CHAPTER III
THE TEA CLUB
"Well I should think you'd better stay in Vernondale, Patty Fairfield, ifyou know what's good for yourself! Why, if you had attempted to leavethis town, we would have mobbed you with tar and feathers, or whateverthose dreadful things are that they do to the most awful criminals."
"Oh, if I had gone, Polly, I should have taken this club with me, ofcourse. I'm so used to it now, I'm sure I couldn't live a day, andknow that we should meet no more, as the Arab remarked to hisbeautiful horse."
"It would be rather fun to be transported bodily to New York as a club,but I'd want to be transported home again after the meeting," saidHelen Preston.
"Why shouldn't we do that?" cried Florence Douglass. "It would be lots offun for the whole club to go to New York some day together."
"I'm so glad Patty is going to stay with us, I don't care what we do,"said Ethel Holmes, who was drawing pictures on Patty's white shirt-waistcuffs as a mark of affection.
"I'm glad, too," said Patty; "and, Ethel, your kittens are perfectlylovely, but this is my last clean shirt-waist, and those pencil-marks areawfully hard to wash out."
"I don't mean them to be washed out," said Ethel, calmly going on withher art work; "they're not wash drawings, they're permanent decorationsfor your cuffs, and are offered as a token of deep regard and esteem."
The Tea Club was holding a Saturday afternoon meeting at Polly Stevens'shouse, and the conversation, as yet, had not strayed far from theall-engrossing subject of Patty's future plans.
The Tea Club had begun its existence with lofty and noble aims in aliterary direction, to be supplemented and assisted by an occasionalsocial cup of tea. But if you have had any experience with merry, healthyyoung girls of about sixteen, you will not be surprised to learn thatthe literary element had softly and suddenly vanished away, much afterthe manner of a Boojum. Then, somehow, the social interest grew stronger,and the tea element held its own, and the result was a most satisfactoryclub, if not an instructive one.
"But," as Polly Stevens had said, "we are instructed all day long inschool, and a good deal out of school, too, for that matter; and what weneed most is absolutely foolish recreation; the foolisher the better."
And so the Saturday afternoon meetings had developed into merely merryfrolics, with a cup of tea, which was often a figure of speech forchocolate or lemonade, at the close.
There were no rules, and the girls took pleasure in calling themselvesunruly members. There were no dues, and consequently no occasion for asecretary or treasures. Patty continued to be called the president, butthe title meant nothing more than the fact that she was really a chieffavourite among the girls. No one was bound, or even expected to attendthe meetings unless she chose; but, as a rule, a large majority of theclub was present.
And so to-day, in the library at Polly Stevens's house, nine members ofthe Tea Club were chattering like nine large and enthusiastic magpies.
"Now we can go on with the entertainment," said Lillian Desmond, as shesat on the arm of Patty's chair, curling wisps of the presidential hairover her fingers. "If Patty had gone away, I should have resigned my partin the show and gone into a convent. Where are you going to live, Patty?"
"I don't know, I am sure; we haven't selected a house yet; and if wedon't find one we like, papa may build one, though I believe Marian hasone all picked out for us."
"Yes, I have," said Marian. "It's the Bigelow house on our street. I dowant to keep Patty near us."
"The Bigelow house? Why, that's too large for two people. Patty and Mr.Fairfield would get lost in it. Now, I know a much nicer one. There's alittle house next-door to us, a lovely, little cottage that would suityou a lot better. Tell your father about it, Patty. It's for sale orrent, and it's just the dearest place."
"Why, Laura Russell," cried Marian, "that little snip of a house! Itwouldn't hold Patty, let alone Uncle Fred. You only proposed it becauseyou want Patty to live next-door to you."
"Yes; that's it," said Laura, quite unabashed; "I know it's too little,but you could add ells and bay-windows and wings and things, and then itwould be big enough."
"Would it hold the Tea Club?" said Patty. "I must have room for them,you know."
"Oh, won't it be fun to have the Tea Club at Patty's house!" criedElsie. "I hadn't thought of that."
"What's a home without a Tea Club?" said Patty. "I shall select the housewith an eye single to the glory and comfort of you girls."
"Then I know of a lovely house," said Christine Converse. "It's awfullybig, and it's pretty old, but I guess it could be fixed up. I mean theold Warner place."
"Good gracious!" cried Ethel; "'way out there! and it's nothing but atumble-down old barn, anyhow."
"Oh, I think it's lovely; and it's Colonial, or Revolutionary, orsomething historic; and they're going to put the trolley out there thisspring,--my father said so."
"It is a nice old house," said Patty; "and it could be made awfullypretty and quaint. I can see it, now, in my mind's eye, with dimitycurtains at the windows, and roses growing over the porch."
"I hope you will never see those dimity curtains anywhere but in yourmind's eye," said Marian. "It's a heathenish old place, and, anyway, it'stoo far away from our house."
"Papa says I can have a pony and cart," said Patty; "and I could driveover every day."
"A pony and cart!" exclaimed Helen Preston. "Won't that be perfectlylovely! I've always wanted one of my own. And shall you haveman-servants, and maid-servants? Oh, Patty, you never could run a bigestablishment like that. You'll have to have a housekeeper."
