AN OLD-TIME PARTY
The first one of the old girls to arrive was Otoyo, Mrs. Matsuki, with
the little Cho-Cho-San. Otoyo had changed not at all in the years that
had elapsed since college days. Perhaps an added matronly dignity was
hers, but this was not much in evidence when she was with her dear old
friends. She was beautifully and elegantly dressed. All her clothes were
made of the most exquisite fabrics. Her blouses were of the finest and
sheerest, if of linen; and the heaviest and richest, if of silk. Her
furs were the furriest and her suits of the most approved cut and
material. Her little boots were a marvel of fit and style.
"Perfect, like a Japanese puzzle!" Judy declared. "Every little part
made to fit every other little part!"
"Yes, and the whole a wonderful creation like some rare print or bit of
pottery!" agreed Molly.
Otoyo had adapted herself to the manners and customs of her adopted
country, wearing them with the same grace she did the garments. She had
an English nurse for the little Cho-Cho-San and the child was being
reared as much like American children as possible. A tiny little thing,
she was, with coal black hair and slanting eyes. There was much mischief
peeping from those eyes around the tip-tilted nose. The mouth was a
crimson bow, ever ready to break into a tinkling laugh. She and Mildred
rushed together as though their short lives had been spent waiting for
this opportunity. Mildred was younger by several months but taller by
several inches than the little Japanese. What a picture the two children
made! Mildred, with her red gold hair curling in little ringlets all
over her head, her round rosy face and wide hazel eyes, was exactly the
opposite to Cho-Cho-San, with her straight, bobbed, ebony black hair,
her oval, olive face and almond eyes.
"I b'lieve I can tote you," said Mildred, who often used words current
in Kizzie's vernacular.
"Tote! Tote! What is tote?" and the tinkling laugh rang out like glass
chimes assailed by a sudden gust of wind.
"Why I tote my dolly--an' Mr. Murphy totes the coal--an'--an' Daddy
totes his books to lexures--an'--an'--"
"May I tote something, also?"
"Oh, yes, you can tote Dodo. He's my baby brother."
"Oh, I'm so 'appee! I'm so 'appee!" and the little thing danced in glee.
"My honorable mother told me when I came for a visit to her friends that
it would be all 'appiness." The English nurse had left her stamp upon
her charge just as Kizzie had upon Mildred. The occasional dropping of
an h was the result. Cho-Cho-San's lingo was most amusing with its
mixture of Cockney and Japanese.
"You'd look 'zactly like my Jap dolly if you only had a bald spot on
top," said Mildred as she led her new friend to the sunny nursery where
she and Dodo reigned supreme with the Irish Katy to do their bidding.
"And phwat Haythen is this?" cried Katy when she saw the little Japanese
girl. "And ain't she the cutey?"
"She's my bes' beloved," announced Mildred. "Me'n' Cho-Cho-San is gonter
be each other's doll babies. I'm a-gonter be her kick-up dolly an' she's
gonter be my Jap dolly."
"Oh, I'm so 'appee! I'm so 'appee!" was all the tiny Haythen could say
as she danced around the nursery.
"Aunt Nance done said we could be her flower girls, too," went on the
loquacious Mildred. "We's all gonter get married day after another day."
"All the doll babies going to be married!" sang the guest. "Kick-up
dolls and Japanese dolls!"
The Williams girls arrived next and close on their heels Margaret and
Jessie. I cannot bring myself to designate the girls by their married
names any more than they could one another. Husbands were not much in
evidence at that gathering. The talk was all of the past. Of course
Andy, the soon-to-be husband, was allowed some consideration, although
the first night after the arrival of the guests even he was debarred and
the old chums had a kimono party in the library. The host fortunately
had an engagement that took him from home, otherwise he would have had
to spend his evening shut up in his den.
The revellers opened the ball by singing "Drink her down," to each one
in the crowd. Molly's old guitar was brought out and Otoyo produced a
tiny ukelele which added much to the harmony. After the singing was
finished and every one drunk down, the words that were used most often
were: "Do you remember?" All of the scrapes were recalled and talked
over. Bits of gossip were recounted that had never come to light before,
the noblesse oblige of the college spirit having kept matters dark, but
now that the years had rolled by there seemed to be no longer reason for
silence.
"I'd like to get into some mischief this very night!" cried Judy. "I've
been good and pious so long I feel like whooping life up a bit."
"I'm game," drawled Katherine Williams.
"Did I hear an aye from the eminent educator?" questioned Judy.
"That's me!"
"I'll do whatever it is if I don't have to walk too far," said lazy
Jessie.
"But what are you to do?" from Margaret, in whom the spirit of adventure
was not so rampant.
"Listen to the Gentleman from Missouri!" cried Judy. "Come on and we'll
show you."
