THE HALLOWE'EN MASQUERADE
"I'LL make a light," said Betty, groping across the room with a handful
of matches which she had taken from the box in the hall. Lloyd started
to follow, but, stumbling over a footstool, felt her way to the bed and
sat down on the edge of it to wait for a light. On the way up from
supper she had started to repeat a funny story which she had heard at
Clovercroft that afternoon, and she kept on with it as Betty, having
found her way to the table, struck a match. But she stopped again, as
the match went out with a sudden puff, as if a strong draught had blown
it.
"There! It never fails to do that when I'm in a hurry," exclaimed Betty,
striking another match as she spoke. It was extinguished as suddenly as
the first. She tried another and another with the same result.
"How strange!" she said, wonderingly. "There isn't a window open
anywhere, is there?"
"It's the witches," declared Lloyd, laughing. "There must be one
standing there by yoah elbow."
The laugh ended in a piercing shriek as she felt something clutch her
ankle. "Murdah! Murdah!" she yelled. "Ow! There's something awful undah
the bed! It grabbed me by the foot! Ow! Ow!"
"Hush up, goosey!" commanded a familiar voice, and as Betty struck her
fifth and last match, which burned steadily, they saw Allison dashing to
the door to lock it. Doors were opening all along the corridors, and
footsteps hurrying from every direction in response to Lloyd's terrified
cry.
"Tell them that it's all right! That it's only a Hallowe'en scare,"
demanded Allison, in a stage whisper. "Don't let them in. I blew out the
matches, and it's only Kitty and Katie under the beds."
"It's all right," called Lloyd, in a quavering tone, but the matron's
knock was imperative, and Betty, beckoning the girls frantically toward
the closet, fumbled with the bolt until they had whisked into hiding.
The one brief glimpse of the rag dolls, falling over each other in their
mad haste to escape, was so comical that both Lloyd and Betty were
choking with laughter when the matron entered. They could hardly control
their voices while they tried to tell her how the matches had gone out
and Lloyd had imagined that there were witches in the room.
Smiling indulgently at their foolishness, which she attributed to the
excitement of the occasion, the matron withdrew. She could hear them
still laughing when she passed through the hall again, several minutes
later, for the rag dolls, coming out of the closet as soon as she
disappeared, began taking one ridiculous pose after another, in the
middle of the floor. The solemn silence in which they struck their limp,
boneless attitudes, made the scene all the funnier, and as the girls
looked at the surprised expressions Allison had painted on the flat
muslin faces, they went into such hysterical laughter that the tears
streamed down their faces.
"Oh, girls, _do_ stop!" begged Lloyd, finally, wiping her eyes. "I've
laughed till I ache, and it's time for me to dress, for I promised
Magnolia to help her into her costume."
Katie and Kitty subsided into a heap on the divan. "Could you have told
who we were if you hadn't known we were coming?" asked Katie.
"Never in the world," answered Betty. "I couldn't tell which is which
now, if it were not for your voices."
"We're not going to say a word to any one," said Katie. "We oughtn't to
talk, you know, if we carry out our part as it should be. We'll slip up
into the gymnasium pretty soon, and be sitting on the floor in a corner
when the others come up. We'll lop around and watch the fun till the
unmasking begins, then we'll come down here and wait for the rest of
you."
All the time they had been performing, Allison had been busy before the
mirror, and now turned around in her spectral attire.
"The ghost of the veiled lady!" cried Lloyd. "Oh, Allison, yoah make-up
is splendid. You're enough to freeze the blood in one's veins. There
couldn't be anything moah spooky-looking than that thin tulle veil. I
wish Mom Beck could see you. I've heard her talking about that queah
little woman whose house used to stand where the seminary cellah is dug
now, till I couldn't close my eyes at night. All the darkies believe she
still haunts the place."
Betty had never heard the story, so Allison repeated it while she
dressed, adding, "You two must do all you can to spread the report that
I'm lurking around. You have seen me yourself, you know. If I had my
lump of ice, you'd soon feel the touch of my clammy fingers. I wish
you'd give me a piece of newspaper to wrap it in, Betty. Then it won't
drip."
