was America, standing in white robes against a big American flag, her
arms outstretched to the eager pilgrims who approached her! And these
were dressed in the national costumes of almost every country on the
globe; some had approached, apparently, with brave step, heads high and
shoulders straight, others had come wearily; some were old and some were
young; many had been carrying heavy burdens which they had cast aside.
And from the wrists of each hung the broken links of the shackles that
had bound them!
The tableau told its own story! For a moment there was a hushed
silence, then a mighty applause shook the room. And Captain Ricky, as
though she indeed embodied the gracious spirit of America, smiled back
from the stage at the men and women who, like the pilgrims in the
picture, had come to this land of freedom!
After this tableau the curtains at the back of the stage were drawn
back, displaying a beautiful Christmas tree, trimmed only by the many
lights half-concealed in its branches and by a huge, gleaming star at
its top. Some of the scouts at one corner of the stage began a simple
Christmas carol--the guests took it up, humming where they could not
speak the words. A group of young men broke into a Polish song; other
songs followed--songs that these people had brought with them across the
sea.
"They are more beautiful than ours!" cried Keineth to her father.
Then, under Captain Ricky's direction, the trimming of the tree began.
This was a surprise even to the girls of the Troop, who sat with bright
eyes watching. For each one in the room who had had a son, a brother, a
husband or a father in the service of the country, was given a silver
star to hang upon the branches of the tree. One by one they went up--at
first shyly, then proudly; bent old men with uncertain step, young
wives, blushing, with children tugging at their skirts; old women,
scarcely understanding it all but eager to hang their symbol, until the
tree was a-twinkle with the gleaming stars!
From long tables in one of the classrooms adjoining steaming, fragrant
coffee in big cups and turkey and chicken sandwiches were served, then
ice cream and cake. Everyone talked at once--the children ran round in
complete abandonment to the joy of the moment; some of the guests, too
excited to eat, had already begun the dancing!
And Mrs. Lee and Aunt Pen were busy distributing among them all the
small silk American flags which were the gifts of the evening!
"It's the _best_ party _ever_," Pat stopped long enough in a whirling
dance to whisper to Aunt Pen.
"Where's Renee?" Aunt Pen answered.
After a moment's search she found her alone behind the big tree. She
was fastening upon one of the branches her silver star! Tears dampened
her cheeks.
"Oh--_my dear_!" cried Aunt Pen. Over her swept the realization of what
Renee had given that "peace might come upon this world!" She caught the
small hand and held it.
"Not _there_," she whispered, "but _here_!" and taking the star she hung
it close to the big Star at the top.
"He gave his Son for us, too," she added softly.
*CHAPTER XIV*
*HILL-TOP*
"Picnics," explained Peggy, with a conviction born of experience, "are
just as much fun in the winter as they are in the summer, 'specially
when they are at Hill-top!"
For the four days following Christmas snow had fallen steadily. Each
moment of the holiday time had been filled with out-of-door fun: now
Mrs. Lee had suggested that--as a sort of climax--the Eagle Patrol have
a picnic at Hill-top!
Pat had never heard of a picnic in the middle of the winter!
But Peggy's enthusiasm was contagious! Hilltop--Pat had never been
there--was a very old farmhouse ten miles from the city, back in the
hills near Camp Wichita, where Captain Ricky took her girls in the
summer-time. It belonged to an old man and his wife who had been
friends of Mrs. Lee's father. During the winter months they preferred to
move into a more sheltered cottage nearer the barns. The house--a short
walk from the lake on which the young people skated in the winter and
canoed in the summer--had great square rooms and many of them, warmed by
fire-places like caverns that consumed whole logs at a time. Often Mrs.
Lee, who found real recreation in such little excursions with her young
people--had taken the girls and boys there for week-end picnics!
"Mother says we may stay three whole days this time! We can skate and
coast and have all kinds of fun! Garrett has a new bob that he made and
he says he'll bet anything it can beat all the others."
"Do the boys go, too?" broke in Pat.
"Oh, yes, mother likes to have them go! They help a lot, you see, and
she says it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if they weren't along. Jim
Archer and Bob Slocum and Ted Scott and maybe Wynne Meade will go--and
Garrett! They're _sort_ of fun!" for Peggy read disappointment in Pat's
face.
"_I_ think boys are a nuisance!"
Sheila came promptly to the defense. "Perhaps--sometimes! But brothers
are nice!"
