THE STORM
It was curious. Betty often thought and commented upon it afterwards at
home. Sometimes it seems as if in such curious, almost intentional ways,
lives cross each other. Yet Betty wondered how she happened to come into
the design in this instance. Her father told her that she was just one
instrument of Providence, used because she could be of service and was
“good in the humanities.”
And who would have thought that here, away off from home on the coast of
Maine?—but one must take events in order.
It was in the second week of good times. One night there was a sudden
and terrific storm, or so it seemed to Betty. The sea boomed and lashed
the shore. Lightning flashed and thunder resounded or crashed with the
bolts close at hand. Such small shipping as the village boasted had come
hurrying to the protection of the small bay and breakwater.
The girls, rather frightened at first, bravely tried not to show it,
though they were wondering whether the boys had gotten in safely from a
fishing trip. “Don’t worry,” said Mr. Gwynne. “The sky was lowering
about dusk. If they were too far up the coast they would put in
somewhere and land.”
But the girls were uneasy and Betty was very much interested in her
first big storm by the sea. “I wish we could go down to the dock to see
things,” she said.
“Well, why not?” asked Carolyn. “As soon as it stops pouring, we’ll put
on our ponchos and galoshes and go down. It’s not thundering much now.
The storm’s gone out to sea!”
Mrs. Gwynne had no objection. A little later, protected from the still
falling rain and equipped with flashlights, the girls ran or slipped on
rocks and sand to the shore, warned against going too close. “No big
wave is going to carry us off, Mother,” Carolyn assured Mrs. Gwynne.
“We’ll look at it from a safe distance I promise you.”
At first they went by the usual “back way,” but found that at one point
they could not safely pass. Waves dashed in against rocks that even at
high tide they had found at some distance from the line of water.
Accordingly they returned, by the ascent and steps, to the Gwynne
grounds, from which a longer way led to the village and small docks.
Other people were out. Lanterns, rubber-coated men and women, with
umbrellas, rubbers or galoshes, splashing through puddles, were in
evidence. “Hello there!” cried a familiar voice. It was Chet Dorrance
whose big flashlight had discovered the girls. There were the boys!
“Oh, we were worrying a little about you boys,” said Betty, as Chet took
her arm and fell into step, guiding her around an immense puddle. “We
tried to telephone Marcella and ‘Welcome Inn,’ too, but the fuse had
burned out or something.”
“The storm has knocked everything out,” returned Chet. “We got home all
right. I pity any boat that got caught tonight. We found good luck, not
so far away, and when we saw that there was going to be a storm, we came
back. Perhaps we wouldn’t have come if we hadn’t already had more fish
than we could use. How about Gwynne Haven. Want any fish, or shall we
have a big fish fry tomorrow?”
This last was in a louder tone to Carolyn, who with Kathryn was behind,
accompanied by several more of the boys.
“Oh, the fish fry by all means,” called Carolyn.
“How can we have a fish fry after this?” asked Betty.
“Very likely tomorrow will be as bright as can be, Betty,” said Chet.
“Gee whilikers, look at the dock!”
By this time they had reached the dock, where more than one boat owner
had come down to see how his shipping fared. The boys found their boat
intact and uninjured, and when Carolyn found that they had intended to
come later on to “Gwynne Haven,” the new name for the new cottage, she
told them to “come right along.”
“We’ll stop for Marcella and the rest,” continued Carolyn, “and have a
fudge party. Then we can plan the fish fry.”
Not all the boats had fared as well as the launch used by the boys of
“Welcome Inn.” Betty felt troubled over several rather distracted women
whose “men-folks” had not come in. She overheard some woman assure them
that they were “probably safe ashore somewhere,” but Betty knew that
this was said only to cheer them a little. Oh, dear, the sea and fishing
and boating were not all fun!
The fudge party was a success. Wet ponchos and coats and overshoes were
hung around to dry while the savory odor of cooking fudge made pleasant
anticipations. Arthur Penrose drew a funny sketch of Ted almost falling
out of the boat in the effort to land a big fish. Then, on a piece of
cardboard which Carolyn furnished, he made a poster of the fish fry.
Art’s imagination ran riot and Betty watched his bold strokes and the
funny figures that resulted, with as much hilarity as the rest. “Oh, you
ought to do comic strip, Art,” she exclaimed. “You’d make a fortune.”
“Sh-hh!” returned Arthur, in a loud whisper. “It’s a secret. That is my
present ambition. All I need is the idea!”
“That is _good_” was Larry Waite’s verdict, when he and Judson Penrose
surveyed the result, with Marcella and another Kappa Upsilon. “Unless
some of you girls want it, we’ll tack that up in ‘Nobody T-Home’
tomorrow.”
