"Oh, we don't want to do that," put in Esther Ann scornfully. "We don't want to be copy-cats. We want to have something all our ownty downty selves, and not just like somebody else."
"That's just what I think," spoke up Emma Hunt. "Not that I don't think yours is the best I ever heard of, and I don't see why we couldn't have one something like it, just a little different."
"There aren't so very many girls of us, for there are more old people than children in this place," said Alcinda. "Would that make any difference, Edna? Yours is such a big club."
"It wasn't big when we began; there were only six of us to begin with."
"Oh, were there? Then we could do it easily. Let me see how many are here; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and there is Mattie Bond who couldn't come because she is sick; she would make twelve."
"How many are there in your club?" asked Reliance.
"Oh, I don't know just how many by now. Uncle Justus has a pretty big school and almost every girl belongs to it," replied Edna.
"Yes, and we have one very grown-up lady, an honorary member; I'll tell you all about Miss Eloise some day. Agnes Evans was our first president, and she is really grown up, for she is at college."
"I think a little club would be nicer," Esther Ann spoke her mind.