"I think a little club would be nicer," Esther Ann spoke her mind.

"But what shall it be and what shall we call it?" asked Alcinda.

"I'll tell you what," proposed Edna, "you all ask your mothers what they think and I will ask my mother what she thinks, and we can meet somewhere to-morrow to talk it over."

"I haven't any mother," came a sorrowful little voice from the corner.

Big Reliance put her arm around the younger girl. "Never mind, Letty,"

she whispered; "neither have I, but we can ask somebody else's mother."

"I'll lend both of you my mother," whispered Edna from the other side.

So it was that the company of little girls went home from Jetty's party with quite a new plan. Even Edna, who would really have no part in the club, was much interested, and could scarcely wait to talk it over with her mother at bedtime. She began as soon as they were upstairs together.

"Mother," she said, "do you think grandma would let Reliance come up while I am getting ready for bed?"

"Why, dearie, I don't know, I am sure. Why do you want her on this special night?"

"Because there is something we girls are going to talk over with our mothers, and Reliance hasn't any mother, neither has Letty Osgood, and I told them I would lend them my mother. You don't mind, do you, mother dear?" Edna put her two hands on each of her mother's cheeks and looked at her very earnestly.

"Why, my darling, of course not," returned Mrs. Conway, kissing her.

"You know mother is always very glad to mother any little girl who may need her. What is this wonderful something you are to talk over?"

"I think we'd better not begin until we know about Reliance though. I wish I had asked grandma before I came up, but I wanted to speak to you first, mother dear."

"Then I will go down and ask her. Where is Reliance?"

"I suppose she is in the kitchen with Amanda; I don't believe she has gone to bed yet."

Her mother left the room, and while Edna unlaced her shoes, she listened for her return. In a few minutes she heard voices on the stair and realized that Reliance was coming up. "We haven't said a word about it yet," she nodded to Reliance who came in behind Mrs. Conway. "You begin, Reliance."

"No, you," said Reliance drawing back shyly.

"Well," began Edna, addressing her mother, "you see the girls want to get up a club something like ours, only not just like it, and they don't want the same name either. There aren't such a lot of girls here, because there are so many more old people than young ones in this village, and so you see--what kind of club would be nice, mother?"

"Why, dearie, I shall have to think it over."

"We ought to decide very soon," said Edna, "for I should hate to go away without knowing. Could Reliance bring Letty Osgood home with her from school to-morrow? I lent you to her, too, and maybe by that time you might think of something?"

"We'll ask grandma about it, dear, though I am sure she will not object.

Is that all now?"

Edna thought it was, and now that she was ready to pop into bed, Reliance left her with a happy "Good-night!" It was like sunshine in the house to have such a dear little girl as Edna, she thought as she went downstairs, and though Amanda reprimanded her sharply for not being in bed, she did not answer back, for, in fact, she scarcely heard her, so busy was she with pleasant thoughts, and so excited over the idea of the club.

The next morning, Edna and her mother did a great deal of talking about the new club, so much, in fact, that when it was time for Reliance to return from school, Edna was on the lookout for her, feeling that she had so much to tell that there should be no time wasted. "Here they come, mother," she sang out. "Reliance and Letty. May I bring them right up here?"

"To be sure you may."

"I'm going down to tell Amanda to 'scuse Reliance for just a few minutes." She flew downstairs to the kitchen. "'Manda," she said, "mother is going to talk over something very important with Reliance and Letty, so will you please not call her for a few minutes? I'll help her set the table."

"It seems to me you are making too much of Reliance," returned Amanda; "she can't be brought up to look for nothing but ease and pleasure; she will have to work for her living."

"But this isn't anything that is going to keep her from doing that,"

explained Edna, "and grandma said she could have a little time to play while I am here, specially when I help her."

"Oh, well, go 'long," returned Amanda, "only don't keep her too long; there's more to do than set the table."

Though the permission was accorded rather ungraciously, Edna was satisfied, and ran to welcome Letty who was just coming in the gate. "I am so glad you could come," she said. "You are going to stay to dinner, aren't you? Did you ask your father?"

