"But, anyway," said the quiet girl, "it was a terrible experience for Miss Rolff."
"Unless she 'put it on' and got away with the loot herself," said Edith.
"Oh, scissors! now who's coarse?" demanded May MacGreggor.
But the conversation came back to the expected Ruth Fielding. These girls had all arrived at Ardmore several days in advance of the opening of the semester. Indeed, it is always advisable for freshmen, especially, to be on hand at least two days before the opening, for there is much preparation for newcomers.
The fleshy girl who had thus far taken no part in the conversation recorded, save to be amused by it, had already been on the ground long enough to know her way about. But she was not yet acquainted with any of her classmates or with the sophomores.
If she knew Ruth Fielding, she said nothing about it when Edith Phelps began to discuss the girl of the Red Mill again.
"Miss Cullam spoke to me about this Fielding. It seems she has an acquaintance who teaches at that backwoods' school the child went to——"
"Briarwood a backwoods' school!" said May. "Not much!"
"Well, it's somewhere up in New York State among the yaps," declared Edith. "And Cullam's friend wrote her that Fielding is a wonder. Dear me! how I do abominate wonders."
"Perhaps we are maligning the girl," said Dora. "Perhaps Ruth Fielding is quite modest."