ADVENTURE
It was after ten o'clock as the three veiled figures glided from the
square house on the campus. The night was dark, fit for the deed they
had to do. They did not know what the deed was but whatever it was the
intrepid females were fully prepared to do it.
"First we'll go by Prexy's house and perchance she may see us and then
we'll run. That will be fun!" suggested Judy. "Nothing would so warm my
old blood as to be taken for a junior."
It so happened that a consultation was being held at the president's
home and as they passed, Miss Walker opened the front door and Professor
Green emerged.
"Ministers and saints defend us! My brother-in-law!" cried Judy.
"Who is that?" called Miss Walker as the three girls ran swiftly out of
the broad band of light pouring from the open door.
"Run for your lives!" hissed Judy.
"Shall I chase them?" laughed Professor Green. "I'd much rather not."
"No," sighed poor Prexy. "I fancy they are up to no harm, but it is late
for girls to be out alone. Such terrible things seem to be happening all
over the world. I'll have to deliver a lecture to the whole student
body, I am afraid, about late rambles and pranks."
"Those girls were veiled, so evidently whatever they were doing they did
not want to be recognized. I'd hate to hold your job, Miss Walker. I'd
much rather be the humble professor of English."
"Surely it is not a sinecure," laughed the president, "but when all is
told, my girls are a pretty good lot. Their mischief is never, at least
hardly ever, serious. How glad I am to see Judy Kean again,--Mrs. Kent
Brown! She is the same old Judy. Such pranks as that child could play!
I shall never forget when she dyed her hair purple-black."
"Judy is a great girl. I am glad we married into the same family,"
declared the professor. "But tell me, Miss Walker, how Misel is doing.
I feel quite responsible for him since it was I who introduced him to
you."
"The students like him. He seems to be able to impart knowledge. I am
afraid he is too handsome, however. It isn't quite safe to have a
professor too good-looking. College girls are very impressionable."
Then Miss Walker realized she had made quite a break. Edwin Green
was certainly a very good-looking man but not the type to make girls
languish with love. While M. Misel was a much more romantic figure with
his flashing eyes and lameness.
"Are the girls losing their hearts to him?" laughed Edwin. "Again I am
thankful I am what I am and not what others are."
And so the two old friends chatted in the doorway while the three veiled
figures made their way towards the village.
"We got them going that time," panted Judy after the run through the
dark. "I bet you anything Prexy lectures the girls to-morrow morning.
Dear Prexy!"
"Let's tick-tack the math teacher. I bet you she's still out of bed
thinking up deviltry to make the girls miserable with on the morrow,"
suggested Katherine.
"I can make a noise very muchly like a cat. Would not that be as
gruesomely as a mathematicktack? We might be the Musicians of Bremen, as
one reads in the beautifully fairy story."
"Fine, Otoyo! Here's her domicile! Cut loose!" whispered Judy. "I'll be
the donkey and Katherine crow like the rooster."
Crouched down under the window where a light still burned for the much
abused teacher of mathematics, the Musicians of Bremen, all but the dog,
got ready for their song. The noise was something shocking. Judy's bray
was so lifelike that little Otoyo sprang aside as though in fear of
kicking hind legs.
A dog in the neighborhood, feeling that harmony could be established by
his voice alone, joined in the chorus.
Windows were opened on the campus! Silence reigned supreme!
"Don't run!" whispered Judy. "Scrooge down close to the wall."
"Who is there?" called the math teacher.
Mr. Dog went on howling as though he had been responsible for the whole
infernal racket. His timely tact seemed to satisfy the curious ones and
windows were closed, lights went out and the campus took itself off to
bed.
"Once more for luck!" commanded Great Commander Judy.
"Practice makes perfect," so this time the Musicians of Bremen outdid
themselves. Otoyo made a most wonderful pussy; Maud Adams herself could
not have been a more realistic chanticler than Katherine; and Judy's
donkey was so good that one could almost see the ears wagging as her
great bray made night hideous.
