Ruth Fielding
at Briarwood Hall


U
TO PARENTS
Our Name is a Reliable Guide
to Good Books
ws
You
OU want to be sure of
the character of the
books read by your boys
and girls. When you see
our name, Cupples &
Leon Company, printed
on a book, you can rest
assured that it is a fit
book for them in every
way,-that the reading mat-
ter is clean, interesting,
inspiring and educational,
Send for our complete
free illustrated Catalogue
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
Publishers
New York
(Soe Innor Side of this Wrappor)


*


F๒


4


Ruth Fielding
at Briarwood Hall
OR
Solving the Campus Mystery
BY
ALICE B. EMERSON
AUTHOR OF “RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL,"
“RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
O
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS


CONTENTS
.
TOT
.
.
.
.
.
O
CHAPTER
PAGI
I. The EXODUS
I
II. THE MAN WITH THE HARP
9
III. APPROACHING THE PROMISED LAND 21
IV. THE RIVALRY OF THE UPEDES AND
THE FUSSY CURLS
30
V. THE DUET .
39
VI. THE ENTERING WEDGE
48
VII. THE UPEDES
57
VIII. THE MARBLE HARP
70
IX. THE GHOSTLY TRIBUNAL
79
X. SOMETHING MORE THAN GHOSTS . 86
XI. The Voice OF THE HARP
94
XII. THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
100
XIII. BEGINNINGS.
IIO
XIV. THE SWEETBRIARS.
I20
XV. THE NIGHT OF HARPOCRATES 130
XVI. The HawK AMONG THE CHICKENS 138
XVII. GOODY Two-STICKS
144
XVIII. THE MYSTERY AGAIN
150
XIX. The TRIUMVIRATE
XX. AT TRITON LAKE
165
.
158
O


CONTENTS
.
CHAPTER
XXI. ON THE Ice
XXII. THE HARPIST ONCE MORE
XXIII. The SECRET
XXIV. Who Is The "TATTLE-Tale?"
XXV. GETTING ON
PAGE
172
178
187
194
201
.


RUTH FIELDING
AT BRIARWOOD HALL
CHAPTER I
THE EXODUS
The sun was a regular lie-abed on this Autumn
morning, banked about by soft clouds and
draperies of mist; but they glowed pink along the
horizon—perhaps blushing for Old Sol's delin-
quency. The mist hung tenderly over the river,
too—indeed, it masked the entire Valley of the
Lumano-lying thick and dank upon
the marshes
and the low meadows, but wreathed more lightly
about the farmhouses and their outbuildings, and
the fodder and haystacks upon the higher
ground.
But suddenly the sun flung off the bedclothes
and leaped right into the sky. That long, low
bank of cloud that had been masking him, melted
away and the shreds of mist were burned up in
a hurry as his warm rays spread abroad, taking
the entire valley in their arms.
Farmhouses, where the kitchen chimney smoke
had been rising straightly into the air, im-
mediately put on a new bustle. Doors opened


2
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
and shut. There was the stamping of horses in
the stables as they crunched their corn; cows
lowed as the milk-pails rattled; sheep baa-a-ed in
their folds, and the swine, fearing that some
other of the farm stock would get their share of
the breakfast, squealed in eager anticipation.
On a knoll by the river side stood the rambling
buildings belonging to Jabez Potter, who kept
the Red Mill. The great wheel beside the mill
end of the main structure had not yet begun to
turn, but there was plenty of bustle about the
pleasant house.
The sun had scarcely popped up when a very
pretty, bright-looking girl ran out upon the porch
and gazed earnestly along the road that followed
the Lumano toward Osago Lake. She looked
out from under a shielding hand, for the sun was
in her eyes. Around the corner of the house
came a tall, dark-faced man whose long jaws
were cleanly shaven and deeply lined. His cloth-
ing was full of milldust and it seemed to have
been ground into his face for so many years that
it was now a part of the grain and texture of his
skin. He did not smile at the girl as he said:
“You ain't looking for them yet; air you,
Ruth? It's much too early. Help your Aunt
Alviry put breakfast on the table. She'll hev it
all to do when you're gone.
The tone was stern, but the girl seemed to be


THE EXODUS
3
used to it, for her face did not cloud over, and
the smiles rippled about her mouth as she re-
plied:
" I'm so full of happiness, Uncle Jabez, that
you mustn't mind if I'm looking for Helen and
Tom ahead of time. It doesn't seem possible
that I am actually going with them."
It seems real enough to me,” grumbled Jabez
Potter. “I hope you'll get enough out of it to
pay us for all the trouble and cost of your going
-that I do."
But even this seemingly unkind speech did not
ruffle the girl's ternper.
“You wait and see, Uncle Jabez—you just
wait and see," she said, nodding to him. “ I'll
prove it the best investment you ever made.'
He didn't smile-Jabez Potter was not one of
the smiling kind; but his face relaxed and his
eyes twinkled a little.
“I sha'n't look for cent. per cent. interest on
my money, Niece Ruth," he said, and stumped
into the house in his heavy boots.
Ruth Fielding, who had come to the Red Mill
only a few months before, having lost all other
relatives but her great-uncle, who owned the
mill, ran into the kitchen, too, where a little old
woman, with bent back and very bright eyes, was
hovering over the stove. The breakfast was
ready to be served and this little woman was


THE EXODUS
5
cash-box for him, with its contents untouched. It
was really because he considered himself in her
debt for this act, and that he prided himself upon
paying his debts, that Jabez Potter had come to
agree that Ruth should go away to school.
He had not done the thing in a niggardly way,
when once he gave his consent. Ruth's new
trunk was at the Cheslow railroad station and
in it was an adequate supply of such frocks and
necessities as a girl of her age would need in the
school to which she was bound. Her ticket was
bought, too, and in her purse was a crisp ten.
dollar note—both purse and money being a
special present from Uncle Jabez.
Ruth had learned that the miller was by no
means as grim as he looked, and she likewise
knew that now he was kindly disposed toward
her and really was doing a great deal for her.
She was determined to never be ungrateful to
Uncle Jabez for satisfying the greatest longing
she had ever had to go to Briarwood Hall, a
boarding school.
Suddenly a young man put his head in at the
kitchen door, grinned, and said:
'They're a-comin', Miss Ruthie. I see 'em
up the road."
Ruth jumped up at once and ran for her coat
and hat.
“There, childi” cried Aunt Alvirah,"ye


6
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Oh, my
haven't eaten enough breakfast to keep a fly
alive. Lucky I've got a good basket of lunch
put up
for
ye. It'll be a long journey—by train,
boat, and stage coach. You'll be hungry enough
before ye git there-
back and oh,
my bones!” she added, as she hobbled to the
dresser for the luncheon box.
Ruth flashed back into the room and cried to
the youth on the porch:
“Is the car really in sight, Ben?”
“It's almost here, Miss."
Indeed, they could hear the purring of a mo-
tor-car coming up the river road. Ruth flung
her arms about Uncle Jabez's neck, although he
did not rise from the table where he was
methodically putting his breakfast away
away as
though nothing unusual was happening.
“You've been a dear, good uncle to me," she
whispered, “and I love you for it. I'll be care-
ful of the money, and I'll get all the learning I
can for the money you pay out—now just you
see if I don't!”
"I ain't sure that it'll do either of us much
good,” grumbled Uncle Jabez, and he did not
even follow her to the door as she ran out.
But Aunt Alvirah hobbled after her, and
pressed her close before she would let the girl
run down the walk.
“Blessin's on ye, ye pretty creetur," she


THE EXODUS
7
ment ye
crooned over Ruth. “I'll think of ye ev'ry mo-
air
away. This is your home, Ruthie;
ye ain't got nary 'nother-don't fergit that.
And
yer old A’nt Alviry'll be waitin' for ye here,
an' jest longin' for the time when ye come
home."
Ruth kissed her again and again. Two ex-
cited young voices called to her from the auto-
mobile.
“Come on! Come on, Ruth.
Do come
away!”
She kissed Aunt Alvirah once more, waved her
hand to bashful Ben, who was Uncle Jabez's
man-of-all-work, and ran down to the waiting
In the seat beside the chauffeur was a
bright-looking, black-haired boy in a military uni-
form of blue, who seized her lunch basket and
handbag and put them both in a safe place. In
the tonneau was a plainly dressed lady and a bril-
liantly pretty girl perhaps a year older than
Ruth. This young lady received the girl from
the Red Mill rapturously when she sprang into
the tonneau, and hugged her tightly as the car
started on.
She was Ruth's dearest friend,
Helen Cameron. It was her brother Tom in
front, and the lady was Mrs. Murchiston, who
had been the governess of the Cameron twins
since their babyhood, and was now to remain in
the great house—“Outlook”—Mr. Macy Cam-
car.


8
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
eron's home, as housekeeper, while his son and
daughter were away at school.
For Tom was bound for Seven Oaks Military
Academy, and that was only ten miles, or so, this
side of Lumberton, near which was situated
Briarwood Hall, the boarding school which was
the girls' destination. Tom had attended Ches.
low High School for a year; but Ruth and Helen
were about equally advanced in their studies and
expected to be both roommates and classmates at
the Hall.
Ruth stood up in the car as it rolled up
the
hill toward Cheslow and looked back at the Red
Mill. She fluttered her handkerchief as long as
she could see the little figure of Aunt Alvirah on
the porch. Uncle Jabez came out and strode
down the path to the mill. Then the car shot
around a curve in the road and the scene was
blotted out.
How much was to happen to her before she
saw the Red Mill again!


CHAPTER II
THE MAN WHO PLAYED THE HARP
In the first volume of this series, entitled,
“ Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill; Or, Jasper Par-
loe's Secret," is related how Ruth and Helen and
Tom came to be such close friends. The Camer-
ons had been with Ruth when the lost cash-box
belonging to Uncle Jabez Potter was found, and
out of which incident Ruth's presence in the Cam-
erons' automobile on this beautiful September
morning, and the fact that she was accompany.
ing Helen to school, arose.
Mr. Macy Cameron, a wealthy dry-goods mer.
chant, and a widower, had selected the best
school for his daughter to attend of which he
could learn. Briarwood Hall, of which the
preceptress was Mrs. Grace Tellingham, was a
large school (there being more than two hundred
scholars in attendance for the coming term), but
it remained "select" in the truest sense of the
word. It was not an institution particularly for
the daughters of wealthy people, nor a school to
which disheartened parents could send either un-
ruly girls, or dunces.
Without Mrs. Murchiston's recommendation


IO
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Helen Cameron could not have gained entrance
to Briarwood; without the attested examination
papers of Miss Cramp, teacher of the district
school, who had prepared Ruth for entering
Cheslow High School before it was supposed
that she could go to Briarwood, the girl from
the Red Mill would not have been starting on
this journey.
“My goodness me!” exclaimed Helen, when
Ruth had sat down and Cheslow was coming into
view before them. “I'm just as excited as I can
be. Aren't you afraid of meeting Mrs. Telling-
nam? She's got an A. B. after her name. And
her husband is a doctor of almost everything you
can think !"
ever saw.
Mrs. Murchiston smiled, but said with some
sternness: “I really hope, Helen, that Briar-
wood will quell your too exuberant spirits to a
degree. But you need not be afraid of Dr. Tell.
ingham. He is the mildest old gentleman one
He is doubtless engaged upon a his-
tory of the Mound Builders of Peoria County,
Illinois; or upon a pamphlet suggested by the
finding of a fossilized man in the caves of Ari-
zona.
"Is he a great writer, Mrs. Murchiston?”
asked Ruth, wonderingly.
"He has written a great many histories if
that constitutes being a great writer," replied the


THE MAN WHO PLAYED THE HARP
II
>
governess, with a quiet smile. “But if it was
not for Mrs. Tellingham I fear that Briarwood
Hall could not exist. However, the doctor is a
perfectly harmless person.
From this Ruth drew the conclusion (for she
was a thoughtful girl—thoughtful beyond her
years, as well as imaginative) that Mrs. Grace
Tellingham was a rather strong-minded lady and
that the doctor would prove to be both mild and
"hen-pecked."
The car sped along the beautifully shaded
road leading into Cheslow; but there was still
ample time for the travelers to catch the train.
On the right hand, as they advanced, appeared
a gloomy-looking house with huge pillars uphold-
ing the portico roof, which was set some distance
back from the road. On two posts, one either
side of the arched gateway, were set green lan-
terns, A tall, stoop-shouldered old gentleman,
with a sweeping mustache and hair that touched
his coat collar, and a pair of keen, dark eyes,
came striding down the walk to the street as the
motor-car drew near.
Doctor Davison!” cried Helen and Ruth
together.
The chauffeur slowed down and stopped as the
doctor waved his hand.
“I must bid you girls good-bye here,” he said,
coming to the automobile to shake hands. “I


THE MAN WHO PLAYED THE HARP
13
over the back of his seat. “ She's the smartest
little thing that I ever saw."
“That's what Dr. Davison says," Ruth ob-
served. “If the surgeons have enabled her to
walk again, and dispense with the wheel chair,
why couldn't she come to Briarwood ? "
“I don't think Sam Curtis is any too well
fixed," said Tom, shaking his head.
Mercy's long illness has been a great expense to
them. Hello! here we are at the station, with
plenty of time to spare.
Mrs. Murchiston was not going with them;
the trio of young folk were to travel alone, so
Tom took the tickets, got the trunk checks, and
otherwise played escort to the two girls. There
were several friends at the station to bid the
Camerons good-bye; but there was nobody but
the stationmaster to say a word to Ruth Field-
ing. It was his lame daughter whom they had
been discussing with Dr. Davison-an unfortu-
nate girl who had taken a strong liking for Ruth,
and for whom the girl from the Red Mill, with
her cheerful spirit and pleasant face, had done a
world of good.
The train was made up and they got aboard.
Just below Cheslow was the Y where this train
branched off the main line, and took its way by a
single-track, winding branch, through the hills to
the shore of Lake Osago. But the young folks


14
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
did not have to trouble about their baggage after
leaving Cheslow, for that was checked through-
Tom's grip and box to Seven Oaks, and the girls'
over another road, after crossing Lake Osago,
to Lumberton, on Triton Lake.
Lake Osago was a beautiful body of water,
some thirty miles long, and wide in proportion;
island-dotted and bordered by a rolling country.
There were several large towns upon its shores,
and, in one place, a great summer camp of an
educational society. Steamboatplied the lake,
and up and down the rivers which either emptied
into the Osago, or flowed out of it, as far as the
dams.
The trio of school-bound young folk left the
train very demurely and walked down the long
wharf to the puffy little steamboat that was to
take them the length of the lake to Portageton.
Tom had been adjured by his father to take good
care of his sister and Ruth, and he felt the burden
of this responsibility. Helen declared, in a whis-
per to Ruth, that she had never known her twin
brother to be so overpoweringly polite and
thoughtful.
Nevertheless, the fact that they were for the
very first time traveling alone (at least, the Cam-
erons had never traveled alone before) did not
spoil their enjoyment of the journey. The trip
down the lake on the little side-wheel steamer,


THE MAN WHO PLAYED THE HARP
15
was very interesting to all three. First the Cam-
erons and Ruth Fielding went about to see if
they could find any other girl or boy who appeared
to be bound to school like themselves. But Tom
said he was alone in that intention among the few
boys aboard; and there were no girls upon the
Lanawaxa, as the little steamboat was named,
save Ruth and Helen.
Tom did not neglect the comfort of the girls,
but he really could not keep away from the en-
gine-room of the Lanawaxa. Tom was mightily
interested in all things mechanical, and in engines
especially. So the girls were left to themselves
for a while upon the upper deck of the steamboat.
They were very comfortable under the awning,
and had books, and their luncheon, and a box of
candy that Tom had bought and given to Ruth,
and altogether they enjoyed the trip quite as
much as anybody.
The breeze was quite fresh and there were not
many passengers on the forward deck where the
girls were seated. But one lady sitting near at-
tracted their attention almost at first. She was
such a little, doll-like lady; so very plainly and
neatly dressed, yet with a style about her that
carried the plain frock she wore, and the little hat,
as though they were both of the richest materials.
She was dark, had brilliant eyes, and her figure
was youthful. Yet, when she chanced to raise


16
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
her veil, Ruth noted that her face was marred by
innumerable fine wrinkles—just like cracks in the
face of a wax doll that had been exposed to
frost.
Isn't she a cunning little thing ? " whispered
Helen, seeing how much Ruth was attracted by
the little lady.
“She's not a dwarf. There's nothing wrong
with her,” said Ruth. She's just a lady in mini-
ature; isn't she? Why, Helen, she's no taller
than you are.”
“She's dainty," repeated her chum. “But she
looks odd.”
Below, on the other deck, the music of a little
orchestra had been tinkling pleasantly. Now a
man with the harp, another with a violin, and a
third with a huge guitar, came up the companion-
way and grouped themselves to play upon the
upper deck. The three musicians were all for-
eigners—French or Italian. The man who
played the harp was a huge, fleshy man, with a
red waistcoat and long, black mustache. The
waistcoat and mustache were the two most
noticeable things about him. He sat on a little
campstool while he played.
The musicians struck into some rollicking ditty
that pleased the ear. The two girls enjoyed the
music, and Helen searched her purse for a coin
to give whichever of the musicians came around


THE MAN WHO PLAYED THE HARP
17
for the collection at the end of the concert.
There was but one person on the forward deck
who did not seem to care for the music. The
little lady, whose back was to the orchestra, did
not even look around.
All the time he was playing the huge man who
thrummed the harp seemed to have his eyes fixed
upon the little lady. This both Ruth and Helen
noted. He was so big and she was so fairy-like,
that the girls could not help becoming interested
in the fact that the harpist was so deeply
“smitten.”
“Isn't he funny?” whispered Helen to Ruth.
“He's so big and she's so little. And he pays
more attention to her than he does to playing the
tune."
Just then the orchestra of three pieces finished
its third tune. That was all it ever jingled forth
before making a collection. The man who played
the guitar slipped the broad strap over his shoul-
ders and stood up as though to pass his cap. But
instantly the huge harpist arose and muttered
something to him in a guttural tone. The other
sat down and the big man seized the cap and be-
gan to move about the deck to make such collec-
tion as the audience was disposed to give for the
music.
Although he had stared so at the unconscious
lady's back, the big man did not go in her direction


18 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
at first, as the two girls quite expected him to do.
He went around to the other side of the deck
after taking Helen's toll, and so mancuvred as
to come to the end of the lady's bench and sud-
denly face her.
See him watch her, Ruth? ” whispered Helen
again. “I believe he knows her.”
There was such a sly smile on the fat man's
face that he seemed to be having a joke all to
himself; yet his eyebrows were drawn down over
his nose in a scowl. It was not a pleasant ex-
pression that he carried on his countenance to the
little lady, before whom he appeared with a sud-
denness that would have startled almost any-
body. He wheeled around the end of the settee
on which she sat and hissed some word or phrase
in her ear, leaning over to do so.
The little woman sprang up with a smothered
shriek. The girls heard her chatter something,
in which the word “merci” was plain. She
shrank from the big man; but he was only
bowing very low before her, with the cap held
out for a contribution, and his grinning face
aside.
“She is French," whispered Helen, excitedly,
in Ruth's ear. “And he spoke in the same lan-
guage. How frightened she is!”
Indeed, the little lady fumbled in her handbag
for something which she dropped into the insist-


20
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
returned her chum, laughing. “Yet, whoever
heard of a fat brigand? That would take the
romance all out of the profession; wouldn't it?”
“ And fat villains are not so common; are
they?" returned Ruth, echoing the laugh.


