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diff --git a/old/56170-0.txt b/old/56170-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e691b8c..0000000 --- a/old/56170-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4186 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Surprise Book, by Patten Beard - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Surprise Book - -Author: Patten Beard - -Illustrator: Alice Beard - -Release Date: December 12, 2017 [EBook #56170] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SURPRISE BOOK *** - - - - -Produced by MFR, David E. Brown and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -THE SURPRISE BOOK - - -[Illustration: _Marjorie might hold the lantern and he’d see what was -there._ (_Page 167_)] - - - - - THE - - SURPRISE BOOK - - - BY - - PATTEN BEARD - - - _Author of - “The Jolly Year,” “The Bluebird’s Garden” - “The Good Crow’s Happy Shop”_ - - - _Illustrated by Alice Beard_ - - - [Illustration] - - - THE PILGRIM PRESS - - BOSTON CHICAGO - - - COPYRIGHT 1918 - - BY PATTEN BEARD - - - THE PILGRIM PRESS - BOSTON - - - - -[Illustration: THIS BOOK OF STORIES ABOUT THE BOYS AND GIRLS WHO ARE MY -FRIENDS I DEDICATE TO - -Nall Candler - -BECAUSE HE HAS ENJOYED “THE BLUEBIRD’S GARDEN” AND “THE JOLLY YEAR,” -AND I WANT HIM TO HAVE THIS BOOK FOR HIS VERY OWN] - - - - -CONTENTS - - -CHAPTER PAGE - - I. The Surprise Book that Dotty Made 3 - - II. The December Surprise, The Telephone Santa Claus 13 - - III. The January Surprise, The Penny Bank Window 35 - - IV. The February Surprise, Angelina’s Valentine 51 - - V. The March Surprise, Buttinski, Peacemaker 63 - - VI. The April Surprise, Angelina’s Bird-Flower 77 - - VII. The May Surprise, Marjorie’s Mystery 91 - - VIII. The June Surprise, The Two Little Bates Girls 103 - - IX. The July Surprise, Arne’s Fourth of July Battle 115 - - X. The August Surprise, The Blackberry Adventure 129 - - XI. The September Surprise, Betty Crusoe 147 - - XII. The October Surprise, The Magical Circle 159 - - XIII. The November Surprise, Ermelinda’s Family 173 - - XIV. The First December Surprise, The Directory Santa Claus 185 - - XV. The Second December Surprise, Mary Elizabeth’s Soldierly - Christmas 195 - - Conclusion 209 - - - - - _The Surprise Book That Dotty Made_ - - - - -_I_ - -_The Surprise Book That Dotty Made_ - - -The Surprise Book was Marjorie’s, but it really belonged to Dotty also, -Marjorie said. It was Dotty who had made it once upon a time when she -had not been able to go to school because of a snowstorm and a snuffy -cold. The combination of cold and snowstorm was more or less a lucky -mixture, so Marjorie argued. At any rate, if it had not been for these, -maybe there never would have been Marjorie’s Surprise Book. You shall -hear about it. - -It began just after Marjorie, wrapped in storm-coat and arctics, -had left for school. Dotty was sitting upon a carpet hassock by the -fireside. The fire snapped and crackled pleasantly but Dotty frowned. -“I wanted to go to school with Marjorie, too,” she said for about the -forty-eleventh time since nine o’clock. “There isn’t anything to do!” - -“Nothing to do!” exclaimed Mother. “Why not make a Surprise Book, Dot?” - -“How?” inquired Dotty, turning around to face Mother in sudden -interest. “_How?_” - -“Oh, it’s quite simple,” Mother returned. “You will find it ever so -much fun. I used to make Surprise Books when I was a little girl. -They’re made in scrapbooks. You know how to make a scrapbook, Dot, -don’t you?” - -Dotty nodded. “I just take some brown wrapping-paper an’ fold it ever -so many times an’ then I cut the folds into leaves. When I have ever so -many leaves, I cut a cover for ’em an’ I tie the cover to the leaves -with a ribbon. It goes through the centre of the book an’ ties at the -back like a sash.” - -Mother nodded. “That’s it. To make a Surprise Book you first make a -scrapbook that way. Then, one at a time, you fold each leaf of the -scrapbook twice. You begin by taking the first leaf. You fold its -upper corner down till its edge runs parallel with the centre of the -scrapbook’s leaves. Then you take the lower corner and fold this up in -the same way. It makes a pocket and one can put things into this pocket -and seal them tight with a pretty paper seal like those used to seal -Christmas packages.” - -“What do you do it for?” asked Dotty. “Why do you put things into the -pockets and seal them?” - -Mother laughed. “Why, Dot,” she explained. “You put the things into -the pockets as surprises because you give the Surprise Book away to -somebody that you love very much. Every pocket holds a surprise when it -is sealed fast. You write on each pocket the exact time when it is to -be opened and the one you love very much must open the pockets and find -the surprises only when the time falls due. Do you see?” - -Dotty beamed. “I see,” she chuckled. “I’m going to make a Surprise Book -right away. What can I put into it for Marjorie to find?” - -There was a silence while Mother rocked back and forth in the big -old-fashioned rocker as she ran her needle in and out of the hole she -was mending in Marjorie’s stocking, and thought. “Suppose you cut nice -stories out of magazines and put one in each pocket,” she suggested. -“There’s a pile of story-papers up in the attic. I’ll get them for you. -You might find twelve stories, one for every month of the year, and you -might make the Surprise Book for Marjorie’s Christmas present.” - -Dotty jumped up and down. “Oh, hurry, hurry!” she begged. “I want to -begin right away. Marjorie will be coming home soon and she mustn’t -know anything about it. Can I put other things into the pockets of the -Surprise Book too? What can I put in?” - -“All manner of things that one could put into small space like -that--picture-cards, paper dolls, transfer pictures, little verses and -games that you find in magazines--’most everything that will lie flat. -You can try it and think of things to put into the Surprise Book’s -pockets.” - -Hooray! That was an idea! Dotty knew of a flat penwiper that she could -make out of flannel. _That_ would go in flat--and there might be a -penny all wrapped up in paper, maybe. Such a thing as this would be -simply a splendid surprise. Each pocket should hold something new and -wonderful except the pocket that was to be for April Fool’s Day. That -pocket should hold only a blank piece of paper folded up tight to -feel as if it were going to be a surprise. There’d be nothing at all -in it, when Marjorie broke the seal! What a joke! And every month’s -holiday should have a pocket, too! Dotty chuckled. Old Christmas cards -would now find a new use. Valentines and Easter gift cards would go -into the Surprise Book, too. And every month there would be a story -pocket in the book! What fun! As soon as she had made the brown paper -scrapbook, she fell to work folding its leaves--first, top corner over -and down; next, lower corner up toward it to make a three-cornered -pocket. The book had twenty-four leaves, two surprises for every -month. First of all, Dotty put the penwiper into the first pocket for -a Christmas surprise. She sealed it with a holly seal. Then into the -next pocket, she put a January surprise and a January story followed. -So it went through all the year. It was exciting trying to find stories -that fitted the different months, but the story-papers helped because -Mother had kept them in file, month by month. Dotty had only to look -the papers over and cut out the story she imagined might best please -Marjorie. She worked very hard indeed. All day she worked, while it -snowed outside. It seemed quite lucky, then, that Marjorie stayed away -so long. It wasn’t really lonely without her! - -And at last, with some help and suggestions from Mother, the Surprise -Book was done! It was a big three-cornered book that seemed quite -bulky. As Dot held it, she felt that Marjorie would surely like it and -she couldn’t bear to keep it till Christmas. Christmas was so far away -yet! There were four more days till Christmas Eve! But, nevertheless, -because the Surprise Book was to be a Christmas present, Mother and Dot -did it up, finally, in nice, fresh, white tissue paper and tied the -parcel together with bright red ribbon. It was a splendid present! - -When Christmas came, the Surprise Book was placed under the tree and -Dotty left all her own presents while she urged Marjorie to open the -big package that was tied with red ribbons. “You’ll like it,” she -laughed. “I made it for you. It’s a book of surprises that last all -through the year--it really is a Surprise Book because there’s so much -fun in it!” - -Then Marjorie tore off the paper and red ribbon. When she saw and -understood jail about it, she said she would make Dotty a promise and -the promise was that every time there fell due a story, she’d read it -aloud to Dotty each month. - -So, here in this book are the stories that Marjorie read to Dotty, -the stories that were in Marjorie’s Surprise Book, together with the -penwiper, the Valentine, the St. Patrick’s favor for March, the April -Fool, the paper May-basket, the four-leaf clover for June. Beside -these, there were a great many other nice things that came in the -pockets that were not filled with the stories. You shall hear about -them all yourself, as you turn the pages here. - - - - -_The Telephone Santa Claus_ - - -_THE DECEMBER SURPRISE_ - -_Of course, you know as well as Dotty that there was a penwiper in the -first Christmas pocket. The writing on that pocket said,_ - - “_Not to be opened till after you have seen all your presents from - the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve._” - -_Marjorie liked the penwiper ever so much. She said it could be used -at school. It was made of round red circles of cloth and had a button -sewed at its centre. The story pocket was quite bulky and it said,_ - - “_Open on Christmas Eve for a bed-time story._” - -_Marjorie read it aloud as she and Dot curled up in a big cosy -comfortable at bed-time. They had to have a very special dispensation -from Mother. She said that the Surprise Book story that came on -Christmas Eve might keep the bed-time light lit till it was finished. -So Marjorie read aloud, “The Telephone Santa Claus.”