CLANG-CLANG.
“What shall I do with the pansy costume, Cathalina?” asked Betty the
next morning, as she was hanging some articles in the closet.
“Just give it to me. I’ll fold it and put it in my box. We need all the
room in the closet.”
“All right,” assented Betty, “but I’ll fold it.”
Betty laid out the dress on the bed, preparatory to the folding process,
and looking over it said, “O, one of the pretty little pansy dangle-ums
is gone from this sleeve! I’m sorry. I don’t remember catching it in
anything.”
“Perhaps it was gone to begin with, or was loose. I didn’t look it over
when I gave it to you. It doesn’t matter at all.”
“It shows that one was there, and I don’t see where one can move any
other to take its place. I’ll run downstairs and look. Perhaps I dropped
it in the society hall. O, Hilary, may I have your key to the hall?”
Hilary handed Betty her shining new key which the girls had had made,
and Betty went down, glancing at halls and stairs as she went. No small
pansy appeared on the floor or among the decorations of the society
hall. Betty even ran down the short flight from the first floor
outdoors, unlocking the outer door which had not yet been opened and
looked all around as if she expected some light on who had looked over
her shoulder the night before.
“I couldn’t find it, Cathalina,” she reported. “They are so unusual that
it is a pity. Don’t you really mind?”
“Not a bit, and I still think that it was gone before you ever put it
on.”
“If so, that is some consolation to me, then.”
“Don’t worry your head about it, Bettikins; it can be fixed, I’m sure,
if we need the costume again for anything.”
“It’s so pretty I’d like to wear it all the time.”
Later in the day Cathalina had a bit of news for Betty. “I heard that
some of the boys from the military school were over last night,” she
said.
“O,” said Betty, “who?”
“One of the young instructors was calling on Professor Schafer and two
or three of the boys came with him.”
“Ha-ha-ho-ho!” exclaimed Betty. “Do you know who any of them were?”
“No; some of the older girls were telling about it and were wondering
themselves what brought them.”
“I imagine that it would not be _very_ hard to induce some of the boys
to go with you on Hallow-e’en if you were going on an errand to a girls’
school. I’m not a very curious person, I think,” added Betty, “but I
really _would_ like to know who was here last night!”
No further information on the subject seemed to be forthcoming, even
after a few guarded inquiries, and the weeks flew so fast with work and
fun that Hallow-e’en soon seemed like a bright dream. Snow fell,
beautiful and fleecy, or crystal and sparkling, rejoicing the hearts of
the girls, as it introduced the winter sports. Thanksgiving came and
went with its turkey celebrations and parties. As Christmas approached,
there were sleighing and old-fashioned bob-sled parties. Skating and
skiing and an ice carnival promised much. Olivia Holmes of New Orleans
had all the winter that she wanted, but bravely endured the unaccustomed
cold for the sake of the fun and the new experience. Luckily for her,
her Dakota roommate realized how unused to cold winters Olivia was, and
made all sorts of sensible suggestions for her protection. Bundled in
furs, Olivia took part in everything with much zest.
“Don’t you love the bells!” exclaimed Olivia on Saturday evening as she
and Virgie settled down for a little visit with Isabel and Avalon after
a ride in a big sled filled with straw.
“Indeed I do,” assented Isabel. “The snow is so nicely packed now, and
the roads are so good. Everybody that wanted to go could have a ride
today. The girls in the sleighs thought they were so fine, but I loved
it in the big sled and it was not nearly so cold for you, Olivia.”
“I felt just like Santa Claus, though I always wanted to ride behind
reindeer! Didn’t the horses prance and enjoy it?”
“Yes, though I thought once that Prince was going to upset the double
sleigh in front of us with his cavorting. But Mickey was driving, and
can handle horses as well as he can boats.”
“Do you suppose we’ll ever have a ‘Greycliff’ again?” asked Avalon.
“I shouldn’t wonder, probably next fall,” said the cheerful Isabel.
