endships.

It was about ten o'clock when the girls began to pour in, and from then
on excitement and confusion reigned.

"It makes you feel kind of lonesome," said Laura, with a sigh.

"And the older girls look awfully dressed up and--and--stuck up," said
Vi, snuggling up to Billie as if for comfort. "Do you suppose they
really are, Billie--stuck up, I mean?"

"I'm sure I don't know," said Billie, feeling a little nervous herself.
"For all we know," she added, with a chuckle, "we may look stuck up
ourselves."

"Well, maybe we are," Laura giggled. "That's what Amanda is always
calling us, you know."

"Oh, look," whispered Vi suddenly. "There's Rose Belser with one of the
new girls. I wonder who she is."

The new girl in question was a nice looking, rather serious girl who
wore glasses and looked to the girls--so they said later--as if she
might really like to study. She was carrying a grip and had evidently
just arrived.

While the girls watched, she and Rose turned and started in their
direction. For a minute Billie could have sworn Rose did not mean to
stop. However, she did stop, and rather reluctantly introduced the
stranger to them.

"This is Caroline Brant," she said, adding as she turned to the strange
girl with a queer little smile: "These are some of the new girls who are
in our dorm, Caroline. Billie Bradley, Violet Farrington and Laura
Jordon."

Caroline Brant shook hands and smiled a grave smile that seemed "just
made to go with her glasses," Laura said afterward. When the girl had
passed on with Rose toward the stairway, the chums had a queer sense of
comfort--as though they had found at least one good friend at Three
Towers Hall.

Lunch came and went, and so absorbed were the girls in the fun and
excitement of meeting new girls and listening to stories of good times
had during the summer that dinner caught them before they knew it and
they found that the day was gone.

Everybody went to bed early that night, for Miss Walters had sent around
an order that all lights should be out by nine o'clock sharp. The next
day the real work of the term was to begin, and she wanted all her girls
bright and fresh for the start.

The next week would have been perfect for the girls, but for one thing.
They liked their classrooms, which occupied all the second and third
floors, they liked their studies, and they loved most of their
teachers--especially Miss Race, the mathematics teacher.

But they soon fo