CHAPTER IV
THE RIVALRY OF THE UPEDES AND THE FUSSY CURLS
The passengers in the Seven Oaks and Lumberton stage sat facing oneanother on the two broad seats. Mademoiselle Picolet had establishedherself in one corner of the forward seat, riding with her back to thedriver. Ruth and Helen were side by side upon the other seat, and thisnewcomer slid quickly in beside them and smiled a very broad andfriendly smile at the two chums.
"When you've been a little while at Briarwood Hall," she said, in herquick, pert way, "you'll learn that that's the only way to do with OldDolliver. Make your bargain before you get into the Ark--that's whatwe call this stage--or he surely will overcharge you. Oh! how-do, MissPicolet!"
She spoke to the French teacher so carelessly--indeed, in so scornful atone--that Ruth was startled. Miss Picolet bowed gravely and saidsomething in return in her own language which made Miss Cox flush, andher eyes sparkle. It was doubtless of an admonishing nature, but Ruthand Helen did not understand it.
"Of course, you are the two girls whom we ex--that is, who wereexpected to-day?" the girl asked the chums, quickly.
"We are going to Briarwood Hall," said Ruth, timidly.
"Well, I'm glad I happened to be out walking and overtook the stage,"their new acquaintance said, with apparent frankness and cordiality."I'm Mary Cox. I'm a Junior. The school is divided into Primary,Junior and Senior. Of course, there are many younger girls than eitherof you at Briarwood, but all newcomers are called Infants. Probably,however, you two will soon be in the Junior grade, if you do not atonce enter it."
"I am afraid we shall both feel very green and new," Ruth said. "Yousee, neither Helen nor I have ever been to a school like this before.My friend is Helen Cameron and my name is Ruth Fielding."
"Ah! you're going to room together. You have a nice room assigned toyou, too. It's on my corridor--one of the small rooms. Most of us arein quartettes; but yours is a duet room. That's nice, too, when youare already friends."
She seemed to have informed herself regarding these particularnewcomers, even if she _had_ met them quite by accident.
Helen, who evidently quite admired Mary Cox, now ventured to say thatshe presumed most of the girls were already gathered for the Autumnterm.
"There are a good many on hand. Some have been here a week and more.But classes won't begin until Saturday, and then the work will only beplanned for the real opening of the term on Monday. But we're allsupposed to arrive in time to attend service Sunday morning. Mrs.Tellingham is very strict about that. Those who arrive after that havea demerit to work off at the start."
Mary Cox explained the system under which Briarwood was carried on,too, with much good nature; but all the time she never addressed theFrench teacher, nor did she pay the least attention to her. The coolway in which she conducted the conversation, commenting upon the schoolsystem, the teachers, and all other matters discussed, without theleast reference to Miss Picolet, made Ruth, at least, feel unhappy. Itwas so plain that Mary Cox ignored and slighted the little foreign ladyby intention.
"I tell you what we will do," said Mary Cox, finally. "We'll slip outof the stage at the end of Cedar Walk. It's farther to the dormitoriesthat way, but I fancy there'll be few of the girls there. The stage,you see, goes much nearer to Briarwood; but I fancy you girls wouldjust as lief escape the warm greeting we usually give to the arrivingInfants," and she laughed.
Ruth and Helen, with a vivid remembrance of what they had seen at SevenOaks, coincided with this suggestion. It seemed very kind of a Juniorto put herself out for them, and the chums told her so.
"Don't bother," said Mary Cox. "Lots of the girls--especially girls ofour age, coming to Briarwood for the first time--get in with the wrongcrowd. You don't want to do that, you know."
Now, the chums could not help being a little flattered by thisstatement. Mary Cox was older than Ruth and Helen, and the latter wereat an age when a year seemed to be a long time indeed. Besides, MissCox was an assured Junior, and knew all about what was still a closedbook to Ruth Fielding and Helen Cameron.
"I should suppose in a school like Briarwood," Ruth said, hesitatingly,"that all the girls are pretty nice."
"Oh! they are, to a degree. Oh, yes!" cried Mary Cox. "Briarwood isvery select and Mrs. Tellingham is very careful. You must know _that_,Miss Cameron," she added, point-blank to Helen, "or your father wouldnot have sent _you_ here."
Helen flushed at this boldly implied compliment. Ruth thought toherself again that Mary Cox must have taken pains to learn all aboutthem before they arrived, and she wondered why the Junior had done so.
"You see, a duo-room costs some money at Briarwood," explained MissCox. "Most of us are glad, when we get to be Juniors, to get into aquarto--a quartette, you understand. The primary girls are in bigdormitories, anyway. Of course, we all know who your father is, MissCameron, and there will be plenty of the girls fishing for yourfriendship. And there's a good deal of rivalry--at the beginning ofeach year, especially."
