by Nell Speed
CHAPTER VI.
THE HALLOWE'EN PARTY.
"Girls! Miss Plympton has actually given her consent to a Hallowe'enparty in the Gym. We have to start at eight and stop at ten, though,"called Mary through the concealed 'phone.
"Pshaw!" exclaimed Dee, who had the receiver at her ear, although Dumand I were both crowding into the closet to get the news that Mary wasgiving so loudly that you could really hear it through the walls withoutthe aid of the toy telephone. "That's no good. Witches don't walk soearly in the night."
"Well, it's better than nothing," answered Mary. "It can be amasquerade. We are thinking of having a sheet and pillow case party. TheSeniors want all of our quintette to serve on the committee ofentertainment. You see, the Seniors are really getting this up. That'swhy old Lady Plumpton will let us do it. She lets the Seniors do lotsof things, but she certainly has got it in for the poor Juniors."
Then there was a confused sound of Annie's trying to talk through the'phone with Mary, and Dum decided Dee had had a long enough turn. Somemixup ensued in the two closets with the result that Dum's best dress,that served as a portiere for the batteries, had to be sent to thepresser, and I got possession of our end of the line and found Annie onthe other.
"Page, Harvie Price writes me from the University that he is going to beat Hill Top, visiting Shorty Hawkins for a day or so soon, and he wantsto come see me. Do you think Miss Plympton will permit it?"
"Can't you work the cousin racket on her?"
"No, she knows I have no relatives in the States."
"Well, then, he may be allowed to sit in the same church with you if heshould happen to be here over Sunday and his voice can mingle with yoursin praise and thanksgiving," I teased. "You know how Miss Plympton saton Jean Rice when her third cousin once removed from Georgia came tocall. She refused positively to let her see him until his kinship wasproved and then she only let him call fifteen minutes. If he had been aplain third cousin she would have permitted half an hour; second onceremoved an hour; plain second two hours; first once removed four hours;plain first eight hours----"
"Page! This is not a problem in arithmetical progression. Please tell mehow he can manage."
"Bless you if I know--unless he can come to the sheet and pillow caseparty. You might let him know one is in prospect." A giggle from Annieanswered me and a shout of joy from Mary as her roommate imparted thissuggestion to her.
"Of course it would never do," Annie said to me later on in the day whenno wall divided us, "but wouldn't it be a joke on Miss Plympton and thefaculty if some of the boys would come?"
"Yes, quite like Tennyson's Princess, but if we got mixed up in it, itwould be a serious misdemeanor." I was willing to go pretty far in fun,but I had no intention of being imprudent and giving Miss Plympton anyreal cause for the suspicion she seemed to entertain for our crowd. "Itell you, Annie, if I were you I'd go and ask Miss Plympton if Harviecan call and if she will not consent, just write and tell him so."
Miss Plympton refused to grant permission for the call unless Harviecould obtain a request from Annie's father, and as that was seeminglyimpossible the matter had to be dropped. Annie wrote to the youth andtold him the state of affairs and that was all she had to do with it.
The Gresham girls and the Hill Top boys usually met at football games atHill Top, and basketball games at Gresham; they sat across the churchfrom each other on Sunday and prayer meeting night. As is the way withboys and girls and has been the way since the world began, I fancy,there were a few inevitable flirtations going on. Some of them, underthe cloak of great piety, kept up a lively conversation with their eyesduring the longest prayers, or sang hymns at each other with thegreatest fervor. One ingenious boy actually wrote a love letter (atleast that is what we loved to designate it) and sent it to hisinamorata on the collection plate. With meaning glances he placed it onthe plate together with his mite. The deacon, all unconscious of theimportant mission with which he was intrusted, proceeded with slowdignity to pass the plate to pew after pew of boys and then up the aisleon the girls' side. Every boy and girl in that church knew what wasgoing on, but there was not a flicker of an eyelash as the exceedinglypretty and rosy Junior, for whom the note was intended, put out herdaintily gloved hand, dropped in her nickel and quickly closed herfingers over the billet-doux and slipped it into her muff. There was anoiseless noise of a sigh, a sigh of extreme relief, that went over allthe expectant pupils, boys and girls. Then with what vim and spirit didwe rise and sing the appointed hymn: "A charge to keep I have"! The oldgentleman who took up the collection was ever after known to us as"Deacon Cupid."
