said bluntly.
"We all talk at once. Goodness! how does _one_ person ever get a sheet
smooth on a bed?"

Helen came to help her, and just then Mrs. Tellingham herself appeared in
the hall.

"I am glad to announce, girls," she said, with some cheerfulness, "that
the fire is under control."

"Oh, goody!" cried Heavy. "Can we go over there to sleep to-night?"

"No. Nor for many other nights, if at all," the preceptress said firmly.
"The West Dormitory is badly damaged. Of course, no girl need expect to
find much that belongs to her intact. I am sorry. What I can replace, I
will. We must be cheerful and thankful that no life was lost."

"What did I tell you?" muttered the fleshy girl. "Those firemen from
Lumberton always save the cellar."

"Now," said Mrs. Tellingham, "the girls belonging in the East Dormitory
will form and march to their rooms. It is late enough. We must all get
quiet for the night. The ruins will wait until morning to be looked at, so
I must request you to go directly to bed."

Somebody started singing--and of course it was their favorite, "One Wide
River," that they sang, beginning with the very first verse. The words of
the last stanza floated back to the West Dormitory girls as the others
marched across the campus:

"'Sweetbriars enter, ten by ten----
That River of Knowledge to cross!
They never know what happens then,
With one wide river to cross!
One wide river!
One wide River of Knowledge!
One wide river!
One wide river to cross.'"

"But just the same it's no singing matter for us," grumbled Belle. "Turned
out of our beds to sleep this way! And all we've lost!" She began to weep.
It was difficult for even Heavy to coax up a smile or to bring forth a new
joke.

Ruth and her chums secured a corner of the great room, and they insisted
that Mercy Curtis have the single cot that had been secured.

"I don't mind it much," Ann Hicks declared. "I've camped out so many times
on the plains without half the comforts of this camp. Oh! I could tell you
a lot about camping out that you Easterners have no idea of."

"Postpone it till to-morrow, please, Miss Hicks," said Miss Brokaw, dryly.
"It is time for you all to undress."

After they were between the sheets Helen crept over to Ruth and hid her
face upon her chum's shoulder, where she cried a few tears.

"All my pretty frocks that Mrs. Murchiston allowed me to pick out! And my