of candy, or a pickle, yourself. The 'goodies' which we do not get
at the school table are 'gifts of the gods.' They are unexpected
pleasures. And when eaten after hours, with a blanket for a tablecloth
and candles for lights, they become 'forbidden fruit,' which is known to
be the sweetest of all!"

"Listen to Jen going into rhapsodies over eatables!" sniffed The Fox.
"Give her her way, and every composition she handed in to Miss Gould
would be a menu."

"Bah!" scoffed Heavy. "You eat your share when you get a chance, I
notice."

"When Heavy is free from the scholastic yoke, and bosses her father's
house for good," said Helen, "every dinner will make old Luculus turn in
his grave and groan with envy----"

"Or with indigestion," snapped Mercy. "The girl will positively _burst_
some day!"

"I don't care," mourned Heavy, shaking her head. "It isn't what I get to
eat at Briarwood that makes me fat--that's sure."

"No," chuckled Ruth. "You grow plump on the remembrance of what you have
already eaten, dear. Who was it ate three plates of floating island last
night for supper?"

"Well!" cried Heavy, with wide open eyes, "you wouldn't want me to leave
them and let them go to waste, would you? Both you and Helen left your
shares, and the cook would have been hurt, if the pudding had come back
untouched."

"Kind-hearted girl!" said The Fox, with a sniff.

After-hour parties were frowned upon by Mrs. Tellingham and the
teachers, of course; not for the mild breaking of the school rules
entailed, but because the girls' stomachs were apt to suffer.

In the West Dormitory, too, Miss Picolet was known to be very sharp-eyed
and sharp-eared for such occasions. It took some wit to circumvent Miss
Picolet; perhaps that is why the girls on Ruth's corridor so delighted
in holding orgies unbeknown to the little French teacher.

Miss Scrimp, the matron, was a heavy sleeper. The girls did not worry
about her.

Nettie Parsons' room was at the very end of the cross-corridor, and
farthest from the stairway. The stairway went up through the middle of
the big brick dormitory building, and perhaps _that_ was not the best
arrangement in case of fire; but there were plenty of fire escapes on
the outside.

The question which at once arose, when the sixteen girls Nettie chose
had been invited to the feast, was who should stand guard?

This was always a matter for discussion--sometimes for heart burnings,
too. It was no pleasant task