“You all—you and your friends—must feel awfully uncomfortable,” laughed Amy. “I would not have those feelings for worlds, Belle.”
“Never mind,” whispered Jessie, who was always the peacemaker unless her temper was very seriously ruffled.
“She certainly is an even-tempered girl, that Belle Ringold,” said Amy, as the two chums moved away. “Mad all the time! Well, Jess, they certainly have put something over on us.”
“I think it is a grand idea,” rejoined Jessie eagerly. “If it is partly an amateur concert there will be just so many more people interested in it and thereby interested in the hospital foundation fund.”
“But, honey! The fact remains,” Amy said rather ruefully, “we are not in it!”
“But we are going to be,” declared her chum decidedly. “We thought of it first——”
“But maybe they won’t let us. It can’t all be in the hands of the ladies of the hospital committee. I suppose over at Stratfordtown there will be somebody, Mr. Blair, for instance——”
“We’ll see him,” said Jessie. “And we’ll ask Mark. If Mark feels so friendly toward us we’ll give him a chance to show it. I am just determined, Amy Drew, to sing in that concert.”
“I would like to recite something,” sighed Amy. “You know, Miss Seymour praised me for that after our June entertainment at the high school. I am just as eager to get into it as you are, Jess. But I do hate to go to Mr. Blair—or even to Mark Stratford or his father—and ask him right out.”
“I am not afraid to ask for what I want,” declared Jessie, who had considerable firmness and good sense. “But I wish we could find Mark’s watch to return to him. Then there would be some reason in our asking a favor. Though I don’t want him to feel that he has got to pay us for breaking down that aerial.”