CHAPTER III
APPROACHING THE PROMISED LAND
TOM had tried to remove the smut of the
steamboat engine-room from his face with his
handkerchief; but as his sister told him, his mar-
tial appearance in the uniform of the Seven Oaks
cadets was rather spoiled by “a smootchy face.”
There wasn't time then, however, to make any
toilet before the train left. They were off on the
short run to Seven Oaks in a very few minutes
after leaving the Lanawaxa.
Tom was very much excited now. He craned
his head out of the car window to catch the first
glimpse of the red brick barracks and dome of
the gymnasium, which were the two most promi-
nent buildings belonging to the Academy. Finally
the hill on which the school buildings stood
flashed into view. They occupied the summit of
the knoll, while the seven great oaks, standing in
a sort of druidical circle, dotted the smooth, slop-
ing lawn that descended to the railroad cut.
“Oh, how ugly!" cried Helen, who had never
seen the place before. “I do hope that Briar-
@I


22
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
)
wood Hall will be prettier than that, or I shall
want to run back home the very first week."
Her brother smiled in a most superior way.
“ That's just like a girl,” he said. Wanting
a school to look pretty! Pshaw! I want to see
a jolly crowd of fellows, that's what I want. I:
hope I'll get in with a good crowd. I know Gil
Wentworth, who came here last year, and he
says he'll put me in with a nice bunch. That's
what I'm looking forward to."
The train was slowing down. There was a
handsome brick station and a long platform.
This was crowded with boys, all in military garb
like Tom's own. They looked so very trim and
handsome that Helen and Ruth were quite ex-
cited. There were boys ranging from little fel-
lows of ten, in knickerbockers, to big chaps
whose mustaches were sprouting on their upper
lips.
“Oh, dear me!" gasped Ruth. “See what a
crowd we have got to go through. All those
boys!"
“That's all right," Tom said, gruffly. “I'll
see you to the stage. There it stands yonder-
and a jolly old scarecrow of a carriage it is,
too!"
He was evidently feeling somewhat flurried
himself. He was going to meet more than half
the great school informally right there at the sta.


APPROACHING THE PROMISED LAND
23
tion. They had gathered to meet and greet
“ freshmen.”
But the car in which our friends rode stopped
well along the platform and very near the spot
where the old, brown, battered, and dust-covered
stage coach, drawn by two great, bony horses,
stood in the fall sunshine. Most of the Academy
boys were at the other end of the platform.
Gil Wentworth, Tom's friend, had given young
Cameron several pointers as to his attitude on
arrival at the Seven Oaks station. He had been
advised to wear the school uniform (he had
passed the entrance examinations two months be-
fore) so as to be less noticeable in the crowd.
Very soon a slow and dirge-like chant arose
from the cadets gathered on the station platform.
From the rear cars of the train had stepped sey-
eral boys in citizen's garb, some with parents or
guardians and some alone, and all burdened with
more or less baggage and a doubtful air that pro-
claimed them immediately new boys." The
hymn of greeting rose in mournful cadence:
Freshiel Freshie! How-de-do!
We're all waiting here for you.
Hold your head up!
Square each shoulder!
Thrust your chest out!
Do look bolder!


24
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Mamma's precious—papa's man
Keep the tears back if you can.
Sob! Sob!
Sob! Sob!
It's an awful job-
Freshie's leaving home and mo-o-ther!
The mournful wailing of that last word can.
not be expressed by mere type. There were
other verses, too, and as the new boys filed off
into the path leading up to the Academy with
their bags and other encumbrances, the uniformed
boys, en masse, got into step behind them and
tramped up the hill, singing this dreadful dirge.
The unfortunate new arrivals had to listen to the
chant all the way up the hill. If they ran to get
away from the crowd, it only made them look the
more ridiculous; the only sensible way was to en-
dure it with a grin.
Tom grinned widely himself, for he had cer-
tainly been overlooked. Or, he thought so until
he had placed the two girls safely in the big om-
nibus, had kissed Helen good-bye, and shaken
hands with Ruth. But the girls, looking out of
the open door of the coach, saw him descend
from the step into the midst of a group of sol-
emn-faced boys who had only held back out of
politeness to the girls whom Tom escorted.
Helen and Ruth, stilling their amusement,
heard and saw poor Tom put through a muck


APPROACHING THE PROMISED LAND
25
more severe examination than the other Loys,
for the very reason that he had come dressed in
his uniform. He was forced to endure a search-
ing inquiry regarding his upbringing and private
affairs, right within the delighted hearing of the
wickedly giggling girls. And then a tall fellow
started to put him through the manual of
arms.
Poor Tom was all at sea in that, and the youth,
with gravity, declared that he was insulting the
uniform by his ignorance and caused him to re-
move his coat and turn it inside out; and so Helen
and Ruth saw him marched away with his stern
escort, in a most ridiculous red flannel garment
(the lining of the coat) which made him con-
spicuous from every barrack window and, in-
deed, from every part of the academy hill.
“Oh, dear mel” sighed Helen, wiping her
eyes and almost sobbing after her laughter.
“And Tommy thought he would escape any
form of hazing! He wasn't so cute as he
thought he was."
But Ruth suddenly became serious. “Sup-
pose we are greeted in any such way at Briar.
wood ?" she exclaimed. “I believe some girls
are horrid. They have hazing in some girls'
schools, I've read. Of course, it won't hurt us,
Helen__"
"It'll be just fun, I think!” cried the en-


APPROACHING THE PROMISED LAND
27
on
with a hoarse chuckle. “This here lady is one
o' yer teachers, Ma'mzell Picolet." He pro-
nounced the little lady's name quite as outland-
ishly as he did “mademoiselle.” It sounded like
Pickle-yet"
his tongue.
"That will do, M'sieur Dolliver," said the
little lady, rather tartly. “I may venture to in-
troduce myself—is it not?"
She did not raise her veil. She spoke English
with scarcely any accent. Occasionally she ar-
ranged her phrases in an oddly foreign way; but
her pronunciation could not be criticised. Old
Dolliver, the stage driver, grinned broadly as
he closed the door.
Ye allus make me feel like a Frenchman my-
self, when ye say 'moosher,' Ma'mzell,” he
chuckled.
"You are going to Briarwood Hall, then, my
young ladies ?” said Miss Picolet.
“Yes, Ma'am,” said Ruth, shyly.
“I shall be your teacher in the French lan-
guage—perhaps in deportment and the graces of
life," the little lady said, pleasantly. “You will
both enter into advanced classes, I hope ?."
Helen, after all, was more shy than Ruth with
strangers. When she became acquainted she
gained confidence rapidly. But now Ruth an-
swered again for both:
“I was ready to enter the Cheslow High


APPROACHING THE PROMISED LAND
29
She was a thin, wiry, long-limbed girl. She
swung her hat excitedly and although the girls in
the coach could not hear her, they knew that she
shouted to Old Dolliver. He pulled up, brak-
ing the lumbering wheels grumblingly. The
newcomer's sharp, freckled face grew plainer to
the interested gaze of Ruth and Helen as she
came out of the shadow of the trees into the sun-
light of the dusty highway.
“Got any Infants, Dolliver?” the girl asked,
breathlessly.
“Two on 'em, Miss Cox," replied the stage
driver.
“Then I'm in time. Of course, nobody's met
'em?"
“Hist! Ma'mzell's in there," whispered Dol.
liver, hoarsely.
“Oh! She!” exclaimed Miss Cox, with plain
scorn of the French teacher. “That's all right,
Dolliver. I'll get in. Ten cents, mind you,
from here to Briarwood. That's enough."
“All right, Miss Cox. Ye allus was a sharp
one," chuckled Dolliver, as the sharp-faced girl
jerked open the nearest door of the coach and
stared in, blinking, out of the sunlight.


CHAPTER IV
THE RIVALRY OF THE UPEDES AND THE FUSSY
CURLS
The passengers in the Seven Oaks and Lum-
berton stage sat facing one another on the two
broad seats.
Mademoiselle Picolet had estab-
lished herself in one corner of the forward seat,
riding with her back to the driver. Ruth and
Helen were side by side upon the other seat, and
this newcomer slid quickly in beside them and
smiled a very broad and friendly smile at the
two chums.
* When you've been a little while at Briar-
wood Hall,” she said, in her quick, pert way,
"you'll learn that that's the only way to do with
Old Dolliver. Make your bargain before you get
into the Ark that's what we call this stage-or
he surely will overcharge you.
Oh! how-do,
Miss Picolet!"
She spoke to the French teacher so carelessly
indeed, in so scornful a tone—that Ruth was
startled. Miss Picolet bowed gravely and said
something in return in her own language which
30


THE RIVALRY OF THE UPEDES
33
that way, but I fancy there'll be few of the girls
there. The stage, you see, goes much nearer to
Briarwood; but I fancy you girls would just as
lief escape the warm greeting we usually give to
the arriving Infants,” and she laughed.
Ruth and Helen, with a vivid remembrance of
what they had seen at Seven Oaks, coincided with
this suggestion. It seemed very kind of a Junior
to put herself out for them, and the chums told
her so.
“Don't bother," said Mary Cox. “Lots of
the girls-especially girls of our age, coming to
Briarwood for the first time--get in with the
wrong crowd. You don't want to do that, you
know."
Now, the chums could not help being a little
flattered by this statement. Mary Cox was older
than Ruth and Helen, and the latter were at an
age when a year seemed to be a long time indeed.
Besides, Miss Cox was an assured Junior, and
knew all about what was still a closed book to
Ruth Fielding and Helen Cameron.
“I should suppose in a school like Briarwood,”
Ruth said, hesitatingly, "that all the girls are
pretty nice."
“Oh! they are, to a degree. Oh, yes!” cried
Mary Cox. “Briarwood is very select and Mrs.
Tellingham is very careful. You must know that,
Miss Cameron,' she added, point-blank' to


36 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
among these who enter Briarwood at the begin.
ning of the year."
“What are the objects of the rival clubs ? "
put in Ruth, quietly.
"I couldn't tell you much about the Fussy
Curls," said Mary, carelessly. “Not being one
of them I couldn't be expected to take much in-
terest in their objects. But our name tells our
object at once. ‘Up and Doing '! No slow-
coaches about the Upedes. We're all alive and
wide awake."
“I hope we will get in with a lively set of
girls," said Helen, with a sigh.
" It will be your own fault if you don't," said
Mary Cox.
Oddly enough, she did not show any desire to
urge the newcomers to join the Upedes. Helen
was quite piqued by this. But before the discus-
sion could be carried farther, Mary put her head
out of the window and called to the driver.
Stop at the Cedar Walk, Dolliver. We want
to get out there. Here's your ten cents."
Meanwhile the little foreign lady had scarcely
moved. She had turned her face toward the open
window all the time, and being veiled, the girls
could not see whether she was asleep, or awake.
She made no move to get out at this point, nor
did she seem to notice the girls when Mary flung
open the door on the other side of the coach, and


THE RIVALRY OF THE UPEDES
37
Ruth and Helen picked up their bags to follow.
her.
The chums saw that the stage had halted where
a shady, winding path seemed to lead up a slight
rise through a plantation of cedars. But the
spot was not lonely. Several girls were waiting
here for the coach, and they greeted Mary Cox
when she jumped down, vociferously.
“Well, Mary Cox! I guess we know what
you've been up to," exclaimed one who seemed
older than the other girls in waiting.
“ Did you rope any Infants, Mary?” cried
somebody else.
" 'The Fox' never took all that long walk
for nothing," declared another.
But Mary Cox paid her respects to the first
speaker only, by saying:
“If you want to get ahead of the Upedes,
Madge Steele, you Fussy Curls had better set
your
alarm clocks a little earlier."
Ruth and Helen were climbing out of the old
coach now, and the girl named Madge Steele
looked them over sharply.
"Pledged, are they?" she said to Mary Cox,
in a low tone.
'Well! I've been riding in the Ark with them
for the last three miles. Do you suppose I have
been asleep?" returned Miss Cox, with a mali.
cious smile.


38 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
comers.
Ruth and Helen did not distinctly hear this in-
terchange of words between their new friend and
Madge Steele; but Ruth saw that the latter was a
very well dressed and quiet looking girl-that
she was really very pretty and ladylike. Ruth
liked her appearance much more than she did
that of Mary Cox. But the latter started at
once into the cedar plantation, up a serpentine
walk, and Helen and Ruth, perforce, went with
her. The other girls stood aside-some of them
whispering together and smiling at the new-
The chums could not help but feel
strange and nervous, and Mary Cox's friendship
seemed of value to them just then.
Ruth, however, looked back at the tall girl
whose
appearance had so impressed her. The
coach had not started on at once. Old Dolliver
did everything slowly. But Ruth Fielding saw a
hand beckoning at the coach window. It was the
hand of Miss Picolet, the French teacher, and
it beckoned Madge Steele.
The latter young lady ran to the coach as it
lurched forward on its way.. Miss Picolet's face
appeared at the window for an instant, and she
seemed to say something of importance to Madge
Steele. Ruth saw the pretty girl pull open the
stage-coach door again, and hop inside. Then
the Ark lumbered out of view, and Ruth turned
to follow her chum and Mary Cox up the wind-
ing Cedar Walk.


40
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
see why Mrs. Tellingham has her at the school at
all. She has no friends, or relatives, or anybody
that knows her
“Oh, yes she has," said Helen, laughing.
“What do you mean?” inquired Mary Cox,
suspiciously
“We saw somebody on the boat coming over
to Portageton that knew Miss Picolet."
Oh, Helen!" ejaculated Ruth, warningly.
But it was too late, Mary Cox wanted to know
what Helen meant, and the story of the fat man
who had played the harp in the boat orchestra,
and who had frightened the French teacher, and
had afterward talked so earnestly with her on the
dock, all came out in explanation. The Junior
listened with a quiet but unpleasant smile upon
her face.
“That's just what we've always thought about
Miss Picolet,” she said. “Her people must be
dreadfully common.
Friends with a ruffian who
plays a harp on a steamboat for his living!
Well I"
"Perhaps he is no relative or friend of hers,"
suggested Ruth, timidly. “Indeed, she seemed to
be afraid of him."
“He's mixed up in her private affairs, at least,"
said Mary, significantly. “I never could bear
Miss Picolet!
Ruth was very sorry that Helen had happened


"THE DUET”
40
upon this unfortunate subject. But her chum
failed to see the significance of it, and the girl
from the Red Mill had no opportunity of warn-
ing Helen. Mary Cox, too, was most friendly,
and it seemed ungrateful to be anything but frank
and pleasant with her. Not many big girls (so
thought both Ruth and Helen) would have put
themselves out to walk up to Briarwood Hall with
two Infants and their baggage.
Through breaks in the cedar grove the girls be-
gan to catch glimpses of the brown old buildings
of Briarwood Hall. Ivy masked the entire end
of one of the buildings, and even ran up the
chimneys. It had been cut away from the win-
dows, and they showed brilliantly now with the
descending sun shining redly upon them.
" It's a beautiful old place, Helen,” sighed
Ruth.
“I believe you!” agreed her chum, enthusi-
astically.
“ It was originally a great manor house. That
was the first building where the tower is," said
Mary Cox, as they came out at last upon the
more open lawn that gave approach to this side
of the collection of buildings, which had been more
recently built than the main house. They were
built around a rectangular piece of turf called the
campus.
This, however, the newcomers dis-
covered later, for they came up in the rear of the


42
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
particular dormitory building in which Mary de.
clared their room was situated.
“You can go to the office afterwards,” she ex-
plained, kindly. “You'll want to wash and fix up
a little after traveling so far. It always makes
one so dirty.”
“ This is a whole lot better than the way poor
Tom was received at his school; isn't it?” whis-
pered Helen, tucking her arm in Ruth's as they
came to the steps of the building.
Ruth nodded. But there were so many new
things to see that Ruth had few words to spare.
There were plenty of girls in sight now. It seemed
to the girl from the Red Mill as though there
were hundreds of them. Short girls, tall girls,
thin girls, plump girls—and the very plumpest
girl of her age that Ruth had ever seen, stood
right at the top of the steps. She had a pretty,
pink, doll-like face which was perpetually a-smile.
Whereas some of the girls—especially the older
ones—stared rather haughtily at the two Infants,
this fat girl welcomed them with a broadening
smile.
“Hello, Heavy," said Mary Cox, laughing.
It must be close to supper bell, for you're all
ready, I see.”
"No," said the stout girl. “There's an hour
yet. Are these the two?" she added, nodding at
Ruth and Helen.


