When the crowd had shown their appreciation, The Fox said:

"We're going to pick up an Infant at Maxwell. Heard about her?"

"No. Who is she?" asked Helen. "Not that Infants interest me much now.

We can let the juniors take them in hand. Remember, girls, we are full-fledged seniors this year."

"You'll have an interest in this new girl," said Miss c.o.x, with a.s.surance.

"Why?"

"She is Nettie Parsons. You know her father is the big sugar man. He has oodles of money!"

"Lot's of sugar, eh?" chuckled Heavy. "Hope she'll bring some to school with her. I have a sweet tooth, I hope you know."

"A tooth! a whole set of sweet teeth, you mean!" cried Ruth.

"I only hope she is nice. I don't care how much money she has," said Helen, smiling. "We won't hold her wealth up against her, if she's the right sort."

"Oh, I'm not fooling," said The Fox, rather sharply, for she had a short temper, "to match her red hair," as Heavy said. "She'll probably bring trunks full of nice dresses to school and loads of jewelry----"

"Won't that be silly? For Mrs. Tellingham won't let her wear them."

"Only on state and date occasions," put in Mercy.

"At any rate, her folks have splendid things. Why! don't you remember about her aunt losing that be-a-utiful necklace last spring?"

"Necklace?" repeated Ruth. "What sort of a necklace?"

"One of the finest pearl collars in the world, they say. Worth maybe fifty thousand dollars. Wonderful!"

"A pearl necklace?" queried the girl from the Red Mill, her interest growing.

"Yes, indeed."

"How careless of her!" said Heavy, with a yawn.

"Silly!" exclaimed The Fox. "It was stolen, of course."

"By whom?" demanded Ruth.

"Why, if the police knew that, they'd get back the necklace, wouldn't they?" demanded Mary c.o.x, with scorn.

"But I didn't know--they might suspect?" suggested Ruth, meekly.

"They do. Gypsies."

"Gypsies!" cried Ruth and Helen together. And then the latter began: "Oh, girls! listen to what happened to Ruth and me only a week ago!"

"Wait a bit, dear," broke in Ruth. "Let us know a little more about the lost necklace. Why do they think the Gypsies took it?"

"I'll tell you," said The Fox. "You see, this aunt of Nettie's is very, very rich. She comes from California, and she was on to visit the Parsons last spring.

"There was a tribe of Gypsies camping near the Parsons estate. They all went over to have their fortunes told--just for a lark, you know. It was after dinner one evening, and there was company. Nettie's Aunt Rachel had dressed her best, and she wore the necklace to the Gypsy camp.

"That very night the Parsons' house was robbed. Not much was taken except the aunt's jewel-box and some money she had in her desk. The robbers were frightened away before they could go to any of the other suites.

"The next day the Gypsies had left their encampment, too. Of course, there was nothing to connect the robbery with the Gyps., save circ.u.mstantial evidence. The police didn't find either the Gypsies or the necklace. But Aunt Rachel offered five thousand dollars' reward for the return of the pearls."

"Just think of that!" gasped Helen. "Five thousand dollars. My, Ruthie!

wouldn't you like to win _that_?"

"Indeed I would," returned her chum, with longing.

"But I guess the Gypsies _we_ were mixed up with never owned a pearl necklace like that. They didn't look as though they had anything but the gaily colored rags they stood in--and their horses."

"What do you know about Gypsies?" asked The Fox.

"A whole lot," cried Helen. "Let me tell you," and she proceeded to repeat the story of their adventure with Queen Zelaya and her tribe.

Ruth said nothing during the story; her mind was busy with the mystery of the missing necklace.

CHAPTER XVIII

GETTING INTO HARNESS

Nettie Parsons proved to be a very sweet, quiet girl, when she came aboard the train at Maxwell. She was rather older than the majority of girls who entered Briarwood Hall as "Infants." It seemed that she had suffered considerable illness and that had made her backward in her books.

"Never mind! She'll be company for Ann Hicks," said Helen. "Won't that be fine? Neither of them will feel so badly, then, because they are in the lower cla.s.ses."

"We'll get the Sweetbriars to make her feel at home," said Ruth, to her chum. "No hazing this term, girlie! Let's welcome the newcomers like friends and sisters."

"Sure, my dear," agreed Helen. "We haven't forgotten what they did to _us_, when we first landed at Briarwood Hall."

When the train ran down to the dock where they were to take the steamboat _Lanawaxa_ for the other side of the lake, there was a crowd of a dozen or more girls in waiting. A welcoming shout greeted Ruth as she headed the party from the vestibule coach:

"S. B.--Ah-h h!

S. B.--Ah-h-h!

Sound our battle-cry Near and far!

S. B.--All!

Briarwood Hall!

Sweetbriars, do or die-- This be our battle-cry-- Briarwood Hall!

_That's All!_"

Every girl present belonged to the now famous school society, and Nettie Parsons was interested right away. She wished to know all about it, and how to join, and of course she was referred to Ruth.

In this way the girl of the Red Mill and the new pupil became better acquainted, and Ruth found opportunity very soon to ask Nettie about the pearl necklace that her Aunt Rachel had lost some months before.