"I wish we could carry a lump of ice around with us," gasped Kitty. "All
this cotton packed around my head and neck makes me so hot I can
scarcely breathe."
* * * * *
Miss Edith and Mrs. Clelling, putting the finishing touches to the
decorations in the gymnasium, looked around, well pleased. A score of
jack-o'-lanterns grinned sociably from the brackets between the windows.
Two more kept guard on each side of the piano, and at least a dozen
lighted the long table stretched across one end of the room, on which
the spread was arranged. Graceful sprays of bittersweet-vine trailed
their bright berries over the white cloth. A huge pumpkin-bowl piled
with grapes formed the centrepiece. A pitcher of sweet cider stood at
each end, and nuts, persimmons, pop-corn balls, gingerbread, and apples
filled all the space between.
"It is well worth the trouble," said Miss Edith, lighting the last
candle. "The girls will enjoy it thoroughly."
Some one called both teachers from the room just then, and in their
absence two uninvited guests, who had been waiting behind the door,
hurried in and seated themselves on the floor in the dimmest corner.
"I should say it _is_ worth the trouble," whispered one rag doll to the
other, as they looked around the room at the fantastic decorations.
"It's lots more fun coming here this way, than having the party at home,
and it's more fun than if we'd been invited."
"I'm nearly roasted," panted the other one, "but I'm glad I'm here. Oh,
how pretty!"
It was the entrance of one of the older girls in court train and
powdered hair that caused the exclamation, and while they were trying to
guess who it could be, the others began to arrive. Old King Cole and
Pocahontas came in arm in arm, followed by Red Riding Hood and a
brownie, while Puss in Boots proudly escorted Aladdin with his lamp.
Little Bo-Peep and Boy Blue were soon recognized, for Betty had made no
attempt to hide the brown curls which helped to make her such a pretty
little Dresden shepherdess; and while Lloyd had gathered up her long,
light hair under the wide-brimmed hat with its blue ribbon, every
graceful gesture and every step she took, holding herself erect with a
proud lifting of the head, proclaimed the Little Colonel.
For once in her short life, little Magnolia Budine tasted the sweets of
social success, for no one there was more popular or more admired than
the saucy Knave of Hearts. With the putting on of the costume she had
put on a courage and self-possession that never could have been assumed
with the old-fashioned tight-waisted blue merino and the stiff short
tails of hair. Grasping the stolen tart firmly in her chubby hands, and
lifting the little slippers with their huge bows and buckles in the
high, mincing step Miss Katherine had taught her, she swaggered
coquettishly up and down the room, her red mantle sweeping behind her.
Wherever she went a flock of admiring girls crowded around her.
For many a month afterward her red and white crown hung over her mirror,
not only as a souvenir of the jolly revel, but as a token that for one
night, at least, she had found favour in the eyes of the Princess. Not
only had Lloyd circled around her when she was dressed, exclaiming again
that she looked perfectly lovely, but when they chose partners for the
ghost-walk, to march solemnly through the halls to the slow music of the
Dead March, the Princess had chosen her. Lloyd had looked around for
Ida, who had come as a Puritan Maid; but the cap and kerchief were
nowhere to be seen. She had evidently grown tired of the affair and gone
to her room.
[Illustration: "'THIS LITTLE KNAVE MUST BE MY PARTNER.'"]
Magnolia did not know that she was second choice. Her cup of happiness
was overflowing when Boy Blue turned away from Aladdin and Red Riding
Hood, who were both trying to claim her, and said, "No, this little
Knave must be my partner. He has stolen my heart as well as the queen's
tarts."
In their corner near the piano Kitty and Katie sat stiffly against the
wall, seemingly incapable of moving themselves. Several times some of
the larger girls made an attempt to lift them, and in whatever position
they fell when they were dropped, they lay with hands thrust out and
heads lolling to one side. There was a laughing crowd around them
continually.