“THE DUET”
43
"I always get what I go after,” Ruth heard
Mary say, as they whisked in at the door.
In the hall a quiet, pieasant-faced woman in cap
and apron met them.
“This is Helen Cameron and Ruth Fielding,
Miss Scrimp,” said Mary. “Miss Scrimp is ma-
tron of our dormitory, girls. I am going up, Miss
Scrimp, and I'll show them to their duet."
Very well, Miss Cox," said the woman, pro-
ducing two keys, one of which she handed to each
of the chums. “ Be ready for the bell, girls. You
can see Mrs. Tellingham after supper."
Ruth stopped to thank her, but Mary swept
Helen on with her
up
the broad stairway. The
room the chums were to occupy (Mr. Cameron
had made this arrangement for them) was up this
first flight only, but was at the other end of the
building, overlooking the campus. It seemed a
long walk down the corridor. Some of the doors
stood open, and more girls looked out at them
curiously as they pursued their way.
Mary was talking in a low voice to Helen now,
and Ruth could not hear what she said. But when
they stopped at the end of the corridor, and
Helen fitted her key into the lock of the door, she
said:
“We'd be delighted, Miss Cox. Oh, yes!
Ruth and I will both come."
Mary went away whistling and they heard her


44
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
laughing and talking with other girls who had
come out into the corridor before the chums were
well in their own room. And what a delightful
place it seemed to the two girls, when they en-
tered! Not so small, either. There were two
single beds, two dressing tables, running water in
a bowl, two closets and two chairs--all this at
one end of the room. At the other end was a
good-sized table to work at, chairs, a couch, and
two sets of shelves for their books. There were
two broad windows with wide seats under them,
too.
Isn't it just scrumptious ? " cried Helen, hug.
ging Ruth in her delight. "And just think—it's
our very own! Oh, Ruthie! won't we just have
good times here?”
Ruth was quite as delighted, if she was not so
volubly enthusiastic as Helen. It was a much
nicer room, of course, than the girl from the Red
Mill had ever had before. Her tiny little cham-
ber at the Red Mill was nothing like this.
The girls removed such marks of travel as they
could and freshened their dress as well as pos-
sible. Their trunks would not arrive at the
school until morning, they knew; but they had
brought their toilet articles in their bags. These
made some display-on Helen's dresser, at least.
But when their little possessions came they could
make the room look more “homey.


“THE DUET”
45
Barely had they arranged their hair when a
gentle rap sounded at the door.
"Perhaps that's Miss Cox again,” said Helen.
“Isn't she nice, Ruth ? "
Her friend had no time to reply before open-
ing the door to the visitor. It was not Miss Cox,
but Ruth immediately recognized the tall girl
whom Mary Cox had addressed as Madge Steele.
She came in with a frank smile and her hand held
out.
“I didn't know you were going to come to my
corridor,” she said, frankly. “Which of you is
Miss Fielding, and which is Miss Cameron?”
It made the chums feel really grown up to be
called “Miss," and they liked this pretty girl at
once. Ruth explained their identity as she shook
hands. Helen was quite as warmly greeted.
"You will like Briarwood," said Madge Steele.
"I know you will. I understand you will enter
the Junior classes. I have just entered the Senior
grade this year. There are lots of nice girls on
this corridor. I'll be glad to introduce you
after
supper.'
“We have not been to the office yet," said.
Ruth. “I believe that is customary?"
"Oh, you must see the Preceptress. She's just
as nice as she can be, is Mrs. Tellingham. You'll
see her right after supper?"
“I presume so," Ruth said.


46 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
99
“Then, I tell you what," said Madge. “ I'll
wait for you and take you to the Forward Club
afterwards. We have an open meeting this even-
ing. Mrs. Tellingham will be there she is a
member, you know—so are the other teachers.
We try to make all the new girls feel at home."
She nodded to them both brightly and went out.
Ruth turned to her chum with a smile.
“Isn't that nice of her, Helen? ” she said.
"We are getting on famously Why, Helen!
what's the matter?" she cried.
Helen's countenance was clouded indeed. She
shook her head obstinately.
“We can't go with her, Ruth,” she declared.
“Can't go with her?”
No."
“Why not, pray?" asked Ruth, much puzzled.
“We can't go to that Forward Club," said
Helen, more emphatically.
“Why, my dear!” exclaimed Ruth. “Of
course we must. We haven't got to join it. May-
be they wouldn't ask us to join it, anyway. You
see, it's patronized by the teachers and the Pre-
ceptress herself. We'll be sure to meet the very
nicest girls.”
That doesn't follow," said Helen, somewhat
stubbornly. “Anyway, we can't go, Ruth."
But I don't understand, dear," said the puze
zled Ruth.


CHAPTER VI
THE ENTERING WEDGE
SINCE Ruth Fielding had first met Helen Cam.
eron-and that was on the very day the former
had come to the Red Mill-the two girls had
never had a cross word or really differed much
on any subject. Ruth was the more yielding of
the two, perhaps, and it might be that that was
why Helen seemed so to expect her to yield now.
“Of course, Ruthie, we can't disappoint Miss
Cox," she said, with finality. “And after she
was so kind to us, too."
“Are you sure she did all that out of simple
kindness, Helen ? " asked the girl from the Red
Mill, slowly.
“Why! what do you mean?"
Aunt Alviry says one should never look a gift-
horse in the mouth,” laughed Ruth.
“What do you mean?" demanded her chum.
“Why, Helen, doesn't it seem to you that
Mary Cox came out deliberately to meet us, and
for the purpose of making us feel under obliga.
tion to her?”


50 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
99
I'd rather belong to the Upedes—a real girls'
club without
any
of the teachers to boss it."
Ruth laughed again; but there was no sting in
what she said: "I guess you have made up your
mind already that the Up and Doing Club is the
one Helen Cameron wants to join."
“And the one Ruth Fielding must join, too!”
declared Helen, in her old winning way, slipping
her arm through Ruth's arm. We mustn't go
separate ways, Ruthie."
“Oh, Helen!” cried Ruth. “Don't talk like
that. Of course we will not. But let us be care.
ful about our friendships here."
What do
you
mean?"
“I mean,” said Ruth, smiling, “ that we must
be careful about joining any crowd of girls until
we know just how things are.'
“Well,” said Helen, dropping her arm and
walking to the other end of the room for no rea-
son whatsoever, for she walked back again, in a
moment, "I don't see why you are so suspicious
of Mary Cox."
“I don't know that I am," laughed Ruth.
But we have no means of comparison yet-
A mellow bell began to ring from some other
building-probably in the tower of the main build.
ing of Briarwood Hall.
“There !” ejaculated Helen, in some relief.
“ That must be to announce supper.


THE ENTERING WEDGE
51
“Are you ready, Helen ? " asked Ruth.
“ Yes."
66 Then let us go.
There was a card on which were printed sev.
eral simple rules of conduct tacked to the door.
The chums had read them. One was that rooms
should be left unlocked in the absence of the oc-
cupants, and Ruth and Helen went out into the
corridor, leaving their door open. There were
other girls in the passage then, all moving toward
the stairway. Some of them nodded kindly to
the Infants. Others only stared.
Ruth saw Miss Steele in advance, and whis.
pered to Helen:
Come, dear; let us speak to her and tell her
we cannot accept her invitation for this evening.”
But Helen held back. “ You can tell her if
you like," she said, rather sullenly.
But, let us be nice about it," urged Ruth.
“I'll tell her we overlooked the fact that we were
already engaged for the meeting of the Up and
Doing Club. I'll explain.'
Helen suddenly seized her chum's arm more
tightly. “You are a good little thing, Ruthie,”
she declared.
" Come on."
They hurried after the Senior and caught up
with her at the foot of the stairs. She was not
alone, but Ruth touched her arm and asked to
speak with her.


52 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
“What's the matter, Infants ?" demanded the
Senior, but smiling at them.
Helen flushed at the expression, but Ruth was
too earnest in her intention to smooth over the
difficulty to notice so small a thing.
“Oh, Miss Steele,” she said, “I am sorry to
beg off from the kind invitation you gave us. We
cannot go with you this evening. It seems that
it was already understood with Miss Cox that we
should go with her.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Madge Steele, a little stiffly,
you are already pledged, then ?"
“Yes, we are pledged to attend the meeting of
the Up and Doing Club this evening. It was very
kind of Miss Cox to invite us,” said Ruth, calmly.
“And it was kind of you to invite us to the F.
C.'s, too. But we cannot attend both meetings-
not in one evening."
Madge Steele was looking at her earnestly and
found that Ruth neither dropped her gaze nor
appeared confused by her scrutiny. Helen was
the one who seemed confused.
“It is not our usage to interfere with those
who are pledged to other school clubs,” said
Miss Steele, speaking distinctly. “I under-
stand, then, that you are not pledged ?
“Only to attend this meeting as visitors
Miss Cox," said Ruth, simply.
“ Very well, then," said Madge Steele, her


THE ENTERING WEDGE
53
pleasant face breaking into a smile again, "I
shall hope to see you at some future meeting of
the Forward Club. Here we are on the campus.
It is cool and shady here, even in the hottest
weather. We think it is a decidedly pleasant
place."
She walked beside them, conversing pleasantly.
Helen recovered her good temper and ventured
a remark about the fountain which graced the
center of the campus. It was a huge marble figure
of a sitting female, in graceful draperies and with
a harp, or lyre, on the figure's knee. The clear
water bubbled out all around the pedestal, and
the statue and bowl were sunk a little below the
level of the greensward, like a small Italian gar-
den.
“What is the figure supposed to represent, Miss
Steele?" asked Helen.
“You are allowed three guesses—and then you
won't know,” laughed the Senior. “You can see
by the stains and moss on it that the fountain
has been there a great inany years. Long before
Briarwood Hall was a school. But it is sup-
posed to represent either Poesy, or Harmony.
Nobody knows—not even Mrs. Tellingham.”
The bell stopped tolling with three, sharp,
jerky taps. Madge Steele quickened her pace
along the path and the newcomers followed her.
Other girls were pouring into the building nearest


56 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
a plain, hot meal, and everybody in apparent good
nature, and happy. Ruth could scarcely pay at-
tention to the food, however, she was so much
more interested in these who were to be her schook
fellows


58
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
“Why-yes. Do you all belong?'
“Our quartette? Sure," said the plump girl
in her off-hand way. “We'll show you some fun.
And I say?"
“Well?" asked Ruth.
“How often are they going to send you boxes
from home?"
Boxes from home?" repeated the girl from
the Red Mill.
“Yes. You know, you can have 'em sent often
if you keep up with your classes and don't get
too many demerits in deportment. I missed two
boxes last half because of black marks. And in
French and deportment, too. That was Picolet's
doing—mean thing!”
“I had no idea that one would be allowed to
receive goodies," said Ruth, who of course ex-
pected nothing of the kind from home, but did
not wish to say so.
Well, you want to write
your
folks that you
can receive 'em right away. A girl who gets
things from home can be very popular if she wants
to be. Ah! here's the custard."
Ruth had difficulty in keeping from laughing
outright. She saw plainly that the nearest way to
Miss Jennie Stone's heart lay through her
stomach.
Meanwhile Helen had become acquainted with
the girl on the other side who had called them


THE UPEDES
59
“Infants." But she was a good-natured girl, too,
and now Helen introduced her to her chum as
Miss Polk. She was a dark-haired, plain-faced
girl and wore eye-glasses. She was a Junior and
already Helen had found she belonged to the F.
C.'s.
"I guess most of the stiff and starched ones be-
long to that Forward Club," whispered Helen to
her chum. “But the jolly ones are Upedes."
"We'll wait and see," advised Ruth.
Supper was over then and the girls all rose and
strolled out of the room in parties. Ruth and
Helen made their way quietly to the exit and
looked for the office of the Preceptress. The
large building with the tower—the original
Briarwood Hall—was partly given up to recita-
tions and lecture rooms and partly to the uses of
the Tellinghams and the teachers. Besides this
great building there were two dormitory build-
ings, the gymnasium, the library building, and a
chapel which had been built only the year
before
by subscriptions of the graduates of the school and
of the parents of the scholars then attending.
But it was growing dusk now and the two friends
could not see much of the buildings around the
campus.
Mrs. Grace Tellingham and her husband (the
Doctor never by any chance came first in any.
body's mind!) had started the school some years


60
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
before in a small way; but it had grown rapidly
and was, as we have seen, very popular. Many
girls were graduated from the institution to the
big girls' colleges, for it was, in fact, a prepara.
tory school.
The chums went in at the broad door and saw
a library at the right hand into which a tidy maid
motioned them, with a smile. It was a large
room, the walls masked by bookshelves, all filled
so tightly that it did seem as though room for
another book could not be found. But Mrs. Tell-
ingham was not there.
Bending over the table, however, (and it was a
large, leather-covered table with a great student
lamp in the center, the shade of which threw a
soft glow of light in a circle upon it) was a gentle-
man whose shoulders were very round and who
seemed to be so near-sighted that his nose must
have been within an inch or so of the book which
he read. He was totally unconscious of the girls'
presence, and he read in a half whisper to him.'
self, like a child conning a lesson.
Ruth and Helen looked at each other, each
thinking the same question. Could this be Doctor
Tellingham, the great historian? They glanced
again at the hoop-shouldered man and wondered
what his countenance was like, for they could not
see a feature of it as he read. But Ruth did notice
one most surprising fact. The stooping gentie.


THE UPEDES
61
man wore a wig. It was a brown, rather curly
wig, while the fringe of natural hair all around his
head was quite white-of that yellowish-white
that proclaims the fact that the hair was once
light brown, or sandy in color. The brown wig
matched the hair at one time, without doubt; but
it now looked as though two gentlemen's heads
had been merged in one—the younger gentle-
man's being the upper
half of the present appari-
tion.
For several minutes the chums stood timidly in
the room and the old gentleman went on whisper-
ing to himself, and occasionally nodding his head.
But at length he looked up, and in doing
this he saw the girls and revealed his own counte-
nance.
“Ah-ha!” he ejaculated, and stood upright.
He was not a small man, but he was very bony.
He had a big, long, smoothly-shaven face, on
which his beard had sprouted in patches only, and
these shaven patches were gray, whereas the rest
of his face was smooth and dead-white. Indeed,
he had so much face, and it was so bald, that if the
brown wig had chanced to tumble off Ruth thought
that his
appearance would have been actually terri-
fying.
“Ah-hal" he said again, and smiled not un-
kindly. The thick spectacles he wore hid his
eyes, however, and to look into his big face was


62
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
like looking at the white wall of a house with
the windows all shuttered. " You want some-
thing!”
He said it as though he had made a most pro-
found discovery. Indeed, they found afterward
that Doctor Tellingham always spoke as though
he were pronouncing a valedictory oration, or
something quite as important as that. The doctor
never could say anything lightly. His mind was
given up entirely to deep subjects, and it seldom
strayed from his work.
“You want something," he repeated. “Stop!
never mind explaining. I shouldn't be able to aid
you. Mrs. Tellingham-my wife, my dears
will be here anon."
He at once bobbed down his head, revealing
nothing to the eyes of the two girls but the brown
wig and the hair that didn't match, and went on
whispering to himself. Helen and Ruth exchanged
glances and Helen had difficulty in keeping from
laughing outright.
In a moment more Mrs. Tellingham came into
the room. At close view Ruth saw that she was
even more attractive than she had seemed at a
distance. Her countenance was firm without be.
ing stern—the humor about the mouth relieved
its set expression.
“My dear! my dear!" ejaculated the Doctor,
raising his head so that the long, bald expanse of


64 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
aid you in your own intention to stand well in the
classes.
“Keep before you the fact that your friends
have sent you here for improvement-not to kill
time. All girls like fun; I hope you will find
plenty of innocent amusement here. I want all
my girls happy and content. Use the advantages
of our gym; join the walking club; we make a
point of having one of the best basketball teams
in this part of the State. Tennis is a splendid ex-
ercise for girls, and we have an indoor as well as
outdoor courts. Yes, do not neglect the good
times. But remember, too, that amusement isn't
the main issue of life at Briarwood Hall. Let
nothing interfere with the study hour. Keep the
rules-we strive to have as few as possible, o
that there may be less temptation to break them,
and the Preceptress smiled her quick, understand-
ing smile again.
way,
there are social clubs in the school.
To-night-have you been invited to any gather.
“By the
ing?"
“Both the Forward Club and the Up and Do-
ings have invited us to attend their meetings,'
said Ruth, quietly.
Ah!”
“We are going to the Up and Doings, Mrs.
Tellingham," said Helen.
“Ah!” was again the lady's comment, and


THE UPEDES
65
they learned nothing from her countenance. Nev.
ertheless, Ruth thought it better to explain:
“We were very kindly received by Miss Cox,
and shown our room by her, and she invited us to
her club first of all."
“Indeed! We shall be glad to have you come
to our club, too, before you make up your minds
to join any," said Mrs. Tellingham, with an ac-
cent on one word that made both Ruth and Helen
mark it well. The F. C.'s were plainly approved
by the Preceptress.
“There!" she continued, nodding smilingly at
the chums. “I am sure we shall get on together.
You will become acquainted with both your
school-fellows and your instructors in course of
time. There are not so many at Briarwood Hall
but that we are still one great family. One thing
girls come away from home for, to an institution
like this, is to learn self-control and self-govern-
ment. If you need help do not be afraid to go to
your instructors, or come to me. Confide in us,
But, on the other hand, you must learn to judge
for yourself. We do not punish an act of wrong
judgment, here at Briarwood.” And so the Pre.
ceptress bade them good-evening.
“Isn't she nice?” whispered Ruth, as she and
Helen made their exit from the room.
“Ye-es," admitted her chum.
“ But you can
see she is dreadfully 'bossy.'”


