Peals of girlish laughter had definitely replaced the monotonous buzz of crickets in a small sector of the Radcliffe Quadrangle last night. The transition even raised a smile beneath the facial foliage of a bearded octogenarian, a vesperian landmark with his dachshund on a Walker Street stroll.

For 99 young women bent by baggage and on self-improvement had registered by noon yesterday at Longfellow Hall in two distinct waves for a publishing and a secretarial course. By nightfall approximately 30 new telephone buzzers in Cabot Hall were tolling the knell of parting day.

Locals Flash Form

The remainder, all local talent, will be living at home. Accounts of the Long-fellow lineup indicated that the commuter would no longer be Radcliffe's forgotten woman, despite the depressed ratio of six and a half Harvardians to every quarry to the Northwest.

"Publishing procedures," a special course accounting for 47 new graduate students which guarantees to steady the nyloned knee under the literary teacup, wasted no time yesterday afternoon in plunging into curricular chores. Grey-flanelled investigators were informed that the girls were already on a field trip.

It wasn't a picnic at Walden Pond, though, but a tour of Cambridge and Boston bookstores. The 52 enrollees in a six-week intensive course in shorthand and typewriting begin taking dictation today from Mrs. Harold Quinlan of the Boston Catherine Gibbs secretarial school.

Old Guard Mystery

By no means eclipsed by the new arrivants were the 18 undergraduate 'Cliffers and the 30-odd graduates who have been hanging white chintz curtains in Cabot Hall windows for over two weeks. The mystery of their presence still remained. As a clothing pin canvasser put it last week:

"What can be so attractive about Cambridge Common under a hot summer sun?" The girls who had forsaken beach for book were ready with diverse answers.

Rising Marriage Mart

Five have disconnected their telephones as the first move in elaborate fall marital preparations. One summed up the group attitude with the view that it was easier to face married life with a college degree to loan on. All agreed it would be easier to diaper junior with hands free from a Hymarx Outline.

Getting married speeding up for nursing and teaching careers and the tickling sensation of Boston cobblestones under the feet ranked in that numerical order in a random sample, There was a smattering of more prosaic explanations such as language requirements and passing a natural science.

Radcliffe Still Radcliffe

Hoary Annex legend and tradition did not vanish from the scene entirely, however. One young thing removed her glasses thoughtfully, and probed the inner woman for a raison d'etre of summer toll.

"Oh, you mean me. Why I'm here to study, of course," she lisped, regaining a fierce grip on the collected works of Havelock Ellis.Bitter bear alone: What man will fill the empty chair?