There were only five seniors at the Belden,--a state of affairs by no means without its compensations for the juniors who lived in the same house. There are decided advantages, connected with second helpings of ice cream and the possibility of having hot toast for breakfast, enjoyed by the girl who sits at the head of a table at meal times. This is ordinarily a senior privilege, but Mary Brooks was disqualified because she was never by any chance on time to serve breakfast, and another of the five spent all her Sundays with friends in town, and so was too irregular at meals to take her turn. One can easily get too much of even a good thing, and the other three, not caring for the continuous responsibility of being "heads," gave up their places every second month to the juniors, who crowed over their classmates in other houses where seniors were more numerous or more tenacious of their rights. And this was not all. If the matron or the house-teacher wanted to entertain the senior contingent, it was often easier to ask with them the juniors in the house than to select a few seniors from outside to make up a party of the right dimensions.