reshman class voted for
president. Each girl sealed her vote in an envelope and the numbered
envelopes were passed into the Madame's office.

At supper that night, at the time when the school captains marched
around the room "to inspect the girls' hair-ribbons," as Jennie said,
Corinne brought a high, old-fashioned, much dented beaver hat in her
hand.

_That_ didn't tell the eager freshmen anything, for both the principal
candidates for president of the class had been from the girls rooming on
the West Side, and therefore were under Corinne's jurisdiction.

Grace Montgomery's friends began to cheer for her. The friends of the
other candidates--and there were several--kept still.

"Wait!" advised Jennie, in a stage whisper. "We can afford to yell all
the louder a little later--maybe."

But Corinne tantalized the smaller girls by walking all around the
tables the first time without putting the tall hat on any girl's head.
Once or twice she hesitated behind a girl's chair; but that only made
the others laugh, for they knew that _those_ particular girls had had no
chance of election anyway.

"Come on!" shouted Cora. "You might as well bring it over here where it
belongs," and she put an arm over the blushing Grace's shoulders.

But Grace did her blushing for nothing. Corinne crossed the room
swiftly, came straight to the corner where Jennie sat, and----

Drew the hat firmly down over Nancy Nelson's ears!

Nancy could scarcely believe it. She--Miss Nobody from Nowhere--the
most popular girl in her class? It was like a dream--only, as she
admitted to Jennie, laughing, it was a dreadfully noisy dream!

Corinne could scarcely command silence long enough to read the result of
the balloting. Nancy had received nearly one-half of the freshman vote.
Grace Montgomery had mustered only eight ballots, while the remainder
were scattered among half a dozen other candidates.

The disappointed girls, all but Grace, cheered Nancy, too--and hugged
her, and made her march ahead of the class, all around the big dining
room, and then into the hall, which was given up to the use of the
freshman class for that particular evening.

There the complete organization of the class was arranged, and Nancy
presided with pretty dignity, and even Grace Montgomery and her friends
had to acknowledge the leadership of the girl whom they had so
ill-treated for the past weeks.

Many of the girls went home the next day for the ten days' vacation.