"I do want to now, Hazel--and forgive and forget, won't you?" he said, with the winning smile he inherited from his father, but which he kept for rare occasions.
Hazel put her hand in his, and felt that this had been worth waiting for. She knew that at last March had taken her in.
Budd gripped with all his might, Cherry shook with two fingers, and Chi's great hand closed over hers as tenderly as a woman's would have done.
This was Hazel's initiation into the Nobody's Business But Our Own Society. It was the second meeting of the year.
"Now, March, I 'll make you chairman and ask you to state the business of this meetin', as you 've called it. Must be mighty important?"
"It is," replied March, gravely, all the fun dying out of his face. "You remember, all of you,--don't you?--what mother told us that night she said Hazel was coming?"
"Yes," chorussed the children.
"Well, I 've been thinking and thinking ever since how I could help--"
"So 've I, March," interrupted Rose.
"And I have, too," said Budd.