"I believe she was," answered the boy with a broad grin. He was enjoying himself.
"An' as fur the schoolma'am's not carin' fur the girls, y're mistaken. I'm sure she will have a club fur us."
"Yes," taunted the burly fellow, "to hammer things into y'r heads with."
At this Jessie left him in high dudgeon. She sought Esther and asked:
"Don't ye like we girls as much as the boys?"
"Just a little bit better, perhaps. Why, Jessie?"
"Bob Burns says ye don't care fur the girls, an' he knows ye don't 'cause ye hain't made no club fur them."
"Bob's mistaken, isn't he? We girls," and the teacher paused and smiled into several faces, "we girls are to have a club soon. Don't you say so?"
The girls gathered about her. Bob's remark, repeated by Jessie, had been most timely, and crystallized what had been in the girls' minds,—to organize such a club for women as had been organized for the men.
They talked rapidly, several at a time; but at last they listened to Esther, as she asked them to visit the school at an hour they could agree upon, on the following Monday. This they promised to do. But at this juncture, John Harding interrupted the conversation.