t I prize above everything I own. Oh,
well," she gave a little shrug of her shoulders as if to end the matter.
"I'll get over it. I've had to get over worse things. But," she smiled
and patted Billie's shoulder fondly, "I didn't mean to burden your young
shoulders with my troubles. Just run along and forget all about it."

Billie did run along, but she most certainly did not "forget all about
it."

"Funny thing to get so upset about," she said to herself, as she slowly
climbed the steps to her dormitory. "A picture album! I don't believe I'd
ever get my nose and eyes all red over one. Just the same, I'd like to
find it and give it back to her. Good Miss Arbuckle! After the Dill
Pickles, she seems like an angel."

She was still smiling over the thought of what had happened to the Dill
Pickles when she opened the door of the dormitory and came upon her
chums.

Laura and Vi and a dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl were sitting on one of
the beds in one corner of the dormitory, alternately talking and gazing
dreamily out of the window to Lake Molata, where it gleamed and shimmered
in the morning sunlight at the end of a sloping lawn.

The dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl was Rose Belser. Rose Belser, being
jealous of Billie's immense popularity at Three Towers Hall the term
before, had done her best to get the new girl into trouble, only to be
won over to Billie's side in the end. Now she was as firm a friend of
Billie's as any girl in Three Towers Hall.

"Well!" was Laura's greeting as Billie sauntered toward them. "Methinks
'tis time you arrived, sweet damsel. Goodness!" she added, dropping her
lazy tone and sitting up with a bounce, "I don't see why you have to go
and spoil the whole morning with your beastly old studying. Think of the
fun we could have had."

"Well, but think of the fun we're going to have this afternoon," Billie
flung back airily, stopping before the mirror to tuck some wisps of hair
into place, while the girls, even Rose, who was as pretty as a picture
herself, watched her admiringly. "It's almost lunch time."

"You don't have to tell us that," said Vi in an aggrieved tone. "Haven't
we been waiting for you all morning?"

"Oh, come on," said Billie, as the lunch gong sounded invitingly through
the hall. "Maybe when you've had something to eat you'll feel better.
Feed the beast----"

"Say, she's calling us names again," cried Laura, making a dive for
Billie. But Billie was already flying down the