Ruth Fielding At College; or, The Missing Examination Papers Read online

  CHAPTER V

  GETTING SETTLED

  "What does this mean, Heavy Jennie?" demanded Helen, pinching the verycomfortable arm of their fleshy friend.

  "What does that mean? Ouch, Helen! You know you're pinching somethingwhen you pinch _me_."

  "That's why I like to. No fun in trying to make an impression on bones,you know."

  "But it doesn't hurt bones so much," grumbled Jennie. "Remember what thefruit-stand man printed on his sign: 'If you musta pincha da fruit,pincha da cocoanut.' You can't so easy bruise bony folk, Helen."

  "You are dodging the issue, Heavy," declared Helen. "What does thismean?"

  "What does what mean?" demanded the fleshy girl, grinning widely again.

  "How came you here, of course?" Ruth put in, smiling upon their gay andusually thoughtless friend. "You said you did not think you could cometo Ardmore."

  "And you had conditions to make up if you did come," declared Helen.

  "I made 'em up," said Jennie, laughing.

  "And you're here ahead of us! Oh, Heavy, what sport!" cried Helen,undertaking to pinch the plump girl again.

  "Now, that's enough of that," said Jennie Stone. "I have feelings, aswell as other folk, Helen Cameron, despite my name. Have a heart!"

  "We are so glad to see you, Heavy," said Ruth. "You mustn't mind Helen'sexuberance."

  "And you never said a word about coming here when you wrote to us downSouth," Helen said, eyeing the fleshy girl curiously.

  "I didn't know what to do," confessed Jennie Stone. "I talked it overwith Aunt Kate. She agreed with me that, if I had finished school, I'dput on about five pounds a month, and that's all I _would_ do."

  "Goodness!" gasped Ruth and Helen, together.

  "Yes," said Heavy, nodding with emphasis. "That's what I did the firstmonth. Nothing to do, you see, but eat and sleep. If I'd had to go towork----"

  "But couldn't you find something to do?" demanded the energetic Ruth.

  "At Lighthouse Point? You know just how lazy a spot that is. And inwinter in the city it would be worse. So I determined to come here."

  "To keep from getting fatter!" cried Helen. "A new reason for coming tocollege."

  "Well," said Jennie, seriously, "I missed the gym work and I missedbeing uncomfortable."

  "Uncomfortable?" gasped Ruth and Helen.

  "Yes. You know, my father's a big man, and so are my older brothers big.Everything in our house is big and well stuffed and comfortable--chairsand beds and all. I never was comfortable in my bed at Briarwood."

  "Horrible!" cried Helen, while Ruth laughed heartily.

  "And _here_!" went on Heavy, lugubriously. "Wait till you see. Do youknow, all they give us here is _cots_ to sleep on? _Cots_, mind!Goodness! when I try to turn over I roll right out on the floor. Youought to see my sides already, how black-and-blue they are. I've beenhere two nights."

  "Why did you come so early?"

  "So as to try to get used to the food and the beds," groaned Heavy. "ButI never will. One teacher already has advised me about my diet. She saysvegetables are best for me. I ate a peck of string beans this noon forlunch--strings and all--and I expect you can pick basting threads out ofme almost anywhere!"

  "The teacher didn't advise you to eat _all_ the vegetables there were,did she?" asked Ruth, as they climbed the stairs.

  "She did not signify the amount. I just ate till I couldn't get downanother one. I sha'n't want to see another string bean for some time."

  Ruth and Helen easily found the rooms that had been drawn for them theJune previous. Of course, they were not the best rooms in the hall, forthe seniors had first choice, and then the juniors and sophomores hadtheir innings before the freshmen had a chance.

  But there was a door between Ruth's and Helen's rooms, as they hadhoped, and Jennie's room was just across the corridor.

  "We Sweetbriars will stick together, all right," said the fleshy girl."For defence and offence, if necessary."

  "You evidently expect to have a strenuous time here, Heavy," laughedRuth.

