From one of the parlors a cry of recognition in a girlish voice floated out.  Then appeared the Gridley High School girls, with Susie Sharp in the lead.

“I thought you told us you didn’t have any other than your hike clothing with you!” Susie cried accusingly to Tom Reade.

“We didn’t.  We told you the truth,” Reade rejoined.

“Then these-----”

“These new clothes were bought with money from the treasury,” Reade informed her.

“Does our appearance suit you, ladies?” Greg asked smiling.

“You look like so many tailor’s models,” replied Belle Meade, adding, sweetly:  “If that is any praise.”

Certainly Dick & Co., clad in well-fitting white duck suits, presented a creditable appearance.

“We’ve been preparing our friends at the Terraces for a different looking lot of young men,” laughed Susie.  “We have told them that a number of high school boy friends of ours were coming over to dinner and the hop attired in the same clothes they have been wearing in camp and on the road.  Now we must apologize to them for presenting fashion plates.”

The explanation, as Dick presently furnished it to Laura Bentley, was a simple one.  Dick had been handling the funds of the six boys on this expedition, which had held out much longer than any of his chums had known.  At the time of accepting the invitation young Prescott had felt sure that an Ashbury clothier would be able to furnish proper clothes for his party, and his guess had proved a correct one.  Moreover, the treasury of Dick & Co. had been easily able to endure the drain, for these white clothes had not been costly.

Mrs. Bentley presently joined the little Gridley group of young people on the veranda.  That good lady noted, with secret pleasure, the well-groomed appearance of her young guests.

“Rah, rah, rah!” came boisterously up the veranda, as the camp visitors of the evening before suddenly appeared.  “Rah, rah, rah!”

Then, halting in a compact group midway on the veranda, they shouted in chorus: 

“S-A-U-N-D-E-R-S!  Saunders!  Saunders!  Siss-boom-a-a-ah!  Rah, rah, rah!”

“College boys!” exclaimed Susie Sharp in an impatient undertone.  “College boys, and the worst of their kind.  They’re noisy nuisances!”

“So far as any other guest has been able to discover they haven’t any manners,” Belle added.

Then, espying the girls and their guests the rah-rah-rah boys came briskly up the veranda.

“Good evening, Miss Meade!” called one of them, lifting his hat.  “Glorious evening, isn’t it?  How many dances may I have the honor of claiming at the hop to-night?”

Belle Meade blushed slightly and drew back a step, resenting the young man’s familiarity.

In front of the presumptuous youth stepped Dave Darrin, with eyes flashing.

“Kindly keep your distance, young man!” Dave advised, in a tone of dangerous quiet.