"Listen, girls. You mustn't tell a soul, because it's a great secret. We're going to plant the class tree to-night, and I am chairman of the ceremonies. Everything is ready--the costumes are finished and the plans all arranged so that the class can get out to the place without being seen. The freshmen haven't a suspicion that it's going to be to-night. But they have found out that I'm chairman of the committee, and, if you please,"--Mildred's eyes grew wide with excitement,--"they've been _tracking_ me for a week. They have _relays_ of girls appointed to watch me, and I can't stir without a freshman tagging along behind. When I went down to order the ice-cream, there was one right at my elbow, and I had to pretend that I'd come for soda-water. I have simply had to let the rest of the committee do all of the work, because I was so afraid the freshmen would find out the time. It was funny at first, but I am getting nervous. It's horrible to think that you're being watched all the time. I feel as if I'd committed a murder, and keep looking over my shoulder like--like Macbeth." "It's _awful_," Bonnie shuddered. "I'm thrilled to the bone to think of the peril a member of my family is braving for the sake of her class." "You needn't laugh," said Mildred. "It's a serious matter. If those freshmen come to our tree ceremonies, we'll never hear the last of it. But they are not going to come," she added with a meaning smile. "They have another engagement. We chose to-night because there's a lecture before the Archaeological Society by some alumna person who's been digging up remains in Rome. The freshmen have been told to go and hear her on account of their Latin. Imagine their feelings when they are cooped up in the auditorium, trying to look intelligent about the Roman Forum, and listening to our yells outside!" Priscilla and Bonnie smiled appreciatively. It was not so long, after all, since they themselves were sophomores, and they recalled their own tree ceremonies, when the freshmen had _not_ been cooped up. "But the trouble is," pursued Mildred, "that it's more important for me to get there than any one else, because I have to dig the hole,--Peters is really going to dig it, you know; I just take out the first shovelful,--but I can't get there on account of that beastly scout. As soon as she saw me acting suspicious, she'd run and warn the class." "I see," said Bonnie; "but what have Priscilla and I to do with it?" "Well," said Mildred, tentatively, "you're both pretty big, you know, and you're our sister class, and you ought to help us." "Certainly," acquiesced Bonnie; "but in just what way?" "Well, my idea was this. If you would just stroll down by the lake after chapel, and loiter sort of inconspicuously among the trees, you know, I would come that way a little later, and then, when the detective person came along after me, you could just nab her and--" "Chuck her in the lake?" asked Bonnie.