CHAPTER XIII
THE BAZAAR
When she had talked it over with Momsy and Miss Seymour, however,Jessie Norwood took up the thought of the radio lecture quiteseriously. Somebody must explain and manage the entertainment in theradio tent, and who better than Jessie?
"It is quite wonderful how much you young people have learned aboutradio--so much more than I had any idea," said the school teacher. "Ofcourse you can write a little prose essay, Jessie, get it by heart,and repeat it at each session in the tent, if you feel timid aboutgiving an off-hand talk on the subject."
"You can do it if you only think you can, Jessie," said her mother,smiling. "I am sure I have a very smart daughter."
"Oh, now, Momsy! If they should laugh at me----"
"Don't give them a chance to laugh, dear. Make your talk sointeresting and informative that they can't laugh."
Thus encouraged, Jessie spent all the forenoon of the Fourth shut upin her own room making ready for the afternoon and evening. She hadalready made a careful schedule of the broadcasting done by all thestations within reach of her fine radio set, and found that it waspossible, by tuning her instrument to the wave lengths of differentstations, to get something interesting into every hour from twoo'clock on until eleven.
Naturally, some of the entertainments would be more interesting oramusing than others; but as New Melford people for the most part wereas yet unfamiliar with radio, almost anything out of the air wouldseem curious and entertaining.
"Besides," Burd Alling said in comment on this, "for a good cause weare all ready and willing to be bunkoed a little."
"Let me tell you, Mr. Smarty," said Amy, "that Jessie's lecture iswell worth the price of admission alone. Never mind the radioentertainment."
"I'll come to hear it every time," agreed Burd. "You can't scare me!"
The radio had been carefully tried out in the tent the evening before.The boys had got the market reports and the early baseball scores outof the air on Fourth of July morning, before the bazaar opened. WhenJessie came out after luncheon to take charge of the radio tent, shefelt that she was letter perfect in the "talk" she had arranged tointroduce each session of the wireless entertainment.
No admission was charged to the Norwood grounds; but several of theolder boys had been instructed to keep an oversight of the entireplace that careless and possibly rough youngsters should do no harm.The Norwoods', like the Drews' was one of the show places of theRoselawn section of New Melford. Boys and girls might do considerableharm around the place if they were not under discipline.
The girls and boys belonging to the congregation of Dr. Stanley'schurch were on hand as flower sellers, booth attendants, andwaitresses. Ice-creams and sherbets were served from the garage;sandwiches and cake from the house kitchen, where Mrs. Norwood's cookherself presided proudly over the goodies.
In several booths were orangeade, lemonade, and other soft drinks. Thefancy costumes and the funny masks the girls and boys wore certainlywere "fetching." That the masks were the result of a joke on ChipTruro's part made them none the less effective.
Amy was flying about, as busy as a bee. Darry and Burd were at thehead of the "police." Miss Seymour took tickets for the radio tent,and after the first entertainment, beginning at two o'clock, shecomplimented Jessie warmly on the success of her talk on radio withwhich the girl introduced the show.
The lawns of the Norwood place began to be crowded before two o'clock.Cars were parked for several blocks in both directions. Specialpolicemen had been sent out from town to patrol the vicinity. Dr.Stanley's smile, as he walked about welcoming the guests, expanded toan almost unbelievable breadth.
The noisy and explosive Fourth as it used to be is now scarcely known.Our forefathers did not realize that freedom could be celebratedwithout guns and firecrackers and the more or less smelly anddangerous burning of powder.
"Now," stated Burd Alling pompously, "we celebrate the name of theFather of his Country with a dish of fruit ice-cream. How are themighty fallen! A George Washington sundae, please, with plenty of'sundae' on it. Thank you!"
Then he gave up twice the price that he would have had to pay at theDainties Shop down town for the same concoction to the young lady inthe Columbine skirt and the mask.
"Young Truro had it right," grumbled Darry. "It's a hold-up."
"But you know you like to be robbed for a good cause," chuckled Amy,who chanced to hear these comments. "And remember that Doctor Stanleyis going to get his share out of this."
"Right-o," agreed Burd. "The doctor is all right."
"But we ought to pony up the money for his support like good sports,"said Darry, continuing to growl.
"You'd better ask him about that," cried Amy. "Do you know what thedear doctor says? He is glad, he says, to know that so many people whonever would by any chance come to hear him preach give something tothe support of the church. They are in touch with the church and withhim on an occasion like this, when by no other means could they bemade to interest themselves in our church save to look at the clockface in the tower as they go past."
"Guess he's right there," said Burd. "I reckon there are some men onthe boulevard whose only religious act is to set their watches by thechurch clock as they ride by to town in their automobiles."
However and whatever (to quote Amy again), the intentions were thatbrought the crowd, the Norwood place was comfortably filled. Thegoodies were bought, the sale of fancy goods added much to thetreasury, and a bigger thing than any other source of income was theadmission to the radio shows.
The children were not the most interested part of the audience in thetent. From two o'clock until closing time Jessie Norwood presided ateight shows. She sometimes faced almost the same audience twice. Notonly did some of the children pay their way in more than once, butgrown people did the same. Curiosity regarding radio science wasrife.
Doctor Stanley came more than once himself to listen. And theminister's boys wanted to take the radio set all apart between showsto "see how it went."
"I bet we could build one our own selves," declared Bob Stanley.
"I betcha!" agreed Fred.
"Only, it will cost a lot of money," groaned the minister's oldestson.
"You can do it for about ten dollars--if you are ingenious," saidJessie encouragingly.
"Gee whiz! That's a lot of money," said Fred.
The girl knew better than to suggest lending them or giving them themoney. But she told them all the helpful things she could aboutsetting up the radio paraphernalia and rigging the wires.
"I guess Nell would help us," Bob remarked. "She's pretty good, youknow, for a girl."
"I like that!" exclaimed Jessie.
Bob Stanley grinned at her impishly.
In the evening when the electric lights were ablaze the Norwood lawnswere a pretty sight indeed. People came in cars from miles away. Itwas surprising how many came, it seemed, for the purpose of listeningto the radio. That feature had been well advertised, and it came at atime when the popular curiosity was afire through reading so muchabout radio in the newspapers.
Among the hundreds of cars parked near by were those of several of themore prosperous farmers of the county. One ancient, baldheaded,bewhiskered agriculturist sat through three of the radio shows, andcommented freely upon this new wonder of the world.
"The telegraph was just in its infancy when I was born," he toldJessie. "And then came the telephone, and these here automobiles, andflying machines, and wireless telegraph, and now this. Why, ma'am,this radio beats the world! It does, plumb, for sure!"
The surprise and the comments of the audience did not so much interestJessie Norwood as the fact that the money taken in by the tent showwould add vastly to the profit of the bazaar.
"You sure have beaten any other individual concession on the lot," Amytold her at the end of the evening. "You know, Belle Ringold braggedthat she was going to take in the most money at the orangeade stand,because it was a hot night. But wait till we count up! I
am sure youhave beaten her with the radio tent, Jess."
JEALOUSY
CAN IT BE POSSIBLE?