better get them to sign a Round Robin, then," said Miss
Chester, laughing; "_I_ can't interfere."

She was hurrying away, as though there were no more to be said on the
subject, but Dennis followed her.

"Oh Aunt Katharine," he said earnestly, taking hold of her dress, "_do_
wait a minute, and tell me what you mean by a Round Robin."

Aunt Katharine was always willing to make things clear to the children
if she could, and she now sat down patiently to explain to Dennis what a
Round Robin was. When he quite understood, he ran quickly in search of
Maisie that he might describe it to her before he forgot a word, and get
her to help him in preparing one.

CHAPTER SIX.

LOST!

"There!" said Dennis triumphantly, "we've got it right at last."

"There's only one tiny smudge on it," said Maisie, looking anxiously
over his shoulder at the Round Robin.

It had cost them nearly two days of earnest effort and repeated failure,
for although Aunt Katharine had described exactly how it was to be done,
she had left them to carry it out entirely by themselves. It sounded so
easy to say: "Take a sheet of cardboard, and draw a large circle on it,
leaving room for all the signatures you want. Then write the petition
clearly in the middle, and that is a Round Robin." But it was not so
easy when you began to do it. First the circle was too large, and then
it was too small, then there were mistakes in the spelling, and then
there were too many blots; but at last, after wasting four sheets of
cardboard, the Round Robin approached perfection. Aunt Katharine came
in to see it, and smiled, and said she thought it would do.

"But you've got a good deal before you yet, Dennis," she added. "Do you
think you shall be able to get all the men to sign?"

"Every one of them," said Dennis decidedly. "I shall begin with the
bailiff, and end with the pig-man. He can't write his name, but he can
put a cross."

"It won't matter which you begin or end with," said Maisie, "because
there isn't any first and last in the Round Robin."

From this moment all Dennis's energy and interest were spent upon
getting the Round Robin signed. He could talk and think of nothing
else, but though Maisie was eager for its success too, it did not
entirely take her mind from other things. She often thought, for
instance, of the two kittens in their new homes, and wondered how they
were getting on, and whether Blanche was beginning to be a "comfort" to