s. It was merely an
open-air singing festival, and this one was for the purpose of making
the freshmen familiar with the popular songs of the college.

Professor Leidenburg, the musical director, himself led the outdoor
concert. The sophomores stood in a compact body before the main entrance
to the college hall. Massed in the background, and in a half circle,
were the freshmen.

The weather had become cool and all the girls wore their
tam-o'-shanters. For the first time it was noticeable how pretty the
pale blue caps on the freshmen's heads looked. And the new girls
likewise noted that most of the tam-o'-shanters worn-by their sophomore
hostesses were pale yellow.

It was whispered then (and strange none of the freshmen had discovered
it before) that the class preceding theirs at Ardmore--the present
sophomores--had been forced to wear caps of a distinctive color, too.
These pale yellow ones were their old caps, left over from the previous
winter.

The open-air assemblages of the college were made more attractive by
this scheme of a particular class color in head-wear.

There was a blot in the assembly of the freshmen on this occasion. It
was not discovered in the beginning. Soon, however, there was much
whispering, and looking about and pointing.

"Do you see _that_?" gasped Jennie, who had been straining her neck and
hopping up and down on her toes to see what the other girls were looking
at.

"What _are_ you rubbering at, Heavy?" demanded Helen, inelegantly.

"Yes; what's all the disturbance?" asked Ruth.

"That girl!" ejaculated the fleshy one.

"What girl now? Any particular girl?"

"She's not very particular, I guess," returned Jennie, "or she wouldn't
do it."

"Jennie!" demanded Helen. "_Who_ do _what_?"

"That Frayne girl," explained her plump friend.

Rebecca Frayne stood well back in the lines of freshmen. It could not be
said that she thrust herself forward, or sought to gain the attention of
the crowd. Nevertheless, among the mass of pale blue tam-o'-shanters,
her parti-colored one was very prominent.

"Goodness!" gasped Ruth. "Doesn't she know better?"

"Do you suppose she is one of those stubborn girls who just 'won't be
driv'?" giggled Helen.

It was no laughing matter. The three days of grace written upon the
seniors' order regarding the caps had now passed. There seemed no good
reason for one member of the freshman class to refuse to obey the
command. Indeed, they had all tacitly