“If you really _want_ to belong. Anybody with a bank full of money ought to be able to make happy times for the whole town.”
“Any dues to pay? What are the rules and what are the duties of a member?”
Again Georgina was embarrassed. He seemed to expect so much more than she had to offer. She swung the red purse around nervously as she answered:
“I guess you won’t think it’s much of a club. There’s nothing to it but just its name, and all we do is just to go around making what it says.”
“Count me as Member number Three,” said Mr. Gates gravely. “I’m proud to join you. Shake hands on it. I’ll try to be a credit to the organization, and I hope you’ll drop around once in a while and let me know how it’s getting along.”
The beaming smile with which Georgina shook hands came back to him all morning at intervals.
Cousin James Milford, who had been an interested listener, followed her out of the bank presently and as he drove his machine slowly past the drug-store he saw the five children draining their glasses at the soda-water fountain. He stopped, thinking to invite Richard and Georgina to go to Truro with him. It never would have occurred to him to give the three little Portuguese children a ride also had he not overheard that conversation in the bank.
“Well, why not?” he asked himself, smiling inwardly. “It might as well be rainbows for the crowd while I’m about it.”
So for the first time in their lives Manuel and Joseph and Rosa rode in one of the “honk wagons” which heretofore they had known only as something to be dodged when one walked abroad. Judging by the blissful grins which took permanent lodging on their dirty faces, Cousin James was eligible to the highest position the new club could bestow, if ever he should apply for membership.
If Mrs. Triplett had been downstairs that evening, none of the birthday nickels would have found their way through the ticket window of the moving picture show. She supposed that Georgina was reading as usual beside the evening lamp, or was out on the front porch talking to Belle. But Belle, not caring to talk to anyone, had given instant consent when Georgina, who wanted to go to the show, having seen wonderful posters advertising it, suggested that Mrs. Fayal would take her in charge. She did not add that she had already seen Mrs. Fayal and promised to provide tickets for her and the children in case she could get permission from home. Belle did not seem interested in hearing such things, so Georgina hurried off lest something might happen to interfere before she was beyond the reach of summoning voices.