Well, Cousin Jack planned just about everything, and he and the children turned the house upside down in their quest for materials.  But Mrs. Maynard didn’t mind.  She was used to it, for the Maynard children would always rather “celebrate” than play any ordinary game.

CHAPTER XX

A CELEBRATION

The first of August was a perfect day for their celebration.

They had concluded to hold a Sand Court session first, for the simple reason that so much matter for The Jolly Sandboy had arrived from Kitty that King said his paper was full, and he thought it would be nice to help along the celebration.

Cousin Jack declined an invitation to be present at the reading, saying that the Pocahontas part was all he could stand, so the Court convened without him.  Ruth was Queen for the day.  This was for no particular reason, except that Marjorie thought it would be a pleasure to the little new member, so she insisted on Ruth’s wearing the crown.

Very dainty and sweet the little Queen looked, with her long flaxen curls hanging down from the extra gorgeous gilt-paper crown, that Marjorie had made specially for this occasion.

As the session began, a meek little figure appeared at the Court entrance, and there was Hester!

“Now, you Hester!” began Tom Craig, but Hester said: 

“Oh, please let me come!  I will be good.  I won’t say a single cross word, or boss, or anything.”

“All right, Hester,” said Midget, kindly, “come on in.  If the Queen says you may we’ll all say so.  Do you, O Queen?”

Ruth looked doubtful for a minute, for she was a little afraid of Hester’s uncertain temper; but, seeing Marjorie’s pleading look, she consented.

“All right,” she said; “if Hester won’t throw water on me.”

“No, I won’t!” declared Hester, earnestly.

“Well,” said King, “just as long as Hester behaves herself she may stay.  If she carries on like fury, she’s got to go home.”

Hester sat down and folded her hands in her lap, looking so excessively meek that they all had to laugh at her.

“Now,” said the Queen, “we’re gathered here together, my loyal subjects, to listen to,—­to, what do you call it?”

“The Jolly Sandboy,” prompted King.

“The Jolly Sandbag,” said the Queen, misunderstanding.

But she was soon put right, and King proceeded to read his paper.

“It’s ’most all done by Uncle Steve and Kitty,” he said, “and it’s so nice, I thought you’d all like to hear it.”

“We would,” they said, and so King began.

“Uncle Steve’s part is all about animals,” he said.  “It’s a sort of Natural History, I guess.  First is a poem about the Camel.

    “The camel is a curious beast;
    He roams about all through the East. 
    He swiftly scours the desert plain,
    And then he scours it back again.