WHEN THE SMOKE CLEARED AWAY
Regardless of the fact that Mimi would rather forget the fire and all
the horror that went with it, naturally the fire was the main
discussion everywhere she turned. Disaster and confusion all about. The
beautiful lawn ruined. Girls were buzzing. They had been ordered to
stay away from the ruins. It would not be safe to search for things
yet. That whole side of the building was roped off. Faculty members,
grieved and busy, tried to evolve plans which would handle the
situation for three more days. This was Saturday; on Monday, school
would be out for the year.
Mimi herself was in a turmoil. She had not washed her teeth this
morning. That was the most pressing problem.
"I believe I'll chew a sassafras twig like our great-grandmothers did,"
she said to Sue.
"Cut me one, too, while you're in the woods," Sue laughed.
Mimi laughed back but not about the sassafras twig. Sue was a sight on
earth! She had on a sweater that hung below her hips and a skirt that
touched her ankle bones and a pair of cast-off tennis shoes.
"You look as tacky as I did the day Betsy and I slipped off."
"You don't look so beautiful yourself," Sue retorted. "At least I don't
smell!"
Mimi had forgotten about the mange cure. It was like eating onions or
food seasoned with garlic. You didn't smell it on yourself. Those near
you were the ones who were offended. The clothes? They probably did
make her look comical. She hadn't thought of that; she had been too
happy over the fact that they were _Dit's_. Last night, or this morning
rather, for it was daylight before the fire chief permitted them to
re-enter College Hall, the Preps had been housed with the college
girls. To Mimi's great joy, she was assigned to Dit's room. Any other
time she would have been so thrilled she would have entered turning
cartwheels but not last night. That was the closest call Mimi had ever
had to real tragedy. Dit had been darling to her. She had stood right
by her and held one hand while Dr. Ansley bandaged the bleeding one.
Then she had tucked her in bed.
"Guess I'd better ask permission right now to go for a shampoo."
"What will you wear?"
"What's the matter with this outfit, really now, Sue?"
"Nothing. Say! What's Mrs. Cole announcing?"
"We can go to town and stay for lunch!" Betsy reported coming up to
them. "All we have to do is go in pairs and sign out and sign in just
like the college girls. I was scared to death we'd have to make out
lists of what we needed and I knew I'd never think of it all. When I
see things I need I remember. Hurry, let's get ready. By the time we
get back maybe they will let us claim our things which were salvaged."
"I can't bear to think I lost my diary, my tennis racket, my boots, the
cards off my Christmas packages, and the Hanfstaengel print just when I
was beginning to love the cherubs and enjoy living with them."
"Don't speak of losses----" Sue choked up. Mimi knew she was worrying
about her violin, a mellow toned old instrument which had been in the
family five generations. There was something which could not be
replaced. Her own losses seemed trivial in comparison.
"I want to go to town, too," some one called as they signed up and
turned to leave. "Write my name, please."
If she had not spoken they would not have known what name to write. At
first glance, Chloe looked like the little brother, Worry Wart, in the
cartoon, "Born Thirty Years Too Soon." Yet as she walked toward them,
rapidly but not rushed, there was something regal in her step and proud
carriage that funny-paper clothes did not hide.
Suppose she should turn out to be a princess!
The town was ready for the girls when they arrived. The aisles in the
five-and-ten-cent stores were as jammed as they are at Christmas
shopping season. The drug stores were overrun. Dresses in sizes
12-14-16 were selling like hot cakes. Two of the thriftier merchants
displayed signs that the four o'clock express was bringing fresh
shipments of ready-to-wear, ordered by telephone that morning.
"Good as circus day," Mimi said as they joined hands to try to "crash"
Woolworth's.
"Let's only buy ten cent sizes of everything," Sue suggested. "They'll
be plenty to last three days."
"Two and a half days," Betsy corrected. The thoughts of going home made
them all tingle with joy.
"Here's an even better idea," said Mimi harking back to the business in
hand. "Of course, we'll each have to buy a tooth brush, a comb, and a
wash cloth, but outside of those, let's each put in a dime and buy one
tube of tooth paste, one cake of soap, one nail file and one box of
powder."
"What! The founder of a beauty cult leave powder till last?" Sue
teased. "But that is a good idea. Let's."
"I don't think we should buy any clothes until we know what was
salvaged."
"Don't worry. I can't without permission from Aunt Marcia."
After a grand time in the ten cent store, pushing and scrouging and
getting lost from each other, the girls separated. Betsy and Mimi went
to the beauty salon. Sue and Chloe beat them back to school by an hour.
Sue was still ready to tease about their hair when she came out to meet
them.
Mimi never could stand to see girls who had just had their hair set
going about with it pasted flat to their heads. She had laughed at many
a one. Here she was looking that way herself. She felt as if her ears
were sticking out a mile.
"More things have happened!" Sue called from the drive.
"They must have," Mimi said to Betsy. "Sue has Chloe in a _run_."
She was dragging Chloe along at a trot.
"They saved my violin! I knew that I had left it in Miss Taylor's
studio for her to set a new bridge before Baccalaureate music tomorrow,
but the studio was so water-soaked, I knew every instrument in there
would be ruined. It seems Miss Taylor sent a man in through the window
for her own violin. He grabbed all four of the ones in there and mine
was one of them!"
"Aunt Marcia is coming!"
Chloe had news, too.
"More parents have wired and telephoned and many of them are arriving
or have sent word they were leaving soon. All the rooms at the hotel
are taken."
"Flash!" Betsy took her turn. "Let me give you a headline that seems to
have been entirely overlooked about this fire. All the uniforms burned
up. So help me, I never in all my life intend to put on another."
Betsy hated uniforms worse than Mimi. She had worn them a longer time.
"Omigosh!" Sue gasped. "I nearly forgot! They saved your trunk,
Mimi--lock, stock, and barrel----"
"Why Sue! If you're kidding, I'll never speak to you again!"
Why that would be too wonderful! Of course the cherubs weren't in it,
or her racket; but her diary was. She'd had plenty of "undies" and hose
and a dress or two and goodness knows what else. The strangest things
get in the funniest places, especially in trunks.
"Honest and truly. Don't you remember? We had to move it when we put
the mattresses through the window. You rolled it together and locked it
yourself. It seems the firemen and men who helped threw out things like
that. Gee! You lucky girl."
Sue and Chloe had taken part of the packages and they were all walking
up the driveway.
"Doesn't it seem queer to be using the College entrance?" Chloe asked.
Before any one answered, Jill shrieked from a second floor window.
"Mimi! Go to the office. You have a cablegram!"