ood-naturedly. "Have you joined them?"

"I intend to," declared Helen.

"Oh, Helen!" ejaculated Ruth.

"Yes, I am," said Miss Cameron. "And I am not going to join any baby
society," and so walked off in evident ill-humor.

Therefore the new club was not formed in the Number 2 Duet Room in the
West Dormitory. The Infants considered Ruth the prime mover in the
club, however, and that evening she was put in the chair to preside at
the informal session held in the quartette in the East Dormitory
occupied by Sarah Fish and three other Infants. She was made, too, a
member of the Committee on Organization which was elected to draw up a
Constitution and By-Laws, and was likewise one of three to wait on Mrs.
Tellingham and gain permission to use one of the small assembly rooms
for meetings.

And then came up the subject of a name for the society. It was not
intended that the club should be only for new scholars; for the new
scholars would in time be old scholars. And the company of girls who
had gathered in Sarah's room had no great or important motive in their
minds regarding the association. Its object was social and for
self-improvement simply.

"And so let's find a name that doesn't sound bigger than we are," said
Sarah. "The Forward Club sounds very solid and is quite literary, I
understand. What those Upedes stand for except raising particular Sam
Hill, as my grandmother would say, I don't know. What do _you_ say,
Ruth Fielding? It's your idea, and you ought to christen it."

"I don't know that I ought," Ruth returned. "I don't believe in one
person doing too much in any society."

"Give us a name. It won't hurt you if we vote it down," urged Sarah.

Now Ruth had been thinking of a certain name for the new society for
some days. It had been suggested by Tom Cameron's letter to Helen.
She was almost afraid to offer it, but she did. "Sweetbriars," she
said, blushing deeply.

"Dandy!" exclaimed Phyllis Short.

"Goody-good!" cried somebody else. "We're at Briarwood Hall, and why
_not_ Sweetbriars?"

"Good name for initials, too," declared the practical Sarah Fish.
"Make two words of it--Sweet and Briars. The 'S. B.'s '--not bad that,
eh? What say?"

It was unanimous. And so the Sweetbriars were christened.

CHAPTER XV

THE NIGHT OF THE HARPOCRATES

It was from Heavy Stone that Ruth first learned of an approaching
festival, although her own room-mate was the prime mover in the fete.