"Suppose Clara Adams did want to come into the club or wanted to be
friends I suppose we'd have to be kind to her," said Dorothy, a little
regretfully.

"Of course you'd have to be kind to her," said Helen Darby, "but you
wouldn't have to clasp her around the neck and hang on her words, nor
even visit her. One can be kind without being intimate."

This was putting it in rather a new light and the little girls looked at
one another. They had not easily distinguished the difference before
this.

"The same way about Mr. Horner," Helen went on, "you don't have to get
down and tie his shoes, but if you do have a chance to do something to
make things pleasanter for him, why just trot along and do it." And
Helen nodded her head emphatically.

"Dear oh, me," sighed Florence, "we are getting our standards way up. I
should probably fall all over myself if I attempted to do anything for
him. I am almost scared to death at the mere thought."

"He won't bite you," replied Helen, "and you don't have to get close
enough to him to comb his eyebrows. What I mean is that we can 'be
diligent and studious' as the old copy-books used to have it, speak well
of his school, and not carry tales home that will make our families
think we are martyrs and that he is an ogre, or someone to be feared
constantly."

"Helen Darby! I'd like to know who has been giving you all these new
ideas," said Florence.

"Why, I think Mrs. Conway started them by the way she talked to Agnes,
and I have a modest claim to some brains of my own, so I thought out the
rest and talked it over with father who put things very clearly before
me, and showed me that school-girls are half the time silly geese who
seem to think their teachers are created for the mere purpose of making
their lives miserable. Father said that the shoe was usually on the
other foot, and that the girls were much more liable to make the
teachers' lives miserable. That set me a-thinking. Let me remark in
passing that father says he thinks our club is great, and he wants to
have a hand in furnishing the entertaining some time."

This announcement made quite a ripple of excitement, for Mr. Darby did
nothing by halves and it was expected that there would be a good time
for the G. R.'s when they met at Helen's house.

Edna kept in mind what had been said about Uncle Justus and before very
long came an opportunity to prove her powers of doing him a kindness. It
was just before Thanksgiving that