Hallowe'en arrived. It was a splendid crisp, cold day, which put us inhigh spirits. Even Miss Plympton was in a frisky humour and actuallycracked a joke, at least she almost did. She stopped herself in time andmade another chin instead, but by almost cracking it she had shownherself to be almost human, which was in itself encouraging. Ourquintette was out of bounds. We had worked off all of our demerits andwere in good standing with the faculty.
"Now if we can just stay good a while!" wailed Mary. "I, for one, amtired of getting into scrapes and mean to be a little tin angel for atleast a week. I wouldn't think of putting a greater task on mysub-conscious self."
I wasn't so sure of myself, as that minute I had under my mattress a boxfrom Mammy Susan, filled to the brim with contraband food that would putme in durance vile for at least a month if I should be caught with thegoods.
The committee on arrangements for the sheet and pillow case party haddetermined that ice cream and cake should be the refreshments for theevening. The ice cream was usually cut in very slim slices and the cakewas served in mere sample sizes, so I thought when the big ball was overI could gather a few chosen spirits and we could dispose of MammySusan's box in short order. I had not divulged to the others that thisbox had arrived, knowing it would be such a delightful surprise forthem.
Mammy Susan had sent it in care of a coloured laundress who did up ourbest shirt waists and collars, things we did not dare trust to thecatch-as-catch-can method of the school laundry. Shades of my honourableancestors! She had brought the box to the school concealed beneath thefolds of fine linen.
"Ef Miss Perlimpton ketch me she won't 'low me to set foot in this hereplace agin, but you young ladies is been so kin' an' ginerous to me thatI's willin' to risk sompen fer yo' pleasure," the old woman had said asshe lifted out the carefully ironed shirt waists and then the large flatbox that had come by parcels post from Bracken. I had warned Mammy Susanto send things in flat boxes as they were so much easier to concealthan square ones. This one fitted nicely under my mattress. It gave thebed a rather hiked up look in the middle, but making beds was not thelong suit of the Greshamites, so I hoped it would pass inspection,knowing that other beds that were innocent were much lumpier than mine.
If you have never been to a sheet and pillow case party, go your firstchance, and if no one else gets up one, get it up yourself. Drape asheet about you in folds as Greek as you can manage, pinning the foldsat the shoulders, and then put on a pillow case like a hood. If the caseis old, cut holes in it for eyes. If you don't possess an old one, makea cotton mask to tie around your face and pull the hood well over yourforehead. The effect is gruesome, indeed, and that night we looked likea veritable Ku Klux Klan.
We wanted to mark ourselves in some way so that we could be told by oneanother, so we put on each back in black chalk a mystic V, standing forfive, our quintette. Dum and Dee and Annie and I were almost of the sameheight. I was a little shorter, but not enough to make much difference,but Mary was a perfect chunk of a girl and when we got her draped shelooked like a snow ball.
The gymnasium, our ball room, was hung with paper pumpkin lanterns andpapier-mache skulls. "And in those holes where eyes did once inhabit"there shone forth lights giving a very weird effect indeed. The lightwas dim and the ghostly figures moving around would have frightened Mr.Ryan, the old night watchman, to death, I am sure. But he, good man, didnot have to keep
watch until eleven o'clock.
The girls came in singly and in groups, all bent on disguise. Some ofthem sat against the wall, afraid that their walks would give them away,and all were silent for the most part except for a few ghostly groans orwails. Some one was at the piano playing the "Goblins will git yer efyer don't mind out." In a little while couples took the floor and beganwhirling around.
"Who is that tall girl dancing with the little chunky one?" whisperedDee to me. "I thought for a minute the chunky one was Mary, but I seeshe has no V on her back."
