"We'd like a little fun, please," said Aleck.
"Aunt Zélie, we really don't know what we want, but we thought you could suggest something. You can think of scrumptious things when you try, and we can get ahead of the girls easily if we have you. So please, there's a dear," and Carl emphasized his request with a bear-like hug from behind.
There was no holding out against their entreaties, so she agreed to think it over.
"You may each invite one friend to a meeting in the star chamber next Friday evening, and in the meantime I'll do my best to think of something for you," she said, and very well satisfied the boys departed, to lie in wait for the M.Ks.
When they came to think of it, it was not easy to decide which of their friends to ask. Ikey finally settled upon his next best chum, Fred Ames. "Don't you think he will do?" he asked Carl as they walked home from school.
"Yes, of course; he is a very nice boy. I think I'll ask Jim Carter."
Ikey looked astonished. "Do you think he is the sort of a fellow your aunt will like?"
"I don't care; I like him and I am going to ask him," Carl replied positively. He thought best, however, to make some explanation.
"You see, Aunt Zélie," he said, finding her alone that evening, "Jim is a funny kind of a boy. Ikey doesn't like him, but I think there is a lot that is good in him. He is bright, I can tell you, and there is nothing really mean about him, but his father gives him too much money. I suppose that isn't ever good for a boy."
"I hardly think it is," she said, smiling at Carl's judicial manner.