THE UPEDES
It was all so new and strange to Helen and Ruth that neither had
considered the possibility of homesickness. Indeed, how could they be
homesick? There was too much going on at Briarwood Hall for the
newcomers to think much of themselves.
The plump girl next to Ruth seemed of a friendly disposition, for when
she had satisfied the first cravings of her appetite--oh, long before
she came to the cup-custard!--she said:
"Which are you--Cameron, or Fielding? I'm Stone--Jennie Stone."
Ruth told her their names and asked in return:
"Are you on our corridor, too? I know you are rooming in the same
building as Helen and I."
"Yes," said the fat girl. "I'm in a quartette with Mary Cox, Lluella
Fairfax and Belle Tingley. Oh, you'll see plenty of us," said Heavy.
"And I say! you're going to the Upede meeting to-night; aren't you?"
"Why--yes. Do you all belong?"
"Our quartette? Sure," said the plump girl in her off-hand way.
"We'll show you some fun. And I say!"
"Well?" asked Ruth.
"How often are they going to send you boxes from home?"
"Boxes from home?" repeated the girl from the Red Mill.
"Yes. You know, you can have 'em sent often if you keep up with your
classes and don't get too many demerits in deportment. I missed two
boxes last half because of black marks. And in French and deportment,
too. _That_ was Picolet's doing--mean thing!"
"I had no idea that one would be allowed to receive goodies," said
Ruth, who of course expected nothing of the kind from home, but did not
wish to say so.
"Well, you want to write your folks that you can receive 'em right
away. A girl who gets things from home can be very popular if she
wants to be. Ah! here's the custard."
Ruth had difficulty in keeping from laughing outright. She saw plainly
that the nearest way to Miss Jennie Stone's heart lay through her
stomach.
Meanwhile Helen had become acquainted with the girl on the other side
who had called them "Infants." But she was a good-natured girl, too,
and now Helen introduced her to her chum as Miss Polk. She was a
dark-haired, plain-faced girl and wore eye-glasses. She was a Junior
and already Helen had found she belonged to the F. C.'s.
"I guess most of the stiff and starched ones belong to that Forward
Club," whispered Helen to her chum. "But the jolly ones are Upedes."
"We'll wait and see," advised Ruth.
Supper was over then and the girls all rose and strolled out of the
room in parties. Ruth and Helen made their way quietly to the exit and
looked for the office of the Preceptress. The large building with the
tower--the original Briarwood Hall--was partly given up to recitations
and lecture rooms and partly to the uses of the Tellinghams and the
teachers. Besides this great building there were two dormitory
buildings, the gymnasium, the library building, and a chapel which had
been built only the year before by subscriptions of the graduates of
the school and of the parents of the scholars then attending. But it
was growing dusk now and the two friends could not see much of the
buildings around the campus.
Mrs. Grace Tellingham and her husband (the Doctor never by any chance
came first in anybody's mind!) had started the school some years before
in a small way; but it had grown rapidly and was, as we have seen, very
popular. Many girls were graduated from the institution to the big
girls' colleges, for it was, in fact, a preparatory school.
The chums went in at the broad door and saw a library at the right hand
into which a tidy maid motioned them, with a smile. It was a large
room, the walls masked by bookshelves, all filled so tightly that it
did seem as though room for another book could not be found. But Mrs.
Tellingham was not there.
Bending over the table, however, (and it was a large, leather-covered
table with a great student lamp in the center, the shade of which threw
a soft glow of light in a circle upon it) was a gentleman whose
shoulders were very round and who seemed to be so near-sighted that his
nose must have been within an inch or so of the book which he read. He
was totally unconscious of the girls' presence, and he read in a half
whisper to himself, like a child conning a lesson.
Ruth and Helen looked at each other, each thinking the same question.
Could this be Doctor Tellingham, the great historian? They glanced
again at the hoop-shouldered man and wondered what his countenance was
like, for they could not see a feature of it as he read. But Ruth
_did_ notice one most surprising fact. The stooping gentleman wore a
wig. It was a brown, rather curly wig, while the fringe of natural
hair all around his head was quite white--of that yellowish-white that
proclaims the fact that the hair was once light brown, or sandy in
color. The brown wig matched the hair at one time, without doubt; but
it now looked as though two gentlemen's heads had been merged in
one--the younger gentleman's being the upper half of the present
apparition.
For several minutes the chums stood timidly in the room and the old
gentleman went on whispering to himself, and occasionally nodding his
head. But at length he looked up, and in doing this he saw the girls
and revealed his own countenance.
