ith our mothers," suggested
Susan.
"I guess we'd better," nodded Jerry. "But what about Connie? Suppose she
shouldn't be in favor of the S. F. R. M.? You couldn't blame her much if
she wasn't."
"I'm going to see her to-night, after dinner. I intended to go to Gray
Gables after school, but you see me here instead," returned Marjorie.
"I am almost sure she'll say 'yes.'"
"How are we going to begin our reform movement?" asked Muriel Harding.
"That's what I'd like to know. Who is willing to be the first martyr to
the cause? Let me tell you right now, I'd just as soon make friends with
a snapping turtle. Only the snapper would probably be more polite."
"You are a wicked Jerry," reproved Marjorie smilingly, "and you know you
don't mean half you say."
"Maybe I do, and maybe I don't. Anyhow, on in the cause of Mignon! I
feel like one of the knights of old who buckled on his armor and went
forth to the fray with his lady's colors tied to his sleeve, or his
lance, or some of his belongings. I've forgotten just what the style
was. We are gallant knights, going forth to battle, wearing Marjorie's
colors, and Mignon will have to look out or she'll be reformed before
she has time to turn up her nose and shrug her shoulders."
"Suppose we start by being as nice to her as we can in school
to-morrow," proposed Irma Linton thoughtfully. "If she meets us in the
same spirit, maybe something will happen that will show us what to do
next."
"That wouldn't be a bad idea," declared Susan Atwell. "I sit near her,
so I'll be the first one to hold out the olive branch. But if you hear
something drop on the floor with a dull, sickening thud, you'll know
that my particular variety of olive branch was rejected."
"Somehow, I have an idea she won't be so very scornful," said Marjorie
hopefully.
"Being expelled from boarding school may have a soothing effect on her,"
agreed Jerry grimly. "I suppose it really isn't very knightly to say
snippy things about a person one intends to reform."
"I think you are right, Jerry," broke in Marjorie with sweet
earnestness. "We must try to think and say only kind things of Mignon if
we are to succeed." Taking in the circle of girls with a quick, bright
glance, she asked: "Then you are agreed to my plan? It is really a
compact?"
Four emphatic nods answered her questions.
"Hurrah for the S. F. R. M.!" exclaimed Jerry. "Long may it wave! Only
there's one glorious truth that I feel it my duty
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