,
and I'm sure grandma will knit you an afghan."

"That isn't much towards housekeeping," said Frank. "I'll come over next
summer and swing your hammock for you, and put up your tennis-net."

"And meantime," said Uncle Charley, "until the house is bought and
furnished, the Fairfield family will be the welcome guests of the
Elliotts. It's almost the middle of December now, and I don't think, Miss
Patty Fairfield, that you'll get your home settled in time to make a
visit in New York _this_ winter; and now, you rattle-pated youngsters,
run to bed, while I discuss some plans sensibly with my brother-in-law
and fellow townsman."

CHAPTER III

THE TEA CLUB

"Well I should think you'd better stay in Vernondale, Patty Fairfield, if
you know what's good for yourself! Why, if you had attempted to leave
this town, we would have mobbed you with tar and feathers, or whatever
those dreadful things are that they do to the most awful criminals."

"Oh, if I had gone, Polly, I should have taken this club with me, of
course. I'm so used to it now, I'm sure I couldn't live a day, and
know that we should meet no more, as the Arab remarked to his
beautiful horse."

"It would be rather fun to be transported bodily to New York as a club,
but I'd want to be transported home again after the meeting," said
Helen Preston.

"Why shouldn't we do that?" cried Florence Douglass. "It would be lots of
fun for the whole club to go to New York some day together."

"I'm so glad Patty is going to stay with us, I don't care what we do,"
said Ethel Holmes, who was drawing pictures on Patty's white shirt-waist
cuffs as a mark of affection.

"I'm glad, too," said Patty; "and, Ethel, your kittens are perfectly
lovely, but this is my last clean shirt-waist, and those pencil-marks are
awfully hard to wash out."

"I don't mean them to be washed out," said Ethel, calmly going on with
her art work; "they're not wash drawings, they're permanent decorations
for your cuffs, and are offered as a token of deep regard and esteem."

The Tea Club was holding a Saturday afternoon meeting at Polly Stevens's
house, and the conversation, as yet, had not strayed far from the
all-engrossing subject of Patty's future plans.

The Tea Club had begun its existence with lofty and noble aims in a
literary direction, to be supplemented and assisted by an occasional
social cup of tea. But if you have had any experience with merry, healthy
young girls of about sixt