“We who are left at home here are going to keep it up, so that there’ll always be a Club for the wanderers to come back to. And we’re going to have a round robin fly about every month.”
“Perhaps we’ll all get together next summer in the holidays,” suggested Tom.
“We’ll try to,” the president continued. “Now I want to ask you to drink in Aunt Louise’s nice brown coffee to the health of the founder of the United Service Club. She is its secretary and to-day she is distinguished as being about to leave us for good.”
They rapped the table and shouted Ethel Blue’s name joyously. She sat with her head bowed, smiling.
“Speech, speech,” cried Mr. Emerson.
“Thank you, thank you,” replied Ethel Blue breathlessly. “I’m glad we’ve had the Club. It has been fun, although we’ve had to work pretty hard at it.”
“You’ve made fun for others,” said Mrs. Emerson. “You’ve lived up to your name:—the United Service.”
“I’d like to propose the health of the Club as a whole,” said Mrs. Morton. “As a citizen of Rosemont I can repeat what has been said to me by other citizens, even if, as the mother of some of the members, I might be somewhat embarrassed to utter such praise. Rosemont thinks that the United Service Club has done more to stir up the town than any other organization it has ever had.”
There was general applause from the grown-ups.
“I’d like to hear some of these undertakings,” said Captain Morton. “Won’t some one recite them?”