to tell you girls one thing," said Jennie Stone, solemnly. "If I
get through these examinations without having so low a mark that Miss
Brokaw sends me down into the primary grade, I promise to be good
for--for--well, for the rest of my life--at Briarwood!"

"Of course," Helen said. "Heavy would limit that vow to something easy."

"Perhaps she had the same grave doubt about being able to be good that the
little boy felt who was saying his prayers," Belle said. "He prayed: 'Dear
God, please make me a good boy--and if You don't at first succeed, try,
try again!'"

"But oh! some of the problems _are_ so hard," sighed Lluella.

"'The Mournful Sisters' will now give their famous sketch," laughed Ruth,
as announcer. "Come, now! altogether, girls!"

"'Knock, knock, knock! the girls are knocking----Bring the
hammers all this way!'"

"Never mind, Ruthie Fielding," complained Lluella. "We don't all of us
have the luck you do. All your English made up for you in that
scenario----"

"And who is _this_ made up, I'd be glad to have somebody tell me?"
interposed Jennie. "Oh, girls! tell me. Do you all see the same thing I
do?"

The crowd were strolling slowly down the Cedar Walk and the individual the
plump girl had spied had just come into view, walking toward them. He was
a tall, lean man, "as narrow as a happy thought," Jennie muttered, and
dressed in a peculiar manner.

Few visitors came to Briarwood save parents or friends of the girls. This
man did not even look like a pedler. At least, he carried no sample case,
and he was not walking from the direction of Lumberton.

His black suit was very dusty and his yellow shoes proved by the dust they
bore, too, that he had walked a long way.

"He wears a rolling collar and a flowing tie," muttered the irrepressible
Jennie. "Goodness! it almost makes me seasick to look at them. _What_ can
he be? A chaplain in the navy? An actor?"

"Actor is right," thought Ruth, as the man strutted up the walk.

The girls, who were attending Ruth and Ann and Amy Gregg a part of the way
to Mrs. Sadoc Smith's, gave the strange man plenty of room on the gravel
walk, but when he came near them he stopped and stared. And he stared at
Ruth.

"Pardon me, young lady," he said, in a full, sonorous tone. "Are you Miss
Fielding?"

The other girls drifted away and left Ruth to face the odd looking person.

"I am Ruth Fielding," Ruth said, much puzzled.

"Ah! you do not know me?" queried t