“I wish some one would enlighten me,” said Max helplessly. “Who are the Wide Awake girls?”
“Why, Max! Didn’t you ever take Wide-Awake?”
“The magazine? Sure thing. What of it? Does 97 Catherine want us to subscribe? After an ivory manicure set or a lawn-mower premium?”
“No, no. Listen, Max, and any of the rest of you who are so ignorant as not to know about the Wide Awake girls. Hannah Eldred advertised for friends once, and Catherine and a little girl in Germany and one out West answered. And the German one proved to be the daughter of a long-lost friend of Hannah’s mother, and the one out West turned up at Dexter, rooming next door, when she went there, and now she rooms with Catherine. Did you ever hear such a tale in your life? If you were to read such a string of facts in a book, you wouldn’t believe it.”
“No more you would,” commented Max. “I’m not at all sure I believe it, as it is. Are they all coming at once, Catherine?”
“Not quite. Hannah and Frieda will be here in a week or two, and Alice as soon after as she can. They are all of them the dearest girls!”
“Pretty?” asked Archie.
“Wait and see,” laughed Catherine. “They’ll make their own impression, but I want you all to be friends as we are.”
“We’ll do our best to entertain them,” said Bert. “Distinguished foreigners don’t come our way every day. I move you, Madam President, that we make these Wide Awake young ladies honorary members of the Club.”
98The motion was put and carried with a round of applause, and a few minutes later the Boat Club meeting was informally adjourned.