"Ah-ha!" he ejaculated, and stood upright. He was not a small man, but
he was very bony. He had a big, long, smoothly-shaven face, on which
his beard had sprouted in patches only, and these shaven patches were
gray, whereas the rest of his face was smooth and dead-white. Indeed
he had so much face, and it was so bald, that if the brown wig had
chanced to tumble off Ruth thought that his appearance would have been
actually terrifying.
"Ah-ha!" he said again, and smiled not unkindly. The thick spectacles
he wore hid his eyes, however, and to look into his big face was like
looking at the white wall of a house with the windows all shuttered.
"You want something!"
He said it as though he had made a most profound discovery. Indeed,
they found afterward that Doctor Tellingham always spoke as though he
were pronouncing a valedictory oration, or something quite as important
as that. The doctor never could say anything lightly. His mind was
given up entirely to deep subjects, and it seldom strayed from his work.
"You want something," he repeated. "Stop! never mind explaining. I
shouldn't be able to aid you. Mrs. Tellingham--my wife, my dears--will
be here anon."
He at once bobbed down his head, revealing nothing to the eyes of the
two girls but the brown wig and the hair that didn't match, and went on
whispering to himself. Helen and Ruth exchanged glances and Helen had
difficulty in keeping from laughing outright.
In a moment more Mrs. Tellingham came into the room. At close view
Ruth saw that she was even more attractive than she had seemed at a
distance. Her countenance was firm without being stern--the humor
about the mouth relieved its set expression.
"My dear! my dear!" ejaculated the Doctor, raising his head so that the
long, bald expanse of his face came into view again for a moment,
"somebody to see you--somebody wants something."
Mrs. Tellingham approached Helen first and took her hand. Her
handclasp was firm, her manner one to put the girl at her ease.
"You are Mr. Macy Cameron's daughter?" she questioned. "We are glad to
see you here. You have found your room?"
"Yes, Mrs. Tellingham," replied Helen.
The Preceptress turned to Ruth and shook hands with her. "And you are
Ruth Fielding? Do as well this first half as your last teacher tells
me you did, and we shall be good friends. Now, girls, sit down. Let
us talk a bit."
She had a quick, bright way of speaking; yet her words were not
wasted--nor her time. She did not talk idly. Nor did the two chums
have much to say but "Yes" and "No." In the course of her remarks she
said:
"This is your first experience, I understand, away from home and in a
school of this character? Yes? Ah, then, many things will be new and
strange to you, as well as hard to bear at first. Among two hundred
girls there are bound to be girls of a good many different kinds," and
she smiled. "You will find some thoughtless and careless--forgetting
what they have been sent to the school for. Avoid that class. They
will not aid you in your own intention to stand well in the classes.
"Keep before you the fact that your friends have sent you here for
improvement--not to kill time. All girls like fun; I hope you will
find plenty of innocent amusement here. I want all my girls happy and
content. Use the advantages of our gym; join the walking club; we make
a point of having one of the best basketball teams in this part of the
State. Tennis is a splendid exercise for girls, and we have an indoor
as well as outdoor courts. Yes, do not neglect the good times. But
remember, too, that amusement isn't the main issue of life at Briarwood
Hall. Let nothing interfere with the study hour. Keep the rules--we
strive to have as few as possible, so that there may be less temptation
to break them," and the Preceptress smiled her quick, understanding
smile again.
"By the way, there are social clubs in the school. To-night--have you
been invited to any gathering?"
"Both the Forward Club and the Up and Doings have invited us to attend
their meetings," said Ruth, quietly.
"Ah!"
"We are going to the Up and Doings, Mrs. Tellingham," said Helen.
"Ah!" was again the lady's comment, and they learned nothing from her
countenance. Nevertheless, Ruth thought it better to explain:
"We were very kindly received by Miss Cox, and shown our room by her,
and she invited us to her club first of all."
"Indeed! We shall be glad to have you come to our club, too, before
you make up your minds to join any," said Mrs. Tellingham, with an
accent on one word that made both Ruth and Helen mark it well. The F.
C.'s were plainly approved by the Preceptress.
"There!" she continued, nodding smilingly at the chums. "I am sure we
shall get on together. You will become acquainted with both your
school-fellows and your instructors in course of time. There are not
so many at Briarwood Hall but that we are still one great family. One
thing girls come away from home for, to an institution like this, is to
learn self-control and self-government. If you need help do not be
afraid to go to your instructors, or come to me. Confide in us. But,
on the other hand, you must learn to judge for yourself. We do not
punish an act of wrong judgment, here at Briarwood." And so the
Preceptress bade them good-evening.
