“He probably heard what we said about Hallowe’en,” Jean replied. “Anyhow, he suggested at noon that if the boys were Black Wizards, we girls ought to be some sort of witches. He had walked home with Jimmy Standish and Jimmy told him the latest school gossip, I guess. How about it, Nan?”
“Nobody knows how all these things get around,” said Nan Standish. “But it’s a good suggestion. Why not have Orders? The Order of the Witch or Wings, for the bird division, for instance.”
“‘Swooping Pelicans’ would be better,” said Leigh quickly. “They look just like old witches riding the waves in Florida!”
“So do the kingfishers all scrooched up on a limb over the lake,” suggested Fran.
“And how about a little green heron watching for that next fish?” queried Bess.
“This club’s getting altogether too smart,” laughed Jean. “Nan, take these things down quick before we forget ’em! Stormy Petrel is another bird name with S. P., and haven’t we a Phoebe bird and a Crane already?”
“Help, help!” cried Nan, sharpening her pencil. “Swooping Pelican—Stormy Petrel, any more S. P.’s?”
Nan scribbled away, taking notes. Nor was she without some excellent ideas of her own. For the next hour or so the girls made their plans with many a laugh and chuckle. Leigh, who always had such pretty things, said that she could bring some cushions for the couch, which Mrs. Gordon had already covered with a gay couch-cover or robe. Fran had some curtains that she would offer.
“Maybe you won’t like them, though,” she added. “I bought them myself for my room when I was about ten years old, and Mother never would let me put them up, since my room is at the front of the house, like this, to be sure. Oh, I suppose they won’t do! They have all sort of crazy things in the pattern, peacocks and birds and I don’t know what.”
“Why, that would be fine for Stealthy Prowlers, Fran,” said Jean. “Bring them over and we can see. Mother has some plain draperies that she is fixing. Those will show behind the shades, but we can have our gay curtains inside of those. We’d have to have something to brighten things up. And I have a grand idea—that is, if you think it’s grand, of a witches caldron, right in the middle of the room, with a fire under it, you know, or things fixed to look like one, and maybe an electric bulb hidden in it.