“Thanksgiving always means turkey and mince pie to me,” frankly said
Dick, as he sniffed savory odors and executed a clog dance on the
kitchen floor to the detriment of its bright linoleum.
“Scat!” said an unappreciative sister at the close of the brief effort.
“This kitchen isn’t big enough for any antics.” But Betty was grinning
and Janet, who was wiping dishes, tapped a toe in time. “We’re clearing
the deck for Mother’s greatest efforts,” Betty continued. “Nobody can
have the roast turkey just right as she can. Thanks, Janet. There’s the
place to hang the towel. Now you girls get ready, while I peel the
potatoes and do a few other things. Mother, shall I wash celery now?”
“Why, that will be very nice. You are bound to leave me nothing to do, I
see.”
“That, my dear Mother, is your imagination and a beautiful dream. When
we come home from church and find the turkey cooked and the potatoes
ready to mash and the mince pie sizzling hot–yum, yum!” Betty was
hanging up the dish pan and hurrying to put the celery in cold water.
“Church!” sniffed Dick, still hanging around.
“Just for that,” grinned Betty, “I believe I’ll urge Father to take you
with us.”
“If you _do_,” threatened Dick, shaking a fist, though, grinning, as he
disappeared altogether from his position in the kitchen door, and they
heard him scampering down the hall.
“Now he’ll get out a book or something,” said Betty to Janet, “and
settle down for awhile. The point is, we really think it better to have
Doris, at least, at home, to amuse Amy Lou and keep her out of Mother’s
way a little; and since they didn’t want to go to church with us, it’s
all right. Oh, you are going to enjoy the service, I think. One of our
very best preachers is to give the sermon at the sort of union service
of the churches; and it’s in one of the very prettiest churches, too,
with a big vested choir and everything! There will probably be some
grand solo, or quartette, or something special, and we want to get there
early enough to hear the chimes.”
“Sue and I will get ready, then, right away–shall we?”
“Please, and I’ll whisk into something and we’ll be off in a jiffy, when
Father’s ready to go.”
In such active fashion Thanksgiving Day began for this household and its
guests, with everybody in fine spirits. The air was cold and Dick was
hoping for snow. “Gee, I bet the boys are skating up home,” said he as
he followed his father to the garage.
“I doubt it,” replied his father, “but you’re not going to get as much
snow and ice as you want here, I suppose.”
Three happy girls, warmly clad, climbed into the machine with Mr. Lee
and they were soon whirling on their way toward the church, whose
service was almost as new to Betty as to her guests, with beautiful
music and an impressive message. And then came the return to the warm
house, the smiling mother with her face a little flushed from frequent
bastings of the turkey, and the good old‐fashioned Thanksgiving dinner,
which makes every one thankful whether he was in that mood before or
not.
As usual, Mr. Lee stopped to let his passengers enter by the front door,
while he drove to the garage, and Betty was rather surprised to have her
mother open the door for them, though probably the night latch was on.
Mother kept things locked up as a rule, since coming to the city.
“Hang up your wraps here in the closet, girls,” breezily directed Mrs.
Lee, “and go into the living room to meet our guest.”
“Guest!” thought Betty as she gave her mother an inquiring look. Who in
the world had come?
“It is one of the boys that your Father knows, Betty,” replied Mrs. Lee,
speaking softly in reply to Betty’s unspoken question. “It seems he
asked him to come for Thanksgiving dinner and forgot to tell me–so by
all means make him welcome. I think he goes to one of the high schools
and works in between times.”
Betty, wondering, and guessing at the cordiality which her mother must
have used to cover up her ignorance and make the boy feel at home,
followed her mother from the hall to see a tall, rather heavy boy rise
and stand a little awkwardly to be introduced. Dark eyes, unsure of a
welcome, met Betty’s. Why–why, it was the “Don!”
From the rather sober, polite girl who was ready to make a stranger
welcome, Betty became a wide‐awake, welcoming friend. Her mother, in a
low but cordial voice, was mentioning a name that Betty had heard but
never remembered, and then she was giving the girls’ names to the guest.
“Why, Mother, _this_ is the hero of our championship game!” Betty was
stretching her hand out with a smile. “Does Father know it? And where is
Dick? He ought to be worshipping at your shrine!” Betty hardly knew what
she was saying in her surprise. The other girls, following Betty’s
example, shook hands with the tall lad, who seemed to lose a little of
his shy attitude under this complimentary greeting. It was nothing so
unusual, to be sure, for the Lees to have some lonesome body to share
their Thanksgiving dinner, yet her father’s forgetfulness and the
surprise of his acquaintance with the “Don” were two unexpected features
of the situation. But trust Mother to handle it!
