CHAPTER XII--THE COMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS
"It's like this," explained Ned. He and Laurie and Polly and Mae Ferrandwere in the little garden behind the shop. The girls were on the benchand the boys were seated on the turf before the arbor, their kneesencircled with their arms. A few yards away Antoinette eyed them gravelyand twitched her nose. On the porch step, Towser, the big black cat,blinked benignly, sometimes shifting his gaze to the branches of themaple in the next yard, where an impudent black-and-white woodpecker wasseeking a late luncheon.
"There are two sub-committees," continued Ned, earnestly. "Whipple andCooper are the Committee on Finance and Publicity, and Laurie and I arethe Committee on Arrangements. I told them I had to have help and sothey took Laurie in."
"No thanks to you," grumbled Laurie, who was, however, secretly muchpleased.
"It's going to be next Saturday afternoon and evening, and this isTuesday, and so there isn't much time. We were afraid to make it anylater because the weather might get too cold. Besides, the team needsthe money right off. I looked in an almanac and it said that nextSaturday would be fair and warm, so that's all right."
"But don't you think almanacs make mistakes sometimes?" asked Polly. "Iknow ours does. When we had our high-school picnic, the almanac said'showers' and it was a perfectly gorgeous day. I carried my mackintosharound all day and it was a perfect nuisance. Don't you remember, Mae?"
"Well, you've got to believe in something," declared Ned. "Anyway, we'regoing to have it at Bob Starling's, and if it's too cold outdoors, we'llmove inside."
"You mean at Uncle Peter's?" exclaimed Polly.
"Yes. We thought of having it at school first, but Mr. Hillman didn'tlike it much; and besides, the fellows would be inside without having topay to get there! You see, it's going to cost every one a quarter justto get in."
"And how much to get out?" asked Mae, innocently.
Ned grinned. "As much as we can get away from them. There'll be twelvebooths to sell things in--"
"What sort of things?" Polly inquired.
"All sorts. Eats and drinks and everything. We're getting thestorekeepers to donate things. So far they've just given us things thatthey haven't been able to sell, a pile of junk; but we're going to stopthat. Biddle, the hardware man, gave us a dozen cheap pocket-knives, buthe's got to come across again. We've been to only eight of them so far,but we haven't done so worse. Guess we've got enough truck for one boothalready. And then there'll be one of them for a rummage sale. We'regoing to get each of the fellows to give us something for that, and I'llbet we'll have a fine lot of truck. Each booth will represent a collegeand be decorated in the proper colors: Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and soon. And--and now it's your turn, Laurie."
"Yes, I notice that I always have to do the dirty work," said the other.He hugged his knees tighter, rolled over on his back for inspiration,and, when he again faced his audience on the bench, smiled his nicest."Here's where you girls come in," he announced. "We want you two to taketwo of the booths and get a girl for each of the others. Want to?"
"Oh, it would be darling!" cried Polly.
"I'd love to!" said Mae.
"Only--"
"Only--"
"Only what!" asked Ned, as the girls viewed each other doubtfully.
"I'm not sure Mother would let me," sighed Polly. "Do you think shewould, Mae?"
"I don't believe so. And I don't believe Mama would let me. She--she'sawfully particular that way."
"Gee!" said Ned, in disappointed tones, "I don't see why not! It isn'tas if--"
"Of course it isn't," agreed Laurie. "Besides, your mothers would bethere too!"
"Would they?" asked Mae, uncertainly.
"Of course! Every one's coming! What harm would there be in it? You cando things for--for charity that you can't do any other time! All you'dhave to do would be to just stand behind the booth and sell things. Itwon't be hard. Everything will have the price marked on it and--"
"You won't need to go by the prices always, though," interpolated Ned."I mean, if you can get more than the thing is marked, you'd better doit! And then there's the--the costumes, Laurie."
"Oh, yes, I forgot. We'd like each girl to sort of wear something thatwould sort of match the college she represented--sort of," he explainedapologetically. "If you had the Yale booth, you could wear a dark-bluewaist, and so on. Do you think that would be possible?"
Polly giggled. "We might ask Stella Hatch to take the Harvard booth,Mae. With her hair, she wouldn't have to dress much!"
"And you and Polly could take your first pick," observed Laurie,craftily. "You'd look swell as--as Dartmouth, Mae!"
"In _green_! My gracious, Ned! No, thank you! But Polly ought to beYale. She looks lovely in blue. I think I'd like to be Cornell. Mybrother Harry's in Cornell."
"All right," agreed Ned. "I wish you'd ask your mothers soon, will you?Do try, because we've just got to get girls for the booths. You'd havelots of fun, too. The Banjo and Mandolin Club is going to play fordancing for an hour at five and nine, and there'll be an entertainment,too."
"What sort?" asked Polly.
"We don't know yet. Some of the gymnastic team will do stunts, I think,for one thing, and there'll be singing and maybe Laurie will do somerope-swinging--"
"I told you a dozen times I wouldn't! Besides, I haven't any rope."
"We can find one, probably," replied his brother, untroubled. "Wehaven't settled about the entertainment yet. And there are two or threeother things we haven't got to. Starling's going to have his garden allfixed up, and he's going to cover the old arbor with branches and hangChinese lanterns in it and have little tables and chairs there for folksto sit down and eat ice-cream and cake.
"And that reminds me, Polly. Do you suppose that Miss Comfort would makesome cakes for us?"
"Why, yes, Nid, but--but you'd have to _buy_ them. I don't think youought to expect her to _donate_ them."