_ - - - - -_II_ - -_The Telephone Santa Claus_ - - -The shops were full of Christmas toys. There were Christmas greens -and fir trees everywhere. Big ribbon-trimmed holly wreaths began to -appear in front windows and everybody in the streets carried Christmas -bundles. At this time, too, Mary Louise, who lived in the large and -beautiful house with mother and daddy, and who was the only little girl -they had, began to plan what she should ask Santa Claus to bring her. - -Can anybody ever have too many toys? Mary Louise had a whole toy closet -full. There were certain “very best toys” put by nurse on the top -shelf for special occasions and there were countless “every day toys,” -some of them a bit broken, but a great many of them quite whole and -splendid, ever so much nicer than the toys that Mary Louise’s little -friends had to play with. Still, Mary Louise wanted more toys. The list -that she was now writing in her round, wiggly handwriting had already -covered several sheets of large pad paper that nurse had given her. - -Mary Louise sat at the big flat desk in the library. Her velvet dress -was almost lost in the big arm-chair that was daddy’s favorite. Behind -her was a cheerful fire on the hearth and it snapped and crackled -joyously. Mary Louise’s blue eyes travelled about the room as if -seeking fresh inspiration in the objects that they rested upon. She -already had everything, but she wanted more, and so she put the pencil -on the paper and continued the letter to Santa Claus. - -“I want two new Teddy bears, the biggest you have, Santa Claus,” the -pencil said. “I want one that is pure white like snow and another that -is furry and brown. Both should have a squeak and if you have any that -will growl, I’d like that kind, too. - -“I want a white doll carriage lined with pink satin. They have them -at Bunty’s Department Store, for I saw them once and they cost -twenty-five dollars. I want a big doll to go in it. I want a whole -wardrobe of clothes for it, a new doll cradle, and it must have a pink -silk dress, too. I want a doll that will open and shut its eyes--one -with real hair. It must talk, too. - -“You can bring me, beside this, a boy doll with a sled and all the -different kinds of clothes that a little boy ought to wear. I want a -real toy automobile with a horn and a lamp--not the kind that is like -a tricycle, because I already have one like that--I mean the real kind -that runs with gasoline. They cost a hundred and twenty-five dollars, -maybe a little more, but I don’t think you mind what they cost. - -“I want a doll house that is nicer than the one you gave me before. It -ought to be big enough for me to go into myself and I would like to -have it built up in the garden like a real house. You can put it down -by the greenhouses because it will be too big to bring into our house -or carry down the chimney, I know. And then too I want--” - -Mary Louise’s blue eyes considered the ceiling for a space of time: -“I want a ring like mother’s--one with a blue stone in it,” she added. -While she was trying to think of something else to ask for, the door of -the library opened and in walked Mary Louise’s big daddy. He glanced -for a minute at Mary Louise and he took up the telephone. - -Mary Louise’s daddy was busy there several minutes. He watched Mary -Louise nibbling the end of her pencil and he looked over her shoulder -at the letter. As he did so, a smile crossed his face. “Writing to -Santa Claus, Mary Louise?” he asked when he put down the receiver. - -“I was wondering what to ask for next,” Mary Louise informed him. “I -think I’ll ask for another pony. Nibbles is very nice, of course, but -I’d rather like one that will trot faster. I think I’d like a white -pony with a white kid harness and a white basket-cart.” - -“You’re asking for a great many things, aren’t you?” daddy suggested. -“Maybe it might be well to close the letter now. I’ll take it with me -and mail it on the way down town--better address the envelope.” - -“I might think of something more,” remonstrated Mary Louise. But she -folded the six sheets of pad paper and put them into the envelope that -daddy held out. Then she addressed it to Mr. Santa Claus, Santa Claus -Land, Santa Claus Country, North Pole, exactly as nurse had told her. - -Daddy put it into his overcoat pocket as Mary Louise had seen him put -letters that he posted for mother. Then as the library door closed, she -plumped herself down upon the thick black fur rug in front of the fire -to look at a picture book. - -She had not been there very long when the telephone bell rang. James -didn’t come as he ought and Marie was upstairs, so Mary Louise -incommoded herself by getting up from the rug to answer it. It had -already rung three times and she was quite ready to scold Marie for not -answering it. But she did not have the chance as Marie still did not -come. So Mary Louise took up the receiver. “Hello!” she called. - -“Hello,” came a cheery answer. - -“What is it?” inquired Mary Louise. - -“I want to talk to Miss Mary Louise Snow,” came the answer. “I’m Santa -Claus.” - -“Oh, I’m her!” gasped Mary Louise. “I’m--I’m her!” Never before had -Santa Claus called Mary Louise up by telephone! Never had she spoken to -him except for a few brief minutes at a Christmas party celebration. - -“You are,” returned the voice. “Well, I’m glad you are at home, Mary -Louise. There’s something very special that I want to talk about. It’s -almost time for me to receive your usual Christmas letter. I suppose -there are a great many things that you will want. Have you been a good -little girl this year?” - -“Sometimes,” Mary Louise faltered. “I have tried very hard not to have -tantrums. Maybe I did once or twice but I tried not to say things when -Marie _would_ unsnarl my hair.” - -“Have you learned your multiplication tables?” - -“Up to sevens,” answered Mary Louise. “I think I can say them, but I -can’t _always_ remember what seven times nine is and I forget seven -times twelve.” - -“That sounds as if you had tried fairly well,” the voice of Santa -Clause commented. “There are a great many Christmas presents that you -would like, I suppose?” - -“Yes,” returned Mary Louise, “Oh, yes, Santa Claus! I just wrote you my -letter and I hadn’t quite finished it when daddy came in and took it to -mail, so maybe I’ll write another later on. I didn’t ask for any games -or things. I might send another letter when I think of what I want. -If you like, I will tell you the things that I asked for in my first -letter if I can remember them. I want a big, big doll that can talk, -and it must have real hair and shut and open its eyes and it must have -blue eyes and real eye-lashes too. I asked for a pink silk dress and -gloves, I think--I can’t remember. And there were to be two big Teddy -bears with a growl and a squeak _both_--very big bears, one pure white -and the other furry and brown. I want a white pony, too, and a white -cart and harness. The letter will tell you all about _that_--I forget -all that I said in the letter,” she explained. “It was ’most six pages -long of big pad paper.” - -“That was rather long,” chuckled Santa Claus. - -“Yes,” smiled Mary Louise, “but I think I forgot to say that I wanted -gloves for the doll.” - -“I’m not sure I can bring the gloves,” Santa Claus said. “I think, -however, that I might get the doll to you. Would you rather have a doll -than the two Teddy bears?” - -“I want _both_,” replied Mary Louise. It seemed strange that Santa -Claus should not understand a thing, as simple as _that_! “Teddy bears -are very po-pular, I know, but I guess you must have ever