andma had been ill, and was not able to
have them at Marbury, as usual.

"This summer I think they're awfully nice. At least Will always is, and
Archie is, sometimes. They let me be around with them all the time."

"But I think we'd better not let them into it," said Eunice, judicially.
Eunice generally settled all questions. "They would not stick to it, and
they would want us to do it some other way from what we
wanted,"--speaking from long experience with boys,--"and they would
want to have it their own way. Now what shall we call ourselves?"

"We ought to be the 'Echo Club,'" suggested Edna, who often had
practical ideas. "We copy it from 'Little Women.'"

"Splendid!" cried Cricket, clapping her hands. "That's just the name,
Edna. How clever of you! We'll be the Echo Club, and the paper shall be
the 'Echo,' and we'll have badges with 'E. C.' on them, and we'll choose
a certain colour ribbon to wear them on, always, and we'll have
meetings, and oh, we'll have some by-laws!" her imagination instantly
running away with her. "I always wanted to have a club, and have
by-laws, and rules, all written out. Do let's begin, right away!"

"We can't very well begin a paper, till we have some stories written to
print in it," said Eunice, laughing. "We'll have to get some ideas,
first."

"You don't want ideas," answered Cricket, scornfully. "We want to write
some stories and things."

"I _never_ can!" sighed Edna, despairingly.

"But you can try," insisted Cricket. "It's so easy." And at last, Edna,
with a groan, promised she would at least try.

For the next few days, the three girls were never seen without the
accompaniment of blank books and pencils. The blank books were Cricket's
idea. She said that they could carry around blank books with them, and
write whenever they thought of anything to say. So they tied pencils
around their necks, by long ribbons, and scribbled industriously in
corners. Edna groaned, and protested, and chewed up her pencil, but
Cricket was inexorable, and gave her no peace, till she made a
beginning.

Suddenly Cricket discovered that they were not properly organized yet.

"Let's have a meeting at two o'clock this afternoon, and choose a
president, and secretary, and treasurer, and an editor, to print the
paper when it is done. We must make up our rules and by-laws, too. Oh,
we must have a regular business meeting," with an air of much
importance.

"Let's have it now, for we're all here," p