66
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
At that Ruth laughed heartily. “You foolish
child I” she said, shaking her chum a little.
“Isn't she here to 'boss'? My goodness! you
didn't expect to do just as you pleased here at
Briarwood; did you?”
Helen Cameron had been used to having her
own way a good deal. Being naturally a sweet-
tempered girl, she was not much spoiled. But
Mrs. Murchiston had been unable to be very
strict with the twins when Mr. Cameron was so
indulgent himself.
Mary Cox and “Heavy" Stone were waiting
on the steps for the friends as they came out.
There was another group of girls on the path,
too, who eyed Ruth and Helen interestedly as the
latter came down the steps with the two Juniors.
“The Fox' has been in the poultry yard again,
and has caught two chickabiddies," laughed one
of these idle girls.
Ruth flushed, but Helen did not hear the gibe,
being much interested in what Mary Cox was say.
ing to her. Ruth walked beside the good-natured
Jennie Stone.
“My, my!” chuckled that damsel, aren't
those Fussy Curls jealous ? They had to take the
teachers into their old club so as to be more nu-
merous than the Upedes. But I guess Mary Cox
will show 'em! She is a fox, and I guess she
always will be ! "


THE UPEDES
67
'Obre
"Is that what they call Miss Cox?” asked
Ruth, not a little troubled.
slangy young lady. “She will beat the Fussy
Curls every time. She's President of the Upedes,
you know."
Ruth was still troubled, and she hastened to
say:
“You know, we haven't been asked to join the
club, Miss Stone. And
my
chum and I are not
sure that we wish to join any of the school clubs
at first. We we want to look around us, you
know."
“That's all right,” said Jennie Stone, cor-
dially. “You'll be put up for membership when
you want to be. But we'll show you some fun.
No use getting in with those poky F. C.’s. You'll
never have a bit of fun if you train with them.”
They went back to the building in which they
had supped and upstairs to one of the assembly
rooms. The stairway and hall were well filled
with girls now, and several of them nodded smil.
ingly to Ruth and Helen; but their escorts did not
let the chums stop at all, ushering them at once
into the room where the Up and Doing clan was
gathering.
Mary Cox left Heavy to introduce the new-
comers while she went at once to the rostrum, and
with two or three of the other girls—who were


68 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
evidently officers of the club, likewise-held a
short executive session in secret. By and by Mary
rapped on the desk for order, and the girls all
took seats. Ruth, who was watchful, saw that
the company numbered scarcely a score. If these
were all the members of the club, she wondered
how many of the Briarwood girls belonged to the
rival association.
The meeting, as far as the business went, was
conducted briskly and to the point. Then it was
"thrown open” and everybody—but the visitors
-talked just as they pleased. Helen and Ruth
were made to feel at home, and the girls were
mose lively and good-natured. They heard that
the Upedes were to have a picnic at a grove upon
the shore of Lake Triton on the Saturday week,
and that Old Dolliver and his ramshackle stage,
and another vehicle of the same caliber, were en-
gaged for the trip.
“But beware of black marks, girls,” warned
Mary Cox.
“Picolet will be watching us; and
you know that, this early in the term, two black
marks will mean an order to remain on the
school premises. That old cat will catch us if she
can.'
“Mean little thing!" said Heavy, wheezily.
“I wish anybody but Miss Picolet lived in our
house."
From this Ruth judged that most of these Up


THE UPEDES
69
and Doings were in the dormitory in which she
and Helen were billeted.
“I don't see what Mrs. Tellingham keeps Pic-
olet for," complained another girl.
“For a spy,” snapped Mary Cox. “But we'll
get the best of her yet. She isn't fit to be a teacher
in this school, anyway."
“Oh, she's a good French teacher-of course.
It's her native tongue,” said one of the other
girls, who was called Belle Tingley.
“That's all very well,” snapped Mary. “But
there's something secret and underhand about
her. She claims to have nobody related to her in
this country; but if the truth were known, I guess,
she has reason to be ashamed of her family and
friends. I've heard something-
She stopped and looked knowingly at Ruth and
Helen. The former flushed as she remembered
the man in the red waistcoat who played the harp
aboard the steamboat. But Helen seemed to
have forgotten the incident, for she paid no at-
tention to Mary's unfinished suggestion.
It worried Ruth, however. She heartily wished
that her chum had said nothing to the Cox girl
about the man who played the harp and his con-
nection with the little French teacher.


CHAPTER VIII
THE MARBLE HARP
THE social meeting of the Up and Doing Club
lasted less than an hour. It was quite evident
that it had been mainly held for the introduction
of Ruth Fielding and her chum into the society
of the Briarwood girls. Those gathered in the
assembly room did not number any Seniors, but
were all of the Junior grade, and all older than
Ruth and Helen. "Primes" were not allowed
by Mrs. Tellingham to join any of the class-gov-
erned societies.
In spite of the fact that Ruth suspected Mary
Cox of deliberately throwing herself in the way
of Helen and she on their arrival at the school,
with the sole object of getting them pledged to
this society, the girl from the Red Mill could not
fail to appreciate the good-natured attempts of
the Upedes to make them both feel at home in
their new surroundings. They must be grateful
for that.
Nor were they urged at this time to join the
club. At least, nobody said more to Ruth about
70


72 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
“Not tramps again, Tony?" cried Jennie
Stone.
'Tis worse. Musickle bodies, they be. Play-
in' harps an' fiddles, an' the loikes. Sure, 'twill
be hand-organs an' moonkeys to-morrer, belike.
Ah, yes!"
Maybe some of these traveling musicians can
play the marble harp yonder," said Heavy, with
a chuckle, pointing to the now half-shrouded fig-
ure in the center of the campus.
“Oh, wirra, wirral don't be sayin' it,” grum-
bled the old man. “There's bad luck in speakin'
of thim folks."
Jennie Stone squeezed Ruth's arm, still laugh-
ing, as they went on and left the old Irishman.
“He's just as superstitious as he can be," she
whispered. “He really believes the old story
about the harp."
“He ought to believe in a harp," laughed
Ruth, in return, "he being Irish. Tell me, who
is he?"
“Anthony Foyle. He's the only workman
about the place who sleeps on the premises. His
wife's our cook. They're a comical old couple-
and she does make the nicest tarts! They'd melt
in your mouth if you could only make up your
mind to hold them long enough on your tongue,"
sighed Heavy, rapturously.
But what's the story about the marble harp?


THE MARBLE HARP
73
queried Ruth, as they came to the dormitory and
joined the other girls. “You mean the harp held
by that figure at the fountain ?"
“Hello!” cried Belle Tingley. “Heavy's
trying to scare the Infant with the campus ghost
story.”
“Oh! a real ghost story!” cried Helen. “Do
let's hear it."
“Come into our room, Cameron," said Lluella
Fairfax, lazily, “and I will tell the tale and har.
row up thy young soul"
“ And make thy hair stand on end like quills
upon the fretful ‘porkypine,'” finished Mary
Cox. “Yes! let Lluella tell it. It is well for In-
fants to learn the legends as well as the rules of
Briarwood Hall."
Helen was used to being called “Infant" by
now and didn't mind so much. She was so much
taken with their new friends and the Upedes in
general that she went right into the room occu-
pied by Mary Cox and her chums, without a word
to Ruth, and the latter followed with Heavy, per-
force.
The windows of the quartette" looked out
upon
the
campus. The lights in the other dormi.
tory shone brightly and the lamps around the
open space, which the buildings of Briarwood sur.
rounded, glimmered in the dark. Voices came
up to them from the walks; but soon these ceased,


74
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
for the girls were all indoors. The campus was
deserted.
“Don't let's light the lamp," said Lluella. “I
can tell stories better in the dark."
“And ghost stories, too,” laughed Helen.
“Not so much of a ghost story—at least,
there's nothing really terrible about it," returned
Miss Fairfax, slowly. “I suppose there are not
many people who talk about it, outside of our
own selves here at Briarwood. But once-before
the school came here—the marble statue down
there was the talk of the whole countryside. I
believe Mrs. Tellingham doesn't like the story to
be repeated," added Miss Fairfax. “She thinks
such superstitions aren't good for the minds of
the Primes and Infants," and the story-teller
laughed.
“ However, it is a fact that the original owner
of Briarwood Hall had a beautiful daughter.
She was the apple of his eye-all beautiful daugh-
ters are apples of their fathers' eyes,” said
Lluella, laughing. Jennie is her father's
apple--"
“Adam's apple," suggested Mary Cox.
Such a size for an Adam's apple would choke
a giant," murmured Belle Tingley, for the three
were always joking poor Heavy because of her
over-plumpness.
Don't
you bother about my father," said


76 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
while he sculped the marble the artist likewis
made love to the young lady and they ran away
and were married, leaving the old gentleman
nothing but the cold marble statue playing the
marble harp, in place of a daughter.
“The father's heart at once became as ada.
mant as the marble itself, and he refused to sup-
port the sculptor and his wife. Now, either the
runaway couple died miserably of starvation in a
garret, or were drowned at sea, or were wrecked
in a railroad accident, or some other dreadful
catastrophe happened to them— I'm not sure
which; for after a time there began to be some-
thing strange about the fountain. The old man
lived here alone with his servants for a number
of years; but the servants would not remain long
with him, for they said the place was haunted."
“Oh my!” exclaimed Helen.
“That's right, Miss Cameron. Please show
the proper amount of thrilling interest. They
said the fountain was queer. The water never
poisoned anybody; but sometimes the marble
strings of the marble harp in the marble hand of
the marble daughter would be heard to twang in
the night. Weird music came from the fountain
at ghostly hours. Of course, the little harp the
statue holds is in the form of a lyre; and what
the people were who told these stories about the
ghostly twanging of the instrument—you may


78 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
“Wasted humor," said Mary, laughing.
"Heavy is in the Land of Nod. It's been a hard
day for her. At supper she had to eat her own
and Miss Fielding's share of the cup-custards."
Ruth and Helen had already risen to go.
“You'll remember, Infants," said Lluella,
" when you hear the twang of the ghostly harp,
that something momentous is bound to happen at
Briarwood Hall.”
“But more important still,” warned Mary,
“be sure that your lights are out within twenty
minutes after retiring bell sounds. Otherwise
you will have that cat, Picolet, poking into your
room to learn what is the matter."


CHAPTER IX
THE GHOSTLY TRIBUNAL
“AREN'T they just fine? Isn't it just fun?"
These were the enthusiastic questions that
Helen Cameron hurled at Ruth when they re-
turned to their own room. The girl from the Red
Mill was glad that their school life had opened
so pleasantly; but she was by no means blinded-
as Helen seemed to be-to the faults of their
neighbors in the room they had just left.
“They have been very friendly and we have no
complaint to make, that is sure, Helen,” she said.
“How exasperating you are at times!” ex-
claimed her chum. "Just the same, I am glad
we didn't go with those poky Fussy Curls to their.
meeting."
Ruth made no reply to this. The bell in the
tower had tolled nine, and they knew that there
were twenty minutes only in which to get ready
for retiring. Those girls who had lights after
twenty minutes past nine were likely to be ques-
tioned, and any who burned a lamp after half
after nine would find a demerit against their
names in the morning.
79


80 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
The chums hurried, then, to get ready for
sleep. “Don't you hope we'll dream something
very nice?” whispered Helen as she plunged into
bed first.
"I hope we will," returned Ruth, waiting to
see her comfortable before she turned out the
light and bent over her chum to kiss her. “Good-
night, Helen. I hope we'll be just as good friends
here, dear, as we have been since we met."
“Of course we will, Ruthiel" declared Helen,
quite as warmly.
“We will let nobody, or nothing, come between
us ?” said Ruth, a little wistfully in the dark.
“Of course not!” declared Helen, with added
emphasis.
Then Ruth crept into her own bed and lay
looking at the whiter patch of the nearest window
long after Helen's gentle, regular breathing an-
nounced her chum asleep. There were few other
sounds about the dormitory. A door shut softly
in the distance. Somewhere a dog barked once.
Ruth was not sleepy at all. The day's doings
passed in a not unpleasant procession through her
mind.
It seemed a week-yes! a month—since she
had left the Red Mill that morning. She again
went over the pleasant road with the Camerons
and Mrs. Murchiston to Cheslow. She remem-
bered their conversation with good Dr. Davisna,


THE GHOSTLY TRIBUNAL
81
and wondered if by any possibility the time would
come when poor Mercy Curtis could go to school
-perhaps come to this very Briarwood Hall.
The long ride on the train to Lake Osago was
likewise repeated in Ruth's mind; then the trip
by boat to Portageton. She could not fail to re-
count the mysterious behavior of the big man who
played the harp in the boat orchestra, and Made-
moiselle Picolet. And while these thoughts were
following in slow procession through her mind
she suddenly became aware of a sound without.
The nearest window was open—the lower sash
raised to its full height. It was a warm and wind-
less night.
The sound was repeated. Ruth raised her
head from the pillow. It was a faint scratching
-at the door, or at the window? She could not
tell.
Ruth lay down again; then she sat upright in
her bed as the sound continued. Every other
noise about the house now seemed stilled. The
dog did not bark. There was no rustle in the
trees that shaded the campus. Where was that
sound? At the door?
Ruth was not afraid-only curious. If some-
body was trying to attract her attention—if some.
body wished to communicate with her, to get into
the room-
She hopped out of bed.
Helen still slept as


82 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
calmly as though she was in her own bed at home.
Ruth went softly to the door. She had latched it
when they came in. Now she pushed the bolt
back softly. Was there a rustle and a soft whis-
per behind the panels ?
Suddenly, as the fastening was removed, the
door was pushed inward. Ruth stepped back.
Had she been of a very nervous disposition, she
would have cried aloud in fright, for two figures
all in white stood at the door.
“Hush !" commanded the taller of the two
shrouded figures. “Not a word.”
Thus commanded, and half frightened, as well
as wholly amazed, Ruth remained passive. The
two white figures entered; two more followed;
two more followed in turn, until there were eight
couples—girls and all shrouded in sheets, with
pillow-case hoods over their heads, in which were
cut small" eyes "-within the duet room. Some-
body closed the door. Somebody else motioned
Ruth to awaken Helen.
Ruth hesitated. She at once supposed that
some of their school-fellows meant to haze them;
but she did not know how her chum would take
such a startling awakening from sound sleep.
She knew that, had she been asleep herself and
opened her eyes to see these shrouded figures
gathered about her bed, she would have been
frightened beyond expression.


THE GHOSTLY TRIBUNAL
85
So there was no danger of their getting cold.
The two new girls were placed side by side.
Helen was not gagged as Ruth was; but, of
course, she had uttered only that single startled
cry when she awoke. There was great solemnity
among the shrouded figures as the chums stood in
their midst. The girl who had previously spoken
(and whom Ruth was quite positive was Mary
Cox-for she seemed to be the leader and prime
mover in this event) swept everything off the table
and mounted upon it, where she sat cross-legged
like a tailor, or a Turk.
“Bring the culprits before the throne!” she
commanded, in a sepulchral voice.
Helen actually giggled. But Ruth did not feel
much like laughing. The ball of rags in her
mouth had begun to hurt her, and she was held
tightly by her two guards so that she could not
have an instant's freedom. She was not, in addi-
tion, quite sure that these girls would not attempt
to haze their prisoners in some unbecoming, or
dangerous, way. Therefore, she was not undis-
turbed in her mind as she stood in the midst of
the shrouded company of her school-fellows.


SOMETHING MORE THAN GHOSTS
87
goes back.'
she understands fully that a single word above a
whisper-or any word at all unless she is ad-
dressed by the Sisters—will be punished by her
being instantly corked up again, the gag may be
removed. Do you understand, Neophyte? Nod
once !"
Ruth, glad to get rid of the unpleasant mouthful
on any terms, nodded vigorously. Immediately
her captors let go of her arms and one of them
pulled the “stopper " out of her mouth.
Now, remember!” uttered the girl on the
table, warningly. “A word aloud and the plug
Helen giggled again, but Ruth
didn't feel like laughing herself. “Now, cul.
prits !" continued the leader of the hazing party,
you must be judged for your temerity. How
dared you come to Briarwood Hall, Infants ? "
“Please, Ma'am,” whispered Helen, who
seemed to think the whole affair a great lark,
our guardians sent us here. We are not re-
sponsible.”
“You may not so easily escape responsibility
for your acts," hissed the girl on the table.
“Those who enter Briarwood Hall must show
themselves worthy of the high honor. It takes
courage to come under the eye of Mrs. Telling-
ham; it takes supernatural courage to come under
the
eye
of Picolet!'
“If she wasn't out of the house to-night you


88 RUTH FIELD.NG AT BRIARWOOD HALL
may believe we wouldn't be out of bed," mur.
mured another of the midnight visitors, whom
Ruth was quite sure was Belle Tingley.
“And I hope you made no mistake about that,
Miss !" snapped the girl on the table.
went to her door."
“ And knocked, and asked for ton ache
drops," giggled another of the shro:ide ngures.
And she wasn't there. I pushed the door
open," muttered the other girl. “I know she
went out. I heard the door open and shut half
an hour before."
"She's a sly one, she is," declared the girl on
the table. “But, enough of Picolet. It is these
small infants we have to judge; not that old cat.
We say they have shown temerity in coming to
Briarwood-is it not so, friends and fellow mem-
bers-ahem! is it not so ?"
There was a responsive giggle from the
shrouded figures about the room.
“Then punishment must be the portion of these
Infants," declared the foremost hazer. “They
claim that they were sent here against their will
and that it was not reckless bravery that brought
them to these scholastic halls. Let them prove
their courage then—what say the Sisters ? "
The Sisters giggled a good deal, but the ma-
jority seemed to be of the opinion that proof of
the Infants' courage should be exacted.


