always uses her polysyllables correctly, so I am not in the least
offended at your comparison of my obscurities with her profundities.
There, how's that? Don't you think you'd better call me Polly, too?"

"Not till you explain to us what it means to Teddy Bear one's teeth,"
Azalia Atwood stipulated sternly. "What I'm afraid of is that you're
trying to introduce politics into this club, and we won't stand for that
a minute."

"Oh, yes, Julietta, you may have your wish, if what Azalia says is
true," Marie Crismore announced so eagerly that everybody present knew
that she had an idea and waited expectantly for it to come out. "We'll
call you Polly--Polly Tix."

Of course everybody laughed at this, and then Harriet Newcomb demanded,
that her rival for enigmatical honors make good.

"What does it mean to Teddy Bear one's teeth?" she demanded.

"Oh, you girls are making too much of that remark," Katherine protested
modestly, "I really am astonished at every one of you, ashamed of you,
in fact, for failing to get me. I meant that you would be
delighted--dee-light-ed--get me?--dee-light-ed."

"Oh, I get you," Helen Nash announced, lifting her hand over her head
with an "I know, teacher," attitude.

"Well, Helen, get up and speak your piece," Katherine directed.

"You referred to the way Theodore Roosevelt shows his teeth when he says
he's 'dee-light-ed'; but we got you wrong. When you said you would tell
us something that would 'Teddy Bear' our teeth, you meant b-a-r-e, not
b-e-a-r. When Teddy laughs, he bares his teeth. Isn't that it?"

"This isn't the first time that Helen Nash has proved herself a regular
Sherlock Holmes," Marion Stanlock declared enthusiastically. "We are
pretty well equipped with brains in this camp, I want to tell you. We
have Harriet, the walking dictionary; Katherine, the girl enigma; and
Helen, the detective."

"Every girl is supposed to be a puzzle," Ernestine Johanson reminded. "I
don't like to snatch any honors away from anyone, but, you know, we
should always have the truth."

"Yes, let us have the truth about this interesting, Teddy-teeth-baring,
dee-light-ing announcement that Katherine has to make to us," Estelle
Adler implored.

"The delay wasn't my fault," Katherine said, with an attitude of
"perfect willingness if all this nonsense will stop." "But here comes
Miss Ladd. Let's wait for her to join us, for I know you will all want
her opinion of the proposition I am going to put