“But just the same it’s no singing matter for us,” grumbled Belle.  “Turned out of our beds to sleep this way!  And all we’ve lost!” She began to weep.  It was difficult for even Heavy to coax up a smile or to bring forth a new joke.

Ruth and her chums secured a corner of the great room, and they insisted that Mercy Curtis have the single cot that had been secured.

“I don’t mind it much,” Ann Hicks declared.  “I’ve camped out so many times on the plains without half the comforts of this camp.  Oh!  I could tell you a lot about camping out that you Easterners have no idea of.”

“Postpone it till to-morrow, please, Miss Hicks,” said Miss Brokaw, dryly.  “It is time for you all to undress.”

After they were between the sheets Helen crept over to Ruth and hid her face upon her chum’s shoulder, where she cried a few tears.

“All my pretty frocks that Mrs. Murchiston allowed me to pick out!  And my books!  And—­and——­”

The tragic voice of Jennie Stone reached their ears:  “Oh, girls!  I’ve lost in the dreadful fire the only belt I could wear.  It’s a forty-two.”

There was little laughter in the morning, however, when the girls went out-of-doors and saw the gaunt ruins of the dear old West Dormitory.

The roof had fallen in.  Almost every pane of glass was broken.  The walls had crumbled in places, and over all was a sheet of ice where the cascades from the firemen’s hose had blanketed the ruins.

It needed only a glance to show that to repair the building was out of the question.  The West Dormitory must be constructed as an entirely new edifice.

CHAPTER XI

ONE THING THE OLD DOCTOR DID

Every girl in Briarwood Hall was much troubled by the result of the fire.  The old rivalry between the East and the West Dormitories, that had been quite fierce at times and in years before, had died out under Ruth Fielding’s influence.

Indeed, since the inception of the Sweetbriars a better spirit had come over the entire school.  Mrs. Tellingham in secret spoke of this as the direct result of Ruth’s character and influence; for although Ruth Fielding was not namby-pamby, she was opposed to every form of rude behavior, or to the breaking of rules which everyone knew to be important.

The old forms of hazing—­even the “Masque of the Marble Harp,” as it was called—­were now no longer honored, save in the breach.  The initiations of the Sweetbriars were novel inventions—­usually of Ruth’s active brain; but they never put the candidate to unpleasant or risky tasks.

There certainly were rivalries and individual quarrels and sometimes clique was arrayed against clique in the school.  This was a school of upwards of two hundred girls—­not angels.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Tellingham and the instructors noted with satisfaction how few disturbances they had to settle and quarrels to take under advisement.  This class of girls whom they hoped to graduate in June were the most helpful girls that had ever attended Briarwood Hall.