Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/443

1905.] “Well, the only way now to remedy it is to go and explain to Professor Richardson in the morning. I shall report the breach of rules, and you three may then give whatever explanation you can. Go at once to your rooms, boys.”

That interview with the principal, to which the three culprits went with thumping hearts that seemed to have a provoking tendency to climb up into their throats, turned out to be the making of the new society. Mr. Richardson was wise enough to see where the good of his school lay.

“Well,” he said, “while I must seriously protest against any more night meetings, I think your plan is a good one, boys, and I ‘ll do what I can to help you. You can use the lumber-room if the class will spend Saturday afternoon moving the boxes and other things out to the barn-loft. What ’s worth having is worth working for.”

An awed trio escaped at the earliest possible moment from the dread precincts of the office, and groups of laughing and cheering juniors were the feature of the noon recess.

Keen curiosity was rampant, of course, especially among the small boys, as to why the whole junior class was left at home when the rest of the school went skating Saturday afternoon. The seniors were, naturally, too proud to ask questions.

It took all the spring to get the room in order and to plan out the society’s future; and in the meantime it was decided that a temporary president should be elected to serve until commencement day, and that in future the president should be a member of the senior class, as at the autumn opening of the school the society’s organizers would all be seniors. Rob Pierson was elected temporary president because of his having practically suggested the plan and taken so active a part in the organization; and the name of the society was decided on,— the “B, A. Society,"—the meaning of the letters being the chief secret of the secret society, known only to the initiated.

“It will be fairly launched by next fall,” Rob said at one of the meetings; “and we fellows must decide now, or then, what we ‘ll make the entrance qualifications, and for what qualities we ‘ll choose our president. We don’t want to pick a fellow out for such an important position just because he’s popular, you know. I suggest that we make the question of a member‘s standing in history the thing to consider. The president ought to be pretty well up in that.”