What should the name be?  Rose invented half a dozen, each more absurd than the last.  “The Anti-Jane Society” would sound well, she insisted.  Or, no!—­the “Put-him-down-Club” was better yet!  Finally they settled upon “The Society for the Suppression of Unladylike Conduct.”

“Only we’ll never use the whole name,” said Rose:  “We’ll say, ’The S. S .U.  C.’  That sounds brisk and snappy, and will drive the whole school wild with curiosity.  What larks!  How I long to begin!”

The next Saturday was fixed upon for the first meeting.  During the week Katy proposed the plan to the elect few, all of whom accepted enthusiastically.  Lilly Page was the only person who declined.  She said it would be stupid; that for her part she didn’t set up to be “proper” or better than she was, and that in any case she shouldn’t wish to be mixed up in a Society of which “Miss Agnew” was a member.  The girls did not break their hearts over this refusal.  They had felt obliged to ask her for relationship’s sake, but everybody was a little relieved that she did not wish to join.

No. 6 looked very full indeed that Saturday afternoon when the S. S. U. C. came together for the first time.  Ten members were present.  Mary Silver and Louisa were two; and Rose’s crony, Esther Dearborn, another.  The remaining four were Sally Alsop and Amy Erskine; Alice Gibbons, one of the new scholars, whom they all liked, but did not know very well; and Ellen Gray, a pale, quiet girl, with droll blue eyes, a comical twist to her mouth, and a trick of saying funny things in such a demure way that half the people who listened never found out that they were funny.  All Rose’s chairs had been borrowed for the occasion.  Three girls sat on the bed, and three on the floor.  With a little squeezing, there was plenty of room for everybody.

Katy was chosen President, and requested to take the rocking-chair as a sign of office.  This she did with much dignity, and proceeded to read the Constitution and By-Laws of the Society, which had been drawn up by Rose Red, and copied on an immense sheet of blue paper.

They ran thus:—­

CONSTITUTION FOR THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF UNLADYLIKE CONDUCT, KNOWN TO THE UNINITIATED AS THE S. S. U. C.

ARTICLE I.

     The object of this Society is twofold:  it combines
     having a good time with the Pursuit of Virtue.

ARTICLE II.

     The good time is to take place once a week in No. 6
     Quaker Row, between the hours of four and six P. M.

ARTICLE III.

     The nature of the good time is to be decided upon by
     a Committee to be appointed each Saturday by the members
     of the Society.

ARTICLE IV.