_BENNY’S PARTY._
MR. Morton’s school closed on the last day of June, and the parents of
the pupils were so well pleased with the progress their sons had made
that almost all of them thanked the teacher, besides paying him, and
they hoped that he would open it again in the autumn. Mr. Morton thanked
the gentlemen in return, and said he would think about it; he was not
certain that he could afford to begin a new term unless more pupils were
promised, although he did not believe the entire county could supply
better boys than those he had already taught at Laketon.
The boys, when they heard this, determined that they would not be
outdone in the way of compliment, so they resolved, at a full meeting
held in Sam Wardwell’s father’s barn, that Mr. Morton was a brick, and
the class would prove it by giving him as handsome a gold watch-chain as
could be bought by a contribution of fifty cents from each of the
twenty-three boys. Every boy paid in his fifty cents, although some of
them had to part with special treasures in order to get the money. Benny
Mallow sacrificed his whole collection of birds’ eggs, which included
forty-seven varieties, after having first vainly endeavored to raise the
money upon two mole-skins, his swimming tights, and a very large lion
that he had spent nearly a day in cutting from a menagerie poster. The
chain, suitably inscribed, was formally presented in a neat speech by
Joe Appleby; Paul Grayson absolutely refused to do it, insisting that
Joe was the real head of the school; indeed, Paul himself asked Joe to
make the speech, and from that time forth Joe himself pronounced Paul a
royal good fellow, and even introduced him to all girls of his
acquaintance who wore long dresses.
For at least a month after school closed the boys were as busy at one
sort of play and another as if they had a great deal of lost time to
make up. Getting ready for the Fourth of July consumed nearly a week,
and getting over the accidents of the day took a week more. Some of the
boys went fishing every day; others tried boating; two or three made
long pedestrian tours—or started on them—and a few went with Mr. Morton
and Paul on short mineralogical and botanical excursions.
Then, just as mere sport began to be wearisome, August came in, and the
larger fruits of all sorts began to ripen. Fruit was so plenty in and
about Laketon that no one attached special value to it; a respectable
boy needed only to ask in order to get all he could eat, so boys were
invited to each other’s gardens to try early apples or plums or pears,
and as no boy was exactly sure which particular fruit or variety he most
liked, the visits were about as numerous as the varieties. Later in the
month the peaches ripened; and as the boy who could not eat a hatful at
a sitting was not considered very much of a fellow, several hours of
every clear day were consumed by attention to peach-trees.
Besides all these delightful duties, a great deal of talking had to be
done about the coming cold season. Boys who had spent unsatisfactory
autumns and winters in other years began in time to trade for such
skates, or sleds, or game bags, or other necessities as they might be
without, and the result was that some other boys who traded found
themselves in a very bad way when cold weather came. Between all the
occupations named, time flew so fast that September and the beginning of
another school term were very near at hand before any boy had half
finished all that he had meant to do during vacation.
There were still some pleasant things to look forward to, though: court
would sit in the first week of September, and then the counterfeiter
would be tried, while on the very first day of September would come
Benny Mallow’s birthday party—an affair that every year was looked
forward to with pleasure; for Benny’s mother, although far from rich,
was very proud of her children, and always made their little companies
as pleasant as any ever given in Laketon for young people. When Benny’s
birthday anniversary arrived, every respectable boy who knew him was
sure to be invited, even if he had shamefully cheated Benny in a trade a
week before, and Benny generally was cheated when he traded at all, for
whatever thing he wanted seemed so immense beside what he had to offer
for it, that year by year he seemed to own less and less.
At last the night of the party came, and even Joe Appleby, whose own
birthday parties were quite choice affairs, was manly enough to declare
that it was the finest thing of the year. The house was tastefully
dressed with flowers, which always grew to perfection in Mrs. Mallow’s
garden, and the lady of the house knew just how to use them to the best
advantage. Benny and his sister received the guests; and although Benny
was barely twelve years old that day, and rather small for his age, he
appeared quite graceful and manly in his new Sunday suit, which had not,
like the new suits of most of the Laketon boys, been cut with a view to
his growing within the year. His sister Bessie was only a month or two
beyond her tenth birthday, but in white muslin and blue ribbons, with
her flaxen hair in a long heavy braid on her back, and her bright blue
eyes and delicate pink cheeks, she was pretty enough to distract
attention from some girls who wore longer dresses, and, indeed, from
several girls in very long dresses, who had been invited out of respect
for the tastes of Joe Appleby, Will Palmer, and Paul Grayson.