so many and -you’ve usually brought me nicer things than you’ve given other little -girls that I know.” - -“Well, maybe I can bring a Teddy bear, if there’s one left over, Mary -Louise, but I’m not at all sure I can bring the pony this year, you -know. I’m afraid I’ve got to cut down on your presents, Mary Louise. -That’s why I called up. I have something very, very important to ask -you. I want to know if you can help me? I’m trying to distribute my -gifts more--more properly this year. You know, of course, Mary Louise, -that there are ever so many little children that do not get Christmas -presents, especially in war time.” - -“Are there?” inquired Mary Louise. “I suppose it’s the children who -have been naughty.” - -“Oh, no.” - -“What is it, then?” - -“It’s not because I forget them or because they are naughty,” -explained Santa Claus’ voice. “It’s because too many goodies go to the -rich little children. Then the poor little children who would like -toys--they have nothing.” - -“Oh,” gasped Mary Louise. “Then, I suppose you’ve given me more than my -share?” - -“I’m afraid so,” answered Santa. - -“Don’t the poor children have _anything_?” - -“Sometimes I’ve given to the wrong people,” came the evasive answer. -“You see, I have a great deal to do. I ought to have a lot of people -to help me. How can one person do it _all_! Sometimes I don’t find the -right children and I use up the things that grow in the Santa Claus -Land and then I have nothing left after the long, long lists are made -up for the very particular little rich children.” - -“Oh, dear!” - -“Yes, that’s why. Do you want to give up some of your things this year -so that they can go to the poor children?” - -Mary Louise reflected. “Which?” she asked. “Do you mean the doll or the -pony or the automobile or the new doll house?” - -“You have about a hundred dolls, haven’t you?” - -“No,” corrected Mary Louise, “only just seventy-six, counting the -little bits of china ones in the doll house. Without these there are -about forty--but only twenty are big ones.” - -“Well,” chuckled Santa Claus, “that seems to me a good deal too many. -You _could_ give up the doll, I think. Suppose that _you_ were a little -girl who had never had any doll ever!” - -“Well, but I’d like the pink doll--” - -“I’ll tell you what,” Santa Claus suggested. “You think things over. -Maybe I’ll find that I _can_ spare a pink doll for you, after all. But -I want you to help me look out for some of the poor children this year -and I want you to buy at least six presents out of your very own money. -I want you to find some children that I ought to know about. I want you -to help them for me. I’ll telephone you some addresses where there are -little poor children and you must write these down and keep them and -see that the boys and girls have proper Christmas presents. Will you do -it?” - -“Oh, yes, Mr. Santa Claus, gladly,” returned Mary Louise. “I have -nineteen dollars in my bank, I think. My daddy will help me.” - -“No, I don’t want your daddy to help you. It’s to be your very own -money!” - -“All right. I’ll not ask him. Of course I want to help you, Mr. Santa -Claus. I’ll love to do it.” - -“Well, good-bye. If I can, I’ll come on Christmas eve to your tree. You -do the very best you can, Mary Louise, and invite the poor children to -share your tree!” - -The receiver was hung up at the other end of the line and Mary Louise -stood bewildered before the library table where she had just written -her long Christmas list. She stood there thinking it all over from -beginning to end. She, _she_ had been asked to help Santa Claus! It was -a great distinction! Poor overworked Santa Claus had appealed to her as -a very rich little girl who already had everything--and she mightn’t -get the pink doll at all! - -Then Mary Louise could not keep the secret any longer and she dashed up -the stairs to mother’s room. She wouldn’t let mother go out of the room -till she had told her the whole story and mother had a very important -engagement and was all ready to go out in the car. Together they -emptied Mary Louise’s bank and counted out exactly nineteen dollars and -fifty-three cents. Mary Louise wanted to take it and start right out -in the car to buy the presents, but with difficulty mother explained -that she had better wait till Santa Claus sent in the names and she had -found out what the children wanted. - -And Santa Claus did telephone the names. Mary Louise was at dinner and -James answered the telephone. Mary Louise felt badly that she had not -been called, but there was no need to take her away from dinner; James -had the addresses on the telephone pad, mother said. She was sure they -were right. - -Mary Louise wished daddy were home. It seemed to her that he would -never come. As she felt sure she would need to buy a tree for the -Christmas party, she got nurse to take her to that shop in the -afternoon. But it is wonderful to think that a Christmas tree costs -money! Before this, Mary Louise had never considered the subject. It -was a very tall tree and it was an expensive tree. The charge for it -ate into the nineteen dollars and fifty-three cents considerably. The -things that went onto the tree must all be new. Santa Claus must see -that Mary Louise had bought new ones to please him. So she bought -ever so many-stars and birds, and balls of red, yellow, blue, green, -white, silver, gold. And there was need of tinsel. If Mary Louise had -had her own way, she would have spent almost all the nineteen dollars -and fifty-three cents just on that tree without thinking of the -consequences. Why, if she had, how could she have bought any presents -for the poor children? - -Next day, after having told daddy all about it, she wrote to the -addresses that Santa Claus had given her. She wrote the letters in ink -and used her very bestest best blue note-paper. All the letters were -sealed with a Santa Claus sticker. It did take a great deal of time, I -assure you. - -The invitations were to Mamie and Johnnie and Toby Smith. They were to -Tony Pettino and Lily Wicks and Benny Wicks who lived in a part of the -city Mary Louise had never seen. Nurse said it was a very sad part of -the city. When Mary Louise asked if she might go there and see it and -see the children, nurse said she guessed Santa Claus didn’t know what -he was talking about--she guessed _not_. Mary Louise insisted, but all -in vain. Santa Claus had told her what the children’s ages were and -left the gifts to Mary Louise’s selection. - -When daddy had taken the letters to the poor children in his overcoat -pocket to mail, Mary Louise fell to planning about the gifts. Only one -little girl--all boys! How dreadful! But mother helped Mary Louise by -suggesting things that little boys might like. From her own playthings -Mary Louise selected her biggest doll for Lily and would have given her -ever so many other dolls, had not mother thought that Mary Louise might -add other little girls to her Christmas list of poor children and make -the helping of Santa Claus more equally distributed among those who -might otherwise be forgotten. - -How fast the nineteen dollars and fifty-three cents did go--just buying -the tree and the fixings, and the sled and the overcoat and mittens, -and skates, and carts, and baseball bats! It was a tragic moment when -Mary Louise suddenly discovered that Benny had been neglected and -didn’t have as many gifts as the others. She consulted daddy, as there -were no boys’ toys among her playthings and nothing seemed right. Daddy -said--well, he said she might work and earn the money to buy Benny a -present. - -Never in her life had Mary Louise worked to earn money! “How can I earn -money?” she asked. - -Daddy thought. “If you will learn the seven times seven table, and the -eight, and the nine and any of the others, I’ll give you a dollar for -every one you can say perfectly. That’s very special, Mary Louise, -because it’s Christmas, you know.” - -Dear me! To think of having to sit down quietly in all the excitement -of Christmas rush and learn horrid multiplication tables! If anything -was work, that surely was! - -But where there’s a will there’s a way and Mary Louise did it. She -did it so well that she remembered all of the seven table perfectly. -She also went on and learned the eight and nine table and the ten -table--that was easy. Then, being quite enthusiastic, she tried hard at -the others and mastered the twelve table after keeping at it a steady -day. With the proceeds of these earnings, paid gravely by daddy, she -was able to buy Benny a game, and when she went to buy it and found -some little poor children right by the car that stopped at the entrance -of Bunty’s Department Store, she was able to invite them then and there -and go right in and buy presents for them. They needed woolen scarfs -and mittens, and Mary Louise had found presents on the toy shelf among -the toys kept for very special occasions. These