IXTHE SOCIETY MEETS AGAIN
A week later the Junior Four met in extraordinary session. Strange to relate, it had been the Honorary Member who had issued the call for the meeting, but instead of resenting what looked like usurpation of authority the others welcomed the summons.
It was a Saturday morning and a dull one. A February thaw had set in, the snow was fit only for snowballs, the rinks were awash and the second game of the hockey series had been postponed for another week. The day had stretched ahead of them featureless and unpromising, and the summons to the meeting had reached them at a moment when life seemed tame and somber.
Having brought about the gathering, it was Nan’s place to explain the purpose of it, and this she was doing from the only chair the harness room afforded. (It was really a stool with one brokenleg, but by careful balancing it was possible to keep seated.)
“It seems to me,” Nan was explaining, “that when you’ve got a perfectly good secret society like this you ought to—to do something with it. We started it to—to resist the tyranny of the upper classes—”
“All for one and one for all!” droned Kid in a sing-song voice.
Nan frowned down the interruption and proceeded. “And now that we have accomplished that—that purpose—”
A muffled giggle from Kid. The others looked elaborately unconscious.
“—I think we ought to find another purpose, something—something worthy and noble.”
“Let’s turn it into an athletic club,” suggested Lanny.
“Or a debating society,” offered Small, who was the literary member of the coterie.
“Let’s make it an eating club like they have in college,” said Kid. “We could have some dandy feeds out here.”
“What were you thinking of, Nan?” Bert asked.
“Well, how would it do to have it a Benevolent Society?”
“What’s that?” asked Lanny finally after prolonged silence.
“A Benevolent Society,” explained Nan vaguely, “is a society that—that does good to people.”
“Who?” asked Kid suspiciously.
“Why, anyone. You present beds to hospitals or endow something, you know. Any worthy cause—”
“That takes money, doesn’t it?” asked Small.
“Of course. We save our money—”
“That’s a silly game!” jeered Kid. “Save your money! Gee, I don’t have enough now.”
“Or we can earn it,” continued Nan. “That would be more fun, wouldn’t it?”
“How could we earn any money?” Bert inquired.
“Oh, lots of ways! We must think up ways, of course.”
“Earn money and then give it away to a hospital!” exclaimed Kid. “I guess not!”
“I don’t say to give it to a hospital,” said Nan indignantly. “I only said that was one way to do it. We could find something else to give it to. Wemight—might present a set of books to the school library. That would be a kindly deed, wouldn’t it? And it would say on the front of every book that it had been presented by the Junior Four.”
“Would we have to read them?” asked Kid dubiously.
“Of course not, not unless we wanted to. Reference books would be best, I suppose. Succeeding generations of students would appreciate our gift and thank us.”
“Hm.” This from Lanny. “The succeeding generations don’t make much of a hit with me, Nan. What’s the matter with doing something for the present generation?”
“Why, we would be! We’d use the books, too, Lanny. I only said that about succeeding generations to—to show that the gift would endure in usefulness.”
“If we made it an eating club,” said Kid, “we’d get some fun out of it ourselves.”
“There’s nothing noble about an eating club,” declared Nan severely. “I only thought it would be nice for us to—to embark on some noble enterprise and—and do good in the community. Of course, if you boys don’t care for my plan—”
“We haven’t said we don’t,” interrupted Bert hastily. “We—we’re only considering it, eh, fellows?”
“Sure,” replied Lanny. “I—I think it sounds pretty good, only I don’t see where the money’s coming from.”
“That’s so,” said Bert. “There aren’t very many ways a fellow can make money in school, I guess.”
“It’s easy enough to spend it, though,” philosophized Small. “I had a whole two-dollar bill a week ago, and now I’ve got about twenty cents. And there’s no more coming for another week!”
“Pshaw, making money’s easy enough.” Kid beat a tattoo with his heels against the grain bin and looked as much like a captain of industry as he knew how.
“I’d like to see you make any!” exclaimed Small.
“Bet you I could!”
“Bet you you couldn’t! Not unless you got it from home.”
“That wouldn’t be making it,” replied Kid. “That would be finding it! I bet you I could make—” he paused and studied a moment—“make ten dollars in a week if I tried.”
Small hooted and Bert and Lanny smiled amusedly. Only Nan took the boast seriously.
“Could you really, Kid?” she cried delightedly. “Why, ten dollars would be almost enough to buy the books!”
