should become more quickly riveted into a compact body.
How the rooms occupied by the more popular freshmen buzzed during the
next few days!

Our trio of friends, Ruth, Helen and Jennie, had been in danger of
establishing a clique of three, if they had but known it. Now they were
forced to extend their borders of acquaintanceship.

As they were three, and were usually seen about the study-room Ruth and
Helen had established, it was natural that other girls of their class on
that corridor of Dale Hall should flock to them. They thus became the
nucleus at this side of the campus of the freshman class. From
discussing the rule of the haughty seniors, the freshmen began to talk
of their own organization and the approaching election.

Had Ruth allowed her friends to do so, there would have been started a
boom by Helen and Jennie Stone for the girl of the Red Mill for
president of the freshman class. This honor Ruth did not desire. There
were several girls whom she had noted already among her mates, older
than she, and who evidently possessed qualities for the position.

Besides, Ruth Fielding felt that if she became unduly prominent at first
at Ardmore, girls like Edith Phelps would consider her a particularly
bright target. She told herself again, but this time in private, that
fame was not always an asset.

CHAPTER XI

THE ONE REBEL

However much the natural independence of the freshmen balked at the
mandate promulgated by the seniors, baby-blue tam-o'-shanters grew more
numerous every hour on the Ardmore campus.

The sophomores were evidently filled with glee; the juniors and seniors
smiled significantly, but said nothing. The freshmen had been put in
their place at once, it was considered. But the attack upon them had
made the newcomers eager for an organization of their own.

"If we are going to be bossed this way--and it is disgraceful!--we must
be prepared to withstand imposition," Helen announced.

So they began busily settling the matter of the organization of the
class and the choosing of its officers. Before these matters were
arranged completely, however, there was an incident of note.

The freshmen, as a body, were invited to attend a sophomore "roar." It
was to be the first out-of-door "roar" of the year and occurred right
after classes and lectures one afternoon. The two lower classes scamped
their gymnasium work to make it a success.

Now, a "roar" at Ardmore was much nicer than it sound