CHAPTER XII: A CHANGE OF PLAN
“Is this Mr. Gwynne’s residence?” asked Betty, a little timid, for adeep masculine voice had answered her ring at the telephone.
“Yes,” the response came, pleasantly.
“May I speak to Carolyn, please? It is Betty Lee.”
“I’ll call Carolyn.” There was a few moments of waiting.
“’Lo, Bettykins. I was just going to call you.”
“Were you? What were you going to tell me?”
“You say what _you_ were going to first.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Please.”
“Well, though I just hate so to tell you what I’m going to.”
“So do I hate to tell you!”
Betty’s little laugh, came to Carolyn over the wire.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if it is about the same thing! Why Carolyn, I’mjust sick about it, but I don’t see how we can come to your housetonight. Father has to have a conference or something tonight down townand can’t drive us out to your place. He’s staying down for dinnersomewhere, you know. So there’s no one to take us and Mother doesn’tthink it’s safe for us to go on the car and then walk as far as we’dhave to, especially coming home.”
“That would be all right with our putting you on the car here. Butreally, Betty, it is a sort of relief, because I was wondering how totell you that I can’t have the party at all! Sister’s having the houseboth nights, and besides, I was going to have you at least taken backhome, so your father wouldn’t have to come for you, but the cars will bein use, too. It was too bad of my sister not to tell me and Mother didnot happen to say anything till this morning when she was asking mysister what she wanted for decorations. I said, ‘Why, Mother, didn’t youtell me I could have a party?’ and Mother looked startled. ‘Why so Idid! I hope you haven’t everybody invited!’
“So then I made it as nice for her as I could and said I thought I couldchange it to an afternoon one, and Betty, since you had that gorgeousparty at your house, won’t you let me have you and some of the othergirls at our house Saturday, tomorrow afternoon? Please. I’ve telephonedthe _boys_ that my party had to be postponed, so this will be a ‘henparty.’ I’ll have some sort of a party in the Christmas vacation,perhaps, to make it up to the boys, not to mention liking the funmyself.
“Will you mind _awfully_, Betty?” Carolyn’s voice was both regretful andpersuasive.
“Why–no, Carolyn–only it isn’t necessary for you to have us at all, youknow, and I’ve invited all the other girls.”
“I know how we can fix that, easy as pie, Betty. I’ll call all of themup–I know whom you were going to have, you know, and I’ll tell them thatyou and I are entertaining together at our house!”
“We?ll, but you’ll have to let me really help, you know, get therefreshments and everything.”
“I’ll see about that–there will be such oodles around, with Sister’s twoparties, and we’ll have all the benefits of her spuzzy decorations andwon’t hurt a thing, you know. Let’s have it a thimble party. Didn’t Isee you making something for Christmas?”
“Yes. I brought a hanky I’m hemstitching for Mother in school and workedon it a little while in between lunch and class. It’s so hard to get achance without her catching me at it at home.”
“Bring it along and finish it up, then, Betty. Is it settled, then?”
“Are you _sure_ you want it that way?”
“Sure; and Mother will feel better about it, too.”
“Very well, Carolyn. I’m sure Janet and Sue will be delighted to come,and of course I shall.”
Thus it happened that Betty and her guests enjoyed an excellent movingpicture, censored by Mrs. Lee, on Friday afternoon, with attendantpleasure of favorite sundaes and shopping in the big stores; and theyhad the evening quietly at home, early to bed this time, to catch up forthe night before. “It is a good deal of fun with those boys,” saidJanet, “but I think that it will be more _restful_ tomorrow at Carolyn’swithout them.”
“And you will love Carolyn’s home, Janet,” replied Betty, thoughlaughing at Janet’s expression.
A soft snow fell that night. In the morning the girls looked out upon abeautiful world of white, soon to be spoiled in the city by the trafficand the soot from the good furnace fires that kept the people warm. Butat Carolyn’s that afternoon little had occurred to lessen the lovelinessof the snow scene. Beautiful evergreens drooped a little with the weightupon their branches. Drifts piled here and there by bushes that seemedto bear feathery blossoms. It was the first “real snow,” Dick said, andwelcome, particularly to the children.
Betty had not expected so many girls, but here were not only those whomshe had invited to her expected party but a number of others. It wasvery satisfactory. Now Janet and Sue would know just about all the girlsthat she wanted them to meet.