would do for them. - -When once Mary Louise had started to help Santa Claus, there was no -knowing where she would end. Whenever she went out, she saw little -children whom she was sure Santa Claus had forgotten because they -looked so wistfully in at shop windows. Some of them nurse let her -speak to and she added these to her list for the party. There seemed -to be no table of thirteens to learn but daddy gave a dollar for every -poem she could recite and Mary Louise knew ever so many and it was easy -to learn short ones. - -Oh, dear! Oh, dear! How the time did fly! Before Mary Louise knew it, -Christmas Eve was there! There had been all the fun of fixing the tree -and daddy and mother had helped. Mary Louise hoped Santa Claus wouldn’t -disappoint her! She hoped that he surely would come! She was very much -relieved when James came in and said that he had just been asked to -deliver a message that came from Santa Claus over the telephone. It was -a telegram and it said: - - Will be at your Christmas party Christmas Eve eight o’clock. - - SANTA CLAUS. - -After that, Mary Louise didn’t worry. She let Marie take the tangles -out of her hair and help her into her very best pink silk dress and -then she dashed downstairs to wait for all the guests who had been -invited to come. She wanted to play games with them and she wanted -to tell them all about Santa Claus and she hoped they would like to -sing carols and dance around the tree--but most of all she hoped that -they would like the presents she had arranged for them at Santa Claus’ -suggestion. Oh, wouldn’t it be fun to see Santa Claus give out the big -white Teddy bear and the big brown fuzzy bear and the pink doll and the -cart and the skates and--and-- - -But here the doorbell rang and there was a scuffle of happy feet. It -was Lily and Benny and Tony and all the rest. They were as happy as -happy could be. Mary Louise greeted them all and then they beamed upon -her almost as if she were Santa Claus herself, but I just wish you -could have heard the shrieks of delight when the front doorbell rang -and James ushered in Santa Claus himself! It was just too bad that -daddy wasn’t there to see all the fun, though mother did hope that -maybe he might be able to come later. Oh, what a good time they all did -have! It was the very best and happiest Christmas that Mary Louise had -ever, ever, _ever_ had! It was wonderful! - -Why, Mary Louise had such a good time that she forgot all about the -pink doll till Santa Claus came and gave it to her, after giving -out all the other gifts. It was the very doll that Mary Louise had -wanted, but she asked Santa Claus to be sure he could spare it and -that he had neglected nobody else to give _her_ the doll. He said he -guessed not--at least he hoped not, and then they sat on the sofa -and ate ice cream together while Santa Claus joked and told stories. -But he couldn’t stay very long, he said, and he had to go. Then just -afterwards, alas, in came daddy, who might have met Santa Claus, if -only he had got there a wee bit sooner! And the children danced around -the tree and sang carols. And then they all wished Mary Louise a Happy -Christmas and went home with arms laden with packages that they hugged -tight and smiled and chuckled over. - -After the children went, there was just mother and daddy left. They -both kissed Mary Louise and vowed that they’d have another party again -next year, maybe. Then daddy took Mary Louise upon his knee and put a -little blue ring upon her finger. It was the kind of a ring that Mary -Louise had wanted--one just like mother’s, only little. And mother -told Mary Louise that _her_ Christmas present was the doll house. It -was coming as soon as possible. It was so big that one could play -inside and it was to be placed right close to the garden greenhouses. - -It was a Christmas that Mary Louise never forgot and couldn’t forget, -even if it had not been for the blue ring and the multiplication -tables! - - - - -_The Penny Bank Window_ - - -_THE JANUARY SURPRISE_ - -_The January surprise pocket had held a little picture calendar. -Marjorie had opened it according to directions that said_: - - “_Open sometime when you want to write a letter._” - -_As there was a Christmas thank-you letter to write upon the very first -day of January, Marjorie had opened that pocket and found the calendar. -Then she had looked to see just when she might open the story pocket. -The writing on this one said_: - - “_Open on some Saturday afternoon, when you are sitting by the - fire._” - -_The very first Saturday afternoon that came in January, Marjorie took -the Surprise Book and went to the fireside. She could not wait to find -out what was in the story pocket. She told Dotty that the time had come -for the story and Dotty curled happily at her feet on the rug while she -read “The Penny Bank Window” that was the January story._ - - - - -_III_ - -_The Penny Bank Window_ - - -“That penny bank is to blame for it all,” said Billy Williams. “If it -hadn’t been for the bank, nothing would have happened.” The bank was -quite full of pennies that Billy had been saving carefully ever since -his birthday. It had been given him then with nine times nine bright -pennies to put into it. That was because Billy was nine years old. - -One afternoon Billy took up the china bank and shook it to hear it -rattle. Really, when the bank rattled, it made Billy feel tremendously -rich. There was almost a whole dollar in the bank by now! But right -here, out fell one dull penny and it rolled along the floor. - -Billy let it roll till it stopped and the rattle of the bank seemed -quite as big without the missing penny, so he suddenly decided to spend -it--but for what? Why, just at that very minute, Billy felt hungry. -Mother was off at work and would not be home to get their dinner till -six. Billy was all alone in the rooms over the drygoods shop where he -lived with his mother. He had eaten the bread and butter that she left -out for his lunch and he was hungry. It suddenly dawned upon him that -he wanted a lollypop and that he could find a nice, sweet, red one at -the candy store around the corner. “All right!” beamed Billy. He put -the dull penny in his pocket and raced off to get the lollypop. - -If it hadn’t been for the bank, there would not have been the lollypop. -If it had not been for the lollypop, there would have been no penny -bank window. So, you see, the bank _was_ responsible. Hardly had -Billy bought the red lollypop and torn the paper off than he became -quite absorbed in eating it--and he stepped down from the curb at the -street corner quite without looking. It was a careless thing to do, -for he didn’t see what was coming. What was coming happened to be an -automobile that rounded the corner without tooting its horn! - -The doctor felt Billy all over and pronounced him a very lucky boy -indeed. “There might have been nothing left of you, my son,” said he. -“But there happens to be a good deal left in spite of the fact that -your foot got bumped into. You’ll have to keep quiet for a while; then -you’ll be as good as new.” - -“I suppose I mightn’t be so lucky another time,” grinned Billy, “but -I guess I’ll be more careful in crossing streets. It’s the fault of -the lollypop.” But it didn’t seem very lucky to be hurt and have to -sit all day in a chair while mother was away. It was fearfully lonely. -Even though Mrs. Finger from the next-door flat brought in magazines -and two picture books; even though, after school, some of the boys came -in to play checkers and dominoes and they stayed as long as they could -when they really wanted to be outdoors with the other kids. Even though -Billy learned to knit for the soldiers; even though he snipped pillows -for the Red Cross, it was frightfully lonely till mother came home from -work. - -After he watched the children pass on their way to school one morning, -his eyes roved across the yard where the leafless trees beyond shut -off the view of the roofs of other houses. Below in the quiet street -hopped sparrows. It was cold out there and they found nothing to eat. -Billy bent forward and lifted the window. From his breakfast tray that -mother had left, he took a slice of bread and tossed it far out. The -sparrows darted for it and chirped and twittered. Billy laughed. “Don’t -I wish they’d come up here to the window,” he sighed. “Guess I’ll try -it an’ see if they will.” And there was one venturesome sparrow who did -come! Billy was still watching him when the doctor came for his morning -visit. - -“If I were you, Billy Williams, I’d start a bird window,” the doctor -suggested. “My little girl knows all about bird windows and she’s made -several at home. The birds come every day. That foot looks as if it -were doing well--suppose I ask my little girl to come in and make _you_ -a bird window?” - -Billy said he’d like it jim dandy. It really was awfully lonesome. -Nothing