"For two or three reasons, you lazy boy," answered Bess. "If we spent our evenings just playing games, we should soon be heartily tired of them and of each other. But a little work—I don't mean it to be hard work—will give a variety, so we shall like them both better. And then it is high time you boys were getting some new ideas beyond your daily doses of arithmetic and geography. You can take any subject you wish, from the moon to potato bugs, or Napoleon Bonaparte, provided you take one about which we can really learn something. We shall work an hour, and play an hour, and enjoy each better for having the other." And Bess paused amid a hum of admiration from her followers.
"What shall we call the club?" asked Rob.
"Genuine Grubbers," said Phil, in whose mind the thought of study was still rankling.
"The Brotherhood of Frederick the Great," was Bert's pertinent suggestion.
"Queen Bess and her Jolly Lads would be good," remarked Teddy. "Q.B.J.L. for short, you know, and none of the other fellows would know what it meant."
"It strikes me," Sam interposed, "we'd ought to let Fred have something to say about it."
"I agree with you, Sam," rejoined Bess. "Come home with me now, all of you, and we will plan for the name, first subject, and so on, and then on Saturday night we can have our first meeting."
And so Saturday evening found the house brightly lighted, and Fred in his best suit, with a white carnation in his buttonhole, while Bess arranged Fuzz with his basket, ball, and rag doll in a comfortable corner of the kitchen, to keep Bridget company, and persuaded the Dominie to retire to the dining-room.
Punctually at the moment came the boys, each one with a proud consciousness of being dressed up for the occasion, although Phil's front lock of hair would stand rampant, and Ted's shoes bore traces of his having splashed through some wayside puddle. After a few moments of chatter, Bess stepped to the table and rapped on it with mock solemnity.
"The members of the Club of Inquisitive Investigators will please come to order. I will call the roll of officers and members. President, Miss Elizabeth Carter. Well, I'm here. Vice-President, Master Frederic Allen."