“I always keep my promises,” said Marjorie, with dignity; “and I’ll tell you what I think of you, Hester Corey!  I think you ought to be Queen,—­it isn’t fair for me to be it all the time.  But I think you might have asked me in a nicer way, and not call names, and smash things all about!  There, that’s what I think!” and Marjorie glared at her in righteous indignation.

“Maybe I ought,” said Hester, suddenly becoming humble, as is the way of hot-tempered people after gaining their point.  “I’ve got an awful temper, Marjorie, but I can’t help it!”

“You can help it, Hester; you don’t try.”

“Oh, it’s all very well for you to talk!  You never have anything to bother you!  Nothing goes wrong, and everybody spoils you!  Why should you have a bad temper?”

“Now, Hester, don’t be silly!  You have just as good a home and just as kind friends as I have.”

“No, I haven’t!  Nobody likes me.  And everybody likes you.  Why, the Craig boys think you’re made of gold!”

Marjorie laughed.  “Well, Hester, it’s your own fault if they don’t think you are, too.  But how can they, when you fly into these rages and tear everything to pieces?”

“Well, they make me so mad, I have to!  Now, I’m going home, and I’m going to stay there till you do as you promised, and get the boys to let me be Queen.”

“Well, I’ll try——­” began Marjorie, but Hester had flung the torn gilt crown on the ground, and stalked away toward home.  Midget picked up the crown and tried to straighten it out, but it was battered past repair.

“I’ll make a new one,” she thought, “and I’ll try to make the boys agree to having Hester for Queen.  But I don’t believe Tom will.  I know it’s selfish for me to be Queen all the time, and I don’t want to be selfish.”

Seeing Hester go away, Tom came back, and reached Sand Court just as Midget was about to leave.

“Hello, Queen Sandy!” he called out; “wait a minute.  I saw that spitfire going away, so I came back.  Now, look here, Mopsy Maynard, don’t you let that old crosspatch be Queen!”

“I can’t, unless we all elect her,” returned Midget, smiling at Tom; “but I wish you would agree to do that.  It isn’t fair, Tom, for me to be Queen all the time.”

“Why isn’t it?  It’s your Club!  You got it up, and Hester came and poked herself in where she wasn’t wanted.”

“Well, we took her in, and now we ought to be kind to her.”

“Kind to such an old Meany as she is!”

“Don’t call her names, Tom.  I don’t believe she can help flying into a temper, and then, when she gets mad, she doesn’t care what she says.”

“I should think she didn’t!  Well, make her Queen if you want to, but if you do, you can get somebody else to take my place.”

“Oh, Tom, don’t act like that,” and Marjorie looked at him, with pleading eyes.

“Yes, I will act like that!  Just exactly like that!  I won’t belong to any Court that Hester Corey is queen of!”