ever passed in the street. If there were birds to watch, it -would be fun. “You won’t forget about the bird window,” he cautioned, -as the doctor took up his grip to go. And the doctor said he surely -wouldn’t. - -Knitting progressed that day rather slowly. All Billy’s bread went into -the street to the sparrows. But Billy had reached almost as far as the -end of his gray muffler in the afternoon--and the boys had come in -from school for a hasty, “Hello, kid, we’re glad you’re alive and gay! -We can’t stop because--” Yes, of course, they couldn’t come every day -but it was lonesome. Then there came a knock at the door and in came a -little girl. She was as bright and cheerful as her crimson cloak. - -“Hello,” she greeted. “If you’re the boy that ate the lollypop and got -run into, I know all about you. I’m the doctor’s little girl. I came to -help you make a bird window--bird windows are my specialty, you know,” -she laughed. - -“I’ve got some money, if you need to buy anything,” Billy announced. -“I want a real jim dandy window! You’ll make me a nice one, won’t you? -I like birds and animals, don’t you? I never had any pets but I always -did want a bird or something. Maybe I can tame the birds when they come -to my window. How do you fix it?” - -“Well, you have to have a shelf of some kind--a box that is shallow -will make _that_,” explained the doctor’s little girl. “I brought some -nails and a hammer with me and I brought a lump of suet that the cook -gave me. She sometimes won’t give it to me but this time I told her -about you and she gave it without another word. She says she’s sorry -for you and so’m I. I’m going to fix you up a splendid window.” - -The doctor’s little girl thrust up the sash of Billy Williams’ window. -“I’m awfully hard up,” she pursued, “or I’d have bought some sunflower -seed to bring with me. You ought to have sunflower seed to sprinkle on -your bird-shelf, for it brings the chickadees and the purple finches -and ever so many other kinds of birds. The woodpeckers come for the -suet and if you have peanuts, beautiful big blue jays will come and -carry them off. Could I have twenty cents to buy sunflower seed, do you -suppose? It costs ten cents a pound at the druggist’s.” - -Billy showed her the penny bank and they shook it and shook it till -there was really more money than twenty cents--“If it hadn’t been for -the bank, I’d have been running about now,” Billy grumbled. “That -bank’s got to give me something nice now anyhow!” - -“Well, I’m shaking it to punish it,” laughed the doctor’s little girl. -“I’m shaking it ever so hard. I don’t believe it likes to be shaken. -You did have ever so much money in it. I don’t wonder that you wanted -the lollypop!” - -She slipped the money into her purse and went off to make purchases. -Billy told her to get anything that the money would buy. He wanted -a bird window that would be the best anybody could have. He waited -anxiously for her to come back and when she came, her arms were full. - -Billy had to laugh. She had a small evergreen tree that she had bought -for thirty-five cents. She had two pounds of sunflower seed that had -cost twenty cents--oh, ever so much seed comes for that price and it -will last a long time, too. She had a shallow grocery box that was long -and flat and without any cover. It was about the length of Billy’s -window ledge. She had a package that came from the ten cent store. -When it was undone, it showed two tin strainers at five cents apiece. -Now, what did all this mean? - -The doctor’s little girl rolled up her sleeves and put on Billy -Williams’ mother’s blue gingham apron. First, she took the shallow -grocery box and nailed it to the window ledge. Billy was surprised to -see that the doctor’s little girl could drive a long nail almost as -well as he himself! - -“That’s the bird-shelf,” she explained. “You sprinkle sunflower seed -on it every day. The birds can light on its rim. Some days you’ll have -as many as twenty at a time. The chickadees are darling and the purple -finches are beautiful and they sing too.” - -She took a handful of striped gray and white sunflower seed and -sprinkled it on Billy’s new bird-shelf. “You’ll have to wait a while -till the birds find out about the shelf,” she said, “but it doesn’t -take them long.” Then she took the little green fir tree and some stout -cord. She tied the wee tree to one side of Billy’s blind. She tied its -trunk at top and at bottom with several twists of heavy string. It made -the window pretty--almost as if one were looking out over the top of a -fir tree. The doctor’s little girl paused after her work and smiled at -Billy. “I think that’s nice, don’t you?” she asked. - -Billy nodded. “What’s it for?” he inquired. - -“You tie bits of suet lumps to its limbs,” she explained. “The birds -will light on the branches. Suppose you cut up the suet into two or -three-inch lumps. Tie string around each and tie the lumps to the -different branches. Can you do it?” - -Yes, Billy could. The little girl had to help a bit, but not so very -much. - -“The strainers are to be tacked up. You put seed into them. When it -rains, the seed doesn’t get soaked. Birds don’t like the soaked seed, -you know.” The strainers went at the other side of Billy’s blind, -opposite the fir tree. - -It seemed as if the bird window was all done but it wasn’t! The -doctor’s little girl took a good-sized tree-twig that she had brought, -and nailed this against the window frame to make a perch. There were -three perches made this way. She put them near the two strainers and -tied suet to each perch. She said that the woodpeckers would come to -these tree-perches; they didn’t come to the fir-tree because--well, -woodpeckers couldn’t. - -When all this was done, the doctor’s little girl took something else -from her pocket. It was what Billy thought--bird-seed. It was a mixture -of seed: millet, wheat, rape, cracked corn. She said that one could get -it mixed at a grain store--eight cents a pound. If Billy wanted her to, -she’d buy some and bring it to him tomorrow, but for today all was done. - -It was twilight and almost dark by now, so they shut down the window. -The birds must all have gone off to shelter. It was too late to expect -anything of the bird window that day, but the doctor’s little girl -promised to put a bit of suet on a bush under Billy’s window as she -went home. It was to attract the birds and call attention to the window. - -That night when mother came home, she thought the bird window a -splendid thing. Billy dreamed of it all night. Indeed, he could not -wait for morning to come. He woke at four o’clock and kept wondering if -any birds would come. Then, because he was so drowsy, he fell asleep. -He woke with a sudden start just at sunrise. Was it true?--Yes, yes! -Knock--knock--knock! What kind of bird was it? There was a bird at the -suet that was tied to the perch at the window. _That_ must be it! Billy -sat up in bed and bent forward to look. There on the perch that was -highest was a black and white bird with a bright scarlet cap--it was -brother woodpecker busy eating a breakfast of suet! - -My, how exciting! Billy hardly dared to draw a breath, he was so afraid -that the woodpecker would see him and fly away. Billy had hardly been -in his chair near the window for more than a few minutes when there -was a flutter of wings and a strange little slate-gray bird lit upon -another perch and circled it, making queer, cheerful little noises. The -bird had a black head and it seemed full of sociable curiosity. Billy -wondered what it was. He did not remember ever to have seen a bird like -it before! He resolved to ask the doctor’s little girl what it was. And -then came wee little birds that called dee--dee--dee. They were the -chickadees, little gray birds with black hoods. They seemed very tame. -They came in a cluster and besieged the limbs of the little green -fir tree. While they were there, came birds like sparrows, too. They -were _not_ sparrows though--some of them were rosy red in color. Oh, -they must be what the doctor’s little girl had called purple finches! -My, how exciting! How they quarreled! What fun! They were all over -the bird-shelf, eating the striped sunflower seed in a very hungry -way. When a big blue jay came screaming toward a near-by tree, they -flew off in a hurry and the blue jay with his crest acock carefully -reconnoitered the premises and decided to eat from the bird-shelf too. -Oh, wasn’t it gay! When the doctor came, he quite agreed that it was -jolly and he brought a bird book from his little girl and a package of -the mixed seed that he laughingly called “medicine.” - -It must have been medicine, for Billy’s foot, so the doctor claimed, -grew well in a wonderfully rapid manner from this time on. And the -time passed so quickly at the bird window that really the days went -by before Billy had time to be lonely. The birds were great company. -The same