Mrs. Mallow was as successful at entertaining young people as she was in
dressing her children and ornamenting her little cottage. She had
prepared charades, and given Bessie a lot of new riddles to propose, and
she herself played on her rather old piano some airs that the boys
enjoyed far more than they did the “exercises” that their sisters were
continually drumming. Several of the boys were rather disappointed at
there being no kissing games, but they compromised on “choosing
partners;” and as there were some guessing tricks, in which the boys who
missed had each to select a girl, and retire to the hall with her until
a new “guess” was agreed upon, it is quite probable that most of the
boys enjoyed opportunities for kissing their particular lady friends at
least once or twice.
As for the supper, a month passed before Sam Wardwell could think of it
without his mouth watering. There were chicken salad and three kinds of
cake, and ice-cream and water ices and lemonade, and oranges and bananas
that had come all the way from New York in a box by themselves, and
there were mottoes and mixed candies and figs and raisins and English
walnuts, while so many of the almonds had double kernels that every girl
in the room ate at least two philopenas, and therefore had enough to
busy her mind for a day in determining what presents she would claim.
But, in spite of a well-supplied table and forty or fifty appetites that
never had been known to fail, full justice was not done to that supper,
for while at least half of the company had not got through with the
cream and ices, and Sam Wardwell had only had time to taste one kind of
cake (having helped himself three times to chicken salad), a small
colored boy, who knew by experience that news-carrying levels all ranks,
if only the news is great enough, knocked at the door, and asked for
Benny. While the door stood ajar, and Mrs. Mallow went in search of her
boy, the spectacle of a number of other boys standing in the hall was
too much for the colored boy, so he gasped, “De counterfeiter done broke
out ob de jail!”
[Illustration: “DE COUNTERFEITER DONE BROKE OUT OB DE JAIL!”]
Then there was a time. Two or three of the boys abandoned their partners
at once, and hurried to the door to ask questions, while one or two more
seized their hats, sneaked toward the back door, walked leisurely out,
as if they merely wished to cool off, and then started on a rapid run
for the jail.
Benny wished to follow them—and not for the purpose of bringing them
back, either—and all of his mother’s reasoning powers and authority had
to be exerted to keep her son from forsaking his guests. Strangest of
all, Paul Grayson, who had throughout the evening made himself so
agreeable to at least half a dozen of the young ladies that he was
pronounced just too splendid for anything, had been among the first to
run away! Benny said he never would have thought it of Paul, and his
mother said the very same thing, while the girls, who but a few moments
before had been loud in his praise, now clustered together, with very
red cheeks, and agreed that if a mean old counterfeiter was more
interesting than a lot of young ladies, why, they were sure that
_Mister_ Paul Grayson was entirely welcome to all he could see of the
horrid wretch.
Still, the party went on, after a fashion, although some of the girls
were rather absent-minded for a few moments, until they had determined
what particularly cutting speeches they would make to their beaux when
next they met them. They did not have long to wait, for soon the boys
came straggling back, Sam Wardwell being the first to arrive, for, as on
reaching the jail Sam could learn nothing, and found nothing to look at
but the open door of the empty cell, he shrewdly determined that there
might yet be time to get some more ice-cream if he hurried back. Somehow
none of the girls abused him; on the contrary, they seemed so anxious to
know all about the escape that Sam was almost sorry that he had not
remained away longer and learned more.
Then Ned Johnston returned. He had been lucky enough to meet a man who
had wanted to be deputy-sheriff and jail-keeper, but had failed; he told
Ned that the jailer had stupidly forgotten to bolt the great door, after
having examined the inside of the cell, as he did every night before
retiring, to see if the prisoner had been attempting to cut through the
walls. The prisoner had been smart enough to listen, and to notice that
the bolts were not shot nor the key turned, so he had quietly walked
out; and had not Mr. Wardwell met him on the street, and recognized him
in spite of the darkness, and hurried off to tell the sheriff, no one
would have known of the escape until morning. There was not the
slightest chance of catching the prisoner again, the would-be deputy had
said to Ned; there wasn’t brains enough in the sheriff and all his staff
to get the better of a smart man; but things would be very different if
proper men were in office.
When the party finally broke up, several boys were still missing; but as
their absence gave several other boys the chance to escort two girls
home instead of one, these faithful beaux determined that they had not
lost so very much by remaining, after all.