"Oh, my country!" gasped Katie, as the first solemn chords of the Dead
March struck her ear and all light in the room was suddenly extinguished
except what gleamed from the eyes and mouths of the jack-o'-lanterns.
"They've gone and dragged in old Sally, the skeleton. It's bad enough to
hear her bones rattle in the physiology class in the daytime; but this
is more than I bargained for."
"Now is the time for us to go," whispered Kitty. "They'll unmask soon.
We've seen how they all look and set them to guessing, and we'd better
miss the refreshments than run the risk of being discovered."
Katie eyed the table wishfully. "It seems a pity to miss all that
spread. Couldn't we creep around the wall to the far side and slip
something into our apron pockets? The cloth is so long it would hide
us."
"What's to hinder our getting under the table and staying through the
whole performance?" suggested Kitty. "The cloth comes nearly to the
floor, and I don't believe anybody would think of looking under it. Then
we could hear them wonder who we are and where we've disappeared to when
they unmask and we are missing."
"Quick, then, while their backs are turned!" exclaimed Katie, not
waiting to consider consequences or means of escape later in the
evening. Slowly, solemnly, with measured tread, the long procession
filed by, and, wheeling to the music, started back toward the other end
of the long gymnasium.
Creeping on hands and knees, fearful lest some backward glance might
discover them should they stand erect, the two girls, like wary mice,
scuttled across the room and disappeared under the sheltering
table-cloth.
Grown bold with their successful venture, Kitty proposed that each time
the procession turned away from them, they should reach out and grab
something from the table. It was an exciting performance. Time after
time, as the motley figures turned their backs, two ludicrous heads
popped up above the table, and four white woollen gloves clawed hastily
at different dishes. When the marauders dropped from sight the last
time, there was a goodly store of provisions gathered up in each gingham
apron.
"I wouldn't have missed this for anything," giggled Katie some time
later, when the unmasking began, and the girls crowded around the table
for nuts and apples with which to try their fortunes. In such a babel of
voices there was no danger of being overheard.
"Listen! we can tell from the different remarks who every one
represented," they whispered to each other.
"Oh, Evelyn Ward, I knew all the time that you were the court lady. I
recognized your rings."
"That's what fooled me about Aladdin. Susie Figgs had changed rings with
Ada."
"Well, I guessed nearly everybody the first half-hour, except those
ridiculous rag dolls. Does anybody know where they have gone?"
That started the discussion the two under the table had been waiting
for, and the various guesses, falling wide of the mark, were so amusing
that their mirth nearly betrayed their hiding-place. Once they thought
their discovery was certain. They had been feeding themselves from the
store of provisions in their aprons as well as the size of their muslin
mouths would allow. The mouths had been only small slits at first, but
they had stretched and torn them with their fingers until they were
large enough to allow them to take a good-sized bite of apple. As they
sat there, munching nuts and pop-corn, Kitty whispered, "We're like the
man in the verse:
"'There was a young man so benighted,
He never knew when he was slighted.
He went to a party,
And ate just as hearty
As if he'd been really invited.'"
Katie tried hard not to laugh, but the effort ended in a snort, and she
almost choked on a grain of pop-corn. If some one had not upset a
jack-o'-lantern just then and started a wild scramble to put out the
candle before it burned the cloth, the unbidden guests must certainly
have been discovered.
Gradually the crowd around the table dwindled away, as little groups
gathered in different parts of the room, intent on various ways of
fortune-telling. Having eaten all they could, and not being able to hear
anything more of interest, the girls under the table began to grow tired
of their position. Moreover, the heat of their costumes seemed to grow
more unbearable every minute.
"We're in a trap," groaned Katie. "How we are ever going to make our
escape is--"
Kitty never heard the rest of the sentence, for half a dozen girls, who
had ventured down the cellar steps with candle and looking-glass, came
bursting into the room almost hysterical with fright. Breathless from
their headlong race up three flights of stairs, they gasped out their
news in broken sentences, each voice in a different key.