“Dick went off somewhere almost as soon as you went to church, Betty,”
Mrs. Lee was saying. “I’m glad to know that he will find a friend in Mr.
Balinsky. Please excuse us all for a few minutes. I’m going to ask the
girls to help me take up our dinner. Mr. Lee will be in shortly and Amy
Lou will keep you company, I suppose.”
Amy Louise, who had reached the point of showing one of her picture
books to the “big boy,” soberly nodded assent. Doris was nowhere to be
seen, but she was found cracking nuts for the top of the salad and
announced to Betty, “We have everything ready now, I think.”
“Well, you certainly have been a help to Mother,” said Betty warmly,
“and did you know that Ramon Balinsky is the ‘Don’?”
“Why Betty Lee! How wonderful! No, I never saw him close enough at
school; and then you couldn’t tell, on the field, in his football
clothes! My, won’t Dick be simply stunned? I’m going to see where he is
and call him!”
“His name has been in the school papers, but we’ve always called him the
‘Don’, so for a minute I didn’t know him, all dressed up, too, in his
Sunday clothes, I suppose. He usually looks so dingy at school, but
Mother says he works, so of course, poor kid!”
“Maybe he doesn’t have enough neckties and shirts, Betty,” added Doris,
in a sepulchral whisper. “Bet he’ll like our dinner all right!”
Dick needed no rounding up, for he breezed into the back door just then,
to be told by Doris to, “just go into the front room and see who’s going
to be here for dinner!” And the girls busy with trips back and forth,
from kitchen to dining room and dining room to kitchen, smiled to hear
the whoop with which Dick welcomed the older boy. It was not loud, but
enthusiastic, and an immediate sound of conversation in Dick’s boyish
treble and Ramon’s deeper tones indicated, so Betty whispered, that Dick
was finding out everything that they “wanted to know but wouldn’t ask.”
Mr. Lee came in from the garage and held up his hands as he heard
Ramon’s voice. Then he pretended to be frightened and whipped outside
again into the little back hallway where the refrigerator stood. “You
are forgiven, sir,” laughed his wife. “Come and carry the platter with
the turkey to the biggest place I’ve prepared, and do not drop it on
pain of dire consequences!”
“Honestly, Mother, I forgot all about it, but you don’t mind, do you?”
“Not a bit. I supposed he was some lonesome youngster that you had
found, but you can tell me all about it later.”
“I knew you would have a big dinner as usual”–but Mr. Lee now accepted
the hot platter with the turkey and reserved further remarks for the
future. And soon both young and older heads were bowed around the long
table while Mr. Lee said grace.
“Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for these evidences of Thy goodness
and bounty and for all the mercies of the year–for health and strength
and work and human love and friendship. Bless us all as we offer our
gratitude. Forgive us if we have not served Thee well, strengthen us for
the future, and keep us in Thy care, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”
Ramon’s solemn black eyes looked respectfully at Mr. Lee as he raised
his head after the blessing; but Amy Lou made them all smile by a long
sigh and a little leap in her high chair as her father picked up the
carving knife and fork There was plenty of conversation at once, in
which Ramon could take part if he liked; but no one expected anything,
it was evident, and the chief interest, it must be said, centered in the
good dinner, with compliments to the cook. Never was there such good
dressing, or a turkey so well done and juicy at the same time. The
cranberry jelly was a success and Betty’s mashed potato was a marvel of
whiteness. It was fortunate that there was plenty of gravy. Janet had
brought the spiced peaches from the home town and felt much honored that
Ramon liked them better than the cranberry jelly with his turkey, not
that he said so, of course.
As usual, there were too many things, but there would be other meals, as
Mrs. Lee said when her husband told her that nobody was eating “the
other vegetables” and that dressing and mashed potato would have been
enough. Ramon cast a look at the great dish of grapes, oranges and other
fruit on the buffet, with a little bowl of cracked nuts and a plate of
fudge, and then viewed the hot mince pie before him. “You must have a
piece of Mother’s pumpkin pie, too, Ramon,” said Betty. “She always
bakes pies for the suppers and things at home, church suppers, I mean.
And do you remember, Mother, the time we had the dining hall at the
fair?”
“Do I?” smiled Mrs. Lee. “Our aid society made enough money to buy new
dishes and carpet the church, but oh, how we worked!”
“I think that it is cake where your Mother excels,” said Mr. Lee, “but I
suppose we shall not have any this noon.”
