THE DOUBLE PARTY
The party was from four to seven. Before the hour the girls were in
readiness and waiting on the lawn, midway between the two houses, to
receive their guests.
Dolly Fayre wore a white organdie, all lacy with little ruffles and a
light blue sash with blue silk stockings and white slippers.
Dotty Rose had on a lovely white voile with pink ribbons and pink
stockings.
Both girls wore their hair in a long loose braid, with a big ribbon at
the top of the braid.
"Didn't leave off hair-ribbons, did you?" said Dolly, smiling.
"No, Mother wouldn't hear of it. She says we ought to wear them until
we're sixteen, anyway."
"I don't care much, do you?"
"No; only I'd rather leave them off. It didn't rain, you see."
"I should say not! It's a perfect day. Did you put a pink ribbon on
Blot?"
"Yes, he looks lovely! Oh, here's Flossy, in her blue bow. If they'll
only behave themselves!"
The puppy and the kitten had become fairly good friends, by reason of
their two young mistresses' training; and frequently met without
fighting, though this was not to be depended on.
"Oh, here comes somebody, Dolly! I feel as if I should run away!"
"Nonsense, Dot! don't be silly! It's only Joe Collins. Hello, Joe; this
is my new friend, Dorothy Rose. It's her party, same as mine."
Joe was far from bashful. "Hay-o, Dorothy," he said, gaily. "Aren't you
afraid you'll get off the line? My, but you girls are particular to
stand just so!"
Dorothy flashed a smile at him. Somehow her shyness vanished, and she
replied, "Oh, we only stood that way, waiting for somebody to come. Now,
we can move around," and she took a few jumpy skips around the lawn. "Do
you live near here?" she went on, by way of conversation.
"Couple o' blocks away. Hope we'll be friends."
"'Course we will. And I've got a brother about your size; you'll like
him."
"Is he here?"
"No; he's away at school. Be home in about two weeks. Come and see him
then."
"I will. Here come the Brown twins. Know 'em?"
"No, I don't know anybody. My! Aren't they alike?"
They certainly were, and when Dolly introduced Tod and Tad Brown, Dotty
frankly stared at them.
"I never saw such twinsy twins before," she said; "do you know
yourselves apart?"
"Not always," replied one of them. "But I think I'm Tod, and my brother
is Tad. Of course our Sunday names are Todhunter and Tadema, but Tod and
Tad are much better for every day use."
Then some girls came; Clara Ferris was among the first; and then Grace
and Ethel Rawlins, and Maisie May.
Dotty took a quick liking to the last named, for she was a bright,
pretty girl who seemed eager to be friends.
Clayton Rawlins came too, and Lollie Henry, and then they came in such
numbers that Dotty couldn't catch all the names nor remember those she
did catch.
The girls had laid off their hats and wraps in the Fayre house, and the
boys in the Rose house, as every means was used to have the party
equally divided.
At first they played games. The Fayres had a tennis court, and the Roses
a croquet ground. Also, Mr. Rose had contributed as his "surprise" to
the party a set of Lawn Bowls. This was a new sport to many of them and
all liked it, and took turns at the bowling. Others wandered about the
grounds or sat in the swings and hammocks, and at five o'clock they were
called to supper.
Little tables had been placed on the lawn and four or six young people
were seated at each. Then the good things were brought to them. Bouillon
and tiny sandwiches, ices, cakes, jellies, bon-bons, everything that
goes to make a delightful party supper.
The two hostesses did not sit together, and Dotty found herself with
Clara Ferris, Joe Collins and one of the Brown twins.
"How do you like Berwick?" asked Tad Brown, as he finished his bouillon.
"Ever so much!" returned Dotty enthusiastically; "and now I'm acquainted
with so many people I shall like it better than ever."
"Aren't you coming to school?"
"Not this term. It's so near closing, and Mother says next year I can go
right into High School with Dolly Fayre."
"We'll all be in High next year," said Clara. "We're all in the same
grade, you know. But I wish you would come to school now, and be in the
Closing Exercises. We need more girls."
"What for?"
"Oh, for the tableaux and things. We have a splendid program. Haven't
we, Tad?"
"How do you know he's Tad?" asked Dotty, laughing.
"I asked him," returned Clara. "It's the only way. Nobody can tell 'em
apart."
"'Cept Mother," said Tad, grinning. "She never makes a mistake. But the
teachers can't tell. I get kept in if Tod misses his lessons, and he
gets marked if I'm late."
"Don't you mind?"