"I can't think who is that tall here in school. There are two or threepretty tall Seniors, and then you know there is a new Sophomore fromTexas who is a perfect bean pole, but she doesn't dance."
"Well, this one dances all right and that little square girl she isdancing with seems lively enough. I believe I'll break in on them. Youtake the big one and I'll take the chunky one," and so we did.
Dee started off leading, but I noticed they soon changed, as the shortgirl seemed to prefer guiding. I always let any one guide me who will,so my partner, who was the taller, naturally took the man's part. Shewas singularly silent, although I did some occasional whispering in whatI considered a disguised voice. Annie and Dum were dancing together andI saw Mary's square figure leading out a rather heavy-looking girl whohad up to that time been seated against the wall. As part of thecommittee, we considered it our duty to dig up the wall flowers. Thisone was not much of a dancer and in a moment my partner and I came acropper almost on top of them. We picked ourselves up and Mary,recognizing me by my V, whispered:
"Page, this girl can't dance a little bit. I tried to lead her and shehas stepped all over me. For the love of Mike, see what you can do withher." So we changed partners and Mary went gaily off with my very goodpartner, who certainly danced better than any one I had before tried atGresham, and I tripped off with the heavy-looking cast-off. It wasn't sobad. I let her guide and while she was not so very good, she was not sovery bad.
"Are you accustomed to guiding?" I said, forgetting and using my naturalvoice.
"Ummm um!" came in a kind of grunt from my partner, and then in a highsqueak, "Page!" The music stopped. My partner pressed my hand soaffectionately that I wondered who she could be. I thought I could spotany of my intimates.
"Now you know me, I think you ought to tell me who you are," I pleaded,"and not wait for the unmasking."
"Unmasking!" she said in a strangely hoarse tone. "When?"
"Why, at nine! Didn't you hear Miss Plympton this morning at chapel?"
"Oh--Ah--Yes!" she muttered, and drew me to a seat in the corner.
I chatted away gaily. Since my partner had discovered my identity, Imight just as well make myself agreeable and I hoped to discoverhers before nine. I ran over in my mind all the big heavy girls inschool, and even the teachers. Miss Ball was rather large and MissPlympton--could it be Miss Plympton? I peered eagerly through the holesat the eyes gazing into mine. Whose eyes were they? They certainlylooked very familiar. The music started again, one of the new tunes, andI jumped up to find a partner or even take the one I still had who wasnot so terribly bad, but she drew me down again in my seat, hoarselywhispering:
"Please sit it out with me." I seemed to be in a kind of dream. They saythat one proof of transmigration of the soul is that we sometimes have arealization of doing the same thing we have done before perhaps aeons andaeons ago. I certainly held in my consciousness that once before some onewith eyes, brown just like the ones I could see through the slits (cut,by the way, in a perfectly new pillow case), had begged me in much thesame tone if not so hoarse to "sit it out." I looked at the dancers. Dumand Dee were dancing together; Mary was tearing around with the littlechunky person, who seemed to be a mate for her. I looked for the otherdistinctive black V and saw that Annie was gliding around in the arms ofthe tall girl with whom I had danced, who had proven such an excellentpartner.
Annie's cowl had slipped back and above her mask her pretty hair, thecolour of ripe wheat, showed plainly, making no doubt of her identity. Ilooked back at the mysterious eyes and an almost uncontrollable desireto go off into hysterics seized me. I suddenly remembered the hop atWilloughby and how I had sat out a dance with Wink White the night heproposed. The mystery was solved.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Stephen White!" I gasped. "I knowyou now and I know that that good dancer floating around with Annie Poreis Harvie Price, and that that little square figure with Mary Flannaganis no other than Shorty Hawkins. Don't you know that if Miss Plymptonfinds out about this that every last one of our crowd will get shippedwithout a character to stand on?"
I know Wink wanted to giggle when I talked about a character to standon, but he was too much in awe of my anger to giggle or do anything butplead with me to forgive him.