90 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
campus rather quelled her propensity for gig.
gling.
But there seemed to be no way of begging off
'from the trial. Helen cast a look of pleading at
her chum; but what could Ruth do? She was sur-
prised that the task had not been given to her in-
stead; she believed that these girls were really
more friendly in feeling toward Helen than to-
ward herself. At least, it was Mary Cox on the
table, and Mary Cox had shown Helen much
more attention than she had Ruth.
Two of the sheeted visitors seized Helen again
and led her softly out of the room. A sentinel
had been left in the corridor, and the word was
whispered that all was silent in the house; Miss
Scrimp was known to be a heavy sleeper, and the
French teacher was certainly absent from her
room.
The girls led Helen downstairs and to the
outer door. This opened with a spring lock.
The guards whispered that they would remain
to await her return, and the new girl was pushed
out of doors, with nothing over her nightgown
but a wrapper, and only slippers on her feet.
Although there was little breeze now, it was
not cold. But it was dark under the trees. Ruth,
who could look out of the windows above, won-
dered how her chum was getting on. To go clear
to the center of the campus with that vase, and


SOMETHING MORE THAN GHOSTS
91
leave it at the foot of the figure surmounting
the fountain, was no pleasant experience, Ruth
felt.
The minutes passed slowly, the girls in their
shrouds whispering among themselves. Suddenly
there came a sound from outside-a pattering of
running feet on the cement walk. Ruth sprang to
the nearest window in spite of the commands of
the hazing party. Helen was running toward the
house at a speed which betrayed her agitation.
Besides, Ruth could hear her sobbing under her
breath:
“Oh, oh, oh!”
“You've scared her half to death ! " exclaimed
Ruth, angrily, as the girls seized her.
“Put in the stopper!" commanded the girl
who had seated herself on the table, and instantly
the ball of rags was driven into Ruth's mouth
again and she was held, in spite of her struggles,
by her captors.
Ruth was angry now. Helen had been tricked
into going to the fountain, and by some means
the hazers had frightened her on her journey.
But it was a couple of minutes before her chum
was brought back to the room. Helen was shiv-
ering and sobbing between the guards—indeed,
they held her up, for she would have fallen.
“What's the matter with the great booby?”
demanded the girl on the table.


92
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
“She-she says she heard something, or saw
something, at the fountain," said one of the other
girls, in a quavering voice.
“Of course she did—they always do," de-
clared the leader. Isn't the fountain haunted ?
We know it is so."
This was all said for effect, and to impress
her, Ruth knew. But she tried to go to Helen.
They held her back, however, and she could not
speak.
“Did the Neophyte go to the fountain ?" de-
manded the leader, sternly.
Helen, in spite of her tears, nodded vigor-
ously.
“Did she drink of the water there?"
"1-I was drinking it when 1-I heard some-
body"
“The ghost of the very beautiful woman whose
statue adorns the fountain," declared Mary Cox,
if it were she, in a sepulchral voice.
Ruth knew now why the story of the fountain
had been told them earlier in the evening, but per-
sonally she had not been much impressed by it
then, nor was she frightened now. She was only
indignant that Helen and she should be treated so
—and by these very girls for whom her chum had
conceived such a fancy.
Helen was still trembling. They let her sit
down upon her bed, and Ruth wanted to go to her


SOMETHING MORE THAN GHOSTS
93
more than ever, and comfort her. But the girl
on the table brought her up short.
“Now, Miss !” she exclaimed. “You are the
next. The first Infant has left the Golden Goblet
at the fountain-you did leave it there; didn't
you, you 'fraid-cat?” she demanded sharply, of
Helen. Helen bobbed her head and sobbed.
“Then," said the leader of the hazing party,
you go and bring it here."
Ruth stared at her in surprise. She did not
move.
"Take out her gag. Lead her to the door.
If she does not come back with the Golden Gob-
let, lock her out and let her cool her temper till
morning on the grass," said the girl on the table,
cruelly. “And if she stirs up trouble, she'll wish
she had never come to Briarwood!”


CHAPTER XI
THE VOICE OF THE HARP
" AMONG two hundred girls there are bound to
be girls of a good many different kinds.” So had
said Mrs. Tellingham when Ruth Fielding and
her chum presented themselves before the Pre-
ceptress not many hours before. And Ruth saw
plainly that some of these shrouded and masked
figures. at least, were of the kind against whom
Mrs. Tellingham had quietly warned them.
These were not alone careless and thoughtless,
however; but the girl whom Ruth believed to be
Mary Cox, their whilom friend and guide, was
cruel likewise.
Ruth Fielding was no coward. She believed
these girls had arranged to terrify their victims
by some manifestation at the fountain—why,
otherwise, had they sent Helen there and now
were determined to make Ruth repeat the experi-
ence? Nor was it necessary for the leader of the
crew of hazers to remind the girl from the Red
Mill how unpleasant they could make it for her
if she dared report them to the teachers.
14


THE VOICE OF THE HARP
95
“Now, First Neophyte!” exclaimed the leader
of their visitors. Where did you leave the
Golden Goblet?"
“On the pedestal, right between the feet of
the figure," sobbed Helen.
"You hear?" repeated the other, turning her
shrouded face to Ruth. “Then go, drink like-
wise of the fountain, and bring back the goblet.
Failure to perform this task will be punished not
only in the present, but in the future. Take her
away—and remember your orders, guards."
The door was opened ever so quietly and the
sentinel outside assured them that nobody had
stirred. All had been so far conducted so care.
fully that even the other girls not in the plot
were not awakened. As Ruth was led past the
door of the larger room, which she knew Mary
Cox and her three chums occupied, she heard the
unmistakable snoring of a sound sleeper within.
It made her doubt if, after all, those four who
had appeared so friendly to Helen and herself
that evening, were among the hazers; and she
heard one of her guards whisper:
“Miss Picolet never has to look into that room
to learn if they're asleep. Listen to Heavy, will
you?"
But this puzzlement did not stick in Ruth's
mind for long; the guards hustled her down the
stairs and the outer door was opened.


96 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
“If the cat should suddenly come back,
wouldn't we just catch it?” whispered one girl to
the other.
“Now, don't you be forever and ever going to
that fountain," said the other to Ruth. “For if
you are long, we'll just shut the door on you and
run back."
As she spoke she let go of Ruth's arm and
jerked the gag out of her mouth. Then the two
pushed the new girl out of the door and closed
it softly. Ruth could hear them whispering to-
gether behind the panels.
Like Helen, she had been given her bath-gown.
She was not cold. But it was truth that the mem-
ory
of her chum's state of mind when she had
come back from the visit to the fountain, gave
Ruth Fielding an actual chill. Helen had set out
upon her venture without much worriment of
mind; but she had been badly frightened. Ruth
believed this fright had been wickedly planned by
the hazing crew of girls; nevertheless she could
not help being troubled in her own mind as she
looked out into the dimness of the campus.
Not a sound rose from this court between the
buildings. A few dim night-lights were visible in
the windows about the campus; but the lamps
that illumined the walks and the park itself were
burned out. The breeze was so faint that it did
not rustle the smallest branches of the trees.


THE VOICE OF THE HARP
97
There was not a sound from anywhere upon the
campus.
Remembering the promise of the two girls who
had thrust her out of the house, Ruth thought it
best for her to get the unpleasant business over
as quickly as possible. Although she could not
see the sunken fountain from the steps of the dor-
mitory where she stood, she knew which path to
take to get to it the quickest. She started along
this path at once, walking until she was surely out
of view of the girls in the windows above, and
then running to the fountain. She had some ob-
jection to giving her new schoolmates the satis-
faction of seeing that she was at all frightened
by this midnight jaunt.
She sped along the path and there was the
statue looming right before her. The trickle of
the water, spouting into the basin, made a low
and pleasant sound. Nothing moved about the
fountain.
“Perhaps, after all, Helen only imagined there
was somebody here," thought Ruth, and she pat-
tered down the steps in her slippers, and so
climbed upon the marble ledge from which she
could reach the gilded goblet which was, as Helen
had declared, placed between the feet of the mar-
ble statue.
And then, suddenly, there was a rustle near at
hand. Was that a whisper-a sharp, muffled


98
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
gasp? Ruth was startled, indeed, and shuddered
so that the "goose-flesh " seemed to start all over
her. Nevertheless, she clutched the goblet firmly
and held it beneath one of the
spouts of the foun-
tain. She was convinced that if there was any.
body behind the figure of marble, he was there :
for the express purpose of frightening her and
she was determined not to be frightened.
The goblet was quickly filled and Ruth held it
to her lips. She might be watched, and she was
determined to obey the mandate of the masked
leader of the hazing party. She would not give
them the right to say that she was panic-stricken.
And then, with an unexpectedness that held her
for an instant spellbound, she heard a hasty hand
sweep the taut strings of a harp! She was di-
rectly below the figure and if the truth must be
told-she looked up in horror, expecting to see
the marble representation of a harp vibrating
under that sudden stroke!
There was no movement, of course, in the mar-
ble. There was no further sound about the foun-
tain. But the echo of that crash of music vibrated
across the campus and died away hollowly be-
tween the buildings. It had been no sound called
up by her imagination; the harp had been sounded
with a sure and heavy hand.
Ruth Fielding confessed her terror now on the
instant. When power of movement returned to


THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
IOI
I
“We were all at the window listening to hear
if
you would be frightened and run," whispered
Helen. “Oh, Ruthie!”
“What's the matter, now?” demanded her
chum.
“1-I tried to help them. It was mean.
knew they were trying to scare you, and I helped
them. I wasn't so scared myself as I appeared
when I came in."
WHAT?"
“I don't know what's made me act so mean to
you this evening," sobbed Helen. “I'm sure I
love you, Ruth. And I know you wouldn't have
treated me so.
But they said they were just go-
ing to have some fun with you-
“Who said?" demanded Ruth.
“Mary Cox-and-and the others."
They told you they were coming to haze
us?"
“The Upedes--ye-es," admitted Helen.
“And of course, it wouldn't have amounted to
anything if that -Oh, Ruth! was it truly the
harp that sounded?”
“How could that marble harp make any
sound?” demanded Ruth, sharply.
But I know the girls were scared—just as
scared as I was. They expected nothing of the
kind. And the twang of the strings sounded just
as loud as-as-well, as loud as that fat man's


102 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
playing on the boat sounded. Do you remem-
ber?"
Ruth remembered. And suddenly the thought
suggested by her frightened chum entered her
mind and swelled in it to vast proportions. She
could, in fact, think of little else than this new
idea. She hushed Helen as best she could. She
told her she forgave her—but she said it unfeel-
ingly and more to hush her chum than aught else.
She wanted to think out this new train of thought
to its logical conclusion.
Hush and go to sleep, Helen," she advised.
“We shall neither of us be fit to get up at rising
bell. It is
very
late. I-I wish those girls had
remained in their own rooms, that I do!"
“But there is one thing about it," said Helen,
with half a sob and half a chuckle. “They were
more frightened than we were when they scuttled
out of this room before you returned. Oh! you
should have seen them."
Ruth would say no more to her. There had
been no light lit in all this time, and now she
snuggled down into her own bed. The excite-
ment of the recent happenings did not long keep
Helen awake; but her friend and room-mate lay
for some time studying out the mystery of the
campus.
Miss Picolet was out of her room.
The old Irishman, Tony Foyle, had mentioned


THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
105
who spoke to Ruth and Helen on the campus, or
in the dining room. Miss Polk and Madge
Steele were not the only Seniors who showed the
chums some attention, either; and Ruth and
Helen began secretly to count the little buttons
marked “F. C.” which they saw, as compared
with the few stars bearing the intertwined “U”
and “D” of the Upedes.
Just the same, Helen Cameron's leaning toward
the lively group of girls in their house who had
(it seemed) formed their club in protest against
the Forward Club, was still marked. The friends
heard that the last named association was gov-
erned by the Preceptress and teachers almost en-
tirely. That it was "poky" and "stuffy.” That
some girls (not altogether those who formed the
membership of the Upedes) considered it “toady-
ing” to join the Forward Club. And on this sec-
ond day Ruth and Helen saw that the rivalry for
membership between the clubs was very keen in-
deed. A girl couldn't have friends among the
members of both the F. C.'s and the Upedes-
that was plain.
Many new girls arrived on this day-mostly
from the Lumberiun direction. That was an-
other reason, perhaps, why Řuth and Helen wers
shown so little attention by the quartette
the quartette of girls
next door v them. They were all busy-even
Heavy herself—in herding the new girls whom


106 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
they had entangled in the tentacles of the Upedes.
The chums found themselves untroubled by the
F. C.'s; it seemed to be a settled fact among the
girls that Ruth and Helen were pledged to the
Upedes.
“But we are not,” Ruth Fielding said, to her
friend. “I don't like this way of doing business
at all, Helen—do you?
"Well-but what does it matter?” queried
Helen, pouting. "We want to get in with a lively
set; don't we? I'm sure the Upedes are nice
girls."
“I don't like the leadership of them,” said
Ruth, frankly.
“Miss Cox?"
“Miss Cox-exactly," said the girl from the
Red Mill.
“Oh-well-she isn't everything," cried
Helen.
“She comes pretty near being the boss of that
club-you can see that. Now, the question is, do
we want to be bossed by a girl like her?”
“Then, do you want to be under the noses of
the teachers, and toadying to them all the time?"
cried Helen.
“If that is what is meant by belonging to the
Forward Club, I certainly do not,” admitted
Ruth.
“Then I don't see but you will have to start a


THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
107
secret society of your own," declared Helen,
laughing somewhat ruefully.
“And perhaps that wouldn't be such a bad
idea," returned Ruth, slowly. “I understand
that there are nearly thirty new girls coming to
Briarwood this half who will enter the Junior
classes. Of course, the Primary pupils don't
count. I talked with a couple of them at dinner.
They feel just as I do about it—there is too much
pulling and hauling about these societies. They
are not sure that they wish to belong to either
the Upedes or the F. C.'s."
“But just think!” wailed Helen. “How much
fun we would be cut out of! We wouldn't have
any friends"
“That's nonsense. At least,
At least, if the whole of
us thirty Infants, as they call us, flocked together
by ourselves, why wouldn't we have plenty of so-
ciety? I'm not so sure that it wouldn't be a good
idea to suggest it to the others."
“Oh, my! would you dare?” gasped Helen.
"And we've only just arrived ourselves ? '
“Self-protection is the first selfish law of na-
ture,” paraphrased Ruth, smiling; " and I'm not
sure that it's a bad idea to be selfish on such an
occasion."
“You'd just make yourself ridiculous," scoffed
Helen. “To think of a crowd of freshies get-
ting up an order—a secret society."


108 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL,
“In self-protection,” laughed Ruth.
“I guess Mrs. Tellingham would have some
thing to say about it, too," declared Helen.
It was not the subject of school clubs that was
the burden of Ruth Fielding's thought for most
of that day, however. Nor did the arrival of so
many new scholars put the main idea in her mind
aside. This troubling thought was of Miss Pic-
olet and the sound of the harp on the campus at
midnight. The absence of the French teacher
from the dormitory, the connection of the little
lady with the obese foreigner who played the
harp on the Lanawaxa, and the sounding of harp-
strings on the campus in the middle of the night,
were all dovetailed together in Ruth Fielding's
mind. She wondered what the mystery meant.
She saw Tony Foyle cleaning the campus lan-
terns during the day, and she stopped and spoke
to him.
"I heard you tell Jennie Stone last night that
you had to drive street musicians away from the
school grounds, sir?” said Ruth, quietly. “Was
there a man with a harp among them?"
“Sure an' there was," declared Tony, nodding.
“And he was a sassy dago, at that! 'Tis well
I'm a mon who kapes his temper, or 'twould ha'
gone har-r-rd wid him.”
“A big man, was he, Mr. Foyle?" asked Ruth.
“What had that to do wid it?" demanded


THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
109
the old man, belligerently. “When the Foyles'
dander is riz it ain't size that's goin' to stop wan
o that name from pitchin' into an' wallopin' the
biggest felly that iver stepped. He was big,
he added; “but I've seen bigger. Him an' his
red vest—and jabberin' like the foreign monkey
he was. I'll show him!”
Ruth left Tony shaking his head and muttering
angrily as he pursued his occupation. Ruth
found herself deeply interested in the mystery
of the campus; but if she had actually solved the
problem of the sounding of the harp at midnight,
the reason for the happening, and what really
brought that remarkable manifestation about,
was as deep a puzzle to her as before.