"No; 'cause it evens up in the long run. Tod's better-natured than I am,
but I'm prettier."
"Why, how can you be?" cried Dotty; "you're exactly alike."
"Oh, _I_ can see it! I'm _much_ better-looking." Tad's honest, round,
freckled face was winsome but not handsome, and the girls laughed at
this make-believe vanity.
Dolly was at a table with the other Brown boy and Grace Rawlins and
Lollie Henry.
"Dotty Rose is pretty, isn't she?" said Grace.
"Awfully pretty," agreed Dolly, "and a nice girl, too. I like her lots."
"Some looker!" declared Lollie Henry, gazing with admiration over at
Dotty, who was laughing merrily.
"She's my sister," put in Genie, who was a restless spirit, and having
finished her supper, was roaming around among the tables talking to
different ones.
"So she is," and Dolly patted the glossy, black curls.
"Looks like a spitfire, though, if she should get mad," commented Tod
Brown, who was an outspoken boy.
"Oh, I don't think so," returned Dolly; and then she remembered the few
trifling quarrels they had already had. "No," she went on, "Dotty isn't
a spitfire; but when she gets mad she just flounces off and gets over
it."
"Just like a girl!" said Tod; "why don't you have it out, and done with
it?"
"That's what Bert always says," and Dolly laughed. "I guess girls and
boys are different about such things."
"I guess they are," said Grace, looking rueful. "Maisie May and I have
been 'mad' for two weeks now."
"Oh, how silly!" exclaimed Lollie Henry. "I'm going to get you two girls
together and make you make up!"
"Yes, let's," said Tad; "come on now; I've finished my ice cream,
haven't you, Dolly?"
They all had, and they followed Tad, who was ringleader in this game.
The others had mostly risen from the tables, and Tad told Dolly to get
Maisie and bring her over to their group.
Grace Rawlins looked a little uncertain. She honestly wanted to be
friends with Maisie but she was not sure she liked the way it was being
brought about.
Dolly came back, arm in arm with Maisie.
The two boys stood in front of Grace until the girls came up, and then
Tad, whisking aside, said, with a low bow: "Miss Maisie May, I want to
make you acquainted with Miss Grace Rawlins, the nicest girl in Berwick,
except the rest of them."
Maisie coloured and looked half-angry, half-amused, and Tad went on: "I
see by the papers that you two girls don't know each other to speak to,
so Dolly Fayre and us two boys are a committee of three to see that you
become acquainted immediately if not sooner. You two will therefore now
greet each other with a nice, sweet kiss."
Tad's manner was so funny and so like a kindly old gentleman, that the
girls had to laugh.
But though Grace looked willing to obey the order, Maisie did not.
"Don't be silly, Tad," she said; "I guess you don't know what Grace said
about me, or you wouldn't ask me to kiss her!"
"Tell me," said Tad, with the air of an impartial judge, "and I and my
wise colleague, Mr. Lorillard Henry, will size up the case and pronounce
judgment."
"Why, she said I was the meanest girl in Berwick, because I wouldn't
tell her the answer to an algebra example. And I couldn't, because Miss
Haskell had made us all promise not to tell the answers to anybody--she
wanted everybody to do them without help."
"Seems to me you did the right thing," and Tad looked at Grace.
"I didn't know that," said Grace. "I wasn't at school the day Miss
Haskell said that."
"Then you couldn't be expected to know," said Tad; "now, it's just as I
said, a boy would fight it out with another boy, and he might punch his
head, but the matter would be understood and straightened out, and not
sulk for two weeks over it."
"I didn't sulk," said Grace.
"Well, you two sillies didn't speak to each other,--it's about the same
thing. _Now_ will you be good! Will you kiss and make up?"
"I will," said Maisie May, heartily, and she flung her arms round Grace,
and gave her a most friendly kiss, which was as heartily returned.
"Bless you, my children!" said Tad, dramatically. "Now don't let me hear
of your quarrelling again! Are you mad at anybody, Dolly?"
"No, sir, thank you; but if I am, at any time, I'll come to you for a
peacemaker."
"Oh, _look_ who's here!" cried Lollie, spying a strange figure walking
across the lawn.
The group joined the others and found themselves invited to take a seat
in the rows of chairs which were lined up in front of an
interesting-looking table.
They did so, and soon all present were seated in breathless anticipation
of what might happen.
The tea tables had been whisked away, and at the door of the tent the
stranger stood,--a table in front of him.
He was a magician, and the tricks he did held his young auditors
spellbound.