"You see, dear Page----"
"I am not 'dear Page' and I don't see!" I ejaculated.
"But it was this way. I came over from the University with Harvie Priceto see you, and when I got here, found out the old rules were so strictand ridiculous that I could not get near you in any other way----"
"Well, getting near me was not necessary," I stormed.
"You had better calm yourself or you will give the whole game away,"admonished Wink; so I did try to compose myself and speak in a whisper.
"Well, you had better get a move on you and depart as rapidly aspossible."
"Page, please don't be mad with me. I thought it would just be a larkand you, of all persons, would think it was a good joke," and the eyesthrough the holes looked very sad and pleading.
"Well, you don't know me. I like a joke as well as any one in the world,but to get in a mixup at boarding school because of a lot of boys is notin my line. It would be harder on Annie Pore than any of us because herfather is so severe. He would never forgive her if she should get in areal scrape."
"But it isn't your fault. You were none of you aware of our intention ofcoming."
"That makes not a whit of difference to Miss Plympton. She neverbelieves us, no matter what we say. It is twenty-three minutes to nineand you had better grab Harvie and Shorty and beat it. At nine sharp ifyou don't take your mask off some one will pull it off."
"Well, I don't care if they do; I am going to get a dance with theTucker twins if I have to be thrown out. Which is Miss Dee?"
As I had a secret desire to turn Stephen White's supposed affection forme into the proper channel, namely, in the direction of Dee, who wasmuch more suited to him than I was, I could not resist the temptation oftelling him, although in doing so I certainly placed myself in aposition precarious, to say the least. I was aiding and abetting him inthis attempt to hood-wink the school of Gresham. I was also getting thetwins into the scrape with me by pointing them out to this terribleperson, a male in a girl's school. I did not think of this until I hadtold Wink that all of our quintette had big black V's on our backs andhe had made for the twirling twins and broken in on them. He got Dee,just by luck, and Dum sank on the bench by me.
"Dum, do you know who that is that just got Dee?" I asked.
"No, I have been wondering who she is and who that tall girl is withAnnie Pore."
"Well, get ready to hear something, but don't faint or scream," and Iwhispered to her the names of the venturesome boys. She only gasped andthen went off into convulsions of laughter. "It is all very funny," Icontinued, "but tell me, what are we going to do if Miss Plympton findsit out?"
"But she mustn't. We must get them out of here before we unmask. Don'tyou think Annie knows by this time that that is Harvie she is dancingwith, and do you think for an instant that Mary and Dee are not on?"
The music stopped just then and our quintette with the partnerscollected in our corner. Annie was trembling with fright, but wasevidently having a pretty good time in spite of her fears, and Mary wasin a gale only equalled to Tom Hawkins's.
"Don't stop for adieux," I admonished. "Remember if you are caught allthe blame will fall on us, and while I like all of you wel
l enough, Ihave no desire to be expelled for the sake of having danced with you."
This was rather sobering to their gaiety, and after whispered directionsof how best to get out of the building, the three ghostly figures glidedoff. I was awfully afraid that some one had overheard, but no one seemedto be especially interested in us just then and I could but pray that wehad been unobserved.
As Wink had pressed my hand in farewell, he had begged for forgivenessand had said he intended to see us again by hook or crook. He was to beat Hill Top until Sunday night.
"It will be in church, then," I had declared, because I was determinedthat I was not going to get into any more of a scrape than I was alreadyin. I was very much relieved that the boys were gone, and my angercooled down, although I was certainly disgusted that they had so littleconsidered us in this mad escapade. I don't see why the pastors andmasters of the young make it such a crime for boys and girls to have agood time together if they are off at boarding school. How much betterit would have been if Miss Plympton had just invited the boys of HillTop to come to the party and let us dance all we wanted to. There iscertainly no harm in it in the summer, and why should there be harm init then?
At nine the masks were off and then we had the slight refreshments (veryslight), followed by rather tame dancing until the ten o'clock gongwarned us that in a few minutes lights would be out.