ones came from day to day--the little Miss Chickadees -were the tamest. They really learned to take shelled peanuts from -Billy’s fingers and to sit upon his warm hand while they ate. Brother -Woodpecker and his wife came early. They needed no alarm clock to wake -them. Billy heard the knock--knock before he was in his chair of a -morning. Then the curious little nuthatches,--those strange little gray -birds with the funny noise that sounded like quack, quack--they came, -too, regularly. In snow and sleet and rain and sun, Billy had his bird -friends. He had the doctor’s little girl, too, some days. They sat -by the window and played games while she told him all she knew about -birds. Then, when his foot got so well that the doctor let him go out, -Billy’s first trip was to the drugstore to buy more sunflower seed with -her. - -Everybody came to see Billy’s window and the fame of it spread far and -wide. Billy always declared afterwards that it had almost been worth -the red lollypop accident, but it was the penny bank that really did it -all, you know! - - - - -_Angelina’s Valentine_ - - -_THE FEBRUARY SURPRISE_ - -_Of course, anybody might guess that the valentine card came in the -first pocket of the Surprise Book in February. It did! It was a red -heart cut from bright red paper and it had a verse upon it, too. The -story for February was a valentine story, too. It was in a pocket that -was sealed with an embossed rose. The writing said:_ - - “_Open after school at 3.30 on Valentine’s Day afternoon._” - -_Marjorie and Dotty watched the clock till the exact seconds had -ticked. Then, with the arm of her own Valentine about her, Marjorie -read aloud the story of “Angelina’s Valentine.”_ - - - - -_IV_ - -_Angelina’s Valentine_ - - -The ten cent store was the first to show valentines. On the very first -day of February, its windows were filled with bright red hearts and -wonderful pictures made with lacy gilt papers. Some were of little -birds and some were of little boys and little girls, and there was -one that showed a sleek gray pussy-cat like the one that belonged to -the Parillo family. Twice a day, coming to school and returning home, -Maria, Louisa and Angelina passed by the beautiful valentines in that -window. - -“Maria,” begged Louisa, “let us go in--just a little minute! We need -not go right home today!” - -“Please,” wheedled Angelina. “Please, Maria, do let us!” - -“Valentine’s Day is still a long way off,” returned Maria. “There -is work to be done at home. I must see to the fire and wash and iron -Angelina’s dress and then get supper. We cannot stop.” This was the -way it happened every afternoon that the three little Italian girls -passed homeward from school. It was Maria who had taken her mother’s -place. She was the mother of the family now. Was it not she who cooked, -washed, cleaned? Was it not she who with twelve years of wisdom -governed Louisa and Angelina? Did not her father trust her to do the -marketing? Maria with her duties at home was superior to valentines. -Valentines were meant for children. Maria was duty bound, and so every -day the three little Parillos marched past the ten cent store without -stopping to go in. They lived in the three rooms of the brown tenement -on the outskirts of the town. There was a corner to turn after one -had passed by the ten cent store. Often Louisa and little Angelina -hung back and peeped in at the valentines, waiting till Maria should -reach the corner. Then they dashed after her lest she turn and scold, -“Angelina and Louisa, come at once! There is no time to loiter. The -fire in the stove will have gone out if you do not hurry. It will take -time to build another and the rooms will be cold--come, I say!” - -“We saw them,” Louisa would announce, almost out of breath, quite as -if Maria were interested. “If I were rich and had money I would buy -the valentine that is beautiful with red roses. I would give it to my -teacher at school.” - -“And I would buy more than one,” Angelina would smile. “There is one of -a pussy-cat like ours. I would give it to Marguerite Santos and I would -give her many others beside.” - -“The idea!” Maria interrupted. “Marguerite Santos! The unmannerly -child! She is a class behind you in school and you do not know her. -The Santos think themselves better than the Parillos and they will not -let her play with you--all because their father has a fruit store with -candy and peanuts and a telephone!” - -“It is because Angelina has the cross teacher this year that she wants -to give valentines to Marguerite,” suggested Louisa. “Her teacher is -not nice and Marguerite has a beautiful red plush cloak--” - -“She smiles at me,” defended Angelina. “I like her. I would like to -know her and play with her. I do not think she is at all unmannerly, -Maria.” - -But Maria was fitting the key into the home lock and she took her time -to reply. As she hung over the kitchen stove to poke the slumbering -fire, she gave it more than one dig. “The Santos child is unmannerly -and I have seen it,” she insisted. “She did a most unmannerly thing -only the other day as she passed by on the road here going homeward -after school--” - -Angelina’s eyes flashed. “Tell me,” she broke in, “tell me what it was, -for I do not believe it!” - -“She did! She said _shoo_, it was just like that: she said it to our -good gray cat who was peacefully sleeping in the sun at the doorstone. -It was very unmannerly to shoo our cat!” - -Angelina sniffed. “That was nothing,” she defended, “I shoo cats, too. -Marguerite likes cats even as I do, but I often say shoo, shoo! I do it -to see the cat blink its eyes and look at me. Some cats will jump and -run. One does not know what they will do--and I have seen Louisa--” - -But here Maria put a hand over Angelina’s mouth. “I do not care what -Louisa has done,” she admonished. “Go get me the soap that is by the -basin in the bedroom so that I may wash the dress. There is no use to -start a quarrel. There is no money to buy valentines at all, either for -Louisa’s teacher or for Marguerite Santos.” - -But if the subject of valentines subsided once in a while, it was -sure to start again on the next day when Maria, Louisa and Angelina -passed homeward by the wonderful windows of the ten cent store. There -was never time to stop. Only a hasty glimpse did Louisa and Angelina -snatch. Oh, the joy of going into the store to see the piles of candy -on the candy counter! Oh, the happiness of gazing at bright colored -ribbons and wonderful toys! And the valentines that lay on the counter -in hundreds, what fun to see them, even though one could not spend -money to buy any! Alas! - -But it happened that Angelina had received a good mark in spelling -on the day before Valentine’s Day and Maria wished to reward it. “I -promised,” she said. “It is true, Angelina--tomorrow, on Valentine’s -Day, you and Louisa may stop at the store and go in while I go home. -You may stay till the sun sets, but no longer. Today I must hurry home -and I need you to help with the sweeping.” - -The gray cat was on the doorstep in the sun as they reached the brown -tenement by the roadside. Angelina lifted it in her arms and Maria -turned the key in the lock. They were home again. Tomorrow would be the -great day to visit the store and see all of its splendor. That night -she dreamed of beautiful valentines and of Marguerite Santos’ red plush -cloak. - -The morning of Valentine’s Day dawned with pink and gold happiness -of sunlight. On the way to school, Louisa and Angelina sang and when -school was out they dashed into worn brown cloaks and caps to wait for -Maria, who took her time gathering books and pencils for home-work -at night. “Hurry, hurry!” they implored. “It is four o’clock. The -sun will set by half past four and there will be no time to see the -valentines!” And so Maria hurried. At the ten cent store they left -her--joy! - -Hand in hand they pressed into the crowd. “See, Louisa!” and “Look, -Angelina!” they called to each other every minute. But it was Angelina -who caught the first glimpse of the valentines. There at the counter -was the beautiful red plush cloak of Marguerite Santos bending over the -valentines! - -Together they pressed past the other children who stood behind that -beautiful red plush cloak and they craned their necks to see the -valentines as Marguerite Santos, absorbed in the selection of the -most beautiful one to be had, turned them over one by one. But there -was no envy in the heart of Louisa and Angelina as they watched. It -was happiness that was there--of course, if one had been rich like -Marguerite Santos--but how nice it was to be where they were! How gay -the music of the pianola sounded! Wasn’t it amusing to watch Marguerite -Santos buy valentines! But right here she took up the one of the gray -pussy-cat! - -Angelina nudged Louisa. “See, see!” she whispered. “She likes the -pussy-cat. It is not true what Maria