  "No telling," returned Jennie Stone, wagging her head. "I fancy thereare some 'cut-ups' among the sophs who will try to make our sweet younglives miserable. That Edie Phelps, for instance." She told them how thesophomores had met the new girl, Rebecca Frayne, and why.

  "Oh, dear!" said Ruth. "But that was all on _my_ account. We shall haveto be particularly nice to Miss Frayne. I hope she's on our corridor."

  "Do you suppose they will haze you, Ruth, just because you wrote thatscenario?" asked Helen, somewhat troubled.

  "There's no hazing at Ardmore," laughed Ruth. "They can't bother me.'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!'"she singsonged.

  "Just the same," Jennie said, morosely, "that Edie Phelps has a sharptongue."

  "We, too, have tongues," proclaimed Helen, who had no intention of beingput upon.

  "Now, girls, we want to take just what is handed us good-naturedly,"Ruth advised. "We are freshmen. Next year we will be sophomores, and cantake it out on the new girls then," and she laughed. "You know, we'veall been through it at Briarwood."

  "Goodness, yes!" agreed Helen. "It can't be as bad at college as it wasduring our first term at Briarwood Hall."

  "This Edie Phelps can't be as mean as The Fox 'useter was,' I suppose,"added Jennie Stone. "Besides, I fancy the sophs need us freshmen--ourgood will and help, I mean. The two lower classes here have to line upagainst the juniors and seniors."

  "Oh, dear, me," sighed Ruth. "I hoped we had come here to study, not tofight."

  "Pooh!" said the fleshy girl, "where do you go in this world that youdon't have to fight for your rights? You never get something fornothing."

  However, the possibility of trouble disturbed their minds but slightly.For the rest of the day the trio were very busy. At least, Ruth andHelen were busy arranging their rooms and unpacking, and Jennie Stonewas busy watching them.

  They went to the registrar's office that day, as this was required.Otherwise, they were in their rooms, after their baggage was delivered,occupied until almost dinner time. Heavy had been on the ground longenough, as she said, to know most of the ropes. They were supposed todress rather formally for dinner, although not more than two-thirds ofthe girls had arrived.

  There were in Dare Hall alone as many pupils as had attended Briarwoodaltogether. This was, indeed, a much larger school life on which theywere entering.

  So many of the girls they saw were older than themselves--and the trioof girls had been among the oldest girls at Briarwood during their lastsemester.

  "Why, we're only _kids_," sighed Helen. "There's a girl on thiscorridor--at the other end, thank goodness!--who looks old enough to bea teacher."

  "Miss Comstock," said Heavy. "I know. She's a senior. There are noteachers rooming at Dare. Only the housekeeper downstairs. But you'llfind a senior at the head of each table--and Miss Comstock looks awfullystern."

  Ruth and Helen found the rooms they were to occupy rather different fromthose they had chummed in at Briarwood. In the first place, these roomswere smaller, and the furniture was very plain. As Jennie had warnedthem, there were only cots to sleep upon--very nice cots, it was true,and there was a heavy coverlet for each, to turn the cots into divans inthe daytime.

  "I tell you what we can do," Ruth suggested at the start. "Let's makeone room the study, and both sleep in the other."

  "Bully idea," agreed Helen.

  They proceeded to do this, the result being a very plain sleeping room,indeed, but a well-furnished study. They had brought with them all thepennants and other keepsakes from Briarwood, and sofa pillows andcushions for the chairs, and innumerable pictures.

  Before night the study looked as homelike as the old room had at thepreparatory school. They had rugs, too, and one big lounging chair,purchased second-hand, that Heavy had, of course, occupied most of theafternoon.

  "Well! I hope you've finished at last," sighed the fleshy girl when thewarning bell for dinner rang. "I'm
about tired out."

  "You should be," agreed Ruth, commiseratingly. "You've helped so much."

  "Advising is harder than moving furniture and tacking up pictures,"proclaimed Jennie. "Brain-fag is the trouble with me and hunger."

  "We admit the final symptom," said Helen. "But if your brain is everfagged, Heavy, it will only be from thinking up new and touching menus.Come on, now, we're going to scramble into some fresh frocks. You go anddo the same, Miss Lazybones."