d 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, 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 breakfast hour. One
could get her letters when she came out of the dining-room, and on this
Saturday both Ruth and Helen had letters.

Miss Cramp, her old teacher, had written to Ruth very kindly. There
was a letter, too, from Aunt Alvirah, 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 had even declared the first night that it seemed as though there
had been a death in the house, with Ruth gone.

Helen had several letters, but the one that delighted her most was from
her twin brother.

"Although," she declared, in her usual sweet-tempered manner, "Tom's
written it to both of us. Listen here, Ruthie!"

The new cadet at Seven Oaks began his letter: "Dead [Transcriber's
note: Dear?] 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 intermingled
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.