Everyone began to whistle and clap and shout. The Brownies were so taken by surprise, they scarcely knew what to think.
It did not seem possible that they had been elected to the honor!
“But we can’t all be queen,” Jane whispered uneasily. “There must be some mistake.”
“Mr. McLean announced that several persons could be chosen,” Connie recalled. “Only we didn’t even enter our names!”
The girls crowded about Miss Gordon, who, oddly enough, seemed very little surprised that the organization had been selected instead of a single queen.
“You knew it all the time!” Veve accused the teacher. “Didn’t you?”
“Mr. McLean talked to me about it earlier today,” the Brownie leader confessed. “He convinced me that inasmuch as the idea for a cherry festival originated with the organization, it would be suitable for the troop to take the cherry pie to Washington.”
“You didn’t tell us anything about it,” Connie said.
“At first it seemed very uncertain that the Brownies could be elected on a write-in basis,” the teacher explained. “But I underestimated Mr. McLean. I think he must have told everyone to vote for the Brownies.”
“And so did Mr. Hooper,” added a bystander. “Also, the Mexican pickers voted solidly for the troop.”