“I shall never forget this day, and my first real sled ride over the
country,” declared Olivia, little knowing that she was still to have
another memory for the date.
The girls in Lakeview Suite were discussing the Christmas holidays so
near at hand. “I wish that you could visit me this year, Cathalina,”
said Hilary.
“I’d love to,” responded Cathalina, “but then I can’t be in two places
at once, and Mother thinks so much of having all the clan, you know.
I’ll have to be there all the time. Can’t you come to us again? Campbell
is always asking about you every time I see him.”
“Not this year. You see we just moved this fall, and Mother and Father
want me to be there and help with the Christmas entertainments and all.
Besides, I couldn’t be away two Christmases in succession. I’ve been
trying to persuade Lil that it is her duty to go home with me.”
“I might go for a few days, Hilary. Wouldn’t it be fun! I’ll write and
see if I can. But I, too, must be with the folks on Christmas Day. Dick
will be at home, and Father, especially, can’t do without me. It may be,
too, that my married sister and the kiddies can come.”
“All right, Lilian,” said Hilary gleefully, clapping her hands. “We’ll
count on you for a few days anyhow. Then I thought that I’d like to ask
Isabel and Virgie to go home with us. Isabel looked sort of wistful when
I talked about having Lilian, and while I suppose her family might want
her on Christmas Day, perhaps she could have a few days in the city and
enjoy some Christmas shopping as I did with you in New York last year,
Cathalina. Virgie, of course, can scarcely manage to go so far home. The
only drawback is that I don’t know about asking Olivia. There’s plenty
of room in the parsonage, though, even with our big family.”
“Avalon is going to take Olivia home with her, Hilary,” said Cathalina.
“I heard her ask her the other day, and she accepted gratefully. Avalon
has been very much attracted by Olivia. They are really more alike than
Avalon and Isabel.”
“Yes, that is so,” said Lilian, “and Isabel and Virgie seem to love to
be together. It will be lovely of you, Hilary, to give them both a good
time.”
“I like them both and it would be so forlorn for Virgie to stay here. I
don’t know whether Isabel could take her home with her or not.”
“I guess the girls that do stay here have a pretty good time,—but it
isn’t like a home!”
“We’ll have to go all alone, Betty,” said Cathalina. “Betty has to trot
right home, too.”
“Isn’t it a wonderful night, girls?” said Hilary, moving over to the
window. “There isn’t a bit of wind and it isn’t very cold, and that
gentle soft snow falling again! But I’m rather glad it did not come when
we were out riding this afternoon.”
The other girls followed Hilary and sat in the window seat for a little
while, looking out at the dim light and the veil of snow which was
shrouding the trees and bushes with a fresh mantle.
Some hours later, while youthful heads rested on comfortable pillows and
dreams of sleigh-bells, snowy roads and meadows mingled with visions of
Christmas celebrations and home folks, there came a sudden clang, clang,
clang of the fire gong!
Clang, clang, clang, again; and once more, clang, clang, clang!
After the first three times it began again. Clang, clang, clang! Clang,
clang clang! Clang, clang, clang!
By this time, Hilary, who was “fire marshal” for the corridor, was wide
awake, out of bed, into bathrobe and slippers, armed with her
flashlight, and outside in the hall to oversee the rapid departure from
the rooms. Lilian and Eloise, who were “deputies,” each with the
flashlight, which was always under their pillows, hurried to the first
landing and to the bottom of the stairway, their regular posts in fire
drill.
“I smell smoke,” said Eloise, as she hurried past Hilary. “It must be a
real fire, for they’d never have a drill in the snow!”
Doors opened and scared or sleepy girls emerged promptly. Hilary was
running to rap on several doors. “Coming,” called Virgie, who was trying
to explain to Olivia what to do and to get her started. There had not
been a fire drill, as it happened, since Olivia had arrived, and no one
had thought to say a word about it.