Pat's experience had been limited to the bashful young brothers,
miserable with too much scrubbing and stiff collars, who had
occasionally visited the other girls at school.
Peggy thought it a decided waste of time to be bothering over such a
point when there was so much to plan and do! So, with a conviction
intended to end the discussion, she said: "Well, they carry the logs and
the water and go out and open the house and I guess we'll find them
mighty useful!"
And, indeed, Pat _was_ to find one of the boys more than useful before
the picnic was over!
A few hours' well-organized activity put everything in readiness for the
house-party. Garrett Lee appointed himself chief of the commissary and
flew tirelessly between his home and the grocery store until he had
assembled enough cans of soup, bacon, weiners and other eatables
peculiar to scouts' appetites to feed a regiment! Sheila and Mrs. Lee,
after a brief consultation, added to the equipment many little
necessities that Garrett in his masculine ignorance had overlooked. Two
of the other girls collected the necessary kitchen utensils and a simple
first-aid kit. Loaded down with all these and with extra blankets and
the bobs, the boys and Mrs. Lee went on out to Hill-top a day in advance
to open the house and prepare it for the others.
Pat, inspired by the activities of the others and not having been
pressed into troop service, busied herself by packing and repacking
almost every garment that she and Renee possessed!
"Patsy, dear, you _won't_ need all those things," Aunt Pen had laughed,
pointing to the bulging suitcase.
Pat admitted this. "Well, it's fun packing 'em and I just had to do
something," she confessed.
The next day eight merry girls boarded the funny little train that
puffed off slowly toward the hills. To Renee the picnic was the most
exciting of adventures! She had seen little snow--never in her life
anything like the great piles, snowy white, through which the train was
snorting its way! She had never had on a pair of skates in her life,
nor had she ever coasted down a hill! And as Peggy told of Garrett's
new bob, "Madcap," and its lightning speed, she shivered with an ecstasy
of fear and wondered--if they made her ride on it--what it would feel
like to fly over the snow and whether she might not just die outright of
terror!
The boys, in rollicking spirits and muffled to the tips of their noses,
met them at the station; together they trudged back through the snow to
the farmhouse. Logs were crackling merrily in the big fireplaces and a
table had been spread ready for an early supper. The girls fell to
unpacking the equipment and spreading their blankets over the funny old
beds and the cots which had been brought up from the nearby camp.
Sheila, who had been appointed officer-in-charge, promptly, in
accordance with the custom of scout outings, posted in a conspicuous
place, the "standing rules."
"Oh, they're the kind of rules any good scout'll keep," Peggy exclaimed
to Pat, who was regarding the slip of paper in amazement with a look on
her face that said plainly "this is the funniest picnic I ever knew!"
"Come on and find the others!"
For supper they ate many baked potatoes and weiners and hot biscuits,
which Mrs. Lee had mixed and baked by magic--"just to have a nice
beginning!" At the table the boys announced the schedule for the
skating and coasting races which they had planned for the next day and
fell to arguing with friendly violence over the speed of their different
bobs! Garrett then insisted that the four who had grabbed the last of
the biscuits should make up the Kitchen Police, whose duty it would be
to clear away the supper dishes! And to the accompaniment of a mighty
rattle of china plates and cups the others gathered around the blazing
fire and sang.
Pat and Renee slept together in a huge four-posted bed. Gradually the
big house had grown very quiet. "Isn't it fun?" Pat giggled into
Renee's ear. "I've never been in the country in the winter-time before!
And doesn't it feel _queer_ sleeping without sheets?" Then she sighed.
"I wish I could skate well!" She was thinking of the races planned for
the morrow. Renee was apprehensive, too. "Do you suppose they'll make
me go down on one of those dreadful bobs?" and she shuddered at the very
thought!
Poor Pat, her pride--cropping up now and then--was her besetting sin!
And the next morning, when she should have been gloriously happy, it
mastered her! She _hated_ the races, because she was always lagging
along in the rear! She declared to herself that the boys were silly,
tiresome stupids, because they made _such_ a fuss when Peggy beat them
all in a race down the lake and back! Finally, disgusted, she took off
the hateful skates and joined Renee near the bank.
"I think they're _stupid_," she grumbled, digging her heel into the ice
and not explaining whether she meant the boys, or the skates or the
races!
The coasting in the afternoon comforted her a little! Jim Archer let
her steer his "Gypsy!" They beat Garrett's "Madcap" and Pat secretly
rejoiced at Garrett's chagrin!
