“I shall ask Mary Sargent,” said Hilda. “You girls don’t know her very well, and she seems quiet, but really there’s a lot of fun in her, and you’ll find it out.”
“Oh, I think she’s jolly,” said Clementine; “anybody must be to draw such funny pictures as she does. She got me giggling in class the other day, and I came near being marked in deportment. It was an awful narrow escape. Who are you going to ask, Patty?”
Patty looked at her three fellow-Grigs. “I’ve made up my mind,” she said, and her eyes twinkled; “I shall ask Lorraine Hamilton.”
A chorus of groans greeted this announcement, and then Clementine said: “That’s a good joke, Patty, and an awfully funny one; but, honest, who do you really mean to ask?”
“It isn’t a joke,” said Patty. “You girls each made your selection, and nobody found any fault; now I think I ought to have the same privilege.”
“But we chose merry girls,” said Adelaide; “nobody could call Lorraine as merry as a Grig! Oh, Patty, she’ll spoil the whole club.”
“But listen, girls; the club is to make other people merry as well as to be merry ourselves, and don’t you think it would be a good thing if we could make Lorraine merry?”
“Yes,” said Hilda; “but the people we’re going to cheer up are not members of the club. I think the members ought to be really grigs and not croaking ravens, like Lorraine.”
“If she’s a member, I won’t be,” said Adelaide, “and Editha won’t either.”
“Then that settles it,” said Patty, cheerfully; “of course, Adelaide, I wouldn’t do anything that would keep you out of the club. But look here, girls: if Lorraine gets more pleasant and sunshiny after a while, will you let her come in then?”