“Well, you don't have to,” Swatty told her. “You're a girl, anyway. What do you want to play?”
“I don't want to play anything,” she said. “I've got a better game than a play-game, and you can be in it if you want to.”
“What is it, then?” Swatty asked.
“Secret society,” Scratch-Cat said. “I thought it all up in school to-day and it's Gypsies. Swatty will be the king and I'll be the queen, and Georgie and Bony can be princes, and we 'll take an oath to be mean to Miss Carter or anybody that keeps us in school or anything. We'll think up things to do to them, and when Miss Carter and Professor Martin are married we'll steal their children and raise them to be gypsies—”
“Aw!” I said, “they ain't going to be married.”
“Yes, they are!” Scratch-Cat said. “Because I saw him kiss her. He kissed her in the cloak room almost before I was out of it, just now.”
“Well, we ain't going to be secret gypsies or any secret society,” Bony said, “because me and Swatty and Bony have one already.”
“No, we haven't,” Swatty said.
“We have, too!” Bony said. “We've got the Red Aven—”
He stopped pretty short, you bet.