"I like very muchly to be in the vehicle of musicians but I also like
muchly to know what is the ultimately destination," said Otoyo softly.
"She means the band wagon! She means the band wagon!" cried Judy. "Oh,
my dear little Otoyo, if you were changed I could not bear this sad grey
world."
"Others, too, have notly changed," said Otoyo slyly.
"What are you planning, Judy honey?" asked Molly, laughing.
"I haven't any plan--nothing but something crazy and adventurous. I am
dead tired of being so good and proper. I have rolled bandages and drawn
threads and cut gauze until I feel like a machine. I want to have a
romantic adventure. I'd like to put a tick-tack on Miss Walker's
window--I'd like to burn asafetida on the teacher's stove, or put red
pepper in the Bible so when she opens it to read she would sneeze her
head off. I might content myself with making an apple pie bed for my
dear brother-in-law----"
"Oh, please not that!" begged Molly. "My supply of sheets is stretched
to the limit."
"O. Henry would advise you to go out in the night and await Adventure.
Adventure is always just around the corner. Step up to him and tap him
on the shoulder," suggested Katherine.
"It is very comfortable in here," purred Jessie.
"Infirm of purpose!" cried Judy.
"Well, I'm not infirm of purpose," said Molly. "I've been purposing all
along to have a Welsh rarebit and make some cloudbursts and I'm still
going to do it. If you Don Quixotes want to go off and hunt trouble in
the meantime, though, you are welcome, only don't stay too long."
"Ain't Molly the broad-minded guy, though? Live and let live was always
Molly. Aren't you coming, Nance?" And Judy sprang from her cross-legged
position on the rug ready for any fray. "Come on, Margaret! Come on,
Edith."
"Don't you know Edith is too stuffy to do such a thing? She's afraid her
perfectly good husband would not approve," teased her sister.
"No such thing, but I'm not going. I mean to help Molly. You crazy kids
go get in all the trouble you want to. Me for the house this night!"
"And Margaret? You, too, must keep the 'home fires burning,' I fancy."
"I am going to stir the rarebit," announced Margaret firmly.
"I'm going to pick out nuts for the cloudbursts," purred Jessie.
"I must whip lace," blushed Nance.
"Oh, you middle-aged persons! I bite my thumb at you!" cried Judy. "Who
among you is young enough to go hunt adventure?"
"I told you I intended to go," said Katherine, looking rather longingly
at the crowded shelves of poetry that she was simply dying to poke in.
"No one is going to call me middle-aged."
"And I, too, will take greatly pleasure to knock the kindling from the
shoulder of Adventure," said little Otoyo.
"She means the chip! She means the chip!" screamed the delighted Judy.
"Oh, Otoyo, I love you in all the world next to my immediate family!"
It took but a moment to slip on great coats over kimonos and then,
heavily veiled, the three adventuresses started forth, with admonitions
from Molly not to be gone more than half an hour.
"And please don't get arrested!" she called after them. "Kent says he
always expects Judy to get arrested some day. This spirit of adventure
seizes her every now and then and nothing will stop her."
"It is well it struck her here at Wellington instead of in New York. She
can't get into very much mischief here," laughed Edith.
"She could in the old days," put in Margaret, "but now that she is not
compelled to keep rules I fancy she will not care to break them. What a
Judy she is! It must be great to have her in the family, Molly."
"Indeed it is! She is the favorite in-law with the whole lot of Browns.
Mother adores her and all the boys think she is just about perfect. Even
Aunt Clay can't help liking her."
"I wonder what they will find to-night. I almost wish I had left the
lace off of this old camisole and gone with them," said Nance.
"I think you need not hunt adventure right now," drawled Jessie. "Any
girl who is deliberately getting married and going to the war zone will
have enough to keep her busy for a lifetime. I don't believe they will
do more than go to the drug store and get limeades."
"You don't know Judy and Katherine," said Edith, "and little Otoyo with
her determination to knock the kindling from the shoulder of Adventure.
I wonder what Mr. Matsuki would say if he could know that his sedate
little wife is engaged in such a harum scarum pursuit."
"Why, he would just smile and bow and look more like an ivory Buddha
than ever. Otoyo has the charming little gentleman completely under her
thumb. She works a kind of mental jiu jitsu on him and he just lets her
have her way. The joke of it is he thinks she is the most docile,
obedient little wife in all the world, and so she is. She simply makes
him want what she wants," explained Molly.
Molly was busily engaged in the preparations for the midnight feast. It
would have been simpler and easier just to have gone to the kitchen and
made the rarebit over the gas stove, but that would not have been at all
like college days and this night must be as near a reproduction of
those times as possible. Chafing dishes must be used and dishes must be
scarce or the spell would be broken.