When the votes were all ready, the children brought them all together to Mary, who put them on the corner of the great bench near which she was standing; and the children all came up around them, to see who was chosen. But Mary gently put her hand over the votes, and told them that that was not the way to count votes. "You must all go and sit down again," she said, "and appoint some one to count them; and then he or she must come alone, and look them over and tell you who is chosen." "Well," said the children; and so they went back to their seats. "I propose that Henry count them," said Mary. "Well," said the children. "No, let James," said Rollo. "That is not right, Rollo," said Mary, "because it is of very little consequence who counts the votes, and in societies the best way is to let things that are of little consequence go according to the first proposal. That saves time." So Henry came up, and began to look over the votes. "They are all for Mary but one, and that is for Lucy," said Henry. "Then cousin Mary is president," said James, clapping his hands. "Yes," said Mary, "it seems you have chosen me president; and I will be president for a time, until I think that some of the rest of you have learned how to preside, and then I shall resign, and leave you to manage your society yourselves. Now you must write the votes for secretary." So Mary took her seat in the chair which she had provided for the president, and which, until this time, had been empty. So the children began to write votes again, and as fast as they had written them they brought them to Mary, and dropped them in her lap. As soon as each one had put in his vote, he went back and took his seat. When the votes were all in, Mary looked them over, and said, "There are two votes for Lucy, and one for Rollo, and one for Henry." "Then Lucy is chosen secretary," said James. "No," said Mary, "because she has only half. The person that is chosen must have more than half of all the votes. Lucy has two, and there are two scattering." "Scattering!" said Rollo, looking somewhat puzzled. "Yes; that is, for other persons." "What shall we do, then?" said Rollo. "Why, you must vote again." So the children wrote votes again, and brought them in to the president. She smiled as she looked them over. Then she said, "Now there is a tie." "A tie, Mary!" said Rollo; "what is a tie?" "Why, there are two votes for Rollo, and two for Lucy; that makes it exactly balanced, and they call that a _tie_." "And now what shall we do with the tie?" said Rollo. "Why, you must vote again." Just as the children were preparing to vote again, they heard a noise of footsteps at the door, and, looking up, they saw Nathan coming in. He had his little straw hat upon his head, and his whip in his hand. He was playing market-man, and wanted to know if they wished to buy any potatoes.