Renee, from the top of the long hill, had watched the flight of the bobs
with trembling fascination.
"Come along on Madcap," Garrett had called out. The three girls on it
waved entreatingly to her. She had not the courage to refuse! White
with terror she slipped in between Garrett and Peggy. The others shouted
wildly as the bob began to move slowly down the hill but poor Renee's
breath caught in her throat. As it went faster and faster she hid her
face against Garrett's wooly back.
"Hang on!" cried Peggy behind her. Renee was certain they were flying!
But just as she felt she _must_ die with terror a wild "hurrah" went up,
she opened her eyes--they were sliding over the ice at the bottom of the
hill and the Madcap had won!
And to Renee's utter amazement she wanted to go down again--_right
away_!
Afterwards Garrett let her steer the bob, and although they ended in a
snowdrift and were almost buried in the soft snow, it did not in any way
dampen her enthusiasm over the new sport she had learned!
"Oh, it was _wonderful_!" she exclaimed to Pat as they walked with the
others toward Hill-top. "I thought I'd be so frightened and I wasn't!"
"Jim Archer's bob is much the best," Pat answered in such a disagreeable
voice that Renee looked at her in hurt astonishment! How _could_ there
be enough difference in two bobs to make Pat speak to her in that tone!
However, hot oyster soup and pancakes scattered for a time the little
cloud that threatened and through the meal Pat's voice was as merry as
the merriest. After supper, leaving the Kitchen Police to their sad lot,
the others again donned caps, sweaters and mittens and fell to building
in front of the old farmhouse door two great snow forts, between which,
in the morning, a mighty battle would be waged!
And Jim Archer, one of the self-appointed generals, asked Pat--before he
asked any of the others--to be on his side!
This was balm to Pat's hurt vanity. Perhaps she couldn't skate as well
as the others, but she guessed Jim Archer knew she could throw a
snowball as straight and as hard as any boy! Anyway, Garrett Lee was
too conceited! So that night, as she slept cuddled down in the big
four-posted bed, she dreamed that she stood alone on the frosty
breastwork of the fort she had helped build and by an onslaught of
snowballs, thrown with unerring aim, drove Garrett Lee and his army to
complete and ignominious surrender!
Poor Pat--the next day was to bring to her pride a sad fall!
*CHAPTER XV*
*PAT'S PRIDE AND ITS FALL*
The next morning a bright sun peeped up over the hills touching field
and lake, trees and house-tops with a frost of diamonds. At an early
hour hungry boys and girls were demanding their breakfast "quick" and
were hurling orders over the banister at the sleepy Kitchen Police,
toiling below.
The snow-ball fight ended in a complete rout of Garrett's army, which
put Pat in high spirits, and, although it had not been quite like her
dream of the night before, Jim Archer _had_ said to her, to her secret
joy:
"Say, you throw as good as a boy!"
The remainder of the morning was spent playing hockey and coasting; the
boys allowing the girls to race the bobs down the hill. Renee, quite by
herself, steered the beautiful Madcap twice to victory! Perhaps never in
her life had she felt so keenly alive or so happy! She stood looking
over the little lake and the surrounding hills and drawing in long
breaths of the frosty air. Its keenness made her cheeks and fingertips
tingle, put a ringing note in the youthful voices around her and an
added brightness into happy eyes!
"Let's all just skate this afternoon--no races or anything like that!"
declared Peggy at luncheon and the suggestion met with instant approval.
"Oh, _don't_ you wish we were just coming? Did you ever know days to go
by so fast?" lamented one of the others.
"This hasn't gone by yet! To-night we're going to toast marshmallows!"
put in Bob Slocum.
"And have a good sing! We always end a picnic that way!" explained
Peggy to Pat.
"And breakfast bright and early to-morrow, so that we will be all packed
in time for the----"
"Lightning mail train!" Garrett added to his mother's injunction.
Mrs. Lee was never happier than when she was with her "boys and girls!"
She loved each and every one of them as though they had all been hers
from babyhood. She watched them now as they trooped away toward the
lake, skates jingling over their arms. Something within her quivered
with pardonable pride as her eyes rested for a moment on Garrett's manly
young figure striding on ahead of the others. And when Peggy's voice,
always boyishly loud, reached her ears as she shouted back to one of the
other girls, her mother shook her head and laughed: "Oh, Peggy child,
what a tomboy!"
For Pat the skating was much more fun, now, when there were no races!
