dense one at this very table," hissed Heavy, a hand beside
her mouth so that the sound of her whisper would not travel to the head
of the table where Miss Picolet and the sullen looking new girl sat.

"What do you mean?" asked Belle, curiously.

"_Whom_ do you mean?" added Helen.

"That infant yonder," hissed the fleshy girl.

"What about her?" Ruth asked. "I'm rather sorry for that little Gregg. She
doesn't look happy."

"Say!" chuckled Heavy. "She tried for an hour yesterday to coax
electricity into the bulb over her table, and then went to Miss Scrimp and
asked for a candle. She got the candle, and burned it until one of the
other girls looked in (you know she's not 'chummed' with anybody yet) and
showed her where the push-button was in the wall. And at that," finished
Heavy, grinning broadly, "I'm not sure that she understood how the 'juice'
was turned on. She must have come from the backwoods."

"Hush!" begged Ruth. "Don't let her think we're laughing at her."

"Miss Scrimp's very strict about candles and oil lamps," said Nettie. "We
use them a lot in the South."

"That old house of yours in 'So'th Ca'lina' must be a funny old place,
Nettie," said Heavy.

"It isn't ours," Nettie said. "The cotton plantation belongs to Aunt
Rachel. She was born on it--the Merredith Place. We usually go there for
the early summer, and then either come No'th, or into the mountains of
Virginia until cool weather. My own dear old Louisiana home isn't
considered healthy for us during the extreme hot weather. It is too damp
and marshy."

"'Way down Souf in de land ob cotton--
Cinnamon seed an' sandy bottom!'"

hummed Heavy. "Oh! I wish I was in Dixie--right now."

"Wait till my Aunt Rachel comes up here," Nettie promised. "I'm going to
beg an invitation for you girls to visit Merredith."

"But it will be hot weather, then," said Heavy; "and I don't want to miss
Light-house Point."

"And I'm just about crazy to get back to Silver Ranch," said Ann Hicks.

"Me for Cliff Island," cried Belle Tingley. "No land of cotton for mine,
this summer."

"When is your aunt coming, Nettie?" asked Ruth.

"To see you graduate, my dear," replied the Southern girl, smiling. "And
wait till she meets you, Ruthie Fielding! She'll near about love you to
death!"

"Oh, everybody loves Ruth. Why shouldn't they?" cried Belle.

"But everybody doesn't give her a fortune, as Nettie's Aunt Rachel did,"
laughed Heavy.

Ruth wished they