CHAPTER X
A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT
Arrangements for the organization of the freshman class had lagged.
This fact may have been behind the notice put upon the bulletin boardsall over the Ardmore grounds some time after bedtime one evening andbefore the rising bell rang the next morning. It intimated a bit ofhazing, but hazing of a quality that the faculty could only wink at.
The notice was as follows:
FRESHMEN
_It is the command of the Senior Class of Ardmore that no Freshman shall appear within the college grounds wearing a tam-o'-shanter of any other hue save the herewith designated color, to wit: Baby Blue. This order is for the mental and spiritual good of the incoming class of Freshmen. Any member of said class refusing to obey this order will be summarily dealt with by the upper classes of Ardmore._
Groups gathered immediately after breakfast about the bulletin boards.Of course, the seniors and juniors passed by with dignified bearing, andwithout comment. The sophomores remained upon the outskirts of thegroups of excited freshmen to laugh and jeer.
"A disturbed bumblebees' nest could have hummed no louder," Helendeclared, as the three friends walked up to chapel, which they made apoint of attending.
"Why! to think of the _cheek_ of those seniors!" ejaculated Jennie. "Andthe juniors are just as bad!"
"What are you going to do about that tam of yours, Heavy?" asked Ruth,slily. "It's a gay thing--nothing like baby blue."
"Oh well," growled the fleshy girl, "baby blue is one of my favoritecolors."
"Mine, too," said Ruth, drily.
"Oh, girls! Are you going to give right in--_so_ easy?" gasped Helen.
"I don't feel like making myself conspicuous," Ruth said. "You can wagerthat most of our class will hustle right off and get the proper hue intams."
"Then we'd better go to town this very afternoon," Jennie cried, inhaste, "and see if we can find three of baby blue shade. The stores willbe drained of them by to-morrow."
"But to give--right--in!" wailed Helen, who dearly loved a fight.
"No. It isn't that. But, as the advertisements say: 'Eventually, so whynot now?' We'll have to come to it. Let's get our tams while thetamming's good."
Helen could not see the reason for obeying the senior order; but shecould see no reason, either, for not following her chum's lead. Thethree girls telephoned for a taxicab, which came to Dare Hall for themat half past three.
They were not the only girls going to town; but some of the freshmen,like Helen, wished to display their independence and refused--as yet--toobey the senior command.
A line at the bottom of the notice announced that three days wereallowed the freshmen to obtain their proper tam-o'-shanters.
"Three days!" gasped Heavy, as they started off in the little car. "Why,it will take the stores in Greenburg two weeks to supply sufficient tamsof the proper color."
"Then if we don't get ours," laughed Ruth, "we'd better go bareheadeduntil the new tams can be sent us from home."
"I won't do that!" cried the annoyed Helen. "Oh! oh!" she exclaimed, thenext moment, and before they were out of the grounds. "See Miss Frayne!She has her scrambled-egg tam on."
"Don't you suppose she has read the notice?" worried Ruth.
"Why hasn't she?"
"Well, she seems to flock together with herself so much. Nobody seems tobe chummy with her--yet," Ruth explained.
"Now, old Mother Worry!" exclaimed Helen, "bother about _her_, willyou?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Ruth, demurely. "I shall, I suppose."
"Goodness, Ruth!" cried Jennie.
They discovered a rather strange thing when they arrived in Greenburgand entered the first store that dealt in ladies' apparel. Oh, yes,indeed! the proprietor had tam-o'-shanters of just the required shade,baby blue. The friends bought immediately for fear some of the othergirls who had come to town would find these and buy the proprietor out.
And then, prone to the usual feminine frailty, they went "windowshopping." And in every store seeking trade from the college girls theyfound the baby blue tam-o'-shanters.
"It's the most astonishing thing!" gasped Helen. "What do you suppose itmeans? Did you ever see so many caps of one kind and color in all yourlife?"
"It is amazing," agreed Ruth. Yet she was reflective.
Jennie began to laugh. "Wonder if the seniors are just helping out theirfriends among the tradespeople? It looks as though the storekeepers hadbought a superabundance of baby blue caps and the seniors were puttingit up to us to save the stores from bankruptcy."
Ruth, however, thought it must be something other than that. Was it thatthe storekeepers had been notified by the senior "powers that be" to beready to supply a sudden large demand for tam-o'-shanters of thatparticular hue?
At least, one little Hebrew asked the three friends if they had alreadybought their tam-o'-shanters. "For vy, I haf a whole case of your classcolors, ladies, that my poy iss opening."
"What class color?" demanded Helen, grumpily enough.
"Oh, Mees! A peau-ti-ful plue!"
"They're all doing it! They're all doing it!" murmured Jennie,staggering out of the "emporium." "This is going to affect my brain,girls. _Did_ the seniors know the storekeepers had the tams in stock, orhave the storekeepers been put wise by our elder sisters at Ardmore?"
"What's the odds?" finally laughed Helen, as they got into the waitingcar. "We've got _our_ tams. I only hope there are enough to go around."
The appearance of more than a score of baby-blue caps on the campusbefore evening showed that our trio of freshmen were not the onlymembers of their class who considered it wise to obey the mandate of thelordly seniors, and without question.
The tempest in the teapot, however, continued to rage. Many girlsdeclared they had not come to Ardmore to "be made monkeys of."
"No," May MacGreggor was heard to say. "Some of you were alreadyassisted by nature. But get together, freshies! Can't you read thehandwriting on the wall?"
"We can read the typewriting on the billboards," sniffed Helen Cameron."Don't ask us to strain our eyesight farther."
Perhaps this was really the intention behind the senior order--that theentering girls should become more quickly riveted into a compact body.How the rooms occupied by the more popular freshmen buzzed during thenext few days!
Our trio of friends, Ruth, Helen and Jennie, had been in danger ofestablishing a clique of three, if they had but known it. Now they wereforced to extend their borders of acquaintanceship.
As they were three, and were usually seen about the study-room Ruth andHelen had established, it was natural that other girls of their class onthat corridor of Dale Hall should flock to them. They thus became thenucleus at this side of the campus of the freshman class. Fromdiscussing the rule of the haughty seniors, the freshmen began to talkof their own organization and the approaching election.
Had Ruth allowed her friends to do so, there would have been started aboom by Helen and Jennie Stone for the girl of the Red Mill forpresident of the freshman class. This honor Ruth did not desire. Therewere several girls whom she had noted already among her mates, olderthan she, and who evidently possessed qualities for the position.
Besides, Ruth Fielding felt that if she became unduly prominent at firstat Ardmore, girls like Edith Phelps would consider her a particularlybright target. She told herself again, but this time in private, thatfame was not always an asset.