said. She is not unmannerly at -all. I would like to speak to her and ask her to come to play with -me--she has smiled at me many times when I have met her--” - -But Louisa shook her head hard. “You must not speak,” she insisted. -“Maybe she would not like to have you see what it was that she bought.” - -So, when Marguerite Santos wedged her way out of the crowd, she saw -neither Angelina nor Louisa. She held her valentine of the pussy-cat -tight in its big white envelope--tight upon the front of her red plush -cloak. She was concerned with the care of it, lest some rude person -bump into her and injure it. - -Louisa and Angelina waited a moment and then drifted out of the door -after her. The sky was all red and gold with the sunset. It was like -some wonderfully bright valentine card, so beautiful! As they turned -the corner in the dusky twilight and came upon the doorstone of the -brown house that was home, there knelt the beautiful red plush cloak -of Marguerite Santos! She was laying the valentine upon the step and -was about to knock and run away! - -It was Angelina who caught her as she turned. Louisa was lagging -behind, with her eyes on the first evening star that flamed white in -the sky. - -“Is it really for me?” asked Angelina. With an arm around the beautiful -red plush cloak of Marguerite Santos, she smiled at the big white -envelope that lay unopened on the stone. “I guess that it is a picture -of a pussy-cat like ours,” she beamed. “I have no valentine to give you -but I have always liked you, Marguerite, and I have wanted you to like -me. Could I not give you a share of our gray cat as a valentine, maybe? -I know that you, too, like cats, though you have none.” - -But here, Louisa caught up and the door opened. - -“It was very mannerly of you to bring Angelina the valentine,” spoke -Maria. “I thank you. Will you not come in and play for a while? It -must be lonely to have no brothers and sisters. We would like you for -our friend, even though we have no candy or peanuts or telephone. -Angelina has for a long time wanted to know you, Marguerite Santos.” - - - - -_Buttinski, Peacemaker_ - - -_THE MARCH SURPRISE_ - - -_There was a St. Patrick’s Day shamrock favor in the pocket that was -labelled:_ - - “_Open on the 17th of March at 6 A. M._” - -_Marjorie was afraid she might oversleep and so miss opening that -pocket entirely till the next March 17th should come around. But Dotty -saw to that. She was always wide awake, bright and early. She woke -Marjorie up even before 6 A. M._ - -_The story pocket that came next was marked:_ - - “_Open in March when the wind blows hard and you have to stay - indoors._” - -_As March came in like a lamb, Dotty kept putting off the reading of -this story to tease Marjorie. When Marjorie begged to know if she might -open it, Dot would chuckle. “The wind doesn’t blow hard enough yet,” -she would say._ - -_But finally it did blow so hard that Marjorie insisted. Then, -together, they read the story of “Buttinski, Peacemaker.”_ - - - - -_V_ - -_Buttinski, Peacemaker_ - - -Nobody would have expected it of them. They were the very best of -friends, and Miss Allen, who was the grade teacher, used to call them -David and Jonathan. - -When mental arithmetic and English classes had head and foot, Laura -and Mary made it a point not to know answers of questions that came to -them. So they kept together at the foot of the class, side by side. -Miss Allen never said a word to them or to anybody else, but she -understood. Then the classes stopped having head and foot. But she let -them sit side by side. Even their desks were together. - -Mary was always ready to laugh at a joke. Laura couldn’t even see one a -mile off. That was how the trouble started and how little Betty Peters -started to play peacemaker. Everybody called Betty Peters “Buttinski” -because she was always as interested in other people’s affairs as -she was in her own--perhaps a little too much interested. She would -interrupt conversations and ask “What’re you talking about?” Some of -the girls resented it. - -It was in beginning German that Betty Peters sat next to Mary. Laura -took French and wasn’t in the class at all. She did not know one word -of German from another. It used to be one of Mary’s jokes to pretend -that she could speak fluently so she would rattle off a long string -of vocabulary with conversational intonations to make Laura believe -she knew a great deal. Of course, Laura only half believed, though she -didn’t understand the joke. Sometimes she really thought that it was -a German conversation and she didn’t like to have Mary talk German to -her because she did not study it and couldn’t understand. Betty Peters -always helped Mary. She used to enjoy the fun. - -But one day, it ceased to be fun. Laura always was a little jealous of -Betty Peters. She used to wait at the door of the German room with -Mary’s lunch-box because she herself had a study-hour just before -recess and she could be there as soon as Mary’s class was dismissed. -Then Mary would always call out to Betty Peters a long list of German -words that meant nothing and Betty Peters would reply. On the memorable -Friday when this stopped being amusing, Laura was there waiting when -the two came out. Mary had been full of mischief that day. “Promise not -to tell--I’m going to have a joke,” she whispered as the class filed -out into the hall, Betty behind her. - -Laura caught the words and saw Betty’s nod of promise. Then Mary -launched out, “_Die, der, der, die; das, des, dem, das_,” she jabbered -to Betty. Of course, everybody knows that this is feminine and neuter -declension of the definite article, but Laura thought it was something -confidential and jumped to the conclusion that it was a personal remark -about _her_. - -She turned upon her heel and walked straight off downstairs. Mary -simply hooted with laughter and ran after her, but the harder she and -Betty Peters laughed, the more indignant Laura grew. She put Mary’s -lunch-box down upon a bench and left it and pushed Mary’s hand off her -shoulder. Mary fell back to get the box. “You’ve done it!” declared -Betty Peters. - -“Nonsense!” replied Mary. “She ought to know I was just joking. Maybe -she’s merely pretending to be angry.” But she wasn’t at all sure. - -“I think she is really angry,” insisted Betty Peters. - -“Well, what could she _think_ I said?” inquired Mary. “I didn’t say -anything at all.” - -“Perhaps she thought you said something about her--” - -“She ought to know me better,” declared Mary. Then she carried her -lunch-box to the lunch-room with Betty Peters. There was a crowd there. -At first they did not see Laura but when they did, there was no chance -to reach her in the crowd. “She did that on purpose,” suggested Betty -Peters. Mary called to her, but either Laura didn’t hear or pretended -not to, even though some of the other girls spoke to her and Betty -Peters was sure Laura _must_ have been aware of the calls. Such a -thing as a quarrel between Mary and Laura had never before happened. -Nobody knew what to make of it. Mary was mortified and determined to -reach Laura so as to explain and make it all right, but when Betty -Peters and Mary reached her, Laura walked right in the opposite -direction. Mary called after her that it was only a joke, but Laura was -icy. So at last, Mary decided that Laura would have to find out for -herself what “_Die, der, der, die_ and _das, des, dem, das_” meant. -“Two can play at that game,” she snapped, as Laura disappeared. “If -she won’t speak to me, neither will I speak to her!” Betty Peters ate -her lunch in the lunch-room but Mary took hers out into the garden. It -was snowy there and she was all alone. It couldn’t have been a very -nice place to eat lunch! Where Laura went, nobody knew. She was busy -studying all the last part of the recreation period. When Mary came in -as the bell rang, she never moved. Her back was twisted around toward -Mary’s seat. Everybody in the class noticed it, but Miss Allen said -nothing. Perhaps she thought that it would pass off by and by. - -But the next week they did not speak either! It was worse. Mary had to -rub the chalk off the blackboard with her handkerchief because Laura, -who was next to her, had the blackboard eraser; and Laura kept it on -her side and Mary wouldn’t ask her for it. Miss Allen took Mary’s book -to give to a visitor who came into history class, but Laura wouldn’t -pass half of hers over to Mary. When Miss Allen saw that she said, -“Laura!” in a sharp voice. So Laura put the book upon the desk between -them and it stayed there. Nobody turned its pages. - -At lunch hour, Mary avoided Betty Peters. Laura disappeared and Sallie -Overton found her eating her lunch off on the studio stairs--away -from everything. Mary ate hers alone in the cold garden. It must have -been that Miss Allen realized how silly they were behaving, for she -tried to set matters right. She found