More accustomed to her skates she managed to get over the ice in better
and easier fashion than she had on the day before. She was pleasantly
conscious, too, that she made a rather pretty picture in her scarlet
sweater and tam-o'-shanter--several of the girls had declared that they
were going to immediately make red tams.
"Let's have a turn, Pat!" and Garrett Lee extended two warmly mittened
hands in genial invitation. So Pat linked her arms with his and
together they flew over the glittering stretch. With her balance
supported by Garrett's strong grasp she skated easily; as they sped
along down the length of the lake the wind whipped her breath and sent
the blood bounding through her veins!
At the end of the lake they stopped "to take in air," as Garrett put it.
"Let's skate down there," cried Pat, pointing to the Inlet just beyond.
There a narrow gorge, cutting deeply through the hillsides, let into the
lake. Garrett knew that, because of its steep banks, its changing depths
of water and strong eddies, the ice there was very unsafe.
"Oh, no, it's dangerous there! We never go into the Inlet, even in the
summer! That's a rule!"
Poor Pat--she fancied Garrett was treating her like a little child! So
she answered with a toss of her head:
"I haven't bothered to read the rules! I'm not afraid--if you are!" and
she turned toward the Inlet.
"Pat--don't! It _isn't_ safe--honest!"
The more earnest and concerned Garrett grew the more headstrong Pat!
She started toward the Inlet, calling over her shoulder: "Oh, you're
just a 'fraidy-cat'!"
Garrett watched her for a moment. There was no doubting her intention!
He started after her and at the mouth of the Inlet overtook her.
"Pat," he begged, "mother'll be angry! I tell you it's one of the
rules!"
But Pat simply shrugged her shoulders.
"_Dare_ you to come with me, little boy!" she laughed teasingly. The
Inlet, its banks rising steeply on each side, filled with dancing
shadows made by the sun through the bare branches meeting overhead,
looked very inviting! Thrilled with a sense of adventure, Pat skated
with short strokes into the narrow opening.
Garrett had no choice but to follow her! Deeply alarmed, he again
begged her to turn back! Now she pretended not to hear him!
But in a few moments she suddenly screamed and wildly waved her arms!
At a bend in the narrow gorge the ice had cracked under her weight!
"Garrett!" she cried, turning.
"_Go on! Keep moving!_" he shouted. But Pat, terror-stricken, stood
still, stretching out her arms imploringly. Garrett reached her just as
the ice with a sharp crackle broke into pieces, dropping them both into
the water.
Its iciness for a moment stunned Pat. Then she slowly realized that
Garrett was supporting her with one arm and begging her to cling to the
thin edge of the ice, to which he was holding with his other hand. His
steady voice gave her courage! She tried to say something but her teeth
only chattered together.
"We'll get out all right!" Garrett said, hopefully. "Hold on as lightly
as you can!"
"Oh, don't let go of me--don't let go of me!" implored Pat, wanting to
cry.
"I won't! Keep up your nerve!" And Garrett strengthened his hold under
Pat's arm. He looked about him. From a tree growing out of the bank
stretched a bare limb just a little way out of reach.
"We'll work along slowly until you can reach that branch! Take it easy,
Pat!"
He began moving his grasp on the edge of the ice, slowly, cautiously,
for sometimes it cracked, sending terror to Pat's soul! She recalled
hearing someone tell how very deep the water was in the Inlet! And it
was _so_ black and cold!
"Come on! We'll make it!" he called out cheerily. They drew nearer and
nearer the branch; soon Pat could reach it.
"Now let go of the ice and grab it! I'll hold you!"
"Oh no, no!" implored Pat, clinging tighter.
"You've _got_ to, Pat! It's our only chance!" Summoning all the
strength he had in his fine young body he lifted her as he spoke! The
effort made great veins swell on his forehead. With a gasp of terror
she caught and clung with both arms to the branch.
"Get your legs around it, too," directed Garrett. "Now work yourself
along! _Hurry_, Pat!"
Stung into effort Pat with feverish haste did as he told her. Securing
her hold on the branch by locking her strong legs about it she gradually
swung around until she was astride it. Then it was but a moment's work
to edge along to the bank. Grasping the strong roots of the undergrowth
she pulled herself to the top. She wanted dreadfully then to throw
herself down upon the ground and cry, but a sharp noise below made her
turn suddenly.
Garrett had attempted to lift himself upon the branch. Strained by
Pat's weight, under his it snapped off, dropping him back into the
water.