Kid, flattered, nodded nonchalantly. “Pretty near, I guess. It wouldn’t be hard.”
“How would you do it?” asked Nan eagerly.
“Oh—” Kid smiled carelessly—“I know a way. I dare say I could make more than ten if I really tried; maybe fifteen or twenty!”
“Maybe you’d make twenty cents!” Lanny said sarcastically. “You’re a silly little goat!”
“Is that so?” Kid smiled in a superior manner and looked dreamily out the window. “Just because you can’t make money you think nobody else can. Bet you I can make ten dollars in a fortnight easy.”
“You said a week!” exclaimed Small. “And it was fifteen or twenty you were going to make!”
“I said if I wanted to. I don’t want to.”
Small jeered contemptuously. “Maybe I could—if I wanted to; but I don’t want to!”
“I suppose we could all earn a little money if we tried,” observed Bert thoughtfully. “It would be rather fun to try, wouldn’t it? To see whichcould earn the most in a week or a month? Then we could put it together and buy something and give it to somebody.”
“I’ll tell you what we might do,” said Lanny. “We might save enough or earn enough to buy a trophy of some sort for the baseball clubs.”
“How do you mean?” asked Bert.
“Why, get a mug, you know, something like the one Mr. Folsom and Mr. Crane got for the hockey championship. We could offer it to the school to be played for by the House and Day teams, the team winning it three times to have it for keeps. We might call it the Junior Four Cup.”
For the first time during the meeting genuine enthusiasm reigned. I think Nan would have preferred the books, but she was fond of baseball and the cup idea caught her fancy too. They discussed the plan at length, Small begging to be allowed to draw a design for the trophy. “Crossed bats, you know,” he explained, “with a wreath of laurel and the inscription underneath.”
“‘Presented to Mt. Pleasant Academy by the Junior Four,’” added Lanny. “It would look fine, wouldn’t it?”
“What’s the matter with having our names on it, too?” asked Kid. “Just so they’d know who the Junior Four were, you see.”
“Why not?” This from Bert. “And the fellow who contributed the most money to the fund could have his name first, and the fellow who contributed the next most could have his name second, and so on.”
“That puts my name at the head,” observed Kid gravely.
“I know a fellow who saved over seven dollars with a dime bank,” announced Small.
“How long did it take him?” Lanny inquired. Small thought a moment. Then,
“About nine months, I think,” he answered.
“Nine months!” exclaimed Bert. “We’ll have to get the money by the first of May at the latest. Besides, dime banks aren’t any good. I’ve tried them. You get hard up and then you open them and take everything out. If there was any way of earning some money——”
“Well, we’ll just have to think of a way,” said Nan. “I’m just certain sure we can do it if we give our minds to it. And it will be perfectly lovely, won’t it? We’ll be public benefactors!”
“We’ll be patrons of sport,” said Lanny. “Won’t the other fellows be surprised?”
“And pleased?” added Nan. She clapped her hands. “Let’s begin at once!”
“How?” asked Bert.
Silence ensued. Finally,
“We could—we could begin by saving,” faltered the Honorary Member.
Lanny shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t got anything to save,” he said dolefully. “That’s why I didn’t go into town this morning. I’m flat broke and Haley told me last week he wouldn’t trust me for another penny. And I owe a quarter to the Pirate besides.”
“Who’s the Pirate?” asked Bert.
“Old Higgins, the fellow who drives the carriage,” Lanny explained. “I didn’t have much coin when I got back after Christmas and so I told him to charge it. And every week he writes me a letter and threatens to go to the Doctor.”
“Heisa pirate,” agreed Nan. “Hasn’t anyone any money to start it with?” She looked at Bert. Bert smiled and shook his head.
“But I’ll have some in a day or two, Nan. I’ll have two dollars and I guess I could save fifty cents of it.”
“How about you, Kid?”
Kid smiled sweetly and thrust a hand in his pocket. When it was withdrawn and opened for inspection it held two nickels, three pennies and a piece of chewing gum. Bert made a grab for thegum, but Kid was too quick for him. Nan looked a trifle discouraged.
“And I haven’t any money myself,” she grieved. “We’re all dreadfully poor, aren’t we?” Then she brightened. “But we’ve got three months, haven’t we? If we all do our very best I’m sure we’ll succeed!”
“Can’t fail,” said Kid. “You can count on me for ten sure. Making money’s one of the easiest things I do!”