BEGINNINGS
III
chanced to trot by a group of the students on the
campus, in his stoop-shouldered, purblind way,
their voices became hushed and they looked after
him as though he really was all he pretended to
bemor all he thought he was. He delved in his-
tories—ate, slept, and seemed to draw the breath
of his nostrils from histories. That the pamphlets
and books he wrote were of trivial importance,
and seldom if ever saw the light of print, was not
made manifest to the Briarwood girls in gen-
eral.
Ruth and Helen were not unpopular from the
start. Helen was so pretty and so vivacious, that
she was bound to gather around her almost at
once those girls who were the more easily at-
tracted by such a nature; while for Ruth's part,
the little Primes found that she was both kind and
loving. She did not snub the smaller girls who
came to her for any help, and before this day was
over (which was Friday) they began to steal into
the chums' duet, in twos and threes, to talk with
Ruth Fielding. It had been so at the school near
the Red Mill, and Ruth was glad the little folk
took to her.
Late in the afternoon the two friends from
Cheslow went out to the main entrance of the
grounds to meet Old Dolliver's stage from Seven
Oaks. It had been noised abroad that a whole
nursery of Infants was expected by that convey-


BEGINNINGS
113
Old Dolliver, all one wide grin and flapping
duster, drove his bony horses to the stopping
place with a flourish.
“Here we bel” he croaked. "The old craft
is jest a-bulgin' over with Infants.
Mary Cox pulled open the door and the first
new-comer popped out as though she had been
clinging to the handle when The Fox made the
movement.
The Infants got out, one by one-
One wide river to cross !
First Infant bumps into a great big Stone-
One wide river to cross !"
And there really was Heavy to receive the
new-comer with open arms, who said, while the
others chanted the refrain:
My name's Jennie Stone, and you're very wel-
come to Briarwood, and what's your name, In-
fant?"
The girls in the stage-coach had been fore.
warned by Old Dolliver as to their probable
greeting, and they took this all in good part.
They disembarked with their bags and parcels,
while Tony Foyle appeared to help Old Dolliver
down with the heavier luggage that was strapped
upon the roof and in the boot behind.
Mary
Cox continued to line out the doggerel, inventing


114 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
some telling hits as she went along, while the
Upedes came in strongly on the refrain.
There was much laughter and confusion; but
the arriving Infants were lined up two by two be-
tween the long rows of Briarwood girls and were
forced to march toward the Hall by this narrow
path.
“Come! we
are Infants, too,” exclaimed
Ruth, pulling Helen by the sleeve. “We will
lead the march."
She drew her chum away with her, and they
introduced themselves to the girls at the head of
the column of freshies.
“We are Helen Cameron and Ruth Fielding,
said Ruth, cordially. “We only got here yes.
terday, so we are Infants, too. We will take
you to the office of the Preceptress.
So the chums bore their share of the indignity
of being marched up through the grounds like
culprits, and halted the file at the steps of the
main building
“We have Duet Number 2 in the West Dor-
mitory," said Ruth, boldly, to the new-comers.
"When you have found your rooms and got set-
tled-after supper, that will be,-you are all in-
vited to come to our room and get acquainted
with the other Infants. We're going to get as
many together this evening as we can. Now, do
come!"


BEGINNINGS
115
" What
“Oh, Ruth!” whispered Helen, when they
were out of ear-shot of the others.
will the Upedes say?"
“We're not interfering with either of the
school clubs," declared her chum, emphatically.
'But I guess it won't hurt us to become ac-
quainted with those who are as new here as our.
selves. The old girls don't feel strange, or lost;
it is these new ones that need to be made to feel
at home."
Timid for herself, Ruth had begun to develop
that side of her character which urged her to be
bold for the general good. She appreciated
keenly how awkward she had felt when she ar-
rived at Briarwood the day before. Helen, al-
though not lacking in kindliness, was less thought-
ful than her chum; and she was actually less bold
than her chum, too.
Ruth made it a point to see and speak with all
the new scholars whom she could find, repeating
her invitation for a meeting in her room.
Whether Helen helped in this matter she did not
know. Her chum was not enthusiastic in the
task, that was certain. And indeed, when the
hour came, after supper, Helen was closeted with
Mary Cox in the quartette room next door to
the chamber and study which she and Ruth Field-
ing shared together.
That Ruth felt more than a little hurt, it is


118 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
do in a society ? It would look silly," cried
Helen.
“We won't keep the older girls out of it, if
they want to join," laughed Sarah.
And there has to be a beginning to every.
thing," rejoined Phyllis Short.
“I don't believe those Upedes have many more
members than are right in this room to-night,
said Ruth, quietly. “How many do we number
here—twenty-six ?"
Twenty-six, counting your room-mate," said
Sarah.
“Well, you can count her room-mate out," de-
clared Helen, sharply. “I am not going to make
myself a laughing-stock of the school by joining
any baby society."
Well," said Phyllis Short, calmly. "It's al.
ways nicer, I think, to be a big frog in a little
puddle than to be an unrecognized croaker in a
great, big pool.”
Most of the girls laughed at that. And the
suggestion of a separate club for the Infants
seemed to be well received. Ruth, however, was
very much troubled by Helen's attitude, and she
would say no more beyond this:
We will think of it. There is plenty of
time. Only, those who feel as we do-
“As you do!” snapped Helen.
As I do, then, if you insist,” said Ruth,


BEGINNINGS
119
bravely, “would better not pledge themselves to
either the F. C.'s or the Upedes until we have
talked this new idea over."
And with that the company broke up and the
new girls went away to their rooms. But Helen
and Ruth found a barrier raised between them
that evening, and the latter sprinkled her pillow
with a few quiet tears before she went to sleep.


CHAPTER XIV
THE SWEETBRIARS
MAIL time!
Until Saturday morning Ruth and Helen had
not realized how vital that hour was when the
mail-bag came out from the Lumberton
post office and the mail was distributed by one of
the teachers into a series of pigeonholes in a tiny
“office" built into the corridor at the dining-
room door. The mail arrived during the break-
fast hour. One could get her letters when she
came out of the dining-room, and on this Sat-
urday both Ruth and Helen had letters.
Miss Cramp, her old teacher, had written to
Ruth very kindly. There was a letter, too, from
Aunt Alviran, addressed in her old-fashioned
hand, and its contents shaky both as to spelling
and grammar, but full of love for the girl who
was so greatly missed at the Red Mill. Uncle
Jabez nad even declared the first night that it
I20


THE SWEETBRIARS
121
us.
seemed as though there had been a death in the
house, with Ruth gone.
Helen had several letters, but the one that de-
lighted her most was from her twin brother.
“Although,” she declared, in her usual sweet-
tempered manner, “Tom's written it to both of
Listen here, Ruthie!"
The new cadet at Seven Oaks began his letter:
“Dead Sweetbriars,” including Ruth as well as
Helen in his friendly and brotherly effusion. He
had been hazed with a vengeance on the first night
of his arrival at the Academy; he had been
chummed on a fellow who had already been half a
year at the school and whose sister was a Senior
at Briarwood; he had learned that lots of the
older students at Seven Oaks were acquainted
with the Seniors at Briarwood, and that there
were certain times when the two schools inter-
mingled socially.
“Dear old Tom !” exclaimed Helen. “Nice
of him to call us 'Sweetbriars '; isn't it? I guess
there's a good many thorns on this 'sweetbriar';
'eh, Ruthie?" and she hugged and kissed her
chum with sudden fierceness.
And Tom says he can get permission to come
over and see me some Saturday afternoon if Mrs.
Tellingham will allow it. I'll have to get her to
write to Major Paradell, who commands at Seven
Oaks. My! it sounds just as though poor old


THE SWEETBRIARS
123
woman, who impressed the most rattle-pated girl
before her that she meant to be obeyed and that
no wild prank would go unpunished.
Proper amusement will be supplied in due
time, young ladies. For the present we shall all
have enough to do getting settled into our places.
I have heard something regarding picnics and out-
ings for the near future. Postpone all such
junketing until we are pulling well together.
And beware of demerits. Remember that ten
of them, for whatever cause, will send a girl
home from Briarwood immediately.”
This about the picnics hit the Upedes. Ruth
and Helen knew that they were planning just
such amusements. Helen took this interference
on Mrs. Tellingham's part quite to heart.
“Isn't it mean of her?” she asked of Ruth.
"If it had been the Fussy Curls who wanted to
go to Triton Lake, it would have been another
matter. And—besides-- I was going to write to
Tom and see if he couldn't meet us there."
“Why, Helen; without asking Mrs. Telling-
ham?” cried Ruth.
“I suppose Tom and some of his chums could
happen to go to Triton Lake the same day we
went; couldn't they?" Helen asked, laughing.
“Dear me, Ruthie! Don't you begin to act the
Miss Prim-please! We'll have no fun at all
if you do.”


124
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
But we don't want to make the bad beginning
of getting Mrs. Tellingham and the teachers
down on us right at the start," said Ruth, in a
worried manner.
“I don't know but that you are a Miss Prim!"
ejaculated Helen.
Ruth thought, probably, from her tone of
voice, that Helen had heard some of her friends
among the Upedes already apply that term to her,
Ruth. But she said nothing only shook her
head. However, the girl from the Red Mill did
her best to dodge any subject in the future that
she thought might cause Helen to compare her
unfavorably with the girls next door.
For Ruth loved her chum dearly—and loved
her unselfishly, too. Helen and Tom had been
so kind to her in the past-all through those mis-
erable first weeks of her life at the Red Mill
that Ruth felt she could never be really angry
with Helen. It only made her sorrowful to think
that perhaps Helen, in this new and wider school
life, might drift away from her.
The regular program of the working days of
the school included prayers in the chapel before
the girls separated for their various classes. These
were held at nine o'clock. But on Sunday Ruth
found that breakfast was an hour later than usual
and that at ten o'clock several wagonettes, besides
Old Dolliver's Ark, were in waiting to take those


THE SWEETBRIARS
125
girls who wished to ride to the churches of the
several denominations located in Lumberton. A
teacher, or a matron, went in each vehicle, and if
any of the pirls preferred to walk in pleasant
weather there was always a teacher to walk with
them for the distance was only a mile.
Dinner was at half-past one, and at three there
was a Sabbath School, conducted by Mrs. Tel.
lingham herself, assisted by most of the teachers,
in the large assembly hall. At night there was a
service of music and a lecture in the chapel, too.
The teacher of music played the organ, and
there was a small string orchestra made up
of
the girls themselves, and a chorus to lead the
singing.
This service Ruth found delightful, for she had
always loved music and never before had she had
the opportunity of studying it under any teacher.
Her voice was sweet and strong, however; and
she had a true ear. At the end of the service
Miss Maconahay, the organist, came and spoke
to her and advised her that, providing she would
give some time to it, there was a chance for her
to become a member of the chorus and, if she
showed improvement, she might even join the
Glee Club.
On Monday school began in earnest. Ruth
and Helen were side by side in every class. What
study one took up, the other voted for. The


126 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
fact that they had to work hard-especially at
first-kept Ruth and Helen together, and during
the first week neither had much time for any
society at all. Between supper and bedtime each
evening they faithfully worked at their lessons for
the ensuing day and every hour of daylight
brought its separate duty. There seemed to be
little opportunity for idle hands to find mischief
at Briarwood Hall.
Mrs. Tellingham, however, did not propose
that the girls should be so closely confined by their
studies that their physical health would be neg-
lected. Those girls who stood well in their
classes found at least two hours each day for
outdoor play or gym work. The tennis courts at
Briarwood were in splendid shape. Helen al-
ready was a fair player; but Ruth had never held
a racket in her hand until she was introduced to
the game by her chum during this first week at
school.
The girl from the Red Mill was quick and
active. She learned the rules of play and proved
that her eye was good and that she had judgment
before they had played an hour. She knew how
to leap and run, too, having been country bred
and used to an active life.
“Oh, dear me!" gasped Helen, out of breath.
“You are tireless, Ruth. Why, you'll be an
athlete here."


THE SWEETBRIARS
127
“This is great fun, Helen," declared her chum,
“I believe I can learn to play this game.
“ Learn to play!" gasped Helen.
" Why, all
you want is practice to beat Tom himself, I be-
lieve. You'll be a crack player, Ruthie,”
prophesied her friend.
It was while they were loitering on the tennis
courts after the game that Sarah Fish and Phyllis
Short, with a number of the other Infants, joined
them. Sarah came out bluntly with:
“When are we going to form our club, Ruth
Fielding? I think we should do it at once. I've
told both the Forwards and the Upedes that I am
not in the market. I guess they'll let me alone
now."
“I think they will,” said Helen, sharply. “ At
least, the Upedes don't want you, Miss."
“You seem to knew exactly what they do
want,” said Sarah, good-naturedly.
joined them?"
“I intend to," declared Helen.
“Oh, Helen!" ejaculated Ruth.
"Yes, I am," said Miss Cameron. “ And I
am not going to join any baby society," and so
walked off in evident ill-humor.
Therefore the new club was not formed in the
Number 2 Duet Room in the West Dormitory.
The Infants considered Ruth the prime mover in
the club, however, and that evening she was put
“Have you


128 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
in the chair to preside at the informal session held
in the quartette in the East Dormitory occupied
by Sarah Fish and three other Infants. She was
made, too, a member of the Committee on Or-
ganization which was elected to draw up a Con-
stitution and By-Laws, and was likewise one of
three to wait on Mrs. Tellingham and gain
permission to use one of the small assembly
rooms for meetings.
And then came up the subject of a name for
the society. It was not intended that the club
should be only for new scholars; for the new
scholars would in time be old scholars. And the
company of girls who had gathered in Sarah's
room had no great or important motive in their
minds regarding the association. Its object was
social and for self-improvement simply.
“And so let's find a name that doesn't sound
bigger than we are," said Sarah. « The For-
ward Club sounds very solid and is quite literary,
I understand. What those Upedes stand for ex-
cept raising particular Sam Hill, as my grand-
mother would say, I don't know.
What do you
say, Ruth Fielding? It's your idea, and you
ought to christen it."
“I don't know that I ought,” Ruth returned.
“I don't believe in one person doing too much in
any society.”
Give us a name. It won't hurt
you
vote it down," urged Sarah.
if we


THE SWEETBRIARS
129
Now Ruth had been thinking of a certain name
for the new society for some days. It had been
suggested by Tom Cameron's letter to Helen.
She was almost afraid to offer it, but she did.
Sweetbriars," she said, blushing deeply.
“Dandy!” exclaimed Phyllis Short.
"Goody-good!” cried somebody else. “We're
at Briarwood Hall, and why not Sweetbriars ? "
“Good name for initials, too,” declared the
practical Sarah Fish. “Make two words of it
Sweet and Briars. The 'S. B.'s'-not bad that,
eh? What say?"
It was unanimous. And so the Sweetbriara
were christened.


CHAPTER XV
THE NIGHT OF THE HARPOCRATES
It was from Heavy Stone that Ruth first
learned of an approaching festival, although her
own room-mate was the prime mover in the fête.
But of late she and Helen had had little in com-
mon outside of study hours and the classes which
they both attended. Since the launching of the
Sweetbriars Helen had deliberately sought soci-
ety among the Upedes, and especially among the
quartette who dwelt next door to the chums.
“And she is going to have almond cakes. She
says she has an old nurse named Babette who
makes the most de lic-i-ous almond cakes-Is
that so, Ruth Fielding?”
Heavy had been enthusiastically discussing this
subject with her nearest neighbor on the other
side from Ruth, at the dining table. But Ruth
had caught the name of "Babette" and knew
that Heavy spoke of Helen Cameron.
“Is what so ?” she asked the plump girl.
“Why, it's about your spoon's box from home.
I told you, you know, to be sure and have the
130


THE NIGHT OF THE HARPOCRATES
131
ahead of you.
folks send you one; but Helen Cameron's got
And whisper!” pursued Jennie
Stone, in a lowered tone, “ tell her not to invite
too many girls to the Night of Harpocrates. Re-
member!”
Ruth was a bit puzzled at first. Then she re-
membered that Harpocrates was the Egyptian
god of silence, and that his sign was a rose. The
expression “sub-rosa " comes from that root, or
“under the rose.” It was evident that there
were to be “midnight orgies” when Helen's
goodies came from home.
One of the quartettes on their corridor had in-
dulged in a fudge party after hours already, and
Ruth had been invited to be present. But she
found that Helen was not going, so she refused.
Besides, she was very doubtful about the pro-
priety of joining in these forbidden pleasures.
All the girls broke that retiring rule more or less
-or so it seemed. But Miss Picolet could give
such offenders black marks if she wished, and
Ruth craved a clean sheet in deportment at the
end of the half.
She wondered how and when Helen proposed
to hold the "supper sub-rosa "; but she would
not ask. Not even when the great hamper ar-
rived (being brought up from Lumberton by Old
Dolliver, who only drove his stage every other
day to Seven Oaks at this time of year) did she


132 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
ask Helen a single question. Tony Foyle brought
the hamper up to Duet Two in the West Dormi-
tory and it just fitted into the bottom of Helen's
closet. Heavy could not keep away from the
door of the room; whenever the door was opened
and Ruth raised her eyes from the table where she
was at work, there was the broad, pink and white
face of the fat girl, her eyes rolling in anticipa-
tion of the good things~Mary Cox declared
Heavy fairly “ drooled at the mouth!”
The arrival of the hamper was not unnoticed
by the sharp eyes of Miss Picolet; but advised by
the wily Miss Cox, Helen unpacked a certain por-
tion of the good things and, during the afternoon,
asked permission of Miss Scrimp to make tea
and invite some of the girls to the duet to sample
her goodies. The French teacher was propitiated
by the gift of a particular almond cake, frosted,
which Helen carried down to her room and
begged her to accept. Helen could be very nice
indeed, if she wished to be; indeed, she had no
reason to be otherwise to Miss Picolet. And the
teacher had reason for liking Helen, as she had
shown much aptitude for the particular branch
of study which Miss Picolet taught.
But although most of the girls in the West
Dormitory, and some others, were asked to
Helen's tea (at which Ruth likewise did the
honors, and "helped pour”) there was an under:


THE NIGHT OF THE HARPOCRATES
135
goodies, should the French teacher get wind of
the orgy.
"If
“Forewarned is forearmed," urged Mary
Cox. “We know what old Picolet is!"
“But 'four-armed' doesn't always mean 'fore-
handed'," chuckled Jennie Stone.
"Nor quadrumanous !” snapped the Fox.
you had four hands, Heavy, there would be
little chance for any of the rest of us at Helen's
party. My goodness me! how
you
would mow
the good things away if you had four hands in-
stead of two."
“ It isn't that I'm really piggish,” complained
Miss Stone. “It's because I need more nourish-
ment; there is so much of me, you know, Mary.”
“And if you hadn't been stuffing yourself like
a Strasburg goose all your life, there wouldn't
be so much of you. Hal it's the old story of the
hen and the egg—which was here first? If you
didn't eat so much you wouldn't be so big, and
if you weren't so big you wouldn't eat so much.”
All this, however, was said after the girls had
begun to gather in Number 2 duet, and Belle
Tingley, who had drawn the unlucky short tooth-
pick, was banished to the corridor to keep watch
--but with a great plateful of goodies and the
“ golden goblet” used in the hazing exercises,
filled to the brim with hot chocolate.
“Though, if Miss Picolet is awake she'll smell


THE NIGHT OF THE HARPOCRATES
137
place in the world and accomplish that which we
are each supposed to do. Oh, the Madam al-
ways proves her point.”
“And I was sick for a week afterward,"
sighed Lluella. “And had to take such a dose!
At that moment, without the least forewarn-
ing, there came a smart rap on the door. The
sound smote the company of whispering, laugh-
ing girls into a company of frightened, trembling
culprits. They hardly dared breathe, and when
the commanding rap came for a second time
neither Ruth nor Helen had strength enough in
their limbs to go to the door.


