"Well, you see," explained Lou, "when we have any plan we talk to Mr. Clarke beforehand; get things all worked up, you understand, and he pushes them through if he can. Then if any new idea comes up, we whisper it over, and somebody beckons to Dr. Myers, and he tiptoes over, listens to a whispered argument, and tiptoes back. Then pretty soon, he gets up and says, 'It has been suggested,' &c. Then we ladies nod and smile, and are very much gratified that our ideas are getting an airing."
Mabel was much amused at Lou's absurd way of putting it, though judging from the meeting she had just attended it was exactly true.
"Well," she said, "it is a queer way of doing things."
"So it is, Miss Wynn," said Mr. Clarke, coming up behind them. "Can't you and Lou bring about a reform?"
"Oh!" exclaimed Lou. "I am not of the stuff reformers are made of. New ways are so uncertain. We are all used to the old plan, and it works very well. We are pretty sure of getting our way, and I think it is the whispered consultations that bring it about."
"No doubt of it. I would not break those up for anything," responded Mr. Clarke, mischievously, as he hurried forward to overtake Deacon Holt.
One or two more meetings after the same pattern roused Mabel to action. First she talked it over with Lou, who liked her proposition "immensely," and to whom she said—
"I do not wish to push myself forward, and if you, who are an old teacher, will talk it over with the others, the lady teachers, I mean, and enlist them, I am sure we can bring it about."
"Splendid!" exclaimed Lou. "And we won't let the gentlemen know a thing about it until it is all done.
"Of course," continued the merry girl, "Mrs. Culver won't like it. She never wants us to get out of the old track."