y's hand and then turning away to speak to Professor Green, who had
hurried up.

"Is everybody safe?" he asked breathlessly.

"Yes, yes, Professor, everybody's safe and everything has been done that
could be done. I am afraid some of the girls have lost a good many
things, but you will be glad to know that three of them had only this
morning sent their trunks to rooms in the village--Miss Brown and her
two friends."

"Miss Brown moving to the village?"

Molly looked up and caught the Professor's glance turned searchingly on
her.

"I am going to live at O'Reilly's," she said.

"And you are safe and your things are safe?" he asked her, frowning so
sternly that she felt she must have displeased him somehow. "I'm glad,
very glad," he added, turning abruptly away. "Is there nothing I can do,
Miss Walker?"

For answer she pointed to the volunteers from the village who had leaped
away from the house. The crowd swerved back. There was a crackling
sound, a crash; a great wave of heat swept across the campus and the
front wall of Queen's fell in. They had one fleeting view of the
familiar rooms, and then a cloud of ashes and smoke choked the picture.
It was not long before only the rear wall of old brown Queen's was left
standing.

"Dust to dust and ashes to ashes," said Edith Williams, solemnly.

It did seem very much like a funeral to the crowd of Queen's girls who
stood in a shivering, loyal row to the end.

"So much for Queen's," said Margaret Wakefield. "She's dead and now
what's to be done?"

It was decided that the girls should go to O'Reilly's for the time
being, all other available quarters being about filled. If they
preferred the post-office they could stay there; but they preferred
O'Reilly's.

And thither, also, went Mrs. Markham and the Murphys and the maids from
Queen's. In a few short hours, it would seem, Queen's had been changed
to O'Reilly's, or O'Reilly's to Queen's. It turned out, too, that Mrs.
O'Reilly was nearly related to Mr. Murphy, and all things, therefore,
worked together in harmony.

O'Reilly's seemed a place of warmth and comfort to the half-frozen girls
who clustered around the big fire in Judy's room at five o'clock that
afternoon, scalding their tongues with hot tea and coffee while they
discussed their plans for the future.

"Mrs. Markham told _me_," announced Margaret, a recognized authority on
all subjects, political, domestic, financial and literary, "that it
would probabl