140 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
away the remains of her feast, and pour out the
chocolate. One by one they were obliged to do
this and then walk sedately to their rooms. Jen-
nie Stone was caught on the way out with a most
suggestive bulge in her loose blouse, and was
made to disgorge a chocolate layer cake which
she had sought to "save" when the unexpected
attack of the enemy occurred.
“ Fie, for shame, Miss Stone!” exclaimed the
French teacher. “That a young lady of Briar-
wood Hall should be so piggish! Fiel”
But it was after all the other girls had gone
and Ruth and Helen were left alone with her,
that the little French teacher seemed to really
show her disappointment over the infraction of
the rules by the pupils under her immediate
charge.
“I hoped for better things of you two young
ladies,” she said, sorrowfully. “I feared for
the influence over you of certain minds
older scôolars; but I believed you, Ruth Fielding,
and you, Helen Cameron, to be too independent
in character to be so easily led by girls of really
much weaker wills. For one may will to do evil,
or to do good, if one chooses. One need not
drift.
Miss Fielding! take that basket of broken
food and go down to the basement and empty it
in the bin. Miss Cameron, you may go to bed
among the


THE HAWK AMONG THE CHICKENS
141
again. I will wait and see you so disposed.
Alons/"
But before Ruth could get out of the room, and
while Helen was hastily preparing for bed, Miss
Picolet noticed something “bunchy” under
Ruth's spread. She walked to the bedside and
snatched back the coverlet. The still untasted
viands were revealed.
" Ah-ha!” exclaimed the French teacher.
“At once! into the basket with these, if you
wiki
be so kind, Miss Fielding."
Had Heavy seen those heaps of goodies thus
disposed of she must have groaned in actual mis.
ery of spirit! But Helen, being quick in her
preparations for bed, hopped into her own couch
before Miss Picolet turned around to view that
corner of the room, and with Helen under the
bedclothes the hidden dainties (though she did
mash some of them) were not revealed to the
eye of the teacher, who stood grimly by the door
as Ruth marched gravely forth with the basket
of broken food.
For a minute or two Helen was as silent as
Miss Picolet; then she ventured in a very small
voice:
“Miss Picolet—if you please?”
“Well, Mademoiselle?” snapped the little
lady.
“May I tell you that my chum Ruth had noth-


THE HAWK AMONG THE CHICKENS
143
At least, we have saved this much from the
wreck," chuckled Helen.
Ruth, however, was scarcely willing to admit
that that the salvage would repay them for the
black marks both surely had earned.


CHAPTER XVII
GOODY TWO-STICKS
To tell the truth the young ladies of the West
Dormitory who attended Helen's sub-rosa sup-
per looked pretty blue when the rest of the school
filed out of chapel and left them sticking, like
limpets, to their seats. Mrs. Tellingham looked
just as stern as Helen imagined she could look,
when she ended a whispered conference with Miss
Picolet, and stood before the culprits.
“ Being out of bed at all hours, and stuffing
one's self with all manner of indigestible viands,
is more than a crime against the school rules,
young ladies," she began. “ It is a crime against
common sense. Besides, I take a pride in the
fact that Briarwood Hall supplies a sufficient
and a well-served table. Fruit at times between
meals is all very well. But a sour pickle and a
piece of angel cake at eleven or twelve o'clock at
night would soon break down the digestive facul-
ties of a second Samson.
"However,” she added grimly, " that will
bring its own punishment. I need not trouble
144


GOODY TWO-STICKS
145
myself about this phase of the matter. But that
distinct rules of the school have been broken can-
not be ignored. Each of you who were visitors
at the study of Misses Fielding and Cameron last
evening after hours will have one demerit to work
off by extra exercises in Latin and French.
“Miss Cox!”
She spoke so sharply that The Fox hopped up
quickly, knowing that she was especially ad-
dressed.
“It is reported to me by Miss Picolet that you
spoke to her in a most unladylike manner.
You
have two demerits to work off, instead of one.'
Mary Cox ruffled up instantly. She flounced
into her seat and threw her book aside.
“Miss Cox," repeated the Preceptress, sharply,
“I do not like your manner. Most of these
girls are younger than you, and you are their
leader. I believe you are all members of the
Up and Doing Club. Have a care.
club stand for something besides infractions of
the rules, I beg. And, when you deliberately in-
sult the teacher who has charge of your dormi-
tory, you insult me."
“I suppose I'm to be given no opportunity of
answering Miss Picolet's report, or accusation?”
cried Mary Fox. “I don't call it fair_-_-"
“Silence !” exclaimed the Preceptress. “You
may come to me after session this afternoon.
Let your


148 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
rangements can be made to billet me with some-
body who doesn't mind having a Goody Two-
Sticks around.
“Now, good-bye, Ruthie,
“From your fidgetty friend,
“MERCY CURTIS.".
This letter delighted Ruth, and she went in
search of Helen to show it to her. The chums
were due at their first recitation in a very few
moments. Ruth found Helen talking with Mary
Cox and Belle Tingley on the steps of the build-
ing in a recitation room in which Ruth and Helen
were soon to recite. Ruth heard Belle say, earn-
estly:
"I believe it, too. Miss Picolet wasn't down-
stairs in her room at all. When she caught me
she came from upstairs, and that's how I didn't
give any warning. I didn't expect her from that
direction and I was looking downstairs."
“She had been warned, all right," said the
Fox, sharply. “It's plain enough who played
the traitor. Nasty little cat!”
“I believe you," said Belle. "And she only
got half a demerit. They favored her, of
course."
“But why any demerit at all, if she was a
spy for Miss Picolet?” demanded Helen, in a
worried tone.


GOODY TWO-STICKS
149
“Pshaw! that's all for a blind,” declared the
Fox.
And then all three saw Ruth at the bottom of
the steps. The Fox and Belle Tingley turned
away without giving Ruth a second glance, and
went into the building. But Helen smiled frankly
on Ruth as her chum approached, and slipped an
arm within her own:
“What have you got there, Ruthie?” she de-
manded, seeing the open letter.
It's from Mercy.
Read it when you get a
chance,” Ruth whispered, thrusting it into her
chum's hand as they went in. “It's just as you
said-Dr. Davison is going to bring it about.
Mercy Curtis is coming to Briarwood, too."
Helen said nothing at all about The Fox and
her room-mate. But Ruth saw that the Upedes
-especially those who had been caught in the
French teacher's raid on Duet Number 24
whispered a good deal among themselves, and
when they looked at Ruth they did not look
kindly.
After recitation, and before dinner, several of
the girls deliberately cut her as Mary Cox had.
But Helen said nothing, nor would Ruth speak
first. She saw plainly that The Fox had started
the cabal against her.
It made Ruth feel very
unhappy, but there was nothing she could do to
defend herself.


CHAPTER XVIII
THE MYSTERY AGAIN
The organization of the Sweetbriars had gone
on apace. Two general meetings had been held.
Every new-comer to the school, who had entered
the Junior classes, saving Helen Cameron, had
joined the new society. The committee on con-
stitution and by-laws was now ready to report and
this very afternoon Ruth and two other girls
waited on Mrs. Tellingham to ask permission to
hold social meetings in one of the assembly rooms
on stated occasions, as the other school societies
did.
The trio of Sweetbriars had to wait a little
while in the hall outside the library door, for
Mrs. Tellingham was engaged. Mary Cox came
out first and as she passed Ruth she tossed her
head and said:
“Well, are you here to tattle about somebody
.else?"
Ruth was stricken speechless, and the girls
with her asked wonderingly what the older girl
had meant.
150


152 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Club. I understand that every girl but one re-
ported out o' ier room after retiring bell last
evening, in the West Domitory, was a member
of the Up and Doings—and the other girl was
you, Miss Fielding!” she added sternly. “And
you are a member of this new organization-
What do you call it? The ‘S. B.'s,' is it?”
'The Sweetbriars," said Ruth bravely.
“And I am sorry I did anything to bring any cloud
upon
the name of the new club. I promise you,
Mrs. Tellingham, that I will do nothing in the
future to make you sorry that you sanctioned the
formation of our society."
“Very well!. Very well!" said the Precep-
tress, hastily. “You may have the same rights,
and under the same conditions, that the older
clubs have. And now, Miss Fielding, stop here
a moment. I have another matter to speak to
you about."
The other girls went away and Ruth, some-
what troubled by the manner of Mrs. Telling-
ham, waited her pleasure. The Preceptress took
up a letter from her desk and read it through
again.
“Dr. Davison you know, Ruth,” she said,
quietly. “He and your uncle, Mr. Jabez Potter,
have arranged to send here to school a lame girl
named Curtis


154
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
“I know you have been Helen's constant com-
panion. Do you think you have been as good
friends as you were when you came to Briarwood,
Ruth?” asked Mrs. Tellingham, with sharpness.
“Helen! Oh, I hope so, Mrs. Tellingham!”
cried Ruth, in great distress. “I am sure I love
her just the same—and always shall.”
“But she evidently finds her friends among the
Upedes. Why did she not join this new society
that
you
have started?"
"I–I did not mean to start it without her,"
stammered Ruth. “ It was really only my sug-
gestion. The other Infants took it up-
“But you named it?”
“I did suggest the name," admitted Ruth.
“And you did not join the Up and Doing Club
with your chum."
"No, Mrs. Tellingham. Nor did I join the
F. C.'s. I did not like the manner in which both
societies went about making converts. I didn't
like it the very first day we came."
“Miss Picolet, your French teacher, told me
something about Mary Cox meeting the stage
and getting hold of you two girls before you
had
reached Briarwood at all."
“Yes, ma'am.”
"By the way," said the Preceptress, her brow
clouding again and the stern look coming back
into her face that had rested on it when Ruth


CHAPTER XIX
THE TRIUMVIRATE
MERCY CURTIS came in a week. For Helen
of course was only too delighted to fall in with
Mrs. Tellingham's suggestion. Duet Number 2,
West Dormitory, was amply large enough for
three, and Ruth gave up her bed to the cripple
and slept on a couch. Helen herself could not
do too much for the comfort of the newcomer.
Dr. Davidson and Dr. Cranfew came with her;
but really the lame girl bore the journey remark-
ably well. And how different she looked from
the thin, peaked girl that Ruth and Helen remem-
bered!
“Oh, you didn't expect to see so much flesh
on my bones; did you ?” said Mercy, noting their
surprise, and being just as sharp and choppy in
her observations as ever.
“But I'm getting
wickedly and scandalously fat. And I don't often
have to repeat Aunt Alviry's song of 'Oh, my
back and oh, my bones!'"
Mercy went to bed on her arrival. But the
158


THE TRIUMVIRATE
161
“The Triumvirate" the other girls in the
dormitory building called the three girls from
Cheslow. Before Thanksgiving, Ruth, Helen,
and Mercy began to stand high in their several
dasses. And Ruth was booked for the Glee
Club, too. She sang every Sunday in the chorus,
while Helen played second violin in the orchestra,
having taken some lessons on that instrument
before coming to Briarwood.
Dr. Cranfew came often at first to see Mercy;
but he declared at last that he only came socially
-there was no need of medical attendance. The
cripple could not go to recitations without her
crutches, but sometimes in the room she walked
with only Ruth's strong arm for support. She
was getting rosy, too, and began to take exercise
in the gymnasium.
"I'll develop my biceps, if my back is crooked
and my legs queer," she declared. “Then, when
any of those Miss Nancy Seniors make fun of me
behind my back, I can punch 'em!” for there
were times when Mercy's old, cross-grained
moods came upon her, and she was not so easily
borne with.
Perhaps this fact was one of the things that
drove the wedge deeper between Ruth and Helen.
Ruth would never neglect the crippled girl. She
seldom left her in the room alone. Mercy had
early joined the Sweetbriars, and Ruth and she


162 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
went to the frequent meetings of that society to-
gether, while Helen retained her membership in
the Up and Doing Club and spent a deal of her
time in the quartette room next door.
Few of the girls went home for Thanksgiving,
and as Mercy was not to return to Cheslow then,
the journey being considered too arduous for her,
Ruth decided not to go either. There was quite
a feast made by the school on Thanksgiving, and
frost having set in a week before, skating on Tri.
ton Lake was in prospect. There was a small
pond attached to the Briarwood property and
Ruth tried Helen's skates there. She had been
on the ice before, but not much; however, she
found that the art came easily to her—as easily
as tennis, in which, by this time, she was very
proficient.
For the day following Thanksgiving there was
a trip to Triton Lake planned, for that great
sheet of water was ice-bound, too, and a small
steamer had been caught 'way out in the middle
of the lake, and was frozen in. The project to
drive to the lake and skate out to the steamer
(the ice was thick enough to hold up a team of
horses, and plenty of provisions had been carried
out to the crew) and to have a hot lunch on the
boat originated in the fertile brain of Mary Cox;
but as it was not a picnic patronized only by the
Upedes, Mrs. Tellingham made no objection to


CHAPTER XX
AT TRITON LAKE
6. The
So on the morning following the feast-day
there were two wagonettes waiting at the en-
trance to the Briarwood grounds to take the girls
two miles by road to a certain boathouse on Tri-
ton Lake. When Ruth and Helen came out of
their room, leaving Mercy cozily ensconced in
the window-seat with her books and the box of
bonbons, the door of the quartette was open and
a faint groan sounded from within.
Helen's eyes twinkled, as she said:
others have
gone,
but Jennie's up in dry-dock for
repairs. No wonder she wouldn't promise to be
one of the skating party. The pleasures of the
table must be paid for How do
you
feel
now, Heavy?" she added, putting her head in at
the door.
“No better. Oh!" came back the complain-
ing voice. "I do have such dreadful ill-fortune.
I can't eat just a little bit without its distressing
me abominably!”
The chums ran down to the wagonettes and
165


166 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
found most of the girls who were going already
there. Ruth, seeing that there was more room
in the second carriage, whisked into it, and Helen
was following her when Mary Cox came up.
“Going to get in here, Cameron?” she said.
"Well, I'll get in with you—no, I won't!" she
suddenly exclaimed, seeing Ruth peering out.
“Come on to the other wagonette; Belle and
Lluella are there."
For a moment Helen hesitated. Then Mary
said, jerking at her sleeve:
“Come on! We want to start in a minute.
I've heard from the boys and I want to tell you.
They've sent a whole sleighload of things out to
the Minnetonka--the boat that's frozen in, you
know—and music, and we'll have great fun. Sh!
Miss Reynolds don't know. She's such a fuss-
budget! If she knew the boys were coming-
well!"
“Oh, Tom, too!" gasped Helen, delighted.
Then she turned and said, in a whisper:
“ Ruth!"
“Come on and let that tattle-tale alone!" ex-
claimed Mary Cox. “Tell her, and she'll run to.
Miss Reynolds with it."
Helen went with her.
Had Ruth Fielding possessed the power of
movement just then, she would have gotten out


AT TRITON LAKE
169
He's my
“How scrumptious you look, Nelll” cried her
brother, kissing her frankly. “Here is Bob
Steele-I want you to know him.
bunkie at Seven Oaks. Isn't his sister with you-
Madge Steele?”
“Yes. Miss Steele's here," gasped Helen.
“ But where's Ruth?" demanded the excited
Tom. “Come on and get her. We want to get
our skates on and make for the steamer. The ice
is like glass."
“Why—Ruth's in the other wagonette," said
Helen.
“She's not with you?” exclaimed Tom, rather
chagrined. “Why, how's that?"
“Wewe happened to get into different ones,
said his sister.
To tell the truth, she had not thought of Ruth
since leaving the school.
“Is that the other one coming—'way back on
the road there?"
“Yes,” said Helen. “Here's Miss Cox, Tom.
Mary, this is my brother.'
Bob Steele, who was a tall, blond fellow, was
at hand to be introduced, too. His sister jumped
out of the wagon and said: “Hullo, Bobbie!
How's your poor croup
?" Madge was a year
and a half older than her brother and always
treated him as though he were a very small boy
in knickerbockers—if pot actually in pinafores.