“But don’t throw it away when we go home,” said Marcella. “We need that
as a souvenir of the summer. Arthur, may I sit for my portrait?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Arthur, with affected timidity, “but I’m very
expensive, you know.”
“What is that to me,” scornfully Marcella replied. “I could raise a
thousand as easily as a—hundred.”
“Yes,” laughed her brother. “Marcella said this morning that she had
just five cents left of her allowance.”
“Now, Larry! You know it is not polite to tell family secrets,
especially about money.”
“Well, who mentioned money first, I ask the assembled company?”
Betty, laughing, caught Larry’s eye, and he stretched a hand to lift her
from her seat by Arthur. “Come, Titania; you have wasted enough time in
encouragement of _art_, with or without a capital letter. Let’s turn on
the victrola. No radio tonight, I reckon. It was sputtering to beat the
band at our shack awhile ago.”
“A lot of interference from ships and shore,” said Ted Dorrance, “beside
the weather—naught but static this eve.”
Hot fudge was good and the evening was merry, yet all of the young
company were more or less conscious of the sea and its restless menace.
Yet when morning came, it was as Chet had said, bright and sunny, with a
blue sky. The waves were still high and the stretch of water to the
skyline a glorious sight. Betty selected a high rock, back of the beach
proper, some distance from the Gwynne cottage, where she could sit and
watch the incoming rollers with their white crests. The girls had gone
down early in the hope of finding new shells brought in by the storm.
Betty had a little market bag full of pretty ones. “I have to watch this
a long time, Kathryn,” said she soberly to her friend, who had followed
her. “Do you suppose it could fade out of a body’s mind, just like a
film that you had taken full of pictures and then didn’t have
developed?”
“Well, you _are_ original, Betty! Who else would think of that? I’d like
to remember it, too. I feel as if something is going to happen, Betty.
Why, do suppose?”
“Something _is_ going to happen, the fish fry this afternoon.”
“I know.”
“Are you like that sometimes, Gypsy?”
“Yes. It must by my ‘gypsy blood!’”
“As you haven’t any, it must be something else. How about nerves from
staying up till all hours last night?”
“Perhaps. But the whole village was up and we stayed in bed as late as
we could and not miss getting shells.”
This conversation was interrupted by the arrival of more of their
friends. Ted had his big camera and took Betty and Kathryn on their rock
as well as snap-shots of shore and surf and groups of people here and
there.
The fish fry in the afternoon was a source of more fun. All of them were
more or less accustomed to picnics and cooking in the open. Larry and
Ted had for fun brought immense cooks’ aprons and announced that they
were chefs and “chief cooks and bottle washers.” Some spills occurred
and a few fish were rather overdone; but that was better than not to be
done enough. Pickles and rolls were “easier” than making sandwiches; and
for dessert they had new England doughnuts and various sorts of fruit,
according to the taste of those who chose the contributions. Lemonade,
brought in “joy hats,” and bottles of pop regaled them when thirsty.
Not a plan was made for the next day. Every body was too lazy.
“Something will turn up, girls,” said Larry Waite. “If nothing else we
can always take a ride in the launch. It’s a little too rough today,
though.”
The local movie was well attended that night. Ted, to Betty’s pleased
surprise, invited her to accompany him. Carolyn went with Archie
Penrose, Kathryn with Arthur, Gwen with Chet Dorrance and Peggy Pollard
with Judd Penrose. Marcella and the other Kappa Upsilons had “other
arrangements” at a party outside of this resort.
The “theatre party,” as Ted called, it, attended the “first show,” and
after more or less attractive refreshments at the local ice-cream shop,
the girls were duly taken home by boys that said they must have their
“beauty sleep” and left with nothing beyond a visit on the front porch.
Gwen Penrose and Peggy Pollard were staying at Carolyn’s now and Gwen
giggled a little when they went to their rooms, rather relieved, after
all, that the boys had not come in for another party. One did have to
have a little rest sometimes. “The boys have something on hand tonight,”
said Gwen. “I got an inkling from Archie, though he wouldn’t tell me
what they’re going to do—some boy stuff. My, doesn’t being outdoors so
much make you sleepy?”
“Yes,” Betty happened to be the one to reply, she would be “as hoarse as
a gull if she didn’t make so much noise tonight. It’s going to put me to
sleep and that soon!”
But Betty reckoned without considering how many things are absolutely
necessary to talk over. As there was another room connecting with
Carolyn’s, Gwen and Peggy had been put there; but the girls went back
and forth and Gwen in gay pajamas sat on Betty’s bed to talk for an
hour, till Peggy called her and told her she would be “as hoarse as a
gull if she didn’t either come to bed or get her robe around her.”
At that Betty made room for Gwen under her soft covers and never knew
when Gwen, whispering to deaf ears, finally, went to her own bed in the
next room.