Opinions might differ about the afternoon’s being “restful.” But it wasas restful as girls of high school age would be likely to want it toprove. Janet and Sue were impressed with Carolyn’s lovely home, insideand out, and declared that seeing it with the snow must be almost asgood as seeing it with its flowers. Carolyn brought all the girls whomthey had not met to each of them and although they did settle down withtheir bits of fancy?work or Christmas presents, Carolyn had them changetheir seats in order that groups of different girls might be together.Some things made in the arts and crafts department of the school couldbe brought to be worked on and Betty saw articles that she “longed tomake,” she said. Janet was always a little quiet when she was first withgirls strange to her, but her lack of conversation was not noticeable inthe babel of voices after the girls were fairly launched upon varioustopics that interested them.
“Yes,” replied Betty to one, “I’ve met the mysterious ‘Don.’ His realname is Ramon, but the boys all call him ‘Don’ now, I’ve noticed, so Isuppose we might as well. He doesn’t mind, he said.”
“Did you hear that, Lucille? Betty Lee knows the ‘Don.’ Well, what ishe, anyhow? Spanish, as they say. I always think that the boys may be‘kiddin’ us, you know.”
“He really is part Spanish and part Polish and some of his people wereHungarian, at least they lived in Hungary for a while and he said theywere ‘nice people.’”
“How did you know so much? Is there anything mysterious about him?”
“I was just talking to him one time. He doesn’t seem the least bitmysterious to me, but I don’t think that he has anybody related to himin this country. He just boards somewhere, I suppose.”
“Then that isn’t a bit interesting.”
“Oh, yes, it is, Lucille,” spoke Peggy Pollard. “Chet Dorrance said thatthe Don told Ted a little bit one time and there’s somebody that’seither after him or that he’s after, I think.”
“My, isn’t that news for you?” laughed Lucille. “Peggy, you’re always soclear!”
“Well, do you suppose that Ted would tell what the boy told him inconfidence?”
“Ted must have told something.”
“Couldn’t Chet overhear it, maybe?”
“Then he is really mysterious, you think, Peggy.”
“Yes. I asked him last night if he _was_ mysterious and he said he was!”
There was a general laugh at this. “Peggy’s drawing on her imagination,”said Mary Emma.
“Where did the Don take you last night, Peggy?” queried Lucille, “to apicture show?”
“No, but he was at the same surprise party I went to,” and Peggy gave amirthful glance in Carolyn’s direction.
“Well, if Don as the boys call him isn’t mysterious, you are, so let’schange the subject.”
Peggy had thought that with so many other girls, about twenty in all,Betty might not like to have the surprise party talked over; or it mightbe that some one would feel hurt at not having been included in thesudden affair. For these reasons she was quite willing to have thesubject changed.
“Wouldn’t this be a delicious night to go sl
edding, girls?” she asked,looking out from the large window near which she sat toward the broadexpanse of snow that covered the lawn and stretched beyond the clumps ofbushes and trees over the spacious grounds.
“Too soft, I’m afraid, Peggy,” said Mary Emma Howland. “It didn’t melt,though, when the sun came out. I wonder if it would pack and makeenough. The wind had swept the ground pretty bare at our house, buthasn’t out here.”
“Perhaps it didn’t snow everywhere alike,” brightly suggested KathrynAllen. “Sometimes it rains out in our suburb when my father says thereisn’t a particle of rain down town.”
“The paper says that there is a blizzard out West,” said Carolyn.“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we did have sledding, next week anyhow?”
Betty explained to Janet and Sue what she had mentioned before, that thewinters were considerably more mild here than their own and thateverybody rejoiced when there were winter sports, making the most ofthem; but none of the three thought of any particular good time as onits way to them because of this unexpected snow. Soon came the prettyrefreshments, when all the girls laid aside their work to enjoy them.
They were asked to go into another room, apparently a breakfast room, ora dining room on a small scale, Betty thought, where a round table wasset for them. There a tiny turkey, which was a container for candy ornuts, stood at each place, connected with the central lights overhead bya gay ribbon. Betty’s place card bore an Indian on snowshoes, a wildturkey over one shoulder and a bow in one hand.
“I ’spect there’s some turkey in this ‘chicken salad,’ don’t you,Betty?” said Janet next to her.
“Carolyn _always_ has such lovely things,” replied Betty, though she hadbeen entertained there but once before. But this was perfect for an“afternoon tea.” Instead of tea they drank cocoa, however, and last theywere served to tiny ice?cream roses and delicious little cakes withpink, white or chocolate frosting.
“I’ve done nothing but eat good things since I came to this city,” Suedeclared after they came home, “and we’ve had enough different kinds offun to last all winter! No, thank you, Mrs. Lee, I don’t believe we caneat a speck of supper, or dinner, whichever you call it here.”
“We might sit down with them, girls,” Betty suggested, “for we didn’treally have a heavy meal at Carolyn’s!”
