“What do you call her Miss Merton for?” asked Lanny after Nan had hurried indoors again. “Her name’s Nan; except when you want to get her mad, and then it’s Nancy.”
“Well, I don’t know her very well yet,” answered Bert in excuse. “She seems a pretty good sort.”
“She is. She’s all right—for a girl. Girls always want to stick their noses into things, though. Just as though we couldn’t get up a society without her help!”
“Well, we wouldn’t have thought of it, I guess. And I’m glad she did. It’ll be rather fun, won’t it?”
“Sure. It must be a secret society, too. And we’ll vote for officers.”
This settled, they went on with the matter in hand, which was to start at the corner of the house and see how far they could make their sleds go around the corner into the road.
At ten minutes past twelve the four crept into the stable with appropriate stealthiness and found Nan already there. She led the way into the harness room, closed and locked the door and took command of the situation. There was a stove in the harness room, but as there was no fire in it it couldn’t be said to help the situation much. It was undoubtedly cold and Small remarked sarcastically that he didn’t see why the hall wasn’t good enough.
“Because,” replied Nan scathingly, “you can’t form a Secret Society with the whole world hearing every word you say. You’d be surrounded by your enemies in the hall.”
“I’d be surrounded by some heat, anyway,” muttered Small ungraciously.