uietly, when one of the other Infants asked
her what she intended doing.

"But you'll have no friends here--not among the Juniors and Seniors, at
least--if you don't join some club!" Helen exclaimed.

"There are enough of us right here to found a society, I should say,"
laughed Ruth. "And we're all in the same boat, too."

"Yes!" agreed Sarah Fish, one of the Infants just arrived. "And what
do these older girls really care about us? Very little, I am sure,
except to strengthen their own clubs. I can see that," she continued,
being a very practical, sensible girl, and downright in speech and
manner. "Two of them came into our room at once--the girl they call
The Fox, and Miss Steele. One argued for the Forwards and the other
for the Up and Doings. I don't want either."

"I don't want to join either," broke in another girl, by name Phyllis
Short. "I think it would be nicer for us Infants, as they call us, to
keep together. And we're no younger than a good many of the Juniors!"

Ruth laughed. "We expect to take all _that_ good-naturedly. But I
don't like the idea of being driven into one society, or the other.
And I don't mean to be," she said, emphatically.

"Hear! hear!" cried Miss Fish.

"Well, I don't think it will be nice at all," said Helen, in some heat,
"to refuse to associate with the older girls here. I, for one, want to
get into the real school society----"

"But suppose we start a club of our own?" interrupted the practical
Sarah.

"Why, what could just a handful of new girls do in a society? It would
look silly," cried Helen.

"We won't keep the older girls out of it, if they want to join,"
laughed Sarah.

"And there has to be a beginning to everything," rejoined Phyllis Short.

"I don't believe those Upedes have many more members than are right in
this room to-night," said Ruth, quietly. "How many do we number
here--twenty-six?"

"Twenty-six, counting your room-mate," said Sarah.

"Well, you can count her room-mate out," declared Helen, sharply. "I
am not going to make myself a laughing-stock of the school by joining
any baby society."

"Well," said Phyllis Short, calmly. "It's always nicer, _I_ think, to
be a big frog in a little puddle than to be an unrecognised croaker in
a great, big pool."

Most of the girls laughed at that. And the suggestion of a separate
club for the Infants seemed to be well received. Ruth, however, was
very much troubled by Helen's attitude, an