“No, I won’t!  Going to sleep now!” and Boo shut his eyes wearily, feeling that his late trials had not left him in a prayerful mood.

“Then you’ll be a real little heathen, as Mrs. Pecq called you, and I don’t know what I shall do with you,” said Molly, longing to cuddle rather than scold the little fellow, whose soul needed looking after as well as his body.

“No, no; I won’t be a heevin!  I don’t want to be frowed to the trockindiles.  I will say my prayers! oh, I will!” and, rising in his bed, Boo did so, with the devotion of an infant Samuel, for he remembered the talk when the society was formed.

Molly thought her labors were over for that night, and soon went to bed, tired with her first attempts.  But toward morning she was wakened by the hoarse breathing of the boy, and was forced to patter away to Miss Bat’s room, humbly asking for the squills, and confessing that the prophecy had come to pass.

“I knew it!  Bring the child to me, and don’t fret.  I’ll see to him, and next time you do as I say,” was the consoling welcome she received as the old lady popped up a sleepy but anxious face in a large flannel cap, and shook the bottle with the air of a general who had routed the foe before and meant to do it again.

Leaving her little responsibility in Miss Bat’s arms, Molly retired to wet her pillow with a few remorseful tears, and to fall asleep, wondering if real missionaries ever killed their pupils in the process of conversion.

So the girls all failed in the beginning; but they did not give up, and succeeded better next time, as we shall see.

Chapter IX

The Debating Club

“Look here, old man, we ought to have a meeting.  Holidays are over, and we must brace up and attend to business,” said Frank to Gus, as they strolled out of the schoolyard one afternoon in January, apparently absorbed in conversation, but in reality waiting for a blue cloud and a scarlet feather to appear on the steps.

“All right.  When, where, and what?” asked Gus, who was a man of few words.

“To-night, our house, subject, ‘Shall girls go to college with us?’ Mother said we had better be making up our minds, because every one is talking about it, and we shall have to be on one side or the other, so we may as well settle it now,” answered Frank, for there was an impression among the members that all vexed questions would be much helped by the united eloquence and wisdom of the club.

“Very good; I’ll pass the word and be there.  Hullo, Neddy!  The D.C. meets to-night, at Minot’s, seven sharp.  Co-ed, &c.,” added Gus, losing no time, as a third boy came briskly round the corner, with a little bag in his hand.

“I’ll come.  Got home an hour earlier to-night, and thought I’d look you up as I went by,” responded Ed Devlin, as he took possession of the third post, with a glance toward the schoolhouse to see if a seal-skin cap, with a long, yellow braid depending therefrom, was anywhere in sight.