“‘Now isn’t that mean of you?’ I asked.” Jean lifted her chin and looked sidewise at Leigh as she had doubtless scanned Billy.
“He asked me where our club met and I said, ‘Most anywhere yet, but headquarters is at our house.’ Billy didn’t say anything for a minute. Billy is terribly smart, you know, and it looked fishy to him,—naturally! Still, some of us have been meeting occasionally, you know.
“Then he said, ‘Well, all I have to say is that it’s awfully funny we never heard anything of it before this. Girls can’t keep a secret!’”
“‘Oh, can’t we?’ I asked. Then Billy looked at me and laughed, and I laughed, and he broke a peanut chocolate bar into two pieces and gave me the biggest,—bigger, I mean; so he wasn’t mad, of course. But by this time Danny Pierce was coming along on the other side of the street, and looked over with a grin,—and that finished Billy. You know how he feels about being seen with a girl! So he never said goodbye or anything but bolted across to Danny. I’m sure he’ll tell Danny about our club, so you see what I’ve gotten us into. But there’s one thing that will save you, if you don’t want to come to my rescue,—Billy didn’t ask me who belonged.
“I rushed home and asked Mother if I could have the finished room in the attic for a club room and that is all right. Now will any of you stand by me, or do I have to be a club all by myself?”
“You forget me, Jean,” Nan reminded her. “I promised to be a S. P. S. P. forever!”
Molly jumped to her feet. “All in favor of being an S. P. stand up!”
Every girl responded and Leigh, of whom Jean had been most in doubt, laughingly announced that she wouldn’t miss it for anything. “Let’s have sweet pins,” she added. “A snake would be dreadful,—Ugh!”
“No, really, Leigh, their pins are pretty,” said Nan, “gold with a little black enamel, and Jim said that when they could afford it they might have rubies for the snakes’ eyes. That was when I looked at his pin.”
“The ‘Black Wizards!’ Wow!” exclaimed Bess. “Let’s elect Jean president, and Nan secretary, and Leigh would make a good treasurer, as her father’s president of the bank now. I’m a nominating committee!”