"Who to?" persisted Edna. "What do they have to write letters for? We"ve n.o.body to write letters to but Aunt Margaret and the rest."
"Not to them, of _course_," returned Cricket, somewhat impatiently, as she did not at all know the duties of a secretary. "And the treasurer takes care of the money, of course," she went on, quickly shifting the subject to something she was sure of.
"How are we going to get any money, will you kindly tell me?" pursued Edna.
"Keeping a peanut stand," suggested Eunice, slyly.
"No, don"t let"s," answered Cricket, seriously. "It isn"t really _much_ fun, and you don"t make very much, anyway. First, let"s take up a collection to buy the paper with, for we"ve got to have that. And, well, if we should have any money in any way, the treasurer would be all ready to take care of it. Don"t you see?"
"Ye-es. I nominate Cricket for secretary and treasurer, then--"
"I"ll second the motive--Cricket, that doesn"t sound right."
"It is," said Cricket, positively. "When I went to that meeting with mamma, they kept saying that--"I"ll second the motive.""
"All right, then, I"ll second the motive, but then Edna will have to be the editor."
"No, no," cried Edna, looking alarmed. "I"ll nominate myself for secretary and treasurer, and we"ll have Cricket for editor. There won"t be any letters to write, and I"m sure there won"t be much money to take care of."
"It will be lots of work to be editor," meditated Eunice. "Wouldn"t this be better, girls? Let each be editor in turn."
"Yes, that will be best," said Cricket. "I"d just as lief be first editor, though, if Edna doesn"t want to."
"And I"d _lievser_ you would," said Edna. "Shall I be secretary and treasurer, then? All in favour say aye;" and Eunice and Cricket said aye, loudly.
"What do we do now the officers are all chosen?" asked Edna.
"Make rules and by-laws," answered Cricket, promptly.
"What _are_ by-laws?" asked Edna, again.
"Why, they are--by-laws. I don"t know just exactly what they are," broke off Cricket, honestly. "But I think they sound very interesting and grown-up-y. Do you know what they are, Eunice?"
"N--o, not exactly. Do you suppose they are the laws about buying things? or who must buy them, or anything like that?"
"Why, of course!" exclaimed Cricket, with an air of conviction. "You see then, we"ll _have_ to have by-laws to see about buying the paper, won"t we?"
"And what sort of rules do we have?" went on Edna, in the pursuit of information.
"Oh, everything! Let"s begin to make them now. You write them down, Edna, for your handwriting is so nice and neat. Take the last leaf of your blank book."
Edna obediently opened her book, and took up her pencil.
"Write "Rules for the Echo Club" at the top of the page," directed Cricket. "Now, Rule One," when this was down in Edna"s careful handwriting.
"How would this do for rule one? "We make ourselves into a club called the Echo Club.""
"That"s good. Now for rule two.
""Every two weeks we will print a paper called the _Echo_,"" said Cricket. "Edna, you make up rule three."
""The secretary shall be excused from writing stories,"" laughed Edna.
"You lazy, lazy thing. That sha"n"t be a rule at all," answered Eunice, laughing also.
"How would this do, then, for rule three? "The Echo Club will not do anything in very hot weather, but sit under the trees and embroider and read, and none of the members shall be allowed to make the others go on long walks and things when it"s so roasting hot that n.o.body wants to stir." That"s a beautiful rule," said Edna, mischievously. Whereupon Cricket flew at her, and rolled her over on the sand, till she cried for mercy.
"Will the meeting please come to order," announced the president. "Let"s have the third rule about our ribbons. We"ll choose one colour. I vote for pale-green."
"Blue," said Edna, and "Pink," said Cricket, in one breath. The children looked at each other and laughed.
"I"d just as soon have pale-green," said Edna, amiably.
"So would I," agreed Cricket. "Eunice is president, so let"s vote for pale-green. How would this do? "The club will have pale-green ribbon to tie its pencils round its necks.""
""Round its necks" sounds funny," commented Edna, writing.
"Round its neck, then. But that sounds as if we had only one neck."
"Say, the club will have pale-green ribbon to tie their pencils round their necks," amended Eunice.
"That will do. Now rule four," said Edna, waiting, with pencil raised.
"Shouldn"t we have a by-law now?" asked Cricket. "For instance, By-law one: "The club will buy foolscap paper to print on, and will take up a surscription of five cents to buy it with.""
"_Sub_scription," corrected Eunice. "I should think that would do."
So Edna wrote, neatly:
"Buy-law I. The club will take up a subscription of five cents each, and buy foolscap paper, as much as it needs."
"That"s good. Do we need any more by-laws? What else have we to buy?"
"Ain"t those enough rules?" asked Eunice. "I can"t seem to think of any more rules we want to make."
"When will we have the paper?" asked Edna.
"Depends on when you send in your stories. This is Wednesday. Have you your stories nearly done, girls? I guess it will take some time to print them all out carefully."
"I can finish mine to-morrow," said Eunice.
"Mine"s a horrid little thing, but I wasn"t born bright," sighed Edna.
"I"ll get it done by Friday. I can"t think up more than five lines a day."
"Mine"s all done," said Cricket. "But, oh, girls! a newspaper ought to have ever so many more things than stories in it. We ought to have jokes, and advertis.e.m.e.nts, and deaths, and marriages, and all that. And puzzles, too."
"Oh-h!" groaned Edna. "Then you"ll have to make them up, that"s all. I think it"s the editor"s business, anyway."
"We"ll each do a few. That won"t be hard," suggested Eunice.