Betty
+Gordon, and every one will be sure to love her._
+
+    1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM
+
+    2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON
+
+    3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL
+
+    4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+
+    5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP
+
+    6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK
+
+    7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS
+
+    8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH
+
+    9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS
+
+    10. BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARLS
+
+    11. BETTY GORDON ON THE CAMPUS
+
+    12. BETTY GORDON AND THE HALE TWINS
+
+    13. BETTY GORDON AT MYSTERY FARM
+
+    14. BETTY GORDON ON NO-TRAIL ISLAND
+
+    15. BETTY GORDON AND THE MYSTERY GIRL
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers  New York
+
+
+
+
+Books for Girls
+
+BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+    Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+    Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+    Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+    Or, Nita, The Girl Castaway.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+    Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+    Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+    Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+    Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
+    Or, Helping the Dormitory Fund.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
+    Or, Great Times in the Land of Cotton.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+    Or, The Missing Examination Papers.
+
+    RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
+    Or, College Girls in the Land of Gold.
+
+
+Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At College, by Alice B. Emerson
+
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:31:21 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 02:31:21 -0700
commit	e7cac4f2f98ab4105cf3fd7867a055a50ecda0e8 (patch)
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