CHAPTER XXIII
WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARED AWAY
Regardless of the fact that Mimi would rather forget the fire and allthe horror that went with it, naturally the fire was the maindiscussion everywhere she turned. Disaster and confusion all about. Thebeautiful lawn ruined. Girls were buzzing. They had been ordered tostay away from the ruins. It would not be safe to search for thingsyet. That whole side of the building was roped off. Faculty members,grieved and busy, tried to evolve plans which would handle thesituation for three more days. This was Saturday; on Monday, schoolwould be out for the year.
Mimi herself was in a turmoil. She had not washed her teeth thismorning. That was the most pressing problem.
"I believe I'll chew a sassafras twig like our great-grandmothers did,"she said to Sue.
"Cut me one, too, while you're in the woods," Sue laughed.
Mimi laughed back but not about the sassafras twig. Sue was a sight onearth! She had on a sweater that hung below her hips and a skirt thattouched her ankle bones and a pair of cast-off tennis shoes.
"You look as tacky as I did the day Betsy and I slipped off."
"You don't look so beautiful yourself," Sue retorted. "At least I don'tsmell!"
Mimi had forgotten about the mange cure. It was like eating onions orfood seasoned with garlic. You didn't smell it on yourself. Those nearyou were the ones who were offended. The clothes? They probably didmake her look comical. She hadn't thought of that; she had been toohappy over the fact that they were _Dit's_. Last night, or this morningrather, for it was daylight before the fire chief permitted them tore-enter College Hall, the Preps had been housed with the collegegirls. To Mimi's great joy, she was assigned to Dit's room. Any othertime she would have been so thrilled she would have entered turningcartwheels but not last night. That was the closest call Mimi had everhad to real tragedy. Dit had been darling to her. She had stood rightby her and held one hand while Dr. Ansley bandaged the bleeding one.Then she had tucked her in bed.
"Guess I'd better ask permission right now to go for a shampoo."
"What will you wear?"
"What's the matter with this outfit, really now, Sue?"
"Nothing. Say! What's Mrs. Cole announcing?"
"We can go to town and stay for lunch!" Betsy reported coming up tothem. "All we have to do is go in pairs and sign out and sign in justlike the college girls. I was scared to death we'd have to make outlists of what we needed and I knew I'd never think of it all. When Isee things I need I remember. Hurry, let's get ready. By the time weget back maybe they will let us claim our things which were salvaged."
"I can't bear to think I lost my diary, my tennis racket, my boots, thecards off my Christmas packages, and the Hanfstaengel print just when Iwas beginning to love the cherubs and enjoy living with them."
"Don't speak of losses----" Sue choked up. Mimi knew she was worryingabout her violin, a mellow toned old instrument which had been in thefamily five generations. There was something which could not bereplaced. Her own losses seemed trivial in comparison.
"I want to go to town, too," some one called as they signed up andturned to leave. "Write my name, please."
If she had not spoken they would not have known what name to write. Atfirst glance, Chloe looked like the little brother, Worry Wart, in thecartoon, "Born Thirty Years Too Soon." Yet as she walked toward them,rapidly but not rushed, there was something regal in her step and proudcarriage that funny-paper clothes did not hide.
Suppose she should turn out to be a princess!
The town was ready for the girls when they arrived. The aisles in thefive-and-ten-cent stores were as jammed as they are at Christmasshopping season. The drug stores were overrun. Dresses in sizes12-14-16 were selling like hot cakes. Two of the thriftier merchantsdisplayed signs that the four o'clock express was bringing freshshipments of ready-to-wear, ordered by telephone that morning.
"Good as circus day," Mimi said as they joined hands to try to "crash"Woolworth's.
"Let's only buy ten cent sizes of everything," Sue suggested. "They'llbe plenty to last three days."
"Two and a half days," Betsy corrected. The thoughts of going home madethem all tingle with joy.
"Here's an even better idea," said Mimi harking back to the business inhand. "Of course, we'll each have to buy a tooth brush, a comb, and awash cloth, but outside of those, let's each put in a dime and buy onetube of tooth paste, one cake of soap, one nail file and one box ofpowder."
"What! The founder of a beauty cult leave powder till last?" Sueteased. "But that is a good idea. Let's."
"I don't think we should buy any clothes until we know what wassalvaged."
"Don't worry. I can't without permission from Aunt Marcia."
After a grand time in the ten cent store, pushing and scrouging andgetting lost from each other, the girls separated. Betsy and Mimi wentto the beauty salon. Sue and Chloe beat them back to school by an hour.Sue was still ready to tease about their hair when she came out to meetthem.
Mimi never could stand to see girls who had just had their hair setgoing about with it pasted flat to their heads. She had laughed at manya one. Here she was looking that way herself. She felt as if her earswere sticking out a mile.
"More things have happened!" Sue called from the drive.
"They must have," Mimi said to Betsy. "Sue has Chloe in a _run_."
She was dragging Chloe along at a trot.
"They saved my violin! I knew that I had left it in Miss Taylor'sstudio for her to set a new bridge before Baccalaureate music tomorrow,but the studio was so water-soaked, I knew every instrument in therewould be ruined. It seems Miss Taylor sent a man in through the windowfor her own violin. He grabbed all four of the ones in there and minewas one of them!"
"Aunt Marcia is coming!"
Chloe had news, too.
"More parents have wired and telephoned and many of them are arrivingor have sent word they were leaving soon. All the rooms at the hotelare taken."
"Flash!" Betsy took her turn. "Let me give you a headline that seems tohave been entirely overlooked about this fire. All the uniforms burnedup. So help me, I never in all my life intend to put on another."
Betsy hated uniforms worse than Mimi. She had worn them a longer time.
"Omigosh!" Sue gasped. "I nearly forgot! They saved your trunk,Mimi--lock, stock, and barrel----"
"Why Sue! If you're kidding, I'll never speak to you again!"
Why that would be too wonderful! Of course the cherubs weren't in it,or her racket; but her diary was. She'd had plenty of "undies" and hoseand a dress or two and goodness knows what else. The strangest thingsget in the funniest places, especially in trunks.
"Honest and truly. Don't you remember? We had to move it when we putthe mattresses through the window. You rolled it together and locked ityourself. It seems the firemen and men who helped threw out things likethat. Gee! You lucky girl."
Sue and Chloe had taken part of the packages and they were all walkingup the driveway.
"Doesn't it seem queer to be using the College entrance?" Chloe asked.
Before any one answered, Jill shrieked from a second floor window.
"Mimi! Go to the office. You have a cablegram!"