day before to
look to their soles and their skirt braids. The next row kneeled and
peered over the shoulders of the first. The third row stood up and saw
what it could. The others stood up and saw nothing, unless they were
very tall or had been lucky enough to secure a place on a stray chair or
a radiator. The balcony railings and posts were draped with bunting, and
in every hand waved banners and streamers, purple and yellow on one
side, red and green on the other.

In the middle of each side were grouped the best singers of the classes,
ready to lead the chorus in the songs which had been written for the
occasion to the music of popular tunes. These were supposed to take the
place of "yells," and cheers, both proscribed as verging upon the
unwomanly. By rule the opposing factions sang in turn, but occasionally,
quite by accident, both started at once, with deafening discords that
rocked the gallery, and caused the musical head of the German Department
to stop her ears in agony.

Most of the girls had been standing in line for an hour waiting for the
gymnasium doors to open, but a few, like Betty and Helen, had had
reserved seat tickets given them by some one on the teams. These
admitted their fortunate holders by a back door ahead of the crowd. All
the faculty seats were reserved, of course, and the occupants of them
were still coming in. As each appeared, he or she was met by a group of
ushers and escorted ceremoniously across the floor, amid vigorous
hand-clapping from the side whose colors were in evidence, and the
singing of a verse of "Balm of Gilead" adapted to the occasion. Most of
these had been written beforehand and were now hastily "passed along"
from a paper in the hands of the leader. The rhymes were execrable, but
that did not matter since almost nobody could understand them; and the
main point was to come out strong on the chorus.

"Oh, there's Miss Ferris!" cried Betty, "and she's wearing my
ro--goodness, she's half covered with roses. Helen, see that lovely
green dragon pennant!"

"Here's to our Miss Ferris, drink her down!"

sang the freshman chorus.

"Here's to our Miss Ferris, drink her down!
Here's to our Miss Ferris, may she never, never perish!
Drink her down, drink her down, drink her down, down, down!"

Back by the door there was a sudden commotion, and the sophomore faction
broke out into tumultuous applause as a tall and stately gentleman
appeared carrying a "shower