But Betty had scarcely gotten seated at the home dinner table than sherose to answer the telephone. “Oh, who is it? I can’t quite understand.The telephone buzzes a little. Now I get it–oh, yes, Chet! Honestly?Why, yes, that would be great fun. I don’t know, though.”
Betty listened a little. “Wait a minute. I’ll have to ask Mother and seewhat the girls say. Please hold the ’phone a minute.”
The telephone was in the hall and Betty rushed around through the livingroom to where the family were. “Mother!” she began excitedly, “that wasChet Dorrance and he wants to know if we girls can go bob?sled ridingtonight. It’s freezing like everything and the boys have got waterpoured on some hill–this afternoon, you know, and the snow all packeddown!”
“What boys are going and what hill is it, Betty?” inquired her father.
“Chet said that he and Chauncey Allen and Budd LeRoy would come afterus. We can take the car, the street?car, he said, and get off almostright at the hill, anyhow the place where it is, one of the houses, Isuppose, maybe a place like Carolyn’s.”
“Betty, I can’t have you start in to go out with the boys in theevening.”
“But this isn’t like that, Mother. It’s a big crowd, not so very bigperhaps, but at least two bob?sleds and we take turns.”
“Sure the hill doesn’t deposit you near some car line or shoot youacross one? I saw a kiddie nearly killed this afternoon shooting acrossa road, down hill, on his sled.” Mr. Lee was interposing this remark.
Betty looked worried. “Chet is waiting on the line, Mother. Oh, I dowant to go!”
“Suppose I talk to him, then, Betty,” suggested Mrs. Lee. “I don’t wantto keep you from any pleasure, but I want to make sure that it is safe,you know. Yes, a crowd to enjoy the sport is all right if they arecareful boys, not reckless.”
“You met them all here, Mother.”
“Yes.” Mrs. Lee was on her way to the hall.
“This is Betty’s mother speaking,” she said, taking the receiver. “Bettyis anxious to accept your kind invitation, but I want to inquire aboutthe safety of the sport. Where is the hill located and just what are yougoing to do?”
“Aw, Mother’ll spoil it all, Betty,” said Dick, who was listening, whileBetty stood half?way between hall and the dining room double doors.Betty frowned and shook her head at her brother, who passed his platefor a second helping of meat and potato. Dick was going out himself withhis sled and the hill had been passed upon by his father, though Dick inhis peregrinations did not always ask permission. That was one of Mr.Lee’s little worries for fear that in a city he could not so easily knowjust where his son was spending his leisure hours or whether his companywas all that it should be. In the country town there was just as muchdanger of contamination, but they knew so well what was to be avoidedand what companions were safe and who were unsafe.
Mother, however, had not “spoiled it all.” She came back smiling and puther arm about Betty to lead her in the room with her. “Chet explained itall satisfactorily, and I am rather glad to know that Ted Dorrance and agroup of the older high school boys and girls will be there. There is a‘sled load,’ I understand, though that used to mean a different sort ofsled, in the country. Moreover, it is on the Dorrance place, and it maybe that you can be called for. I think myself that the street car issafer, however, and so I told him.”
“Mother!” exclaimed Betty, half embarrassed.
“Don’t worry, child. Parents have to manage some of these things. Iliked Chet and he is not offended. It is most likely that his ownparents have a few remarks to make occasionally. Chet is not old enoughto drive a car, Betty.”
“Well, I’m obliged to you anyway, Mother, for letting us go. Did youring off?”
“Yes, I never thought that Chet might like to speak to you again.”
“Your mother isn’t yet used to having young men ring up and talk to herdaughter,” mischievously said Mr. Lee.
“And I hope that I shall _not_ get used to it for some time,” firmlyreplied his wife. “Betty’s not going to run around regardless; and I’mso sure of her that I know she does not want to do it either.”
“I’m perfectly willing to wait until I grow up a little more,” saidBetty. “But this is different.”
“Yes, this is different.”
It was different. Betty never forgot this first winter fun of herfreshman year, the night so beautiful, the snow so white, the littlecompany so gay. Moonlight made the most of the scene. It was the firsttime that Betty had seen the Dorrance place, rather the house, whichstood back, facing a road which was marked “Private” and wound around ashort ascent to where two houses were built, some distance apart, upon ahill in a thick grove of trees. But the hill began to descend where thehouses were and only the trees and chimneys could be seen from the mainroad where ran the street cars. A path had been well cleared andmachines had gone over the road since the snow had fallen. Escorted bythe three boys, the three girls ascended the hill after leaving thestreet car and heard, while they talked, the merry laughter of a groupjust preceding them.