"I'm going to try it," said Patty, laughing. "It will be anexperiment, and, of course, I shall make lots of blunders at first; butI think it's a pity if a girl nearly sixteen years old can't keep housefor her own father."
"So do I," said Laura. "And, anyhow, if you get into any dilemmas we'llall come over and help you out."
The girls laughed at this; for Laura Russell was a giddy littlefeather-head, and couldn't have kept house for ten minutes to save herlife.
"Much good it would do Patty to have the Tea Club help her keep house,"said Florence Douglass. "But we'll all make her lovely things to go tohousekeeping with. I shall be real sensible, and make her sweeping-capsand ironing-holders."
"Oh, I can beat that for sensibleness," cried Ethel Holmes. "I read aboutit the other day, and it's a broom-bag. I haven't an idea what it's for;but I'll find out, and I'll make one."
"One's no good," said Marian sagely. "Make her a dozen while you'reabout it."
"Oh, do they come by dozens?" said Ethel, in an awestruck voice. "Well,I guess I won't make them then. I'll make her something pretty. Apincushion all over lace and pin ribbons, or something like that."
"That will be lovely," said Laura. "I shall embroider her a tablecloth."
"You'll never finish it," said Patty, who well knew how soon Laura'sbursts of enthusiasm spent themselves. "You'd better decide on a doily.Better a doily done than a tablecloth but begun."
"Oh, I'll tell you-what we can do, girls," said Polly Stevens. "Let'smake Patty a tea-cloth, and we'll each write our name on it, and thenembroider it, you know."
"Lovely!" cried Christine. "Just the thing. Who'll hemstitch it? I won't.I'll embroider my name all right, but I hate to hemstitch."
"I'll hemstitch it," said Elsie Morris. "I do beautiful hemstitching."
"So do I," said Helen Preston. "Let me do half."
"Ethel and I hemstitch like birds," said Lillian Desmond. "Let's each doa side,--there'll be four sides, I suppose."
"Well, the tea-cloth seems in a fair way to get hemstitched," saidPatty. "You can put a double row around it, if you like, and I'll beawfully glad to have it. I'll use it the first Saturday afternoon afterI get settled."
"I wish I knew where you're going to live," said Ethel. "I'd like to havea correct mental picture of that first Saturday afternoon."
"It's a beautiful day for walking," said Polly Stevens. "Let's all goo
ut, and take a look at the Warner place. Something tells me that you'lldecide to live there."
"I hope something else will tell you differently, soon," said Marian,"for I'll never give my consent to that arrangement. However, I'd justas lieve walk out there, if only to convince you what a forlorn oldplace it is."
"Come on; let's go, then. We can be back in an hour, and have teaafterwards. I'll get the key from Mr. Martin, as we go by."
Like a bombarding army the Tea Club stormed the old Warner house, andonce inside its Colonial portal, they made the old walls ring with theirlaughter. The wide hall was dark and gloomy until Elsie Morris flung openthe door at the other end, and let in the December sunshine.
"Seek no farther," she cried dramatically. "We have crossed the Rubiconand found the Golden Fleece! This is the place of all others for our TeaClub meeting, and it doesn't matter what the rest of the house may belike. Patty, you will kindly consider the matter settled."
"I'll consider anything you like," said Patty; "and before breakfast,too, if you'll only hurry up and get out of this damp, musty old place.I'm shivering myself to pieces."
"Oh, it isn't cold," said Laura Russell; "and while we're here, let's gothrough the house."
"Yes," said Marian; "examine it carefully, lest some of its numerousadvantages should escape your notice. Observe the hardwood floors, themagnificent mahogany stair-rail, and the lofty ceilings!"
The old floors were creaky, worm-eaten, and dusty; the stair-rail was ina most dilapidated condition, and the ceilings were low and smoky; soMarian scored her points.
"But it is antique," said Ethel Holmes, with the air of an auctioneer."Ah, ladies, what would you have? It is a fine specimen of the ColonialEmpire period, picked out here and there with Queen Anne. The mantels,ah,--the mantels are dreams in marble."
"Nightmares in painted wood, you mean," said Lillian.
"But so roomy and expansive," went on Ethel. "And the wall-papers!Note the fine stage of complete dilapidation left by the movingfinger of Time."
"The wall-papers are all right," said Patty. "They look as if they'd peeloff easily. Come on upstairs."
The chambers were large, low, and rambling; and the house, in its bestdays, must have been an interesting specimen of its type. But after ashort investigation, Patty was as firmly convinced as Marian that itscharms could not offset its drawbacks.
"I've seen enough of this moated grange," cried Patty. "Come on, girls,we're going back to tea, right, straight, smack off."
"There's no pleasing some folks," grumbled Ethel. "Here's an ancestralpile only waiting for somebody to ancestralise it. You could make it oneof the Historic Homes of Vernondale, and you won't even consider it fora minute."
"I'll consider it for a minute," said Patty, "if that will do youany good, but not a bit longer; and as the minute is nearly up, Imove we start."