one year."

"But you deserve to boss it all," said her chum, warmly. "And I for
one wouldn't mind if you did."

Helen was a very impulsive, enthusiastic girl. When she and Ruth Fielding
had come to Briarwood Hall she had immediately taken up with a lively
and thoughtless set of girls who had banded themselves into the Up and
Doing Club, and whose leader was Mary Cox, called "The Fox," because
of her shrewdness. Ruth had not cared for this particular society and,
in time, she and most of the other new pupils formed the Sweetbriar
Club. Helen Cameron, loyal to her first friends at the school, had not
fallen away from Mary Cox and joined the Sweetbriars until this very
evening, which was, as we have seen, the evening before the final day
of the school year.

Ruth Fielding took the head of the table when the girls sat down to
supper and the other officers of the club sat beside her. Helen was
therefore separated from her, and when the party broke up late in
the evening (the curfew bell at nine o'clock was abolished for this
one night) the chums started for their room in the West Dormitory at
different times. Ruth went with Mercy Curtis, who was lame; outside
the dining hall Helen chanced to meet Mary Cox, who had been calling
on some party in the East Dormitory building.

"Hello, Cameron!" exclaimed The Fox. "So you've finally been
roped in by the 'Soft Babies' have you? I thought that chum of
yours--Fielding--would manage to get you hobbled and tied before
vacation."

"You can't say I wasn't loyal to the Upedes as long as there was any
society to be loyal to," said Helen, quickly, and with a flush.

"Oh, well; you'll be going down to Heavy's seashore cottage with them
now, I suppose?" said The Fox, still watching Helen curiously.

"Why, of course! I intended to before," returned the younger girl. "We
all agreed about that last winter when we were at Snow Camp."

"Oh, you did, eh?" laughed the other. "Well, if you hadn't joined
the Soft Babies you wouldn't have been 'axed,' when it came time to
go. This is going to be an S. B. frolic. Your nice little Ruth Fielding
says she won't go if Heavy invites any but her precious Sweetbriars to
be of the party."

"I don't believe it, Mary Cox!" cried Helen. "I mean, that _you_ must
be misinformed. Somebody has maligned Ruth."

"Humph! Maybe, but it doesn't look like it. Who is going to Lighthouse
Point?" demanded The Fox, carelessly. "Madge Steele, for although she
is pr