PARTY PLANS
The Riddle Club were very strict about not using their clubroom for
any purpose other than club meetings. The six members were practically
inseparable, going to school together, playing and working together
most of the time outside of school. But no matter what they did, or
what they wanted to play, unless they had a meeting of their Riddle
Club on hand, the clubroom was left in perfect order and kept locked.
Perhaps you know all about the Riddle Club, but if you don’t, a few
words will introduce you. It had been Polly Marley’s idea--this
club--and she was the president. Fred Williamson was treasurer. Fred
and Margy were twins, Artie was Polly Marley’s younger brother, and
Ward and Jess Larue were brother and sister. Jess was two years older
than Ward. These children lived in River Bend, a town on the Rocio
River. Mr. Larue was the president of the line of steamboats that went
up and down the river, carrying freight and passengers.
In the first book of this series, named “The Riddle Club at Home,” it
has been told how the Riddle Club flourished and spurred another group
of boys and girls to form a rival dub. This was known as the Conundrum
Club, and Carrie Pepper was its president. They challenged the members
of the Riddle Club to a memorable riddle contest and the latter came
out victors.
Of course it was not to be thought of that a summer should separate
such close friends, so what could be more natural than for the whole
six to go camping at Lake Bassing? They took the Riddle Club with them,
by-laws, president, treasurer and all, and what happened to them during
a delightful two months, you may read in the second book of the series,
called “The Riddle Club in Camp.” They camped on an island, and above
them lived a queer old hermit on another island, while below their camp
was another island on which the Conundrum Club established themselves.
Things were bound to happen with such a lively sextette around, and
no one was disappointed. Artie fell over a bluff. The Conundrum Club
suggested another riddle contest, which proved to be not much more to
their advantage than the first. Then the children were able to solve
the mystery of the kind old hermit. Next, as the season was nearly
over, they won the loving cup in the water carnival. Add to all this
the new friends they made and the out-of-door glad days they had, and
you’ll understand that the summer went too quickly to please them.
But schools will open in September, and the Riddle Club had to come
back to River Bend. They were unexpectedly glad to get back to their
own homes and to the clubroom in the Larue barn. This room had been
given to them from the first meeting, and to the furniture they had
collected for it, they were able to add several interesting trophies
from their summer in camp.
There was the beautiful silver loving cup; a sketch of the entire club
membership, made by an artist and framed for them by Mrs. Marley; the
pennant they had flown in camp from their flag pole; not to mention
a gun for which Artie had paid a dollar and which wouldn’t shoot but
which, he thought, gave a distinguished touch to the room.
Jess mentioned the gun when, the next day, the chums met at the
Williamsons’ house to discuss plans for their Hallowe’en party.
“I think,” she said soberly, “that we ought to give a play Thanksgiving
and let Artie be a Puritan and carry his gun.”
“Oh, let’s!” cried Margy, with enthusiasm. “Let’s give a play! Mother
gave me her old black lace dress yesterday! I could wear that.”
If there was one thing Margy loved to do, it was to “dress up” in grown
people’s finery and sweep about and pretend that she was a princess.
“Who’ll write the play?” demanded Fred.
“You and Polly,” said Ward so promptly that Fred couldn’t help laughing.
“I thought you’d say something like that,” declared Fred. “But you
can change your ideas right away. I know what we’re going to do
Thanksgiving, but it isn’t that.”
“Fred!” said Polly, in a warning voice. “You told me you’d promised you
wouldn’t tell.”
“Well, who’s telling?” demanded Fred. “I haven’t said a word.”
Of course that drove the others frantic with curiosity, but though they
teased and coaxed and, finally, Ward and Artie threw themselves on Fred
and got him down on the rug, not another word could they shake from him.
“You’ll know all about it in plenty of time,” he kept repeating.
“Does Polly know?” demanded Jess.
“No,” replied Fred; “not even Polly knows. No one knows but me.”
“Not Mother or Dad or Dora or----” Ward was beginning in a sing-song
tone, but Fred put a hand gently over his mouth.
“Do keep still,” he said good-humoredly. “All the mothers and fathers
know. Now stop asking questions.”
“You said no one knew except you alone,” Artie protested.
“I meant no one in the Riddle Club except me,” explained Fred.
“Well, anyway, we have Hallowe’en to think about,” said Polly, the
tactful. “If we’re going to wear costumes, it’s time we planned ’em.”
