ost imperturbably.

"But I don't get the idea of the action," objected the serious-faced
freshman, and looked amazed that everybody should laugh so uproariously.

"That's so funny that we'll let you off," said Madeline, when the mirth
had subsided. "I foresee that you've invented a very useful phrase."

And sure enough Carline's reply was speedily incorporated into Harding's
special vocabulary, and its author found herself unwittingly famous.

"Now," said Madeline cheerfully, "you may all chase smiles around the
room for a while, and when I say 'wipe,' you are to wipe them off on a
crack in the floor. Then we'll have a speech from one of you and you
will be dismissed."

Most of the freshmen entered gaily into the "action" of chasing smiles,
and caught a great many on their own and each other's faces. That frolic
ended, Madeline called upon a quiet little girl who had hardly been seen
to open her mouth since she reached Harding, to make a speech. To every
one's surprise she rose demurely, without a word of objection or the
least appearance of embarrassment, and delivered an original monologue
supposed to be spoken by a freshman newly arrived and airing her
impressions of the college. It hit everybody with its absurd humor,
which no one enjoyed better, apparently, than the quiet little freshman
herself.

"Encore! Encore! Give us another!" shouted the freshmen when she had
finished; but their quiet little classmate only shook her head, and
assuming once more the mincing, confidential tone she had been using in
the monologue, remarked: "Do you know, there are some girls in our class
that will forget their heads before long. Why, when they're being hazed,
they forget it and think they're at a real party."

Everybody laughed again, and the tall ghost made the little freshman
blush violently by saying, "You'll get a part in the house play, my
child, and if you can write that monologue down I'll send an 'Argus'
editor around after it."

The little freshman, whose name was Ruth Howard, pinched herself softly,
when no one was looking, to make sure that she was awake. Like Mother
Hubbard she felt a little doubtful of her identity, as she noticed the
admiring glances cast upon her by even the haughtiest of the freshmen.
She had been rather lonely during these first weeks, and it was very
pleasant now to find that the things she could do were going to make a
place for her in this big, busy college world.

"A hazing party i