"Time's up; fall to and make yourselves comfortable," was the
summary way in which the club was released from its sterner
duties and permitted to unbend its mighty mind for a social
half-hour, chiefly devoted to whist, with an Indian war-dance as a
closing ceremony.




Chapter X

The Dramatic Club


While Jack was hopping gayly about on his crutches, poor Jill was
feeling the effects of her second fall, and instead of sitting up, as
she hoped to do after six weeks of rest, she was ordered to lie on a
board for two hours each day. Not an easy penance, by any means,
for the board was very hard, and she could do nothing while she
lay there, as it did not slope enough to permit her to read without
great fatigue of both eyes and hands. So the little martyr spent her
first hour of trial in sobbing, the second in singing, for just as her
mother and Mrs. Minot were deciding in despair that neither she
nor they could bear it, Jill suddenly broke out into a merry chorus
she used to hear her father sing:--

"Faut jouer le mirliton,
Faut jouer le mirlitir,
Faut jouer le mirliter,
Mir--li--ton."