"We meant to buy them, of course, Polly. And we wondered if your motherwould make some of those dandy cream-puffs."
"I'm sure she will. How many would you want?"
"I don't know. You see, there's no way of telling how many will come.There are three thousand people in Orstead, but that doesn't mean much,does it? The 'Messenger' editor's agreed to put in an advertisement forus for nothing, and there'll be notices all around town in the windows:we got the man who prints the school monthly to do them for just thecost of the paper. So folks ought to come, shouldn't you think?"
"Oh, I'm sure they will!" agreed Polly, and Mae echoed her. "But it'llbe dreadfully hard to know how much cake and ice-cream and refreshmentsto order, won't it?"
"Fierce," agreed Ned. "I suppose the best way will be to reckon on, say,three hundred and order that much stuff. Only, how do you tell how muchthree hundred will eat?"
"Why, you can't! Besides, Nid, three hundred people would only bring inseventy-five dollars!"
"In admissions, yes; but we've got to make them buy things when we getthem in there. If every one spent a dollar inside--"
"But lots of them won't. Do you think they will, Mae?"
Mae shook her head. "No, I don't. Lots and lots will just come out ofcuriosity and won't spend a cent. I know, boys, because that's the waythey act at the fairs here."
Ned kicked at the turf gloomily. "Gee, that's fierce!" he muttered.
"Well, we'd ought to get more than three hundred folks," said Laurie."Remember, it's to be afternoon and evening too. I'll bet there'll benearer six hundred than three."
Ned brightened. "That's so. And six hundred, even if they only averagedfifty cents apiece, would be three hundred dollars. And I guess if wecan make three hundred, we can dig up the other fifty! Well, we've gotto get busy, Laurie. I got them to give me a cut from practice thisafternoon and I'll have to make the most of my time," he explained tothe girls.
"Oh! And did they let you off, too, Nod?" asked Polly.
"No, we're through with baseball," Laurie answered. "No more tillspring. I'm j
ust fairly broken-hearted!"
"When will you know about helping us, Polly?" Ned asked.
"But don't you think almanacs make mistakes sometimes?"asked Polly]
"I'll ask Mother right away; and you'll ask, too, won't you, Mae? Canyou stop in this evening? I do hope it'll be all right!"
"So do we!" said Ned and Laurie, in a breath. "Rather!"
And the Committee on Arrangements hurried away.
That night the committee met again in Dan Whipple's room in West Halland satisfactory progress was reported all along the line. Ned read alist of donations from the town merchants, and announced that twelveyoung ladies from the high school would be on hand, appropriatelyattired, to take charge of the booths. Lew Cooper showed proofs of theposter that was to be displayed in windows and tacked on posts andfences, and of the four-inch, double-column advertisement to appear inthe "Messenger." Dan reported that Mr. Wells, the physical director, hadpromised to see that the best six members of the gymnastic team shouldexhibit afternoon and evening.
"That means, though," he said, "that we'll have to have some kind of aplatform. Better make a note of that, Lew."
"Platforms cost money," answered Lew, dubiously. "Maybe we canborrow--I'll tell you what! There's one stored over in the field-house,one they use to set the dressing-tent on. It's in twopieces,--sections,--but I guess it's big enough. We'll see if we can'tget the use of it."
"Good! Better ask Mr. Wells, Say, Hal, did you see Norris?"
Hal Pringle was Dan's room-mate, and, while he was usually present atthe meetings, he was careful to keep himself in the background unlesscalled on for advice. Now he looked up from his book and nodded. "Yes,it 'a all right. They'll play for an hour in the afternoon and an hourat night. I had to promise them eats, though."
"Of course. Much obliged. Speaking of eats, fellows, what's been doneabout the refreshments?"
"Nothing yet," answered Ned. "I wanted to talk that over. How manysandwiches and how much salad will we want? And how many gallons ofice-cream and--"
"Whoa!" begged Dan. "Blessed if I know! How the dickens are we going toknow how much food will be needed? What's the rule about it? Or isn'tthere any?"
"Depends on how many will attend the show," said Lew. "Find that out--"
"How're we going to find it out, you chump? How many do you suppose wecan count on, Ned?"
"Maybe six hundred," was the answer. "But if it should rain--"
"There you are! If it rained, we mightn't get two hundred! I'll saythat's a problem. We'd be in a fine fix if we found ourselves with twoor three freezers of ice-cream on our hands and a lot of other truck.Look here, Tabby might know. Suppose you ask her, Ned. We've got to haveenough and not too much."
"It'll be all right about the ice-cream," said Laurie. "The man said wecould return what we didn't open if we got it back that night so hecould pack it over. But the other things--"
"You talk to Tabby in the morning," repeated Dan. "She'll know if anyone does. Now what else? What about the entertainment part of it, Mr.Chairman of the Committee on Arrangements? What have you got in mindbesides the gymnastics?"
"We thought we might find some one who could sing or dance. But we don'tknow many of the fellows."
"Bully! There's Cheesman, Lew. He's a corker. And Kewpie isn't so bad.He sings a funny song mighty well."
"He couldn't sing it in the afternoon, though, Dan: he'd be at thefield."
"That's so! still, the game ought to be finished by four. We wouldn'thave the entertainment part until late, would we?"
"About four, I thought," said Ned, "but Kewpie could come last. I'll puthim down, anyway."
"Anything else besides songs?" asked Dan.
"Yes, only-" Ned dropped his voice and glanced at Pringle--"only it'sgot to be kept a secret to make good."
"Oh, Hal's all right. He's a sort of ex-officio member of the committee.Shoot, Ned!"