"Isn't she nice?" whispered Ruth, as she and Helen made their exit from
the room.
"Ye-es," admitted her chum. "But you can see she is dreadfully
'bossy.'"
At that Ruth laughed heartily. "You foolish child!" she said, shaking
her chum a little. "Isn't she here to 'boss'? My goodness! you didn't
expect to do just as _you_ pleased here at Briarwood; did you?"
Helen Cameron had been used to having her own way a good deal. Being
naturally a sweet-tempered girl, she was not much spoiled. But Mrs.
Murchiston had been unable to be very strict with the twins when Mr.
Cameron was so indulgent himself.
Mary Cox and "Heavy" Stone were waiting on the steps for the friends as
they came out. There was another group of girls on the path, too, who
eyed Ruth and Helen interestedly as the latter came down the steps with
the two Juniors. "'The Fox' has been in the poultry yard again, and
has caught two chickabiddies," laughed one of these idle girls.
Ruth flushed, but Helen did not hear the gibe, being much interested in
what Mary Cox was saying to her. Ruth walked beside the good-natured
Jennie Stone.
"My, my!" chuckled that damsel, "aren't those Fussy Curls jealous?
They had to take the teachers into their old club so as to be more
numerous than the Upedes. But I guess Mary Cox will show 'em! She
_is_ a fox, and I guess she always will be!"
"Is that what they call Miss Cox?" asked Ruth, not a little troubled.
"Oh, she's foxy, all right," said this rather slangy young lady. "She
will beat the Fussy Curls every time. She's President of the Upedes,
you know."
Ruth was still troubled, and she hastened to say:
"You know, we haven't been asked to join the club, Miss Stone. And my
chum and I are not sure that we wish to join any of the school clubs at
first. We--we want to look around us, you know."
"That's all right," said Jennie Stone, cordially. "You'll be put up
for membership when you want to be. But we'll show you some fun. No
use getting in with those poky F. C.'s. You'll never have a bit of fun
if you train with them."
They went back to the building in which they had supped and upstairs to
one of the assembly rooms. The stairway and hall were well filled with
girls now, and several of them nodded smilingly to Ruth and Helen; but
their escorts did not let the chums stop at all, ushering them at once
into the room where the Up and Doing clan was gathering.
Mary Cox left Heavy to introduce the newcomers while she went at once
to the rostrum and with two or three of the other girls--who were
evidently officers of the club, likewise--held a short executive
session in secret. By and by Mary rapped on the desk for order, and
the girls all took seats. Ruth, who was watchful, saw that the company
numbered scarcely a score. If these were all the members of the club,
she wondered how many of the Briarwood girls belonged to the rival
association.
The meeting, as far as the business went, was conducted briskly and to
the point. Then it was "thrown open" and everybody--but the
visitors--talked just as they pleased. Helen and Ruth were made to
feel at home, and the girls were most lively and good-natured. They
heard that the Upedes were to have a picnic at a grove upon the shore
of Lake Triton on the Saturday week, and that Old Dolliver and his
ramshackle stage, and another vehicle of the same caliber, were engaged
for the trip.
"But beware of black marks, girls," warned Mary Cox. "Picolet will be
watching us; and you know that, this early in the term, two black marks
will mean an order to remain on the school premises. That old cat will
catch us if she can."
"Mean little thing!" said Heavy, wheezily. "I wish anybody but Miss
Picolet lived in our house."
From this Ruth judged that most of these Up and Doings were in the
dormitory in which she and Helen were billeted.
"I don't see what Mrs. Tellingham keeps Picolet for," complained
another girl.
"For a spy," snapped Mary Cox. "But we'll get the best of her yet.
She isn't fit to be a teacher in this school, anyway."
"Oh, she's a good French teacher--of course. It's her native tongue,"
said one of the other girls, who was called Belle Tingley.
"That's all very well," snapped Mary. "But there's something secret
and underhand about her. She claims to have nobody related to her in
this country; but if the truth were known, I guess, she has reason to
be ashamed of her family and friends. I've heard something----"
She stopped and looked knowingly at Ruth and Helen. The former flushed
as she remembered the man in the red waistcoat who played the harp
aboard the steamboat. But Helen seemed to have forgotten the incident,
for she paid no attention to Mary's unfinished suggestion.
It worried Ruth, however. She heartily wished that her chum had said
nothing to the Cox girl about the man who played the harp and his
connection with the little French teacher.