"Yes, and he said I might."

"Good! Then come right upstairs and take off your things. Oh, girls, mother has a lovely plan for a club, and the dearest name you ever heard. You can come, Reliance, grandma said so, and so did Amanda. I'm going to help set the table."

She led the way up to where her mother was sitting, her face bright with eagerness as she brought Letty forward. "This is Letty Osgood, mother, Dr. Osgood's daughter, you know."

Mrs. Conway drew the shy little girl nearer. "It is very nice to see Let.i.tia Osgood's daughter," she said. "I knew your dear mother very well, and I am glad to have my little girl making friends with her little girl."

"Now, mother," began Edna, breaking in, "won't you please not talk much at first about anything but the club, because Reliance has only a few minutes to stay."

Her mother smiled and nodded to Letty. "Very well, Letty," she said, "well have a nice, little, cozy chat all to ourselves after awhile when this impatient young person has had her subject discussed. I was thinking, girlies, that as long as there are so many elderly and old people in the village, some of whom are poor and some who are partial invalids, that it would be a very sweet thing if you little girls could form yourselves into a club which would help to make their lives a little less sad. It would mean a great deal to old Miss Belinda Myers, for instance, if one of you would drop in once in a while with a flower, or any little thing for her. She is so crippled up with rheumatism that she can't leave her room, and must sit there by the window all day long.

She is fond of children, too. Of course she has plenty of this world's goods, and her old friends do not neglect her, yet I am sure that you could give something to her by your mere presence which none of the older persons could. Then there is poor old Nathan Keener."

"Oh, but he is such an old cross patch," interrupted Edna.

"So he is, but he has had enough to make him so. I wonder if any one of us would be very amiable if she were poverty-stricken, half sick all the time, had lost all her friends and had been cheated out of the little which would make old age comfortable? It is very easy to be smiling and agreeable when everything goes right, but when things go wrong, it isn't half so easy, especially when one hasn't a good disposition to begin with."

"But what in the world could we do for him?" asked Reliance. "If we stopped to speak to him, very likely he would get after us with a stick."

"Did any of the boys and girls ever try the experiment of speaking to him pleasantly? I am quite sure the boys do their best to annoy him in any way they can contrive, and even some of the girls tease him slyly and call him names, I am told."

"Yes, they do," replied Reliance, doubtfully, who herself was not entirely innocent in this regard.

"Suppose you were to try the experiment of beginning by smiling when you go by and saying, pleasantly, 'Good-morning, Mr. Keener?' Then next day, even if he chased you away the first time, you might say, 'Isn't this a lovely morning, Mr. Keener?' and you could always make a point of saying something pleasant to him when you go by. Then some day when it is raining or too cold for him to sit in his doorway----"

"Like a great big, ugly spider," remarked Letty.

Mrs. Conway paid no heed to the comment, "you could leave a big apple on the doorsill for him, and so on, till in time I will venture to say he will learn that you wish him well and are trying to be friends. You must keep in your mind all the time that he is a poor, neglected, friendless, unhappy old man and that if you can succeed in bringing even a little sunshine into his life, you will be doing a great deal."

The girls were very sober for a few minutes, then Reliance said thoughtfully, "I believe I should like to try it anyway."

"Of course," Mrs. Conway went on, "the girls may have found other and better ideas for a club, and a better name than I can suggest, but it seemed to me that this might be made something like the G. R., yet would not be exactly the same, and it could have quite a different name."

"Oh, mother," exclaimed Edna, "do tell the name you thought of, I think it is so lovely."

"I thought you might call yourselves 'The Elderflowers,' because your good deeds would be directed toward your elders, and you would be cheerful, little flowers to bring sweetness to sad lives."

"I think it is the most beautiful idea," exclaimed Letty earnestly, "and I shall be dreadfully disappointed if the girls want something different. I begin to feel sorry for old Nathan Keener already."

"That is an excellent beginning," said Mrs. Conway, with a smile.

Here came a call from Amanda, so Reliance and Edna scampered off leaving Letty to be entertained by Mrs. Conway.