"Now run before they have a chance to open their windows!" and Judy was
up and off in the darkness with the two other girls close on her heels.
"I bet you investigating will go on at a great rate to-morrow," gasped
Katherine, as after leaving the college grounds they came to the
outskirts of the village.
"It was so funnily," giggled Otoyo. "We must amusement make for the
smally Mildred and Cho-Cho when the to-morrow has come."
"I can't believe I am a full-fledged teacher in a model modern school in
our great metropolis," said Katherine. "I feel just exactly like a
schoolgirl,--not even a college girl. I know I could run a mile and
there is no mischief I would not welcome."
"I tooly!" agreed Otoyo. "It seems but a dream that I have honorable
husband and smally babee, Cho-Cho. I feel like badly naughtily Japanese
girl in masque."
"Well, it is surely great to be a boy again just for to-night," declared
Judy.
"What next?" asked Katherine.
"Next will be our great adventure! This has been only in the foothills
of happenings. Soon we will have something really great come to us,"
encouraged the captain.
The village was well-lighted on the principal street, but that the girls
avoided and crept down the side streets where all was quiet and almost
dark, except at the corners where small gas-posts sent out feeble rays
of light. They passed comfortable homes surrounded by large yards where
the elite of Wellington lived. The elite were evidently a well-behaved
lot, as they were all safely bestowed in bed, sleeping the sleep of the
just as our naughty girls crept in front of their spacious mansions.
Next to the great, came the near great: a row of pleasant cottages,
each one with its little garden separated from its neighbor's by neat
whitewashed palings. After these, they approached a cottage set in a
large yard and isolated as much as if it were in the country. It was
well back from the street and instead of the white palings of its
neighbors, it boasted a box hedge about five feet high and at least
three feet broad. Generations of close clipping had made this hedge as
solid as a brick wall. The yard enclosed was laid out as a formal garden
with box labyrinth and winding paths. In the rear was a summer-house
with stone pillars covered with ivy. Two stone benches were on each side
in this quaint house where no doubt dead and gone lovers had sat and
perhaps caught rheumatism. Box bushes were placed at the four sides of
the garden and these had been cut to represent armchairs by some zealous
gardener long since passed away. The modern shears had but followed the
lines of the original ones and the armchairs were still there although
somewhat lopsided and hazy in drawing. There was the sun-dial and a
snub-nosed stone Hebe who held aloft her little pitcher with a cup in
the other hand ready to serve the Gods with imperceptible nectar.
Our girls' eyes had become accustomed to the darkness and they peeped
over the hedge (at least Katherine and Judy did, poor little Otoyo was
too short), plainly discerning the charming ensemble of the little
formal garden.
"There, Adventure awaits us!" said Katherine melodramatically.
"I want muchly to see," pleaded Otoyo. So Judy lifted her up for a peep.
"I believe that is where the Misels live," said Judy. "It looks quite
different at night, but I'm almost sure it is the place. Molly and I
called at dusk and we came up on the other side, but I think it is this
cottage. Isn't it lovely? I am so sorry for them, they do seem so
friendless, somehow. Madame is already working for the Red Cross. Molly
says she can make surgical dressings faster than anybody she ever saw.
She takes them home and does them and brings them back so neatly folded
and tied up that they think it is perfect foolishness to inspect them.
They are sure there will be no mistakes where such a careful worker is
on the job. M. Misel is so lame he can hardly locomote."
"Let's go in their garden and sit down a little while," suggested
Katherine, who but a few moments before had declared she could run a
mile. The sedentary life as a teacher had not improved her wind. Her
spirits might have been those of a schoolgirl but her endurance was
equal only to a full-fledged teacher in a model school.
They passed through the small green turnstile and silently crept around
the labyrinth to the summer-house. The three girls sank on one of the
cold stone benches and peered out into the picturesque garden. Their
veils were raised but ready to be pulled down at a moment's notice.
"Ghosts might walk in such a garden," whispered Judy.
"The bench is coldly like a ghost," shivered Otoyo.