k of the new joys they offered,
uncertain which to choose. A representative of the mixed society, who
was putting its claims before me, unconsciously helped me to make up my
mind.

"Women," he pompously assured me, "need to be associated with men,
because they don't know how to manage meetings."

On the instant the needle of decision swung around to the women's
society and remained there, fixed.

"If they don't," I told the pompous young man, "it's high time they
learned. I shall join the women, and we'll master the art."

I did join the women's society, and I had not been a member very long
before I discovered that when there was an advantage of any kind to be
secured the men invariably got it. While I was brooding somberly upon
this wrong an opportunity came to make a formal and effective protest
against the men's high-handed methods. The Quinquennial reunion of all
the societies was about to be held, and the special feature of this
festivity was always an oration. The simple method of selecting the
orator which had formerly prevailed had been for the young men to decide
upon the speaker and then announce his name to the women, who humbly
confirmed it. On this occasion, however, when the name came in to us,
I sent a message to our brother society to the effect that we, too,
intended to make a nomination and to send in a name.

At such unprecedented behavior the entire student body arose in
excitement, which, among the girls, was combined with equal parts of
exhilaration and awe. The men refused to consider our nominee, and as a
friendly compromise we suggested that we have a joint meeting of all the
societies and elect the speaker at this gathering; but this plan also
the men at first refused, giving in only after weeks of argument, during
which no one had time for the calmer pleasures of study. When the joint
meeting was finally held, nothing was accomplished; we girls had one
more member than the boys had, and we promptly re-elected our candidate,
who was as promptly declined by the boys. Two of our girls were engaged
to two of the boys, and it was secretly planned by our brother society
that during a second joint meeting these two men should take the girls
out for a drive and then slip back to vote, leaving the girls at some
point sufficiently remote from college. We discovered the plot, however,
in time to thwart it, and at last, when nothing but the unprecedented
tie-up had been discussed for months, the boy