In the midst of the struggle one sentence fell on her ear.  “Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings.”

Elnora began to pray frantically.  “Hide me, O God, hide me, under the shadow of Thy wings.”

Again and again she implored that prayer, and before she realized what was coming, every one had arisen and the room was emptying rapidly.  Elnora hurried after the nearest girl and in the press at the door touched her sleeve timidly.

“Will you please tell me where the Freshmen go?” she asked huskily.

The girl gave her one surprised glance, and drew away.

“Same place as the fresh women,” she answered, and those nearest her laughed.

Elnora stopped praying suddenly and the colour crept into her face.  “I’ll wager you are the first person I meet when I find it,” she said and stopped short.  “Not that!  Oh, I must not do that!” she thought in dismay.  “Make an enemy the first thing I do.  Oh, not that!”

She followed with her eyes as the young people separated in the hall, some climbing stairs, some disappearing down side halls, some entering adjoining doors.  She saw the girl overtake the brown-eyed boy and speak to him.  He glanced back at Elnora with a scowl on his face.  Then she stood alone in the hall.

Presently a door opened and a young woman came out and entered another room.  Elnora waited until she returned, and hurried to her.  “Would you tell me where the Freshmen are?” she panted.

“Straight down the hall, three doors to your left,” was the answer, as the girl passed.

“One minute please, oh please,” begged Elnora:  “Should I knock or just open the door?”

“Go in and take a seat,” replied the teacher.

“What if there aren’t any seats?” gasped Elnora.

“Classrooms are never half-filled, there will be plenty,” was the answer.

Elnora removed her hat.  There was no place to put it, so she carried it in her hand.  She looked infinitely better without it.  After several efforts she at last opened the door and stepping inside faced a smaller and more concentrated battery of eyes.

“The superintendent sent me.  He thinks I belong here,” she said to the professor in charge of the class, but she never before heard the voice with which she spoke.  As she stood waiting, the girl of the hall passed on her way to the blackboard, and suppressed laughter told Elnora that her thrust had been repeated.

“Be seated,” said the professor, and then because he saw Elnora was desperately embarrassed he proceeded to lend her a book and to ask her if she had studied algebra.  She said she had a little, but not the same book they were using.  He asked her if she felt that she could do the work they were beginning, and she said she did.