d and then said with
quivering lips, "I wish I had taken your advice, Grace."

"About what?" asked Grace. Then, the same idea occurring to them
simultaneously, Miriam and Grace exchanged dismayed glances. Elfreda had
come to grief through reporting the two mischievous sophomores to the
registrar.

"About telling the registrar," faltered Elfreda, unrolling her
handkerchief from the ball into which she had rolled it and wiping her
eyes.

"I'm so sorry," Grace said with quick sympathy.

"You're not half so sorry as I am," was the tearful retort. "I'll write
to Pa and Ma that I want to go home next week. They'll make a fuss, but
they'll send for me."

"Are your father and mother very anxious that you should stay here?"
asked Miriam.

"A good deal more anxious than I am," responded Elfreda. "Ma picked out
Overton for me long before I left high school. She thinks it the only
college going and so does Pa."

"Then, of course, they will be disappointed if you go home without even
trying to like college."

"I can't help that," whined Elfreda. "I can't stay here and have the
whole college down on me, and that's what will happen. You girls don't
know how serious it is."

"I think you had better begin at the beginning and tell us everything,"
suggested Miriam, a trifle impatiently.

"It was the night of the freshman hop that they began to be so mean,"
burst forth Elfreda. "I went to the dance with Virginia Gaines, that
sophomore who sits next to me at the table."

"Who do you mean by 'they'?" asked Grace.

"Alberta Wicks, the tall red-haired girl, and Mary Hampton, the short
dark one. They took me over to the court house," was the prompt answer.
"The registrar reported them to the dean. She sent for them the very day
of the dance and gave them an awful talking to and they were perfectly
furious with me for telling. They found out that Virginia had invited me
to the dance, and told her the whole story. She was horrid to me, and
hardly spoke to me all the way to the gymnasium or coming home. They
must have told every girl I know, for not one of them would come near
me. I had to sit around all evening, for I didn't know half a dozen
girls, and you three were too busy to look at me. You can imagine I had
a slow old time, and I was glad to get home. Maybe you noticed I wasn't
very talkative that night after we got back to the house, Miriam?"

Miriam nodded.

"After that, Virginia and I didn't speak. I didn't care much