CHAPTER XXI
ON THE ICE
IF Ruth Fielding's eyes were a bit red when
the wagonette finally came to the landing, nobody
would have suspected her of crying. Least of all
Tom Cameron, for she jumped down with a glad
cry when she saw him, and dropped her skates
and shook both his hands in a most cordial greet-
ing.
“Helen hinted that you might be here, Tom,
but I could hardly believe it," she said.
“We want to hurry and catch up with them,”
he said. Some of the girls were already on the
ice. “We'd better go."
But the other girls had alighted, and following
them came Miss Reynolds. Now, Ruth liked
Miss Reynolds very much, but the teacher came
towards them, looking rather grave.
“This is Helen Cameron's brother Tom, Miss
Reynolds," said Ruth. “He attends the Seven
Oaks Military Academy.”
“I see," said the teacher, quietly.
where is Miss Cameron?"
" And
172


176 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
the skates that I believe I could teach you to roll
very easily. If Miss Reynolds will allow me?”
“Go on, Master Tom," the teacher said,
laughing. “But don't go too far away. We
are nearing the boat now."
The first party that had struck out from the
shore had all arrived at the ice-bound Minne-
tonka now, and many of them were skating in
couples thereabout. At the stern of the steam-
boat was an open place in the ice, for Ruth and
Tom could see the water sparkling. There was
little wind, but it was keen; the sun was quite
warm and the exercise kept the skaters from feel-
ing the cold.
“Hullo!” exclaimed Tom to Ruth, as they
began to get into good stroke-for the girl was
an apt pupil—“who is that old Bobbins has got
under his wing?"
Who is Bobbins ?” asked Ruth, with a laugh.
“My bunkie—that's what we call our chums
at Seven Oaks. Bob Steele."
Madge Steele's brother?”
“Yes. And no end of a good fellow," de.
clared Tom. But, my auntl don't his sister rig
him, though? Asked old Bobbins if he had the
croup?" and Tom went off into a burst of
laughter.
“Do you mean the tall, light-haired boy?"
Ruth queried.


ON THE ICE
177
“Yes. They're skating back toward the steam-
boat now—see, towards the stern."
“That is Mary Cox with your friend,” said
Ruth, a little gravely.
“Hullo!" ejaculated Tom, again.
He started ahead at full clip, bearing Ruth
on with him. Something had happened to the
couple Tom and Ruth had noticed. They
swerved to one side and suddenly Bob Steele
went down.
“His skate's brokel” cried Tom. “Hope old
Bobbins isn't hurt. Great Scott! the girl's with
him!”
Mary Cox had indeed fallen. For a moment
the two figures, Aung by the momentum of their
pace, slid over the ice. There came a wild shout
from those nearer the boat—then a splash!
They're in the water!” cried Ruth, in horror.
She retarded Tom very little, but dashed for-
ward, keeping in stroke with him. She heard
Tom whisper:
“Poor old Bobbins ! he'll be drowned!”
“No, no, Tom! We can get to them," gasped
Ruth.
Indeed, she and her escort were the nearest to
the open place in the lake into which Bob Steele
and Mary Cox had fallen. If anybody in sight
could help the victims of the accident Tom and
Ruth could!


CHAPTER XXII
THE HARPIST ONCE MORE
Over all, Ruth wore a woolen sweater-one
of those stretchy, clinging coats with great pearl
buttons that was just the thing for a skating
frolic. It had been her one reckless purchase
since being at Briarwood, she and Helen having
gone down into Lumberton on Saturday and pur-
chased coats. While Ruth and Tom were yet
some yards from the open water the girl began
to unbutton this.
“Careful, Tom!” she gasped. “Not too near
wait!"
“It's thick 'way to the edge,” he returned,
pantingly.
“No, it isn't. That's why Mary Cox went in.
I saw the ice break under her when she tried to
turn and escape.”
Thus warned, Tom dug the heel of his right
skate into the ice as a brake, and they slowed
down.
Ruth let go of his hand and wriggled out of her
coat in a moment. Then she dropped to her
178


THE HARPIST ONCE MORE
18€
the bigger boys. They got down on the ice, form-
ing a second living chain, and hitching forward,
the tutor seized the half-conscious girl's hand.
The others drew back and dragged Mr. Har-
greaves, with the girl, to firm ice.
Meanwhile Tom, with Ruth to help him, strug-
gled manfully to get Bob Steele out. That young-
ster was by no means helpless, and they accom.
plished the rescue smartly.
And that's thanks to you, Ruthiel” declared
Tom, when the tutor and Miss Reynolds had
hurried the half-drowned girl and
girl and young Steele
off to the Minnetonka. “I'd never have gotten
him but for you—and look at your coat!"
“ It will dry," laughed the girl from the Red
Mill. “Let's hurry after them, Tom. You're
wet a good deal, too—and I shall miss my coat,
being so heated. Come on!"
But she could not escape the congratulations
of the girls and boys when they reached the
steamboat. Even Mary Cox's closest friends
gathered around Ruth to thank her. Nobody
could gainsay the fact that Ruth had been of
great help in the recovery of Mary and Bob from
the lake.
But Helen! had the other girls—and Miss
Reynolds—not been in the little cabin of the boat
which had been given up to the feminine members
of the party, she would have broken down and


182 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
cried on Ruth's shoulder. To think that she had
been guilty of neglecting her chum!
“I believe I have been bewitched, Ruthie," she
whispered. “Tom, I know, is on the verge of
scolding me. What did you say to him?"
“Nothing that need trouble you in the least,
you may be sure, Helen,” said Ruth. “But, my
dear, if it has taken such a thing as this which
is not a thing to go into heroics over to remind
you that I might possibly be hurt by your treat-
ment, I am very sorry indeed."
" Why, Ruth!” Helen gasped. “You don't
forgive me?"
“I am not at all sure, Helen, that you
either
need or want my forgiveness," returned Ruth.
“You have done nothing yourself for which you
need to ask it-er, at least, very little; but your
friends have insulted and been unkind to me. I
do not think that I could have called girls my
friends who had treated you so, Helen.'
Miss Cox had retired to a small stateroom be-
longing to one of the officers of the boat, while
her clothing was dried by the colored stewardess.
Bob Steele, however, borrowed some old clothes
of some of the crew, and appeared when the
lunch was ready in those nondescript garments,
greatly adding to the enjoyment of the occasion.
Well, sonny, your croup will bother you sure


THE HARPIST ONCE MORE
185
away when she saw that the little, piglike eyes of
the harpist were turned upon them. He smiled
in his sly my and actually nodded at them.
“Shl he remembers us," whispered Helen.
Oh, do come away, Ruth!"
“He isn't any handsome object, that's a fact,”
muttered Tom. “And the cheek of him-nod-
ding to you two girls ! "
After the excitement of the accident on the lake
our friends did not feel much like skating until it
came time to go back to the landing. Mr. Har.
greaves was out on the ice with those students of
the two schools who preferred to skate; but Miss
Reynolds remained in the cabin. Mary Cox had
had her lunch in the little stateroom, wrapped in
blankets and in the company of an oil-stove, for
heat's sake. Now she came out, re-dressed in her
own clothes, which were somewhat mussed and
shrunken in appearance.
Helen ran to her at once to congratulate Mary
on her escape. “And wasn't it lucky Tom and
Ruth were so near you?" she cried. “And dear
old Ruthiel she's quite a heroine; isn't she? And
you must meet Tom."
“I shall be glad to meet and thank your
brother, Helen," said The Fox, rather crossly.
But I don't see what need there is to make a
fuss over Fielding. Your brother and Mr. Har.
greaves pulled Mr. Steele and me out of the lake.”


186 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Helen stepped back and her pretty face flushed.
She had begun to see Mary Cox in her true light.
Sertainly she was in no mood just then to hear
her chum disparaged. She looked around for
Tom and Ruth; the former was talking quietly
with Miss Reynolds, but Ruth had slipped away
when The Fox came into the cabin.
Mary Cox walked unperturbed to the teacher
and Tom and put out her hand to the youth,
thanking him very nicely for what he had done.
“Oh, you musn't thank me more than the rest
of them," urged Tom. At least, I did no more
than Ruthie. By the way, where is Ruthie?"
But Ruth Fielding had disappeared, and they
did not see her again until the call was given for
the start home. Then she appeared from the
forward part of the boat, very pale and silent,
and ail the way to the shore, skating between
Tom and Helen, she had scarcely a word to say.


CHAPTER XXIII
THE SECRET
For there was the burden of a secret on Ruth
lielding's mind and heart. She had slipped away
when she saw The Fox appear in the outer cabin
and, walking forward, had been stopped suddenly
in a cross gallery by a firm touch upon her arm.
“Sh! Mademoiselle!"
Before she looked into the shadowy place she
realized that it was the harpist. His very pres-
ence so near her made Ruth shrink and tremble
for an instant. But then she recovered her self.
possession and asked, unshakenly:
What do you want of me?"
“Ah, Mademoiselle! Kind Mademoiselle!"
durred the stai creature and Ruth knew well
what his villainous smile must look like, although
she could not see it. May the unfortunate
vagabond musician speak a single word into
Mademoiselle's ear?"
“You have spoken several words into it al-
ready, sir,” said Ruth, sharply.
“What do you
want?"
187


192 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Mary smiled one of her very queerest smiles,
nodded her head with secret satisfaction, and
marched on upstairs to her own study.
Enter!" said Miss Picolet's soft voice in an.
swer to Ruth's timid rap on the panel of the
door.
The girl entered and found the little French
teacher sewing by the window. Miss Picolet
looked up, saw who it was, and welcomed Ruth
with a smile.
“I hope you have had a joyful day, Miss
Ruth,” she said. “ Come to the radiator-you
are cold."
“I am going to run upstairs in a moment,
Mademoiselle," said Ruth, hesitatingly. "But
I have a message for you."
“A message for me?” said the lady, in sur-
prise.
“Yes, ma'am.”
“From the Preceptress, Ruth?”
“No, Miss Picolet. It-it is a letter that has
been given me to be handed to you—secretly.'
The little teacher's withered cheek flushed and
her bright little eyes clouded. By the way one
of her hands fluttered over her heart, too, Ruth
knew that Miss Picolet was easily frightened.
“A letter for me?" she whispered.
Ruth was unbuttoning her coat and frock to
get at the letter. She said:


196 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Helen, on her other side. “She is disgusted with
Heavy's piggishness. But Miss Picolet, after
all, won't say anything to you. You are her
pet.”
“Don't say that, Helen," replied Ruth, with
some sadness. “I am sorry for Miss Picolet." ;
“I don't see why you need be. She seems to
get along very well,” returned her chum.
But Ruth could not forget how the little French
teacher had looked-how frightened she was and
how tearful—the afternoon when Ruth had told
her of the incident aboard the Minnetonka, and
of her loss of the mysterious letter sent by the
harpist. The little French woman had begged
her not to blame herself for the loss of the letter;
she had only begged her to say nothing to a soul
about either the man or the letter. And Ruth
had kept the secret.
Nearly a fortnight had passed since the occur-
rence, and it lacked not many days to the close
of the term, when one evening, after a meeting of
the S. B.'s in their usual room over the dining
hall, Ruth had been delayed a bit and was hurry.
ing out alone so as not to be caught out of the
dormitory after warning bell, when old Tony
Foyle hailed her.
“I was a-goin' to the West Dormitory to ax
Miss Scrimp for to call ye, Miss Ruthie,” said
the old Irishman, who—like most of the help


198 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
you,” Ruth
entrusted to you for another person? Some let-
ter, for instance ?"
The color flashed into Ruth's face. She was
always thinking about the note the harpist had
given to her on the steamboat to take to Miss
Picolet. She could not hide her trouble from
the sharp eyes of Mrs. Tellingham.
“You have lost something?"
“I don't know whether I should tell you. I
don't know that I have a right to tell
stammered.
Mrs. Tellingham looked at her sharply for a
minute or so, and then nodded. Then she said:
"I understand. You have been put on your
honor not to tell?"
“Yes, Mrs. Tellingham. It is not my se-
cret."
“But there is a letter to be recovered?"
“Ye-es.”
“Is this it?” asked Mrs. Tellingham, sud-
denly thrusting under Ruth's eye a very much
soiled and crumpled envelope. And it had been
unsealed, Ruth could see. The superscription
was to “Mademoiselle Picolet."
“It-it looks like it,” Ruth whispered. “But
it was sealed when I had it."
"I do not doubt it," said Mrs. Tellingham,
with a shake of her head. “But the letter was
given to me first, and then the envelope. The-


200 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
does not reach my ears in one way or another-
that this same person has called you a 'tattle-
tale' and tried to make
your
friends
among
the
girls believe that you played traitor to them on
a certain occasion. I have told Miss Cox exe
actly what I think of her action in this case," and
she tapped the letter before her. She has
shown plainly,” said Mrs. Tellingham, with
sternness, that she is a most sly and mean-
spirited girl. I am sorry that one of the
young
ladies of Briarwood Hall is possessed of so con-
temptible a disposition.”


CHAPTER XXV
GETTING ON
It was a frosty night and snow lay smoothly
upon the campus. Only the walks and the ce-
mented place about the fountain were cleaned.
Tony Foyle had made his last rounds and put out
the lights; but although there was no moon the
starlight on the snow made the campus silvery in
spots. But the leafless trees, and the buildings
about the open space, cast deep shadows.
There was a light shining in a study window
of the West Dormitory and that light was in the
room occupied by the Triumvirate-Ruth Field-
ing, Helen Cameron and Mercy Curtis. The
two latter were abed, but awake and wondering
why Ruth had not returned, and what Miss
Scrimp had meant by coming to the door and tell.
ing them to leave the light burning.
The clocks had long since struck eleven and it
was close to midnight. The night was still, for
there was no wind. It was possible that very
few of either the scholars, teachers, or servants at
Briarwood were awake. But almost directly un-
201


202 RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
der the light in the Triumvirate's room another
light burned—in the study of the French teacher.
She seldom retired early; that is one reason why
those girls who considered Miss Picolet their
enemy believed she was always on the watch.
Three figures came out of the basement door
under the tower of Briarwood Hall—a lady much
bundled up, a girl ditto, and the old Irishman,
Tony Foyle.
"Sure, ma'am, jest as I told ye this afternoon,
the big felly that sassed me last fall, tryin' ter git
in ter play his harp, and with his other vagabonds,
was hanging around again to-day. I hear him an'
his rapscallion companions is in Lumberton.
They've been playing about here and there, for
a month back. And now I see him comin' along
with his harp on his back-bad 'cess to him!
P'raps they're walkin' across to Sivin Oaks, an'
are takin' in Briarwood as a 'cross-cut'."
“Hush !” whispered the Preceptress. “Isn't
that somebody over yonder-by the fountain ? "
They were all three silent, keeping close in the
shadow. Some object did seem to be moving in
the shadow of the fountain. Suddenly there
sounded on the still night air the reverberating
note of a harp-a crash of sound following the
flourish of a practised hand across the wires.
“Bless us and save us!” muttered Tony.
“ 'Tis the marble harp. 'Tis a banshee playin'.”


GETTING ON
205
And big as the harpist was, and little as the
old Irishman seemed, there was that in Tony
Foyle's eye that made the man pick up his harp
in a hurry and make his way from the campus.
“Child! go in to bed,” said Mrs. Tellingham.
“Not a word of this, remember. Thank good-
ness, you are one girl who can keep a secret.
Miss Picolet, I want to see you in my study. I
hope that, hereafter, you will give me your con-
fidence. For you need fear no dismissal from
the school over such a misfortune as is visited
upon you."
She took the sobbing, trembling French teacher
away with her while Ruth ran up to Duet Two
in the West Dormitory, in a much excited state
of mind.
Fortunately both Helen and Mercy had
dropped to sleep and none of the other girls
seemed to have heard the harp at midnight. So
there was no talk this time about the Ghost of the
Campus. To the other girls at Briarwood, the
mystery remained unsolved, and the legend of
the marble harp was told again and again to
the Infants who came to the school, with the i
added point that, on the night Ruth Fielding and
Helen Cameron had come to the hall, the marble
harp was again heard to sound its ghostly note.
No thought of such foolish, old-wives' fables
troubled Ruth Fielding's dreams as she lay down


THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
OF THE
PID
ARRENERION
BY ALICE B. EMERSON
12mo. Illustrated
RUTH FIELDING
Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
Ruth Fielding will live in juvenile Fiction.
RED MILL
RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
or Jasper Parole's Secret
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOODHALL
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 Days 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
RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
or Doing Her Bit for Uncle Sam
RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
or The Hunt for a Lost Soldier
RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
or A Red Cross Worker's Ocean Perils
RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
or The Hermit of Beach Plum Point
RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
or The Indian Girl Star of the Movies
RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
or The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands
RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
or A Moving Picture that Became Real
RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
or The Lost Motion Picture Company

CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers
New York


THE LINGER-NOT SERIES
BY AGNES MILLER
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jocket in full colors
Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid

The LINGER-NOTS
and the
MYSTERY MOUSE
This new series of girls' books is in a new
style of story writing. The interest is in knowing
the girls and seeing them solve the problems
that develop their character. Incidentally, a
great deal of historical information is imparted,
and a fins atmosphere of responsibility is made
pleasing and useful to the reader.
AGNES MELLER
1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE
or The Story of Nine Adventurous Girls
How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems com-
monplace, but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made
their club serve a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and
introduces a new type of girlhood.
2 THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD
or The Great West Point Clain
The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with
feuds or mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled
them in some surprising adventures that turned out happily for all,
and made the valley better because of their visit.
3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST
or The Log of the Ocean Monarch
For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back
into the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the
reader sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their
friends to come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine
story.
Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers
New York


TO OUR READERS
A"
FTER you have read
this book look over
the different lists of our
books on this jacket or
wrapper, and see what
other of these books you
would like to read. We
are sure you will like and
enjoy everyone as well as
you have liked this one.
Send for our complete
free illustrated Catalogue
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
Publishors
Now York
(See Innor Side of this Wrappor)