"Rivalry over what?" queried Ruth.
"Why, the clubs," said Mary Cox.
Helen became wonderfully interested at once. Everything pertaining tothe life before her at Briarwood was bound to interest Helen. And thesuggestion of society in the way of clubs and associations appealed toher.
"What clubs are there?" she demanded of the Junior.
"Why, there are several associations in the school. The Basket BallAssociation is popular; but that's athletic, not social. Anybody canbelong to that who wishes to play. And we have a good school teamwhich often plays teams from other schools. It's made up mostly ofSeniors, however."
"But the other clubs?" urged Helen.
"Why, the principal clubs of Briarwood are the Upedes and the FussyCurls," said their new friend.
"What ridiculous names!" cried Helen. "I suppose they _mean_something, though?"
"That's just our way of speaking of them. The Upedes are the Up andDoing Club. The Fussy Curls are the F. C.'s."
"The F. C.'s?" questioned Ruth. "What do the letters really stand for?"
"Forward Club, I believe. I don't know much about the Fussy Curls,"Mary said, with the same tone and air that she used in addressing thelittle French teacher.
"You're a Upede!" cried Helen, quickly.
"Yes," said Mary Cox, nodding, and seemed to have finished with thatsubject. But Helen was interested; she had begun to like this Coxgirl, and kept to the subject.
"What are the Upedes and the F. C.'s rivals about?"
"Both clubs are anxious to get members," Mary Cox said. "Both areputting out considerable effort to gain new members--especially amongthese who enter Briarwood at the beginning of the year."
"What are the objects of the rival clubs?" put in Ruth, quietly.
"I couldn't tell you much about the Fussy Curls," said Mary,carelessly. "Not being one of them I couldn't be expected to take muchinterest in their objects. But _our_ name tells our object at once.'Up and Doing'! No slow-coaches about the Upedes. We're all alive andwide awake."
"I hope we will get in with a lively set of girls," said Helen, with asigh.
"It will be your own fault if you don't," said Mary Cox.
Oddly enough, she did not show any desire to urge the newcomers to jointhe Upedes. Helen was quite piqued by this. But before the discussioncould be carried farther, Mary put her head out of the window andcalled to the driver.
"Stop at the Cedar Walk, Dolliver. We want to get out there. Here'syour ten cents."
Meanwhile the little foreign lady had scarcely moved. She had turnedher face toward the open window all the time, and being veiled, thegirls could not see whether she was asleep, or awake. She made no moveto get out at this point, nor did she seem to notice the girls whenMary flung open the door on the other side of the coach, and Ruth andHelen picked up their bags to follow her.
The chums saw that the stage had halted where a shady, winding pathseemed to lead up a slight r
ise through a plantation of cedars. Butthe spot was not lonely. Several girls were waiting here for thecoach, and they greeted Mary Cox when she jumped down, vociferously.
"Well, Mary Cox! I guess we know what you've been up to," exclaimedone who seemed older than the other girls in waiting.
"Did you rope any Infants, Mary?" cried somebody else.
"'The Fox' never took all that long walk for nothing," declared another.
But Mary Cox paid her respects to the first speaker only, by saying:
"If you want to get ahead of the Upedes, Madge Steele, you Fussy Curlshad better set your alarm clocks a little earlier."
Ruth and Helen were climbing out of the old coach now, and the girlnamed Madge Steele looked them over sharply.
"Pledged, are they?" she said to Mary Cox, in a low tone.
"Well! I've been riding in the Ark with them for the last three miles.Do you suppose I have been asleep?" returned Miss Cox, with a malicioussmile.
Ruth and Helen did not distinctly hear this interchange of wordsbetween their new friend and Madge Steele; but Ruth saw that the latterwas a very well dressed and quiet looking girl--that she was reallyvery pretty and ladylike. Ruth liked her appearance much more than shedid that of Mary Cox. But the latter started at once into the cedarplantation, up a serpentine walk, and Helen and Ruth, perforce, wentwith her. The other girls stood aside--some of them whisperingtogether and smiling at the newcomers. The chums could not help butfeel strange and nervous, and Mary Cox's friendship seemed of value tothem just then.
Ruth, however, looked back at the tall girl whose appearance had soimpressed her. The coach had not started on at once. Old Dolliver dideverything slowly. But Ruth Fielding saw a hand beckoning at the coachwindow. It was the hand of Miss Picolet, the French teacher, and itbeckoned Madge Steele.
The latter young lady ran to the coach as it lurched forward on itsway. Miss Picolet's face appeared at the window for an instant, andshe seemed to say something of importance to Madge Steele. Ruth sawthe pretty girl pull open the stage-coach door again, and hop inside.Then the Ark lumbered out of view, and Ruth turned to follow her chumand Mary Cox up the winding Cedar Walk.