"Oh, a real ghost! None of your sheet and pillow-case affairs!"
"White hair and a face like marble and a long floating veil!"
"And it clutched Mary Phillips with fingers that were like the dead!
Didn't it, Mary?"
"No, it didn't come out of the cellar. It just _appeared_!"
"The most awful wail as it vanished!"
"The cook saw it earlier in the evening, floating away toward the
graveyard, not walking, you know, but _floating_! About a foot above the
ground!"
"Allison has evidently had as much fun as anybody," whispered Kitty.
"Oh, will you listen! There goes Lloyd vowing it's the spirit of the
veiled lady, and that she saw it twice this evening."
"And Betty, too! That will convince them if anything could. Betty is
always so serious in the way she tells things."
"Now is the time to go, while they're all so excited and in the other
end of the room," whispered Kitty. "Let's make a wild dash for the door
nearest us, bang it behind us, and blow out the hall light. Then we can
slide down the banister, put out the light in the lower hall, and be
safe in the west wing before they come to their senses. Now, ready!"
It was a daring move, but it proved successful. Every one heard a
scramble, and turned in time to see two crouching figures dash into the
hall. They were too startled to know whether they were human or not.
Somebody screamed when the door banged violently, and Mary Phillips,
who had been in a tremble ever since her flight from the cellar, was
nearly paralyzed with fright. She clutched her nearest neighbour,
wailing, "Oh, what is it?"
By the time matches were brought and the lamps were relit, Katie and
Kitty were safely locked in Lloyd's room, tearing off their disguises
and wiping the perspiration from their flushed faces. For a few minutes
they waited, half-expecting that a search would be made, but as time
went on and no one ventured into that part of the house, they began to
try the Hallowe'en charms that they could not take part in up-stairs.
When Allison came in half an hour later, she found them whirling apple
parings around their heads and flinging them over their shoulders, to
see what initials they would form in falling.
By the time Allison had washed the powder from her face and picked the
cotton from her hair, Lloyd and Betty came in. It seemed as if they
could never settle down enough to think of sleep. There was so much to
talk over. Allison curled up on the divan, announcing that it was not
worth while to undress, as it would soon be time for them to start home.
Kitty and Katie followed her example, appropriating Lloyd's single bed.
Lloyd and Betty took the other one, and they lay whispering until
midnight.
Just as the clock struck twelve Lloyd got up and lighted a candle. Five
eggs, which she had boiled in the chafing-dish earlier in the evening,
lay on a plate on the table. The yolks had been removed and the space
filled with salt. According to a previous agreement, each girl got up
and took one of the eggs. Standing in the middle of the floor in solemn
silence they ate them stoically, although the salt burned and choked
them. Then without a drop of water afterward, they walked backward to
bed. According to the charm, whatever they dreamed after that
performance would come true, and unless they were to be old maids, some
one would appear in their dreams bearing a cup of water. That one would
be their "fate."
None of the five slept soundly that night. The salt made them thirsty,
the crowded quarters restless. Allison wakened every time a rooster
crowed or a dog barked, because she felt that the responsibility of
getting home before Barbry wakened rested upon her. Once when she was
about to sink into a delicious doze, the shrill whistle of a locomotive
aroused her to the consciousness that the early freight-train was
rumbling past the depot. Opening her eyes she saw that the gray dawn
was beginning to steal over the Valley. With a groan she sat up and
stumbled across the room to arouse the others.
She had to shake Kitty several times, and when she at last staggered to
her feet she yawningly quoted old Aunt Cindy's expression, that she was
"as tired as a thousand of dawgs," and vowed she could never get home
unless she was dragged there. Katie complained of a headache and a
miserable "after the ball" feeling. It was a sorry-looking little trio
which finally stumbled down the back stairs and out into the frosty
dawn. Not a word was spoken on the way home. In silence they slipped up
the stairs at The Beeches; in silence they undressed and crept into bed,
and three hours later, when Barbry came as usual to call them, she
knocked half a dozen times before she succeeded in arousing them.