"Oh, yes! For she is the very nicest lady you ever saw, Mr. Howbridge. And I do think you might let us give some of the money to the hospital that Uncle Peter forgot to give—if he had been reminded, of course."
"That child should enter my profession when she grows up," said Mr. Howbridge to Ruth, when Tess had been excused. "She'll split hairs in argument even now. What's started her off on this hospital business?"
Ruth told him. She told, too, what Tess did each month with her own pin money, and the next allowance day Tess was surprised to find an extra half dollar in her envelope.
"Oh—ee!" she cried. "Now I can give something to the hospital fund, can't I, Ruthie?"
Meanwhile, Agnes, with Eva Larry, Myra Stetson, and others of her closest friends (Agnes had a number of bosom chums) waited solemnly in Mr. Marks' office. More than the basket ball team was present in anxious waiting for the principal's appearance.
"Where's Trix Severn?" demanded Eva in a whisper of the other girls. "She ought to be in this."
"In what?" demanded another girl, trying to play the part of innocence.
"Ah-yah!" sneered Eva, very inelegantly. "As though you didn't know what it is all about!"
"Well, I'm sure I don't," snapped this girl. "Mr. Marks sent for me. I don't belong to your old basket ball team."
"No. But you were with us on that car last May," said Agnes, sharply, "You know what we're all called here for."