her freshman and sophomore years, but she had two more
winters of hard work ahead of her.

"I wonder," she thought at last, "if I can persuade Ruth to go to college
with me?" Then she must have fallen into a little doze.

Readers of the preceding volume, "The Automobile Girls at Newport," will
remember how the famous little club, known as "The Automobile Girls" came
to be organized, and they are familiar with the exciting and humorous
incidents of that journey in Ruth Stuart's motor car. There were many
adventures along the way, including mysterious encounters with a
gentlemanly young rascal, known to the police as "The Boy Raffles." The
same "Raffles" afterwards turned up at Newport, where the girls for
several weeks led a life of thrilling interest. "The Automobile Girls" it
was who caught "Raffles" red-handed, and who saved Bab's snobbish cousin,
Gladys Le Baron, from falling in love with him.

Six weeks before, on their return from the trip to Newport, "The
Automobile Girls" had disbanded. Mr. Stuart had given a dinner in their
honor, and at the close of the meal, he formally presented each of the
girls with a miniature model of Ruth's motor car, forming pins of red
enamel about the size of a dime.

"You must wear them forever," Ruth insisted, almost in tears. "Who knows
what luck they may bring to us? Remember this isn't a real breaking up of
'The Automobile Girls'; it is only an '_auf wiedersehen_.'"

The morning after Mr. Stuart's dinner, Grace left Kingsbridge to visit
her brother. Later, Mr. Stuart and his sister, Miss Stuart, bore Ruth
away to spend several weeks with some relatives in northern New York.

Ruth confided to Bab her grief at leaving them.

"I perfectly hate to go," she protested. "Just think, Bab, how soon I
shall have to go back to Chicago, and leave you here in New Jersey. Other
people are well enough in their places, but they are not my Barbara,
Mollie and Grace!"

It was after this confidence, that Bab made Ruth solemnly promise to pay
them a visit before she returned home.

Barbara opened her eyes suddenly. Had she been asleep and dreamed of
Ruth? She could almost hear her voice and laugh. Some one was coming
along the path. She could hear the dead leaves crunch under flying feet.

"Barbara, my Barbara!" Was it Mollie's voice calling her?

"Here I am," cried Bab faintly.

Through the trees running straight toward her, her eyes shining, her
cheeks aglow, was Ruth Stuart. Barbara