“You must,” I said inexorably. “‘England expects everyone to do his duty.’ That’s our motto--only we’ll put Prince Edward Island in place of England. There must be no shirking. Now, what departments will we have? We must make it as much like a real newspaper as we can.”
“Well, we ought to have an etiquette department, then,” said Felicity. “The Family Guide has one.”
“Of course we’ll have one,” I said, “and Dan will edit it.”
“Dan!” exclaimed Felicity, who had fondly expected to be asked to edit it herself.
“I can run an etiquette column as well as that idiot in the Family Guide, anyhow,” said Dan defiantly. “But you can’t have an etiquette department unless questions are asked. What am I to do if nobody asks any?”
“You must make some up,” said the Story Girl. “Uncle Roger says that is what the Family Guide man does. He says it is impossible that there can be as many hopeless fools in the world as that column would stand for otherwise.”
“We want you to edit the household department, Felicity,” I said, seeing a cloud lowering on that fair lady’s brow. “Nobody can do that as well as you. Felix will edit the jokes and the Information Bureau, and Cecily must be fashion editor. Yes, you must, Sis. It’s easy as wink. And the Story Girl will attend to the personals. They’re very important. Anyone can contribute a personal, but the Story Girl is to see there are some in every issue, even if she has to make them up, like Dan with the etiquette.”
“Bev will run the scrap book department, besides the editorials,” said the Story Girl, seeing that I was too modest to say it myself.
“Aren’t you going to have a story page?” asked Peter.
“We will, if you’ll be fiction and poetry editor,” I said.
Peter, in his secret soul, was dismayed, but he would not blanch before Felicity.
“We can put anything we like in the scrap book department,” I explained, “but all the other contributions must be original, and all must have the name of the writer signed to them, except the personals. We must all do our best. Our Magazine is to be ‘a feast of reason and flow of soul.”’
I felt that I had worked in two quotations with striking effect. The others, with the exception of the Story Girl, looked suitably impressed.