"You are just like Mrs. Gray, Judge," said Grace, "always imagining yourself old, when you know you're just a great big boy."
"Very pretty, my dear," chuckled the judge. "But if I am as young as you say, then I must do something to keep young. Now, the way I propose doing it is this: I have a camp up in the Adirondacks that needs attention, so I wrote my youngest sister about it and she agrees with me. She is going up there this week with a couple of servants to open the bungalow and put it in readiness for eight girls who call themselves the Phi Sigma Tau, providing their fathers and mothers can spare them for a few weeks. Do you think they will care to go?"
"Oh-h-h-h! How lovely!" breathed the eight girls in concert.
"Care to go? Well I should say so. It will be the greatest lark ever," cried Grace.
"If you know any young men who can make themselves useful, we might invite them. I don't like the idea of being the only boy, you know."
"David and Tom," said Grace and Anne.
"Hippy can go, I'm sure," said Nora.
"Not to mention Reddy and Arnold Evans," murmured Jessica, with a glance at Miriam.
"It looks as though I shall not lack masculine company," remarked the judge, with twinkling eyes. "Tell your parents that my sister will write them."
"I move that we give three cheers and the High School yell for Judge Putnam, and then go straight home and get proper permission," cried Grace.