“Wait till I get my purse!” said Olivia.
“Hustle, child,” said Hilary, “no time to gather up money,” and Hilary
ran into the room and conducted forth the reluctant Olivia, who was
about ready to cry.
“I never knew you had a fire drill, and I was so scared,” she sobbed, as
Virgie, holding her fast, she stumbled and slid down stairs by the aid
of the bannisters. “I’ve got my fur coat, anyhow!” It was fortunate that
the girls had flashlights, for after the first few moments the dim
lights in the hall went out. Olivia was the last of the girls on the
corridor, and Hilary brought up the rear. The lower hall was full of
smoke by this time, and the girls were glad to get outside on the snowy
porch.
“All accounted for, Hilary?” asked Miss West. “Then take the girls over
to the Gym where they will be warm. Hurry up, girls, and dry your feet
when you get there.”
The excited groups of girls from different exits of Greycliff Hall
converged toward the gymnasium, where a teacher called together the fire
marshals for a report of the girls on each corridor and floor.
Hilary’s girls, like the rest, babbled of many things on the way.
“Oo-oh! I’ve lost off my slippers and the snow is so co-old!”
“I’m most frozen!” declared Olivia.
“Why don’t you put on your fur coat, silly, instead of carrying it?”
asked Isabel, who was rather unjustly disgusted with Olivia.
“I d-didn’t have time, with Virgie and Hilary pulling me along so!”
“Well, we didn’t want you burned up, did we?” asked Virgie.
“It _is_ hard on Olivia, girls,” said the just Hilary, who always “kept
her head.” “I’m sorry, Olivia, that we had to do it, but you have to
obey order in fire drill, or the real thing, as this seems to be. You’ll
be all right in a minute.” And after reporting her girls all present,
Hilary spent a little while in seeing that Olivia was soothed, and
warmed by having her feet rubbed until they were in a glow, while she
sat by a radiator wrapped in her big fur coat. The gym teacher was
flying around, finding towels and encouraging frightened girls. Most of
the girls, however, had good self-control and some of them rather
enjoyed the adventure.
“Do you suppose that our things will be all burned up?” asked Avalon.
“I haven’t seen a flame yet,” answered Lilian.
“It does seem as if we might have taken time in a real fire to gather up
our most important things, don’t you think so, Pauline?”
“It might turn out all right and it might not. Somebody would be
overcome with smoke, perhaps, or stay too long, and after all, life is
of more importance. I was in an awful fire once at a hotel, and we just
had time to get out. I’ve always said since then that I was going to
keep my jewelry and money in a little bag right by my pillow, but I
forget to do it. I always know where my flashlight is, though.”
“Let’s ask somebody how things are going,” said Cathalina. The girls
were now looking out of the windows, where ever it was possible, toward
the Hall. “Look! I do see some flames in the back part!” Everybody
crowded up, the teachers, too.
“Take a look around, Betty,” whispered Juliet. “Did you ever see such
costumes worn by our revered faculty before? Could you ever have
imagined Dr. Carver’s hair looking like that?”
While they watched, the old-fashioned fire-engines arrived from
Greycliff, with a capable band of men from their fire department. But it
seemed hours to the tired girls, whose excitement soon died down, before
the cause and extent of the fire was discovered by the firemen and the
fire under control. It was found to be entirely in the back part of the
building. This part shut off, the rest of the building was cleared of
smoke and the girls taken back to their beds. A guard was kept all
night, while the firemen worked, and assured that they were to be
awakened at once if there was any more danger, most of the girls slept
soundly.
“What next?” said Helen to Eloise, as they crept into their cots once
more.
“I am too sleepy to think,” replied Eloise, “but the year has been
lively enough so far, hasn’t it?”
For several days there was more or less discomfort or inconvenience in
arrangements at Greycliff. The trouble was found to have originated in
the electric wiring, all of which was most thoroughly gone over. But
work and recitation went on and the routine duties were accomplished.