arble harp twanged _then_."

"And when Heavy failed to oversleep one morning last half the marble
harp must have twanged _that_ time," declared Mary Cox.

A gentle snore answered from the window seat, where Jennie Stone had
actually gone to sleep.

"Wasted humor," said Mary, laughing. "Heavy is in the Land of Nod.
It's been a hard day for her. At supper she had to eat her own and
Miss Fielding's share of the cup-custards."

Ruth and Helen had already risen to go.

"You'll remember, Infants," said Lluella, "when you hear the twang of
the ghostly harp, that something momentous is bound to happen at
Briarwood Hall."

"But more important still," warned Mary, "be sure that your lights are
out within twenty minutes after retiring bell sounds. Otherwise you
will have that cat, Picolet, poking into your room to learn what is the
matter."

CHAPTER IX

THE GHOSTLY TRIBUNAL

"Aren't they just fine? Isn't it just fun?"

These were the enthusiastic questions that Helen Cameron hurled at Ruth
when they returned to their own room. The girl from the Red Mill was
glad that their school life had opened so pleasantly; but she was by no
means blinded--as Helen seemed to be--to the faults of their neighbors
in the room they had just left.

"They have been very friendly and we have no complaint to make, that is
sure, Helen," she said.

"How exasperating you are at times!" exclaimed her chum. "Just the
same, I am glad we didn't go with those poky Fussy Curls to _their_
meeting."

Ruth made no reply to this. The bell in the tower had tolled nine, and
they knew that there were twenty minutes only in which to get ready for
retiring. Those girls who had lights after twenty minutes past nine
were likely to be questioned, and any who burned a lamp after half
after nine would find a demerit against their names in the morning.

The chums hurried, then, to get ready for sleep. "Don't you hope we'll
dream something very nice?" whispered Helen as she plunged into bed
first.

"I hope we will," returned Ruth, waiting to see her comfortable before
she turned out the light and bent over her chum to kiss her.
"Good-night, Helen. I hope we'll be just as good friends here, dear,
as we have been since we met."

"Of course we will, Ruthie!" declared Helen, quite as warmly.

"We will let nobody, or nothing, come between us?" said Ruth, a little
wistfully in the dark.

"Of course not!" declared Helen, with added emphasis.