This offer cheered the Blue Birds again, as a few hours" delay would not matter very much.
"Now, that"s done, what next?" asked Dot.
"Next thing is to say "good-afternoon" and go home," laughed Mrs.
Talmage, looking at her watch.
"Oh, dear, mother, it cannot be dinner-time," said Ruth.
"It is almost six o"clock, and I have some matters to look after, dear," returned her mother.
"Well, we can invite our mothers to join us, anyway, can"t we, Mrs.
Talmage?" said May.
"Yes, but I wouldn"t mention the fact that we feel that we must have them to enable us to get ahead of the Bobolinks, for your fathers will hear of it and plan some way to win out in spite of us," advised the astute Aunt Selina.
"We won"t! We"ll just say that as long as the boys have their fathers with them, we girls are going to invite our mothers," explained Norma, while the others nodded approval.
"May we come to-night?" asked Betty.
"How about school lessons?" asked Mrs. Talmage.
"And I want to revise several parts of my story to-night, besides the paper mills have not yet been visited, you know," objected Aunt Selina.
"Girls, we"d better wait until to-morrow; that"s Friday and we won"t have to go to bed so early as other evenings," suggested Ruth.
"All right, we"ll meet in the den to-morrow afternoon and report how many mothers will be here," consented Dot.
"And I"ll have Mrs. Catlin here in the evening," added Mrs. Talmage.
"Mother Wings, if we use that old room of Ned"s, why couldn"t we call it our Winter Nest? We can move in our cherry-tree Nest furniture when it grows colder and make the room look real comfy," said Ruth.
The other Blue Birds approved of the suggestion and Mrs. Talmage said she had no objection to having the Winter Nest in the den, so it was decided then and there.
Ruth accompanied her friends to the steps and as they stood vainly wishing there were several extra hours to add to an afternoon, Dot saw Don jump out of the wide-open door of the Publishing House and laugh derisively at someone inside.
"Now I wonder what that boy is up to?" she said.
"Oh, say, wouldn"t it be fun to creep in back of the carriage house and peep in at the windows to watch the boys!" suggested Edith.
"I know a better way," answered Ruth. "We will ask Ike to let us go up in the loft from the small room and we can look down through the wide c.h.i.n.ks of the floor."
"Oh, do let"s!" cried the Blue Birds, as they hurried back of the house to steal noiselessly over to the garage.
Ike understood the rivalry growing between them, and decided to be perfectly impartial, so he unlocked the door of the small room where the stairs led to a loft over the Publishing House.
The Bobolinks were making such a noise that they never heard the creaking of the floor overhead, or the giggles of the girls as they glued their eyes to the crevices between the boards.
"Now it"s Tuck"s turn to be an advertising solicitor!" called Don, who evidently had been discharged from some make-believe service when he was so unexpectedly put out of the door.
"Ah, I"d never make a solicitor of any kind," grumbled Tuck Stevens.
"But you"ve got to play the game as we all promised," coaxed some of the boys.
"I"ll be the man you want to see," persuaded Jinks.
"Come on, Tuck. We"ll have to go home pretty soon, so get busy,"
commanded Ned.
The girls began to understand that the Bobolinks were not playing, but practicing their duty for the future, so they silently looked at each other and nodded understandingly.
"Here goes, then," ventured Tuck, bravely.
He strutted across the floor toward the office and met one of the boys stationed there.
"Good-morning, sir; do you wish to see anyone?" asked the impromptu clerk.
"I have an appointment with Mr. Slamhim," quivered Tuck, as if the visit was an actual affair.
The boys t.i.ttered with glee as Tuck turned red and white.
"Your name, please?" asked the polite clerk.
"Reuben Stevens," replied Tuck, in a whisper.
"Ha! the name"ll queer you, Tuck!" laughed Don, behind his chum"s back, but the older boys hushed Don.
The clerk rapped upon the office door and a voice said, "Come in."
"Reuben Stevens to see you, sir. He has an appointment."
"Show him in," said the voice which Ruth recognized as a disguised ba.s.s of Ned"s.
Tuck walked to the office and then turned about and asked the other boys: "Now, what shall I say--I"ve forgotten."
Immediately there was a loud chorus of laughter, and a scuffle and Tuck was ousted in the same manner that Don had been.
"Didn"t I say that name would spoil you?" teased Don.
"Next!" called one of the boys who had a list of names which he marked down "good, indifferent, bad."
The boy whose turn came next carried off the rehearsal as if he had been a solicitor all of his short life. The other boys cheered his efforts and even the Blue Birds were tempted to clap their hands.
"Well, Bobolinks, I think this will do for to-day; we have drilled three of the boys after the manner shown us last night, but Don and Tuck seem to be hopeless cases," said Ned.
"I"ll practice it at home on Dot, and show you what I can do to-morrow,"
eagerly promised Don.
Dot looked up at her friends when she heard this and shook her head energetically.