"Thank you? I guess we do thank you," cried Sally Moore heartily, "for getting us out of this scrape."
"Oh! I don't mean that," said Charlotte indifferently, "I mean because you called me by my first name, the same as you girls always talk to each other."
There was a little pause. "Oh! we didn't know as you'd like it," broke in Alexia hastily, "you are so tall, and you never seem in a hurry, nor as if you cared a straw about being like a girl, and we didn't dare. But now, oh, Charlotte—Charlotte!" And she gave her a hug that well repaid Charlotte for all the past.
"That's a regular bear-hug," she cried at last, releasing her and taking a long breath, "and equal to a few dozen common every-day ones."
"If Charlotte can breathe after that," said Clem, turning on Charlotte a pair of glowing eyes, "she'll do well. We are just as glad to call you Charlotte, aren't we, girls," whirling around on the group, "as Alexia, for all her bear-hug."
"Yes—yes," cried the whole bevy.
"Well, now, girls," said Alexia, running over to give Clem a small
shake, "let's to business. There isn't any time to waste. Charlotte
Chatterton, will you tell us the rest of it, and who will be the Lord of
Misrule?—dear me, if we only had Joel here!"
"I think Doctor Fisher would be the Lord of Misrule," said Charlotte; "he said he'd do anything we wanted of him, to help out."
The girls one and all gave a small howl, and clapped their hands, crying, "Capital—capital!"
"Let's go and ask him now!" cried Alexia, who wasn't anything if not energetic; and running to her closet, she picked off her hat from the shelf and tossed it on her head. "Oh, how slow you are, girls—do hurry!" as the others flew to the bed where their different head-gear had been thrown.