re being watched all
the time. I feel as if I'd committed a murder, and keep looking over my
shoulder like--like Macbeth."

"It's _awful_," Bonnie shuddered. "I'm thrilled to the bone to think of
the peril a member of my family is braving for the sake of her class."

"You needn't laugh," said Mildred. "It's a serious matter. If those
freshmen come to our tree ceremonies, we'll never hear the last of it.
But they are not going to come," she added with a meaning smile. "They
have another engagement. We chose to-night because there's a lecture
before the Archaeological Society by some alumna person who's been
digging up remains in Rome. The freshmen have been told to go and hear
her on account of their Latin. Imagine their feelings when they are
cooped up in the auditorium, trying to look intelligent about the Roman
Forum, and listening to our yells outside!"

Priscilla and Bonnie smiled appreciatively. It was not so long, after
all, since they themselves were sophomores, and they recalled their own
tree ceremonies, when the freshmen had _not_ been cooped up.

"But the trouble is," pursued Mildred, "that it's more important for me
to get there than any one else, because I have to dig the hole,--Peters
is really going to dig it, you know; I just take out the first
shovelful,--but I can't get there on account of that beastly scout. As
soon as she saw me acting suspicious, she'd run and warn the class."

"I see," said Bonnie; "but what have Priscilla and I to do with it?"

"Well," said Mildred, tentatively, "you're both pretty big, you know,
and you're our sister class, and you ought to help us."

"Certainly," acquiesced Bonnie; "but in just what way?"

"Well, my idea was this. If you would just stroll down by the lake after
chapel, and loiter sort of inconspicuously among the trees, you know, I
would come that way a little later, and then, when the detective person
came along after me, you could just nab her and--"

"Chuck her in the lake?" asked Bonnie.

"No, of course not. Don't use any force. Just politely detain her till
you hear us yelling--take her for a walk. She'd feel honored."

Bonnie laughed. The program struck her as entertaining. "I don't see
anything very immoral in delaying a freshman who is going where she has
no business to go. What do you say, Pris?"

"It's not exactly a Sunday-school excursion," acknowledged Priscilla,
"but I don't see why it isn't as legitimate for us to play detective as
for