"But she can't recite it the way you do," Daphne protested. "You read Rosalind's lines in _As You Like It_ when we had it in cla.s.s, until I honestly thought I was in the Forest of Arden. I agree with you that Jan loves it and appreciates it as much as you, but she reads it as though she hated to have to share it with anybody else."

"Perhaps you're right," Phyllis sounded only half convinced. "But I'll tell you this, if Jan isn't elected to the Dramatic Club, I won't join even if they ask me."

"Oh, yes you will," Daphne drawled. Her words were almost an echo of Sally's used earlier in the day under a similar circ.u.mstance.

CHAPTER XIV-The Story of the Two Dogs

That night Sally and Daphne held a council of war in their room. It began by Sally saying: "I want to talk to you, Taffy, about something important." To which Daphne replied, "Very well, go ahead, but remember to ask me what I have to tell you when you finish!"

"All right, mine's about Jan." Sally made herself comfortable in the big chair and Daphne curled up on the window seat. "On the way back from target practice today, she informed me that she would not be on the team, even if she got the chance, because Phyl might be hurt."

Instead of looking angry or concerned, as Sally expected, Daphne laughed heartily.

"I don't think it's funny, she really meant it," Sally protested.

Daphne stopped laughing. "It is funny though, listen. This afternoon, after we had come up from the Senior's Retreat, Phyl told me the same thing."

"But I don't understand."

"About Jan, of course."

"You mean she said she would be hurt if Jan did accept for the team?"

"Oh, no, you ought to know Phyl better than that. She said she wouldn't accept for the Dramatic Club unless Jan was asked, too. There now, what do you think of that?"

Sally listened and after a mystified minute understood.

"Well, of all the ridiculous children!" she exclaimed laughing.

"Yes, but what are we going to do about it? They simply can't be allowed to spoil each other's chances like that," Daphne objected.

"Oh, we can fix that, now that we know about them both," Sally exclaimed. "Look, we'll do it this very minute." She jumped up and went to the writing table, found a half sheet of notepaper and began to write.

Daphne looked over her shoulder.

"Will that do?" Sally inquired as she finished and carefully blotted the page.

"Couldn't be better," Daphne laughed. "Thank goodness, you can always depend on the Twins to see the funny side of everything."

"I can't wait until morning to give it to them," Sally announced. She was half undressed but she slipped into a kimono and tip-toed into the hall. She poked the letter under the Twins's door and hurried back to the waiting Daphne.

"Wish I could see their faces when they read it," she said.

Janet saw the note first.

"What is that?" she demanded, drawing Phyllis's attention to it.

"Looks like a letter," Phyllis replied smiling at Janet's apparent concern. "Anyway, I don't think it's a bomb, so it might be safe to pick it up."

"You never can tell." Janet stood looking down at the white envelope.

"It may be a joke, and then again it may be a communication from one of the numerous ghosts that haunt Hilltop. You'd better pick it up, Phyl."

Phyllis leaned down and looked at the letter. "Sally's writing, so it can't be dangerous," she said as she picked it up and opened it.

"Oh, it's for both of us. It says: 'Read this aloud' in large letters.

Listen-

"Dear Twins: (she read)

Once upon a time there were two dogs. One was an Irish terrier and the other was a poodle, and they loved each other as only dogs can. The Irish terrier liked to run and jump, but the poodle liked to sit still and look very beautiful.

One day they were both very hungry, and they both went hunting but they did not go together.

The Irish terrier met a kind old gentleman who offered him a bone, but the silly dog wouldn't take it because he thought of his friend who was so hungry, too.

Now the poodle, on his walk, met a kind old lady, and she offered him a nice bone, too, but he thought of the poor hungry terrier and he refused to eat it.

So both of those nice dogs died of hunger, because they were so foolish, but of course it would never have happened if they had each known that the other was being offered a bone. This tale has a moral!"

Janet and Phyllis looked at each other, and then burst out laughing.

"I know what it means," Phyllis said at last. "At least I think I do."

"Of course, it means the Archery Team and the Dramatic Club," Janet answered. "I told Sally today that if I am elected I didn't think I'd accept, because it would take me away from you so much."

Phyllis' arm encircled Janet's shoulder, and she rubbed her soft cheek against hers.

"I told Taffy exactly the same thing about the Dramatic Club," she said, "and of course you might know they would have a fit."

"I didn't know about the Dramatic Club until after I'd told Sally,"

Janet admitted.

"And I didn't think about Archery when I talked to Taffy. I was just angry at the thought of Miss Sloc.u.m choosing me when you know twice as much," Phyllis protested.

"But I don't," Janet denied. "Imagine my acting in anything! Why, I'd perfectly hate it in the first place, and in the second I'd die of fright."

Phyllis looked at her doubtfully. She still hated the idea of being in something that had no place for Janet.

"Then I suppose-" she began.

"That we may as well each eat our own bones," Janet finished laughing, "as long as there are two of them; and after all if you should make the Dramatic Club and I the Team it would help the old wing."

"Yes, of course, it would," Phyllis agreed. "But you're sure you don't care, Jan?"