THE GLORIOUS FOURTH
"Never mind," whispered Amy Drew quickly, quite understanding her
chum's feelings regarding Belle and her group. "I'll ask them. It's my
fault, anyway. And I only meant it for a joke----"
"A pretty poor joke, Amy," Jessie said, with some sharpness. "And I
don't want you to borrow of them. I'll run back to the church."
She started to leave the Dainties Shop. Sally Moon, who was just
behind Belle Ringold, halted Jessie with a firm grasp on her sleeve.
"Don't run away just because we came in, Jess," she said.
"I'm coming right back," Jessie Norwood explained. "Don't keep me."
"Where you going, Jess?" drawled another of the group.
"I've got to run back to the church to speak to mother for a moment."
"Your mother's not there," broke in Belle. "She was leaving in her
flivver when we came away. The committee's broken up and the parish
house door is locked."
"Oh, no!" murmured Jessie, a good deal appalled.
"Don't I tell you _yes_?" snapped Belle. "Don't you believe me?"
"Of course I believe what you say, Belle," Jessie rejoined politely.
"I only said 'Oh, no!' because I was startled."
"What scared you?" demanded Belle, curiously.
"Why, I--I'm not scared----"
"It is none of your business, Belle Ringold," put in Amy. "Don't annoy
her. Here, Jessie, I'll----"
The clerk who waited on them had come to the table and placed a
punched ticket for the sundaes on it. He evidently expected to be paid
by the two girls. The other four were noisily grouping themselves
about another table. Belle Ringold said:
"Give Nick your orders, girls. This is on me. I want a banana royal,
Nick. Hurry up."
The young fellow with the "patent leather" hair still lingered by the
table where Jessie and Amy had sat. Belle turned around to stare at
the two guilty-looking chums. She sneered.
"What's the matter with you and Jess, Amy Drew? Were you trying to
slip out without paying Nick? I shouldn't wonder!"
"Oh!" gasped Jessie, flushing and then paling.
But Amy burst out laughing. It was a fact that Amy Drew often saw
humor where her chum could not spy anything in the least laughable.
With the clerk waiting and these four girls, more than a little
unfriendly, ready to make unkind remarks if they but knew the
truth----
What should she do? Jessie looked around wildly. Amy clung to a chair
and laughed, and laughed. Her chum desired greatly to have the floor
of the New Melford Dainties Shop open at her feet and swallow her!
"What's the matter with you, Amy Drew? You crazy?" demanded Belle.
"I--I----" Amy could get no farther. She weaved back and forth,
utterly hysterical.
"If you young ladies will pay me, please," stammered the clerk,
wondering. "I'd like to wait on these other customers."
"I want my banana royal, Nick," cried Belle.
The other three girls gave their orders. The clerk looked from the
laughing Amy to the trembling Jessie. He was about to reiterate his
demand for payment.
And just then Heaven sent an angel! Two, in very truth! At least, so
it seemed to Jessie Norwood.
"Darry!" she almost squealed. "And Burd Alling! We--we thought you
were at Atlantic Highlands."
The two young fellows came hurrying into the shop. They had evidently
seen the girls from outside. Darry grabbed his sister and sat her
down at a table. He grinned widely, bowing to Belle and her crowd.
"Come on, Jessie!" he commanded. "No matter how many George Washington
sundaes you kids have eaten----"
"'Kids'! Indeed! I like that!" exploded Amy.
But her brother swept on, ignoring her objection: "No matter how many
you have eaten, there is always room for one more. You and Amy,
Jessie, must have another sundae on me."
"Darry!" exclaimed Jessie Norwood. "I thought you and Burd went to his
aunt's."
"And we came back. That is an awful place. There's an uncle, too--a
second crop uncle. And both uncle and auntie are vegetarians, or
something. Maybe it's their religion. Anyway, they eat like
horses--oats, and barley, and chopped straw. We were there for two
meals. Shall we ever catch up on our regular rations, Burd?"
"I've my doubts," said his friend. "Say, Nick, bring me a plate of the
fillingest thing there is on your bill of fare."
"In just a minute," replied the clerk, hopping around the other table
to have Belle Ringold and her friends repeat their orders.
Belle had immediately begun preening when Darry and Burd came in. That
the two college youths were so much older, and that they merely
considered Amy and Jessie "kids," made no difference to Belle. She
really thought that she was quite grown up and that college men should
be interested in her.
"We had just finished, boys," Jessie managed to say in a low tone. "We
had not even paid for our sundaes."
Darry and Burd just then caught sight of the punched check lying on
the table and they both reached for it. There was some little rivalry
over who should pay the score, but Darry won.
"Leave it to me," he said cheerfully. "Girls shouldn't be trusted with
money anyway."
"Oh! Oh!" gurgled Amy, choked with laughter again.
"What's the matter with you, Sis?" demanded her brother.
Jessie forbade her chum to tell, by a hard stare and a determined
shake of her head. It was all right to have Darry pay the check--it
was really a relief--but it did not seem to Jessie as though she could
endure having the matter made an open joke of.
The four settled about the little table. But the Ringold crowd was too
near. Belle turned sideways in her chair, even before they were
served, and, being at Darry's elbow, insisted upon talking to him.
