Mirabelle said, with a rolling-up of her mental shirt-sleeves: "Well, now let's get after something _drastic_. I've heard lots of people say you ought to get elected to office; well, show 'em what you can do. Of course, what we've been doing is all _right_, but it's kind of small potatoes."
Mr. Mix looked executive. "Mustn't go too fast, Miss Starkweather. Can't afford to make people nervous."
"Humph! People that don't feel guilty, don't feel nervous. I say it's about time to launch something drastic. Next thing for us to do is to make the League a state-wide organization, and put through a Sunday law with teeth in it. That amusement park's got to go. Maybe we'd better run over to the capital and talk to the Governor."
Mr. Mix was decisively opposed, but he couldn't withstand her. He had a number of plausible arguments, but she talked them into jelly, and eventually dragged him to an interview with the Governor. When it was over, she beamed victoriously.
"There! Didn't I tell you so? He's with us."
Mr. Mix repressed a smile. "Yes, he said if we draft a bill, and get it introduced and passed, he'll sign it."
He wanted to ask, in turn, what less could be said, but he contained himself. "You know," he warned her, "as soon as we put out any really violent propaganda, we're going to lose some of our new members, and some of our prestige."
"That's all right, but after what we've done with the food laws and stopping the sale of cigarettes to boys, and so on, people are looking at us as a switch to chastise the city. But we don't want them to look at us as a cudgel. And this state law you've got in mind hits too many people."
"Well, anyway," he pleaded, "there's no sense in going out and waving the club so everybody's scared off. We ought to take six months or a year, and do it gradually. And we ought to pass a model ordinance here first, before we talk about statutes. I'd suggest a series of public lectures, and a lot of educational pamphlets for a start. I'll write them myself."
She was impatient, but she finally yielded. "Well, we'll see how it works. Go ahead and do it."
"I will--I'll have the whole thing done by late this spring."
"Not 'till _then_?" she protested, vigorously.