“If you want it, Father,” said Betty.
“We shall reserve that for our supper lunch, Betty,” said Mrs. Lee, “and
we want you to stay for that, Ramon.”
“Thank you, madam–that would be too much, I’m sure. I expect one of the
boys, I think. I–I ought to call him up, I suppose, for he was to come
for me at three‐thirty or four and I may not be able to get back to
where I board by that time.”
“Call from here, Ramon,” said Betty. “Oh, Mother, I’m glad you did put
those fat raisins in the mince meat!”
But all the conversation did not center upon the food. Mr. Lee drew out
in the course of the dinner some facts from Ramon in which the girls
were very much interested. He had, indeed, come to America directly from
Spain, but his father was Polish and Ramon had seen Paderewski in
Poland. He had attended school for several years in a small eastern town
where he studied “English and American,” he said.
“I was so behind in everything English, you see, that I had to be put in
a lower grade at first than I would have been in in my own country; but
I made three grades in one year because I could do the mathematics and
such things; and so when I learned to read and speak your language
pretty well, it was not so hard. A friend of my father’s brought me
here, but he died.”
“Oh, do you understand all the football language now?” asked Dick.
“He certainly must, Dicky, or he wouldn’t have done what he did,”
suggested Betty, who did not think that Dick should have asked that
question. But Ramon only laughed a little.
“I know most of it now, Dick,” Ramon replied, “and I can stand being
punched or kicked without wanting to knock the player down. Is that what
you call ‘good sport’?”
“Yep,” said Dick. “That’s good football.”
“Do you expect to finish high school here?” kindly asked Mrs. Lee.
“If I can,” answered Ramon.
After dinner all but Betty and her mother went into the living room to
visit; but the two made short work of putting away the food and making
neat piles of the soiled dishes, and soon they joined the rest. Amy Lou
was sleepy but would not leave the scene without a fuss. Consequently
she was permitted to stay. Ramon called up the “boy,” who proved to be
Ted Dorrance.
A little music and a few quiet games were all that the time afforded
before Ted alighted from a big car and ran into the yard and up the
steps to ring the doorbell. Betty answered the ring and friendly Ted
strode in. “Can’t stay a minute,” said he, “the ‘Don’ here?”
“Yes, come in.”
“In a moment. Say, Betty, I’d like to have a hand in giving the girls a
good time. How about a little fun tonight? Chet has an idea.”
“I’m sure we are free for anything, Ted, and it is good of you. Father
and Mother say that Ramon must be brought back here for supper tonight,
so why can’t you come, too? Or, I tell you what–would some of you come
for a taffy pull? Come to supper, too, of course.”
“I couldn’t do that, Betty–had such a big dinner and all the folks are
around at home. But do you give me leave to bring whom I can tonight?”
“I _think so!_ Bring Louise and somebody else for Ramon.”
“Great idea. Let’s see, three of you, all freshmen?”
“Yes. The girls were in my class.”
“All right. It’s a surprise party, then, just as Chet had the nerve to
suggest. Tell your mother and surprise the girls.”
“Glorious. I’m delighted that he though of it. Do get Carolyn and Peggy
if you can.”
“They already know about it, in case it is decided.”
“Oh, then you really meant to do something!”
“She doubts my word! Listen–don’t get refreshments ready, unless you
have the stuff to make the taffy. I don’t know whether the girls could
bring that or not and the stores are closed. We were just going to order
ice‐cream sent around, and what else we could get.”
“Listen, Ted, yourself. Mother has the most delicious cake, extra big,
because we baked up for company, you know. Have the ice‐cream if you
must, but not another thing, please.”
What fun it was to plan something with Ted! Betty felt quite grown up.
First they had a senior to dinner, now here was a junior, with probably
Louise coming and loads of fun ahead!
The girls and Ramon were both wondering what could detain Ted and Betty
in the hall, but Ramon hesitated to rise until Ted should appear. That
he did at once, however, with a last word to Betty. He was properly
respectful in meeting Betty’s father and mother and bowed a friendly
greeting to the girls, Dick, Doris and little Amy Lou, who had wakened
and was sleepily arranging a row of tiny dolls on the window sill.
“The boys have something on hand and want the ‘Don’ this afternoon. I’ll
deliver him in two or three hours or so. Supper will not be too early,
will it?”
“Not after a late dinner,” Mrs. Lee assured Ted, “but it would be better
to ‘deliver’ our guest by seven at least.”
“Before that, I promise you,” answered Ted. “Don’t forget, Betty, our
little scheme.”
“How could I?” replied Betty.