"Talk about my aunt!" said Burd Alling, grinning. "I'll tell the world
that somebody has a crush on Sir Galahad that's as plain to be seen as
a wart on the nose of Venus."
"Of all the metaphors!" exclaimed Amy.
Jessie feared that Belle would overhear the comments of Burd and her
chum, and she hurried the eating of her second sundae.
"I must get home, Darry," she explained. "Momsy has gone without me in
her car and will be surprised not to find me there."
"Sure," agreed Burd quickly. "We'll gobble and hobble. Can't you tear
yourself away, Darry?" he added, with a wicked grin.
Amy's brother tried politely to turn away from Belle. But the latter
caught him by the coat sleeve and held on while she chattered like a
magpie to the young college man. She smiled and shook her bobbed curls
and altogether acted in a rather ridiculous way.
Darry looked foolish, then annoyed. His sister was in an ecstasy of
delight. She enjoyed her big brother's annoyance. She and Jessie and
Burd had finished their cream.
"Come on, Darry," Burd drawled, taking a hint from the girls. "Sorry
you are off your feed and can't finish George Washington's finest
product. I'll eat it for you, if you say so, and then we'll beat
it."
He reached casually for Darry's plate; but the latter would not yield
it without a struggle. The incident, however, gave Darry a chance to
break away from the insistent Belle. The latter stared at the two
girls at Darry's table, sniffed, and tossed her head.
"Yes, Mr. Drew," she said in her high-pitched voice, "I suppose you
have to take the children home in good season, or they would be
chastised."
"Ouch!" exclaimed Burd. "I bet that hurt you, Amy."
Darry had picked up both checks from the table. Belle smiled up at him
and moved her check to the edge of her table as Darry rather grimly
bade her good-night. He refused to see that check, but strode over to
the desk to pay the others.
"That girl ought to get a job at a broadcasting station," growled out
Darry, as they went out upon the street. "I never knew before she was
such a chatterbox. Don't need any radio rigging at all where she is."
"Oh, wouldn't it be fun to get a chance to work at a broadcasting
station?" Amy cried. "We could sing, Jess. You know we sing well together.
'The Dartmoor Boy' and 'Bobolink, Bobolink, Spink-spank-spink' and----"
"And 'My Old Kentucky Blues,'" broke in Burd Alling. "If you are going
to broadcast anything like that, give us something up to date."
"You hush," Amy said. "If Jess and I ever get the chance we shall be
an honor to the program. You'll see."
That the two young fellows had returned so much earlier than had been
expected was a very fortunate thing, Jessie and Amy thought. For their
assistance was positively needed in the work of making ready for the
Fourth of July bazaar on the Norwood place, they declared.
There were only three days in which to do everything. "And believe
me," groaned Burd before the first day was ended, "we're doing
everything. Talk about being in training for the scrub team!"
"It will do you good, Burdie," cooed Amy, knowing that the diminutive
of Burd Alling's name would fret him. "You are getting awfully plump,
you know you are."
"I feel it peeling off," he grumbled. "Don't fear. No fellow will ever
get too fat around you two girls. Never were two such young Simon
Legrees before since the world began!"
But the four accomplished wonders. Of course the committee and their
assistants and some of the other young people came to help with the
decorations. But the two girls and Amy's older brother and his friend
set up the marquees and strung the Japanese lanterns, in each of which
was a tiny electric light.
"No candle-power fire-traps for us," Jessie said. "And then, candles
are always blowing out."
About all the relaxation they had during the time until the eve of the
Fourth was in Jessie's room, listening to the radio concerts. Mr.
Norwood brought out from the city a two-step amplifier and a horn and
they were attached to the instrument.
The third of the month, with the help of the men servants on the
Norwood place, the tent for the radio concert was set up between the
house and the driveway, and chairs were brought from the parish house
to seat a hundred people. It was a good tent, and there were hangings
which had been used in some church entertainment in the past to help
make it sound proof.
They strung through it a few electric bulbs, which would give light
enough. And the lead wire from the aerials, well grounded, was brought
directly in from overhead and connected with the radio set.
"I hope that people will patronize the tent generously," Jessie said.
"We can give a show every hour while the crowd is here."
"What are you going to charge for admission?" Amy asked.
"Momsy says we ought to get a quarter. But ten cents----"
"Ten cents for children, grown folks a quarter," suggested Amy. "The
kids will keep coming back, but the grown folks will come only once."
"That is an idea," agreed Jessie. "But what bothers me is the fact
that there are only concerts at certain times. We ought to begin
giving the shows early in the afternoon. Of course, the radio is just
as wonderful when it brings weather reports and agricultural prices as
when Toscanini sings or Volburg plays the violin," and she laughed.
"But----"
"I've got it!" cried her chum, with sudden animation. "Give
lectures."
"What! You, Amy Drew, suggesting such a horrid thing? And who will
give the lecture?"
"Oh, this is a different sort of lecture. Tell a little story about
the radio, what has already been done with it, and what is expected of
it in the future. I believe you could do it nicely, Jess. That sort of
lecture I would stand for myself."
"I suppose somebody has got to attend to the radio and talk about it.
I had not thought of that," agreed Jessie. "I'll see what the
committee say. But me lecture? I never did think of doing that!" she
proclaimed, in no little anxiety.