"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 Tom was in the army; doesn't it?" cried
Helen.

"It will be nice to have him over," said Ruth, agreeing. "But I
suppose we'll have to meet him in the office? Or can we walk out with
our 'brother'?" and she laughed.

"We'll go to Triton Lake; Tom will take us," said Helen, decidedly.

"I guess Mrs. Tellingham will have something to say about that, my
dear."

Helen seemed to have forgotten the little difficulty that had troubled
her chum and herself the night before, and Ruth said nothing further
about the Infants forming a society of their own. At least, she said
nothing about it to Helen. But Sarah Fish and Phyllis Short, and some
of the other Infants, seemed determined to keep the idea alive, and
they all considered Ruth Fielding a prime mover in the conspiracy. It
was noised abroad that neither the F. C.'s nor the Upedes were getting
many new names enrolled for membership.

Saturday morning the remainder of the expected new girls arrived at
Briarwood, and with then came the last of the older scholars, too.
There was an assembly called for two o'clock which Mrs. Tellingham
addressed. She welcomed the new-comers, greeted the returning pupils,
and briefly sketched the plans for the school year then beginning. She
was a quick, briskly-speaking 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 outings 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."