as 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. Nobody
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 aft