"But," persisted Dennis, "Mr Solace really does want to keep him, I know, only he says it isn't fair to the other men." "Well, you'd better get them to sign a Round Robin, then," said Miss Chester, laughing; "_I_ can't interfere." She was hurrying away, as though there were no more to be said on the subject, but Dennis followed her. "Oh Aunt Katharine," he said earnestly, taking hold of her dress, "_do_ wait a minute, and tell me what you mean by a Round Robin." Aunt Katharine was always willing to make things clear to the children if she could, and she now sat down patiently to explain to Dennis what a Round Robin was. When he quite understood, he ran quickly in search of Maisie that he might describe it to her before he forgot a word, and get her to help him in preparing one. CHAPTER SIX. LOST! "There!" said Dennis triumphantly, "we've got it right at last." "There's only one tiny smudge on it," said Maisie, looking anxiously over his shoulder at the Round Robin. It had cost them nearly two days of earnest effort and repeated failure, for although Aunt Katharine had described exactly how it was to be done, she had left them to carry it out entirely by themselves. It sounded so easy to say: "Take a sheet of cardboard, and draw a large circle on it, leaving room for all the signatures you want. Then write the petition clearly in the middle, and that is a Round Robin." But it was not so easy when you began to do it. First the circle was too large, and then it was too small, then there were mistakes in the spelling, and then there were too many blots; but at last, after wasting four sheets of cardboard, the Round Robin approached perfection. Aunt Katharine came in to see it, and smiled, and said she thought it would do. "But you've got a good deal before you yet, Dennis," she added. "Do you think you shall be able to get all the men to sign?" "Every one of them," said Dennis decidedly. "I shall begin with the bailiff, and end with the pig-man. He can't write his name, but he can put a cross." "It won't matter which you begin or end with," said Maisie, "because there isn't any first and last in the Round Robin."