anted them!"

Laura's laugh rang out merrily.

"Why, Alene, it's _votes_! We don't buy them like 'lectioneers do--we
get enough to give each member one red and one white gumdrop. Those
who are for a candidate put in a white and those against her a red!"

Alene danced with joy.

"Then I'm elected!"

"You are now a member of the Happy-Go-Luckys and your name is duly
inscribed on the books!" said Laura, in her judicial tone.

"And they all put in the white drops! How lovely of them!"

"Yes, all but Ivy; she put hers in her mouth to taste it, and before
she knew, it was gone!"

"Dear me, and what did she do then?"

"She whispered it to me at the last minute, just after I got out the
little mustard box where we cast our votes, and so I allowed her to put
in a button instead. After it was over, some of us wanted to save the
gumdrops for the first meeting you attended, but those greedy
youngsters had devoured 'em all but two which I managed to keep."

Laura pressed into Alene's hand a small tinsel-paper package.

"You must eat half of each," said Alene, wisely surmising that it was
Laura's own portion that had been saved, and resolving to leave for
another day the blue ribbon-tied box of candy Uncle Fred had given her
that morning, which she had just placed in the grass at the foot of a
tree, awaiting Laura's arrival.

Seated on the green beneath the trees, they ate the gumdrops, whose
scarcity perhaps made them seem the more delicious, and exchanged
confidences concerning themselves and the Happy-Go-Luckys.

Alene, who was an only child, envied Laura's claim to two small sisters
and a baby brother and one brother older than herself.

"Ivy is the only girl in the Bonner family."

"Like me!"

"Not quite--she has six brothers, four of them older than she is!"

"Gracious, I'd be lost in such a crowd of boys!"

As for the Club, it had formal meetings when an excursion to the woods
or an exhibition was in view; then verbal notice was given to assemble
at the home of one of the members. The other meetings were when two or
more members met by chance or appointment for any object, whether
study, play or conversation.

"So you see this is a meeting of two members, and I think I see a
third," concluded the President, Miss Lee, craning her neck in the
direction of the side street.

"Hello, Lol," cried a shrill voice, and Ivy's curly head peeped over
the wall.

"I'll go and help her over," said Laura, risin