Breaking Up," as the boys called it,
were one day later than the same exercises at Briarwood. So the girls
did not start for home until the morning of the latter day.

Old Dolliver, the stage driver, brought his lumbering stage to the
end of the Cedar Walk at nine o'clock, to which point Tony Foyle, the
man-of-all-work, had wheeled the girls' baggage. Ruth, and Helen, and
Mercy Curtis had bidden their room good-bye and then made the round of
the teachers before this hour. They gathered here to await the stage with
Jennie Stone, Madge and Mary Cox. The latter had agreed to be one of the
party at Lighthouse Point and was going home with Heavy to remain during
the ensuing week, before the seashore party should be made up.

The seven girls comfortably filled the stage, with their hand luggage,
while the trunks and suitcases in the boot and roped upon the roof made
the Ark seem top-heavy. There was a crowd of belated pupils, and those
who lived in the neighborhood, to see them off, and the coach finally
rolled away to the famous tune of "Uncle Noah, He Built an Ark,"
wherein Madge Steele put her head out of the window and "lined out"
a new verse to the assembled "well-wishers":

"And they didn't know where they were at,
One wide river to cross!
Till the Sweetbriars showed 'em that!
One wide river to cross!
One wide river!
One wide river of Jordan--
One wide river!
One wide river to cross!"

For although Madge Steele was now president of the Forward Club, a
much older school fraternity than the Sweetbriars, she was, like Mrs.
Tellingham, and Miss Picolet, the French teacher, and others of the
faculty, an honorary member of the society started by Ruth Fielding. The
Sweetbriars, less than one school year old, was fast becoming the most
popular organization at Briarwood Hall.

Mary Cox did not join in the singing, nor did she have a word to say
to Ruth during the ride to the Seven Oaks station. Tom and Bob, with
lively, inquisitive, harum-scarum Isadore Phelps--"Busy Izzy," as his
mates called him--were at the station to meet the party from Briarwood
Hall. Tom was a dark-skinned, handsome lad, while Bob was big, and
flaxen-haired, and bashful. Madge, his sister, called him "Sonny" and
made believe he was at the pinafore stage of growth instead of being
almost six feet tall and big in proportion.

"Here's the dear little fellow!" she cried, jumping lightly out to
be hu