When Reliance came home from school that afternoon, she brought the information that the girls were going to meet in Hewlett's old blacksmith shop that afternoon, and that Edna was to be sure to come. To her own great disappointment, she could not go herself, for Amanda declared that she could not get along without her, and that all this gallivanting about was a mistake, and that if Mrs. Willis was going to have a bound girl there for her to bother with and get no good of, she guessed it was time for younger folks to take her place. A girl that spent half her time at school and the other half skylarking wouldn't amount to much anyway was her opinion.

So because the old servant had to be pacified and because it was a day on which Reliance could really be ill spared, she did not attend the meeting.

"I am sorry, dear," said Mrs. Willis, when Edna begged to have the decree altered, "but I am afraid we really cannot spare Reliance this afternoon. You know she has had a lot of time for play this past week; we have been very indulgent to her because of your being here." Edna saw that this was final and went to her mother with rather a grave face.

"Mother," she said, "isn't it too bad that Reliance can't go? She says she wouldn't mind so much if it were not for the voting, but you see if she isn't there, she will lose her vote, and we do so want the Elderflower plan to be the one."

"Why couldn't you be her proxy?" said Mrs. Conway.

"Proxy? What is proxy, mother?"

"It is some one appointed in the place of another to do what would otherwise be done by the first person; for instance, in this case you could be proxy for Reliance and vote for her. She could sign a paper which would make it very plain."

"Oh, mother, will you write the paper and let me take it to her to sign?"

"Certainly I will." She drew the writing materials to her and wrote a few lines. "There," she said, "I think that will do."

"Please read it, mother."

Mrs. Conway read: "I hereby appoint Edna Conway to be my proxy and to vote upon any question which may come up before this meeting.

"Signed--"

"That sounds very important," said Edna, clasping her hands. "Show me where she is to sign her name, mother. I know she will be perfectly delighted that I can speak for her."

Reliance truly was pleased, the more that the sending of such an important legal doc.u.ment gave her a certain position with the others.

She signed her name with a flourish, and Edna, armed with the indisputable right to take her place, started off for Hewlett's old blacksmith shop. This sat back some distance from the store, and was used as a storage place for empty boxes and such things.

Edna found most of the company gathered when she arrived. They were all chattering away with little idea of what must be done first. "Here comes Edna Conway," cried Esther Ann; "she can tell us just what to do. Come along, Edna. What was the first thing you did when you got up a club?"

"We had a president and a secretary the first thing; the president was called _pro tem._; she wasn't the real president till we elected her."

"Then you be _pro tem._, for you know just what to do."

"Oh, no, I couldn't," Edna shrank from such a public office, and her little round face took on a look of real distress at such a prospect.

"Somebody's got to be then," said Esther Ann. "I will."

"I will, I will," came from one and another of the girls, too eager for prominence to care about what was expected of them.

"We can't all be," remarked Milly Somers. "We're wasting time and we ought to have had this all settled at first. I wish there were some older person to get us started."

"Everyone isn't here yet," spoke up Alcinda. "Isn't Reliance coming, Edna?"

"No, she can't. She has too much to do this afternoon, but I am her proxy. I've got a paper that says so."

The girls giggled. "Isn't she cute?" whispered Esther Ann. "Let's see the paper, Edna."

Edna solemnly drew it from the small bag she carried, and handed it to Esther Ann.

"Read it, Esther Ann, read it," clamored the girls. And Esther Ann read it aloud.

"How in the world did you know about such a thing," said Milly Somers.

"Oh, I didn't think of it," she answered; "it was my mother."

"She must be awfully smart," said Esther Ann admiringly. "I wish she were here to tell us just what to do, if you won't do it."

"Maybe she would come for just a little while," said Edna, feeling a.s.sured that if her mother were there to tell of her own ideas about the club that there would be no doubt of its being "The Elderflowers."

"Suppose I go and ask her," she added.

"All right," agreed the girls. "Tell her if she will stay just long enough to tell us how to get started, it is all we ask."

Edna rushed back to the house and upstairs, where she breathlessly explained her errand. "You will go? won't you, mother, just for a few minutes," she begged. "You won't have to change your dress, or even put a hat on if you don't want to. We need you so very, very much. n.o.body knows what to do, and they all talk at once, and giggle and say silly things. It ought to be real serious, oughtn't it?"

"Not too serious, I should say," returned her mother. "Very well, dear, I will come." She threw on a long coat and followed the little girl across the street to where the prospective club members waited expectantly.

It did not take long to set the ball in motion, and in less than half an hour Esther Ann was made president _pro tem._, Milly Somers was appointed secretary, and the business of choosing came up. There were not very many original ideas offered. Few of the girls had any. Mrs.

Conway listened to them all, and at last explained her own plan so clearly and with such earnestness that it was a matter of only a few minutes before it was decided that "The Elderflower Club" should start its existence at once.

To cap the climax, Edna was elected an honorary member, "for," said the girls, "if it hadn't been for you we should never have had a club at all. And when you come to your grandfather's, you will always know that you must attend the club meetings."

Therefore, it was a very happy little girl who went back to report to Reliance the happenings of this first meeting of the club.

CHAPTER X

WHAT BEN DID

The members of the Elderflower Club were so eager to begin business that they could scarcely wait till the next day. The more retiring ones, like Alcinda, contented themselves with beginning their ministrations to relatives or those they knew, but it was to adventurous spirits like Esther Ann and Reliance that a difficult case such as old Nathan Keener appealed. Reliance, following out Mrs. Conway's advice, gave a cheery "Good-morning, Mr. Keener," as she went by his dilapidated house on her way to school. She reported this performance to the other girls at recess.

"Oh, Reliance, you didn't dare, did you?" exclaimed Alcinda. "What did he do? Did he run after you?"

"No, he only frowned and grunted."

"Did you walk very fast when you went by?" asked little Letty Osgood, being very sure that she would not have loitered upon such an occasion.

"No, not so very. I just walked as I always do."

"Then I think you were very brave," continued Letty.

"Pooh!" exclaimed Esther Ann, "that wasn't anything to do. Just wait till you see what I am going to do."

"What, Esther Ann? What?" clamored the girls.