"You know how Jo and the rest had a club and published a paper? Now, then, let _us_ have a club and publish a paper ourselves. It would be lots of fun."
Eunice and Edna looked rather startled at Cricket"s ambition.
"Who would write the pieces for it?" demanded Edna, instantly.
"_We_ would, of course," answered Cricket, superbly. "I"d love to do it."
"Write stories, and poems, and everything," urged Edna, aghast.
"Of course," repeated Cricket, undauntedly. "It"s as easy as rolling off a log. That isn"t slang, Eunice, and you needn"t look at me. Rolling off a log is really very easy indeed." For Eunice, though her own language was not always above reproach, was very apt to play censor to her younger sister. "We"d just make them up ourselves."
"Make them _up_!" Unimaginative Edna opened her mouth and eyes wider.
"I couldn"t, to save my life!"
"Oh, you _could_. I"ve made up billions of stories," answered Cricket, hugging her knees, and talking earnestly.
"But how?" persisted Edna. "Oh, I couldn"t! I wouldn"t try!"
"I don"t know exactly _how_," returned Cricket, considering. "Just make them up, that"s all. Things come into your head all by themselves, somehow."
"It _would_ be fun, Cricket," put in Eunice, who had been thinking over the project. "We could print the paper all out on foolscap."
"Would we each write our own story out?"
"We could if we wanted to. I thought we might take turns being editor, and printing everything out like a real paper. We might have one every week, and get subscribers," added Cricket, ambitiously.
"Subscribers!" groaned Edna, "and print a copy out for each one? Not if I know myself. It"s too warm weather."
"Well, then, we might hand the one around to the subscribers, and each one could pa.s.s it to the next, like a Magazine Club," said Edna.
"No," said Eunice. "Don"t let us have subscribers, or anything like that. We"ll just do it for fun. We"ll write one number out for ourselves. I do think it will be fun. Shall we let the boys know?"
"No," said Edna, instantly. "They would tease and spoil things, just as they always do."
"They don"t tease much," said Cricket, defensively. "They"re a great deal nicer than they were last summer, I think, anyway. They did tease, last summer, dreadfully, and they never played with Eunice and me, but were always with Donald." For the summer before, Will and Archie had spent two months at Kayuna, as grandma had been ill, and was not able to have them at Marbury, as usual.
"This summer I think they"re awfully nice. At least Will always is, and Archie is, sometimes. They let me be around with them all the time."
"But I think we"d better not let them into it," said Eunice, judicially.
Eunice generally settled all questions. "They would not stick to it, and they would want us to do it some other way from what we wanted,"--speaking from long experience with boys,--"and they would want to have it their own way. Now what shall we call ourselves?"
"We ought to be the "Echo Club,"" suggested Edna, who often had practical ideas. "We copy it from "Little Women.""
"Splendid!" cried Cricket, clapping her hands. "That"s just the name, Edna. How clever of you! We"ll be the Echo Club, and the paper shall be the "Echo," and we"ll have badges with "E. C." on them, and we"ll choose a certain colour ribbon to wear them on, always, and we"ll have meetings, and oh, we"ll have some by-laws!" her imagination instantly running away with her. "I always wanted to have a club, and have by-laws, and rules, all written out. Do let"s begin, right away!"
"We can"t very well begin a paper, till we have some stories written to print in it," said Eunice, laughing. "We"ll have to get some ideas, first."
"You don"t want ideas," answered Cricket, scornfully. "We want to write some stories and things."
"I _never_ can!" sighed Edna, despairingly.
"But you can try," insisted Cricket. "It"s so easy." And at last, Edna, with a groan, promised she would at least try.
For the next few days, the three girls were never seen without the accompaniment of blank books and pencils. The blank books were Cricket"s idea. She said that they could carry around blank books with them, and write whenever they thought of anything to say. So they tied pencils around their necks, by long ribbons, and scribbled industriously in corners. Edna groaned, and protested, and chewed up her pencil, but Cricket was inexorable, and gave her no peace, till she made a beginning.
Suddenly Cricket discovered that they were not properly organized yet.
"Let"s have a meeting at two o"clock this afternoon, and choose a president, and secretary, and treasurer, and an editor, to print the paper when it is done. We must make up our rules and by-laws, too. Oh, we must have a regular business meeting," with an air of much importance.
"Let"s have it now, for we"re all here," proposed Edna.
"No, indeed, that would not do at all," said Cricket, decidedly, quite disgusted with this suggestion. "We must call the meeting first, just as grown-up people do." For Cricket, with all her harum-scarum ways, had a strong liking for organization.
"You"re a fuss," said Edna, laughing, but yielding the point.
So at two o"clock, the three girls duly and solemnly convened behind the rocks, where they were completely screened from observation, both from the house, and from any one pa.s.sing along the beach. All felt the importance of the occasion, and had preternaturally grave faces.
"What do we do first?" asked Edna, uncertainly.
"I know," said Cricket, quickly. "We nominate some one for president, and somebody seconds the motive. Papa has often told us about it, and once I went with mamma to a club of hers. I"ll nominate Eunice for president, and you must second the motive, Edna, and then we"ll vote."
"There"ll be n.o.body to vote, but me, then," objected Eunice. "Shall I vote for myself?"
"Might as well. You"ll have to be president anyway, because you"re the oldest, and it"s more appropriate. Or let"s do this: You say, "All in favour say, aye. Contrary-minded, no," and then we"ll all vote. That"s the way they did in mamma"s meeting, only, of course, there were more to vote. Now, I nominate Eunice Ward as president of the Echo Club."
"I second the motive," said Edna, promptly, trying not to laugh.
"All in favour of my being president, say aye," said Eunice, in her turn.
A very vigorous aye from the two others followed.
"Contrary-minded, say no."
There being n.o.body to say no, it was considered a unanimous election, and Cricket so declared it, with a slight variation.
"Eunice is a _unaminous_ president," she announced.
"What is a _unaminous_ president," asked Edna.
"I don"t know. It"s something they always say. Now we must choose a secretary and treasurer."
"What do they do?"
"Why, the secretary writes things," said Cricket, vaguely.
"All the stories?" said Edna, brightening. "I nominate Cricket for secretary."
"Of course not. We each write our own stories. I mean letters and things. Don"t you know, Eunice, that Marjorie was secretary to her club last winter, and what a lot of writing she had to do?"