h," Helen declared to Ruth. "I can see
it."

"You mean you _can't_ see it," laughed her chum. "That is, you can't see
so much of it as there used to be. If she keeps on with the rowing
machine work in the gym and the basket ball practise and dancing, she
will soon be the thinnest girl who ever came to Ardmore."

"Oh, never!" cried Helen. "I don't believe I should like Heavy so much
if she wasn't a _little_ fat."

People who had not seen Jennie Stone for some time observed the change
in her appearance more particularly than did her two close friends. This
was proved when Mr. Cameron and Tom arrived.

For, as the girls did not go home for just a few days, Helen's father
and her twin unexpectedly appeared at college on Christmas Eve, and
their company delighted the chums immensely.

On Friday evenings the girls could have company, and on all Saturday
afternoons, even during the college term. Also a girl could have a young
man call on her Sunday evening, provided he took her to service at
chapel.

The three Briarwood friends had had no such company heretofore. They
made the most of Mr. Cameron and Tom, therefore, during Christmas week.

There was splendid sleighing, and the skating on the lake was at its
very best. Ruth insisted upon including Rebecca Frayne in some of their
parties, and Rebecca proved to be good fun.

Tom stared at Jennie Stone, round-eyed, when first he saw her.

"What's the matter with you, Tom Cameron?" the fleshy girl asked, rather
tartly. "Didn't you ever see a good-looking girl before?"

"But say, Jennie!" he cried, "are you going into a decline?"

"I decline to answer," she responded. But she dimpled when she said it,
and evidently considered Tom's rather blunt remark a compliment.

The Christmas holidays were over all too soon, it seemed to the girls.
Yet they took up the class work again with vigor.

Their acquaintanceship was broadening daily, both in the student body
and among the instructors. Most of the strangeness of this new college
world had worn off. Ruth and Helen and Jennie were full-fledged
"Ardmores" now, quite as devoted to the college as they had been to dear
old Briarwood.

After New Year's there was a raw and rainy spell that spoiled many of
the outdoor sports. Practice in the gymnasium increased, and Helen said
that Jennie Stone was bound to work herself down to a veritable shadow
if the bad weather continued long.

Ruth was in Rebecca's room one dingy, rainy aft