“I had a perfectly wonderful idea,” declared Jess. “But I don’t know
that I’ll tell it now; I can keep secrets, too.”
“Oh, Jess, darling, this isn’t a secret--it won’t be one very long,
at any rate,” said Polly, softly. “We’ll all know soon, and it is
something we’ll just love to do. I’m sure of that. Tell us your idea,
Jess! Please do.”
It was impossible to resist Polly when she spoke like that, and Jess
yielded. As a matter of fact, she had kept her wonderful idea to
herself about as long as she cared to. She had reached the point where
she was eager to share it with some one.
“I think it would be a good idea,” she said proudly, “to come to the
party dressed like animals!”
They stared at her silently, and she was disappointed. She had the plan
so clearly in her own mind, she thought it must be plain to them all.
“Yes, animals,” Jess repeated. “You know all the people who go to
Hallowe’en parties dress like clowns and gypsies and dancing girls
and Brownies, and like that. Well, at our party, why couldn’t we come
dressed like--like chickens and pigs and things?”
A shout of laughter interrupted her.
“Ward would make a handsome pig,” said Artie, a little unkindly.
Ward was a very fat boy, with a round, good-natured face that flushed
at the slightest exertion. He couldn’t run two blocks without getting
out of breath.
“I’ll be a pig,” said Ward now, “if you’ll be the goat.”
Artie reached for him and they went over on the rug in one of their
friendly tussles. Mrs. Williamson had given them the dining-room to
meet in, and had told them to have “all the fun you want.”
“I’m going to be a chicken,” announced Jess, fearful that some one else
might want to take her character. “I thought of it yesterday when we
were watching Mrs. Pepper feed her chickens.”
“Where will you get the feathers?” asked the practical Margy.
“Oh, there must be feathers somewhere,” said Jess, carelessly. “I’ll
fix that part all right.”
“It would be kind of fun, wouldn’t it?” Fred decided. “I wonder if we
can get animal false-faces? I’m going to ask Dad to-night.”
Mr. Williamson kept the department store in River Bend, and he always
carried a stock of false-faces for Hallowe’en. Fred was sure that if
there were such things as “animal faces” his father would have them.
“Let’s not tell what kind of animals we’re going to be,” suggested
Polly. “I love to be surprised.”
“You’d better tell your mother, Margy,” said Ward. “If she sees a bunch
of animals coming to her house Hallowe’en night, she may think a circus
broke loose somewhere and not let us in.”
“You can’t scare my mother,” declared Margy, proudly. “I don’t believe
she’d be afraid of an elephant, if she met him. Not on Hallowe’en, at
any rate.”
“We’re going to have the house to ourselves--did you know that?” said
Fred. “Everything we need for the party will be all ready in the
kitchen, and Mother is going to leave things to eat in the pantry. She
and Dad are going over to Ward’s house. And Mr. and Mrs. Marley, too.”
“They’ll have a party of their own, I guess,” said Jess. “I don’t
believe it is much fun for them to duck for apples and do the things
we do. They would rather listen to Mrs. Marley play the piano and my
mother play her violin than fuss around with Hallowe’en games.”
“They’re going to have the radio set that night, too,” Ward announced.
“Fred said he’d take it down from the clubroom and set it up in the
parlor. There’s a big musical program from some city that night.”
Fred was the wireless expert of the Riddle Club. He had first put up
the handsome radio set the club had been given for their share in the
capture of some radio thieves, and had taken it down and set it up in
camp that summer as well. Then, when the time came to come home, he had
taken down the tree aerials and had brought the set back to the Larue
barn and set it up again in the clubroom. Now for this special night he
would attach a loud speaker and arrange it in the Larue parlor so that
the listening parents might enjoy the concert.
But the girls and boys could not talk long of this grown-up affair
when their own thrilling party was yet to be arranged. They were used
to planning their parties, and their mothers thought that in this way
they had twice the usual amount of fun. Nearly every one can go to a
party, if invited, but not every one could plan a party if he had to.
The members of the Riddle Club did do both nicely.
“We’re going to have all the games we can think of,” said Margy.
“Picking a ring out of a plate of flour; trying to bite a marshmallow
on a string; ducking for apples, of course. What else, Fred?”
“I know,” cried Artie, before Fred could answer. “Go out in the garden
and pull up a cabbage. I read about it in a book.”