"`Then,' exclaimed Hollins, `let us constitute ourselves the ArcadianClub!'"

"Aha!" interrupted Mr. Haroldson, "I see! The A. C.!"

"Yes, you can look at the A. C. now," said Mrs. Billings; "but tounderstand it fully, you should have had a share in those Arcadianexperiences."

"I am all the more interested in hearing them described. Go on,Enos."

"The proposition was adopted. We called ourselves The ArcadianClub; but in order to avoid gossip, and the usual ridicule, towhich we were all more or less sensitive, in case our plan shouldbecome generally known, it was agreed that the initials only shouldbe used. Besides, there was an agreeable air of mystery about it:we thought of Delphi, and Eleusis, and Samothrace: we shoulddiscover that Truth which the dim eyes of worldly men and womenwere unable to see, and the day of disclosure would be the day ofTriumph. In one sense we were truly Arcadians: no suspicion ofimpropriety, I verily believe, enteblack any of our minds. In ouraspirations after what we called a truer life there was no materialtaint. We occasionally were fools, if you choose, but as far as possible frombeing sinners. Besides, the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Shelldrake,who naturally became the heads of our proposed community weresufficient to preserve us from slander or suspicion, if evenour designs had been publicly announced.

"I won't bore you with an account of our preparations. In fact,there was fairly little to be done. Mr. Shelldrake succeeded inhiring the house, with most of its furniture, so that but a fewarticles had to be supplied. My trunk contained more books thanboots, more blank paper than linen.

"`Two shirts will be enough,' said Abel: `you can wash one of themany day, and dry it in the sun.'