"Why, certainly not, if you would rather not; but I thought it would be more fun," said Miss Isabel. "I could paint some—say, a dozen for each of us, and then they need not be cancelled, except with a pencil-mark that would easily rub off, so they would last a long time."
"It would be much nicer, but you ought not to bother, Miss Isabel," said Amy.
"It is no trouble; I'll do them in the evening, and if Jack makes the box, and you all do lots of things, I ought to do something. An honorary member must be an honorable member," said Miss Isabel, smiling. "May I ask you to go into the arbor in the garden while I ask Mary to make some lemonade and bring it to us with cake, that we may eat and drink to the health of the Happy Thought Club of Blissylvania?"
The children passed through the great hall, and out the door opposite the front one, which admitted them to the beloved garden. On the way they decided for the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time, at least, that their Miss Isabel was the dearest thing, and that there was no one on earth quite like her.
This decision had hardly been arrived at when she rejoined them.
"When shall we begin?" she asked, bending her head under the wistaria vine drooping above the entrance to the arbor.
"I'm going to make the box to-night, and we thought we'd get the thing up and everything ready to-morrow," answered Jack.
"Yes, and begin Monday," added Margery. "You see this is Friday, and we shall have all day Saturday to get ready, and Sunday is a nice day to write letters, for we all go to children's Mass at nine, you know, and can write all day."
"Stopping to eat, I hope," laughed Miss Isabel.