chaperon us,” giggled Jennie.
“No. To see we don’t fall out of our saddles,” Ruth laughed. “Now! let’s think about it, girls, and decide on whom we shall invite.”
“Trix and Sally,” Jennie said.
“And Ann Hicks!” cried Helen. “You write to her, Ruth.”
“I will to-night,” promised her chum. “And I’m going to speak to Rebecca Frayne at once.”
“I’ll see Beatrice,” stated Jennie, moving toward the door.
“And I’ll run and ask Sally. She’s a good old scout,” said Helen.
But as soon as the plump girl had departed, Helen flung herself upon Ruth. “Who was she? Tell me, quick!” she demanded.
“The girl under that window?”
“Of course. You know, Ruthie.”
“I – I suspect,” her chum said slowly.
“Tell me!”
“Edie Phelps.”
“There!” exclaimed Helen, her black eyes fairly snapping with excitement. “I thought so.”
“You did?” asked Ruth, puzzled. “Why should she be listening to us? She’s never shown any particular interest in us Briarwoods.”
“But for a week or two I’ve noticed her hanging around. It’s something concerning this vacation trip she wants to find out about, I believe.”
“Why, how odd!” Ruth said. “I can’t understand it.”
“I wish we’d caught her,” said Helen, sharply, for she did not like the sophomore in question. Edith Phelps had been something of a “thorn in the flesh” to the chums during their freshman year.
“Well, I don’t know,” Ruth murmured. “It would only have brought on another quarrel with her. We’d better ignore it altogether I think.”
“Humph!” sniffed Helen. “That doesn’t satisfy my curiosity; and I’m frank to confess that I’m bitten deep by that microbe.”
“Oh well, my dear,” said Ruth, teasingly, “there are many things in this life it is better you should not know. Ahem! I’m going to see Rebecca.”
Helen ran off, too, to Sarah Blanchard’s room. Many of the girls’ doors were ajar and there was much visiting back and forth on this last evening; while the odor of tea permeated every nook and cranny of Dare Hall.
Rebecca’s door was closed, however, as Ruth expected. Rebecca Frayne was not as yet socially popular at Ardmore – not even among the girls of her own class.
In the first place she had come to college with an entirely wrong idea of what opportunities for higher education meant for a girl. Her people were very poor and very proud – a family of old New England stock that looked down upon those who achieved success “in trade.”
Had it not been for Ruth Fielding’s very good sense, and her advice and aid, Rebecca could never have remained at Ardmore to complete her freshman year. During this time, and especially toward the last of the school year, she had learned some things of importance besides what was contained within the covers of her textbooks.
But Ruth worried over the possibility that before their sophomore year should open in September, the influence at home would undo all the good Rebecca Frayne had gained.
“I’ve just the thing for you, Becky!” Ruth Fielding cried, carrying her friend’s study by storm. “What do you think?”
“Something nice, I presume, Ruth Fielding. You always are doing something uncommonly kind for me.”
“Nonsense!”
“No nonsense about it. I was just wondering what I should ever do without you all this long summer.”
“That’s it!” cried Ruth, laughing. “You’re not going to get rid of me so easily.”
“What do you mean?” asked Rebecca, wonderingly.
“That you’ll go with us. I need you badly, Becky. You’ve learned to rattle the typewriter so nicely – ”
“Want me to get an office position for the summer near you?” Rebecca asked, the flush rising in her cheek.
“Better than that,” declared Ruth, ignoring Rebecca’s flush and tone of voice. “You know, I told you we are going West.”
“You and Cameron? Yes.”
“And Jennie Stone, and perhaps others. But I want you particularly.”
“Oh, Ruth Fielding! I couldn’t! You know just how dirt poor we are. It’s all Buddie can do to find the money for my soph year here. No! It is impossible!”
“Nothing is impossible. ‘In the bright lexicon of youth,’ and so forth. You can go if you will.”
“I couldn’t accept such a great kindness, Ruth,” Rebecca said, in her hard voice.
“Better wait till you learn how terribly kind I am,” laughed Ruth. “I have an axe to grind, my dear.”
“An axe!”
“Yes, indeedy! I want you to help me. I really do.”
“To write?” gasped Rebecca. “You know very well, Ruth Fielding, that I can scarcely compose a decent letter. I hate that form of human folly known as ‘Lit-ra-choor.’ I couldn’t do it.”
“No,” said Ruth, smiling demurely. “I am going to write my own scenario. But I will get a portable typewriter, and I want you to copy my stuff. Besides, there will be several copies to make, and some work after the director gets there. Oh, you’ll have no sinecure! And if you’ll go and do it, I’ll put up the money but you’ll be paying all the expenses, Becky. What say?”
Ruth knew very well that if she had offered to pay Rebecca a salary the foolishly proud girl would never have accepted. But she had put it in such a way that Rebecca Frayne could not but accept.
“You dear!” she said, with her arms about Ruth’s neck and displaying as she seldom did the real love she felt for the girl of the Red Mill. “I’ll do it. I’ve an old riding habit of auntie’s that I can make over. And of course, I can ride.”
“You’d better make your habit into bloomers and a divided skirt,” laughed Ruth. “That’s how Jane Ann – and Helen and Jennie, too – will dress, as well as your humble servant. There are women who ride sidesaddle in the West; but they do not ride into the rough trails that we are going to attempt. In fact, most of ’em wear trousers outright.”
“Goodness! My aunt would have a fit,” murmured Rebecca Frayne.
CHAPTER III – THE LETTER FROM YUCCA
Before Dare Hall was quiet that night it was known throughout the dormitory that six girls of the freshman class were going to spend a part of the summer vacation in the wilds