"Garrett!" screamed Pat. In agony she watched for his head to reappear
at the surface of the water. As he came up he again caught the edge of
the ice, but his face was gray and drawn as though by sharp pain and his
breath came and went in short gasps. She called him vainly over and over
but he could not seem to muster enough strength to answer! She fancied,
in her terror, that his fingers were slipping in their hold of the ice.
It was _her_ turn to direct!
"Garrett, move down! See, the tree's across the ice! Maybe it'll hold!
Oh, Garrett, _try_!"
With a slow, cramped movement he worked along the edge of the rapidly
enlarging hole until he could grasp the broken branch which stretched
now across the dark water, one end firmly held in a crack of the ice
where it had buckled near the bank. Strengthened by desperation, Garrett
managed to crawl along it until he reached the bank. As, numbed by
exposure, he struggled to lift himself up the steep side of the gorge,
clinging for support, as Pat had done, to roots and branches, repeatedly
slipping back, it seemed to Pat as though he could not make it! At last
her own frantic hands dragged him over the top to safety, only to have
him drop in an unconscious heap at her feet!
All Pat knew was that whatever she had to do she must do quickly!
Loosening the straps of her skates she threw them from her! Then she
attempted to lift him. He was too heavy--she could not stagger a step
with his weight in her arms. So as gently as she could she dragged him
over the soft snow to a higher point of open ground from which she could
see the lake and the skaters and the farmhouse!
"Girls! Girls! Jim!" she called frantically. They could not hear--only
the echo of her own voice answered.
"What _will_ I do?" she cried. She tore off her bright tam-o'-shanter
and waved it high in the air! Suddenly she saw one of the girls detach
herself! from a group of skaters and wave back!
An inspiration seized Pat! The semaphore code she had learned! Oh,
could she remember it quickly enough? And poor Garrett himself had
taught her! Snatching off her sweater she waved that in one hand and her
tam in the other and slowly signaled:
"Accident--bring bobs--blankets--quick!"
It seemed to Pat as though they would _never_ answer! She waved her
message again--more slowly! Then one of the boys waved back: "Coming."
_Now_ Pat began to cry--tears that left cold streaks on her own cheeks
and splashed in a warm shower on Garrett's face as she knelt over him.
He slowly opened his eyes and whispered, "All right, Pat?" Then, as
though very tired, he closed them again and lapsed back into
unconsciousness.
There was no more merriment at Hill-top! The boys brought Garrett,
wrapped in blankets, on one of the bobs to the door of the farmhouse
where his mother, warned of the accident, awaited him. No one would let
poor Pat tell her story--there was too much to be done! While Mrs. Lee
and Sheila cared for Garrett, the girls gave Pat a hot bath and a
vigorous rub and put her to bed. And Jim Archer flew to the nearest
telephone to summon a doctor and nurse from the city.
Garrett was very, very ill! Weakened by the exposure and strain he
quickly developed pneumonia. The doctor would not let him be moved, he
must remain at Hill-top! Mrs. Lee, brave with all her anxiety, begged
the boys and girls to go back to the city quietly, not to worry, but to
hope for Garrett's quick recovery! Sheila and Jim Archer she kept with
her to help her. At the earliest possible moment came Mr. Lee with a
trained nurse.
Pat, none the worse for her icy bath of the day before, lingered behind
the others and miserably begged for a parting word with Mrs. Lee.
"It was _all_ my fault," she whispered, bursting into tears. "I called
him a fraidy-cat and went on, just so's he'd follow----"
Though Mrs. Lee took the girl in her arms, her face was very grave. But
she guessed the suffering in Pat's heart, so she spoke kindly.
"Child, I am glad he _didn't_ leave you! You must help us fight for him
now and--well, he just _must_ get well!" For a moment she could not
keep her own tears back; then she resolutely wiped them away as much as
to say, "_this_ isn't fighting!"
Anxious days followed. Every morning and every evening Jim Archer
telephoned to the Everett home from Hill-top a report of Garrett's
condition. Sometimes there would be a word of encouragement--then he
would be a degree worse! Pat, pale as a ghost, scarcely speaking to
anyone, trembling at every sound, in spite of all Aunt Pen's and Renee's
efforts, refused to be cheered or comforted! She spent almost all her
time in the Eyrie with the door locked.
"I'm downright worried!" Aunt Pen said to Pat's father, who fortunately
had returned in the midst of the trouble and anxiety. "_Whatever_ does
the child do in that room all by herself?"