Turning back his coat sleeves to prove he was concealing nothing, he
would take a large sheet of white paper, and with a swift movement
twirl it round into a cornucopia. This was, of course, empty, and
shaking it about to prove its emptiness, he then held it upright, and
invited Dolly to look into it. But he held it so high, that she had to
stand on tiptoe to peep in. However, she caught a glimpse, and it seemed
to her there were pink flowers in it.
Then the magician asked Dotty to peep in. She peered over the edge, and
just as she exclaimed, "Why, it's full of flowers!" he overturned it on
her head, and she was showered with lovely pink rosebuds made of tissue
paper!
"Where did they come from?" cried everybody, as they scrambled to pick
them up. "The cone was empty! Where did he get them?"
But the magician only smiled, and went on with his other tricks.
"Has any one a gold watch?" he asked.
Not many of the boys had gold watches, but Lollie Henry exhibited with
pride one that his grandfather had given him on his birthday.
"May I borrow it?" said the magician; "ah, thank you," and he took it
before Lollie had really consented.
"Now, a silk hat. Much obliged, sir," as Mr. Fayre provided the hat.
"Now, my young friends, we'll make an omelet. Two eggs,
somebody,--please?"
Nobody had any eggs, and the magician seemed nonplussed. "What, no eggs
in all this well-dressed crowd? Incredible! Ah, come here, little girl!"
He caught Genie, who was running about. "Why, here is an egg in the big
bow of your hair-ribbon! And here is another in the other bow! What a
strange place to carry eggs! Did Mother send you to the store for them?"
"No, sir," said Genie, looking in amazement at the unmistakable eggs the
man had evidently found in her ribbon. "I should think they would have
dropped out sooner!"
"I should think so too," returned the magician; "lucky for me they
didn't, or I could not have made the nice omelet I'm about to concoct."
He set the silk hat on the table, laid the watch and eggs beside it, and
then called for a cup of milk.
Somehow or other Mrs. Fayre had that all ready and handed it to him with
a smile.
"Good!" said the magician; "now we'll to work! I suppose many of you
girls know how to make an omelet, so you must look sharp and see that I
do it right. First, we'll break the eggs and whisk them up."
He broke the eggs right into the silk hat, and stirred them with a fork
and then poured in the milk slowly, stirring all the time.
"Something else goes to an omelet," he said, trying to think; "ah, yes,
some sort of an herb. Ah, I have it! Thyme! Well, well, Mr. Fayre, do
you raise thyme in your kitchen garden? No? What a pity! But, luckily, I
have time right here!" He took up Lollie's watch. "Ah, just, the thing!"
He threw the watch in the hat, and began to beat it with his heavy fork.
He looked anxiously in the hat. "Wants to be crushed," he said; "can't
get the flavour of time unless it's crushed. Ah, here we are!" and he
picked up a kitchen poker that had appeared from nowhere in particular.
With that he beat and pounded and banged the watch, and then with a big
spoon, he dipped up spoonfuls of the mixture and let it run back into
the hat. The children could distinctly see the bits of brass or steel
wheels and springs, and even fragments of the gold case.
Lollie looked a little sober, but said no word of fear for his watch's
safety.
"Now, we'll cook it," said the magician, and he poured the "omelet" into
a bright, clean frying-pan.
"Where's the fire?" he asked, holding the pan high aloft, and looking
all about.
"There isn't any," said Mr. Fayre; "you didn't tell me to provide a
fire."
"You should have known enough for that!" shouted the magician, as if in
anger. "Well, as we have no fire, of course, we can't make our omelet.
So take back your things."
From the frying-pan he poured a cup of clear milk, which he gave to Mrs.
Fayre. Then he took out of the same pan two eggs, which he handed to
Genie, intact and unbroken. Then he hesitated, saying, "What else did I
borrow?"
"A watch!" "A gold watch!" cried a dozen voices.
"Oh, yes, to be sure!" and the magician, smiling, passed the pan to
Lollie, and there on its clean, shining surface, lay the gold watch,
absolutely unharmed.
Such a clapping of applause! for many of the young audience had been
forced to believe that the watch was utterly ruined.
That closed the entertainment, and soon after that the young guests went
home.
"How do you s'pose he did it?" Dolly asked of Dotty, as they sat in the
swing, talking over the party.
"Oh, it's easy enough," returned Dotty. "They don't really break up the
watch, you know."
"Of course I know that! But how _do_ they do it? What becomes of the
broken eggs and all?"
"I don't know, but I've seen magic tricks before and they always bring
everything out right somehow!"