“So this is where you live, Chet,” said Janet, by this time wellacquainted, for she and Chet had pulled taffy together and joked eachother while they did it.
“Yes; it’s a bit of a climb for some folks, but my mother uses the carmost of the time and I suppose it isn’t more than a good square’s walkto the house. The hill we’re going to slide on is the other side of thehouse. You see there’s really a ravine there, but this hill is wide andthe way the ground slopes and humps around it makes a good long hill ofit. We’ve got it as slick as can be and we’ll shoot across a narrowbrook at the foot. It’s good and frozen tonight an
d getting colder.You’ll all come in the house and meet Mother first. But we’re going tomake a big bonfire to get warm by and Louise, Ted’s girl, you know, sayswe can roast marshmallows the same as if it were summer.”
“So this is Betty Lee,” said pretty Mrs. Dorrance, holding Betty’s handa trifle longer, as she was the last girl of the group. “Both Ted andChet have spoken of you. I am glad to meet you and I hope that my boyscan give all you girls a good time tonight. I’ve cautioned them to becareful of you.”
“Now, Mother!” cried Chet. “You don’t understand. Of course we’ll takecare of them, but they’re pretty independent, too, and they’ll tell usif they don’t want to do anything, at least Louise will tell Ted!”
“I hope so.”
“We want to do what everybody does,” gently said Betty, “and I’m surethe boys know about the hill and everything, don’t they, Mrs. Dorrance?”
“I hope so,” whimsically replied Mrs. Dorrance, who was timid aboutsports of all sorts, though she rather liked this confidence in herboys.
Then the fun began. The girls and boys in warm sweaters and woollen capsgathered about the bob sleds at the top of the hill. One with Tedguiding and full of the older ones went first, down, down around, up alittle, swooping down till it was lost to view and only the littlesqueals and shrieks of excitement or a whoop from some boy reachedBetty’s ears.
“I’ll let you take this one down, Budd,” said Chet. “Budd’s an expert,girls. Now not too many. We’ve another right here and I’ll take thatfirst. Chauncey, watch how I take that curve and you can take it downnext time. Come on, Betty, as soon as Budd’s sled goes and rounds thecurve all right we’ll start, I think.”
Shortly Betty found herself flying among the shadows, through patches ofmoonlight, around the breath?taking curve, shooting down a straight,steep descent, holding tight, breathing in the fresh, frosty air, happyas a bird. Again and again they climbed and descended till they weretired and lit the great pile prepared by the boys in an open space. Theflames shot up, lighting the gay colors of the sweaters and coats, thebright young faces and the snow man that some one started to build whilemarshmallows were really being toasted. A snowball fight or two livenedthe scene for a little, and oh, how surprised they all were, when someone looked at a watch in the firelight and announced that it was gettinglate.
“Don’t put on any more wood, boys,” said Louise Madison. “I’ve only beenable to toast anything in this one corner as it is; and if it is as lateas that we’ll go in, for Mrs. Dorrance will be calling us.”
As if the hour had been noted at just the right time, some one camerunning out of the house to tell the company that refreshments wereready–and such funny ones, ordered by the boys, no doubt, the twoDorrance boys that were hosts. There were hot tea and bottles of pop,hot “wieners” and fresh buns to put them in, hot beans in tomato sauce,pickles, real spiced home?made ones, and for dessert what Dick alwayscalled “Wiggle,” jello or a kindred article, this time holding anassortment of fresh fruit together and served on a plate with an immensepiece of frosted spice cake.
Somebody, the cook, Betty supposed, stood behind a long table by whichthey were to pass in cafeteria style, each taking, as the cookindicated, plate and silver and being served to the variety of foods byChet and Ted, who with laughing faces had put on a white paper cap and awhite apron. These the two boys kept on as they followed the rest intothe dining room, to which a maid beckoned them. But all helpersdisappeared at once. Mrs. Dorrance only looked in upon them to see thatthey were happy, and perhaps to assure Louise that the chaperon wasdoing her duty in being about. Jokes and fun and more hot things offeredby Chet and Ted completed the evening’s enjoyment.
“It’s too much for you to go home with us, boys,” said Betty, ratherthinking that she made a “social blunder” by saying so, but feeling thatif they put her on the car she could see herself and her friends home.
“Couldn’t think of anything else,” replied Chet, guiding Janet down therather slippery hill at the front. “You don’t know how late and dark itwill be when we get off the car near your house. The moon’s setting now,or else there’s a cloud or two. Wouldn’t it be great if we kept onhaving snow!”
“But dear sakes,” said Betty, “we’ll be in school and have to study!”
“Not to _hurt_,” remarked Chauncey Allen.