od are the Upedes and the Fussy
Curls," said their new friend.

"What ridiculous names!" cried Helen. "I suppose they _mean_
something, though?"

"That's just our way of speaking of them. The Upedes are the Up and
Doing Club. The Fussy Curls are the F. C.'s."

"The F. C.'s?" questioned Ruth. "What do the letters really stand for?"

"Forward Club, I believe. I don't know much about the Fussy Curls,"
Mary said, with the same tone and air that she used in addressing the
little French teacher.

"You're a Upede!" cried Helen, quickly.

"Yes," said Mary Cox, nodding, and seemed to have finished with that
subject. But Helen was interested; she had begun to like this Cox
girl, and kept to the subject.

"What are the Upedes and the F. C.'s rivals about?"

"Both clubs are anxious to get members," Mary Cox said. "Both are
putting out considerable effort to gain new members--especially among
these who enter Briarwood at the beginning of the year."

"What are the objects of the rival clubs?" put in Ruth, quietly.

"I couldn't tell you much about the Fussy Curls," said Mary,
carelessly. "Not being one of them I couldn't be expected to take much
interest in their objects. But _our_ name tells our object at once.
'Up and Doing'! No slow-coaches about the Upedes. We're all alive and
wide awake."

"I hope we will get in with a lively set of girls," said Helen, with a
sigh.

"It will be your own fault if you don't," said Mary Cox.

Oddly enough, she did not show any desire to urge the newcomers to join
the Upedes. Helen was quite piqued by this. But before the discussion
could be carried farther, Mary put her head out of the window and
called to the driver.

"Stop at the Cedar Walk, Dolliver. We want to get out there. Here's
your ten cents."

Meanwhile the little foreign lady had scarcely moved. She had turned
her face toward the open window all the time, and being veiled, the
girls could not see whether she was asleep, or awake. She made no move
to get out at this point, nor did she seem to notice the girls when
Mary flung open the door on the other side of the coach, and Ruth and
Helen picked up their bags to follow her.

The chums saw that the stage had halted where a shady, winding path
seemed to lead up a slight rise through a plantation of cedars. But
the spot was not lonely. Several girls were waiting here for the
coach, and they greeted Mary Cox when she jumped down, vociferously.

"Well,