out from Betty where Mary was -and she put on her long blue cloak and went into the garden after her. -What happened in the garden, nobody knew, though some of the girls -watched out of the windows and saw Miss Allen talking and Mary using a -handkerchief. They came in together. Sallie Overton told Miss Allen -where Laura was and the class thought Miss Allen had talked to her, -too. It was circulated that Miss Allen had asked them to meet each -other and shake hands. But neither of them seemed to have done it, -for in class things went on as on previous days. It seemed worse than -a Chinese puzzle to solve the difficulty. Some of the girls talked -to Mary and some talked to Laura and begged them to make it up. Both -declared the other wrong and refused to take the first step. “Please,” -begged Betty Peters, the Buttinski. “Please, Laura.” But still nothing -happened. Both seemed to feel dreadfully. Both were about as blue as -Blue Monday. Miss Allen took time from study hour and talked to the -class about friendship and what it meant in terms of self-sacrifice, -generosity and loyalty. Both Mary and Laura wept, but still, after -dismission, they did not shake hands or speak. And both walked home -alone every day. - -Miss Allen was correcting papers at her desk as Betty Peters walked -down the aisle to go home. Betty Peters seemed as depressed as Miss -Allen. Indeed, she almost acted as if she had been to blame for the -whole thing and she tried and tried to get Mary to let her tell Laura -what “_Die, der, der, die_ and _das, des, dem, das_” meant. Mary -wouldn’t let her tell. She said that Laura could find out herself. - -“Well, Betty?” smiled Miss Allen, looking up from the papers she was -correcting. It seemed to Betty almost as if Miss Allen were thinking of -Laura and Mary. It sounded so. - -“It seems a dreadfully hard problem to solve, if two halves are -separated,” suggested Betty Peters, thoughtfully. She stopped beside -Miss Allen’s desk and watched the blue pencil that was marking a cross -upon Laura’s written work. - -“Do you mean David and Jonathan?” inquired Miss Allen, with a twinkle -in her eye as she looked at Betty. - -Betty nodded. - -“How did they go home?” - -“On different sides of the street.” - -“Oh.” - -“It’s really dreadful, isn’t it--and they were such friends!” - -“I asked them to overlook the mistake and make it up without -explanations--and with them, if need be.” - -“But they won’t do it. The girls have tried to help and I’m sure I -have, too!” - -“Well,” smiled Miss Allen. “What’s at the bottom of it, do you know, -Betty?” - -Betty nodded. Then Miss Allen pushed aside the papers, “Frankly,” she -said, “I don’t know what to do. They’re both such splendid girls but -neither one of them will be the first to make an apology. They’re very -childish, aren’t they?” - -“It’s just a misunderstanding,” explained Betty. “I can tell you. It -was all because Mary made a joke and Laura thought it was a personal -one. Mary said ‘_die, der, der, die_ and _das, des, dem, das_.’ Laura -thought she said something about her to me. Mary wouldn’t let me -explain. She said if Laura thought that, she’d have to find out what -the words meant herself.” - -“What sillies!” declared Miss Allen. “I suppose they’ll keep this up -eternally. I’ve tried all manner of ways to stop it; have you anything -to suggest, Betty?” - -Betty pondered. “I was wondering,” she mused, “whether if you counted -three and told them both to speak when you came to that, they’d speak?” - -“I never thought of that,” laughed Miss Allen. “We’ll try it.” - -Next day, she did. She made both of the girls stand and she told each -one to say, “I’m sorry” when she counted three and came to the end. It -really was a disgrace to the class to have the quarrel go on and on. -The girls thought it horrid. But when Miss Allen said, “Three,” all was -silence. The two stood up in the class and neither said a word! The -plan did not work! “Speak!” ordered Miss Allen--but there was nothing -but silence. - -But Miss Allen was not going to give up, “Mary,” said she, “you may -decline for me the feminine and neuter of the definite article in -German.” - -Mary looked surprised but she said it, “‘_die, der, der, die, das, des, -dem, das_.’” - -“Did you ever hear anything like that before?” asked Miss Allen of -Betty Peters. - -“Yes,” replied Betty. - -“Did you?” asked Miss Allen of Laura. - -Laura said she thought so. - -“Was that what Mary said on the memorable day when she came out of -German class?” - -“I think so,” replied Laura, a little ashamed. - -“Was it, Mary?” - -“Yes,” said Mary, loudly. She was glad to say it, too. Some of the -girls giggled. - -“Take out your English books for grammar, oral,” commanded Miss Allen. -“Betty Peters, you may conjugate the verb ‘to love.’” - -So Betty began: “Present tense, indicative mood: I love; thou lovest; -he loves; we love; you love,” and then with her eyes upon Mary and -Laura she ended, “they love.” - -Everybody in the class laughed for there was Laura with her arm around -Mary and both of them were laughing and crying, too. - -“Buttinski did it,” smiled Miss Allen. “I hope nobody else in this -class will have a quarrel. Now, we’re going to forget that there ever -was such a thing, aren’t we, Laura and Mary?” - -Together they both said, “Yes, I’m sorry!” - - - - -_Angelina’s Bird-Flower_ - - -THE APRIL SURPRISE - -_Marjorie’s surprise for April was, first, a fluffy Easter chicken -card. The Easter story pocket was another story about Angelina. The -pocket said:_ - - “_Open on the afternoon of Easter Day at four o’clock._” - -_The two little girls let Mother read it aloud to them. It was called -“Angelina’s Bird-Flower.”_ - - - - -_VI_ - -_Angelina’s Bird-Flower_ - - -Where the little brown bird came from, neither Maria nor Louisa nor -Angelina knew, but he doubtless lived near, for he came every day to -the window of the old brown house where the little Italian girls lived, -lonely without their mother. It was a year since she had died and the -days were long for Maria, Louisa and Angelina after their father left -for work at six in the morning. - -Maria was always up at five. In the early winter, mornings are dark -and it takes courage to get up in a cold room and light the lamp and -make the fire and cook breakfast. Maria was but twelve. She took her -mother’s place as best she could. She helped her father. She tended -Louisa and Angelina and if it had not been that the aunts took the two -babies, she would have cared for them gladly too. - -Angelina and Louisa were, for the time, Maria’s “babies.” She let them -play and she did the work herself. She had little time for amusement; -it was always either school or housekeeping for her. There was -breakfast and clearing up in the morning; washing and cleaning after -school; dinner-getting and cleaning again at night, beside a hundred -and one little things that a mother must see to, mending, tidying, -straightening all things. At seven, the father came home tired. Then -there was bed in the cold rooms and a new day of responsibility. Louisa -and Angelina wore washed and ironed hair-ribbons and well done-up -gingham dresses, mended as best Maria could. They took off their shoes -and stockings when at home, to save the wear, and did in general as -Maria told them except for the little brown bird. They would save their -crusts for him in spite of Maria’s scoldings. - -He came first on one of the lonely mornings before school time, when -Maria was busy with housework and Louisa and Angelina were thawing the -frosted window pane with their warm breath to look out at the chilly -snow-bound road that led past the old brown house. Louisa had thrown -out a crust because she had not wanted to eat it and there--why, there -was a little brown bird tugging at it in the snow! - -“What’re you two laughing at so?” demanded Maria, looking up from -dishwashing. “Take a-hold somebody and help here! I can’t take time to -stand by the window an’ laugh at nothing when there’s work to be done!” -But, dish-rag in hand, curiosity got the better of scolding and she -peeped over Louisa’s shoulder and saw the little brown bird and his -breakfast. - -At first she smiled, too, then she frowned. “Louisa,” said she, “you -are bad. It is you who threw out the crust of bread!” - -There was no denial. - -“And when bread costs money--and we cannot get enough to buy Angelina -new shoes!” - -“I would rather the bird had the crust,” defended Angelina. “The holes -are not yet very big.” - -But even as mother would have done, Maria watched the family purse, -and Louisa ate crusts under her elder sister’s vigilant eye each meal -time. But there were always very big crumbs at Angelina’s plate and -medium sized ones at Louisa’s. When it came time to clear the table, -Louisa and Angelina, with a glance at each other, picked these up -quickly and threw them out on the snow. It was exciting. Nobody knew -when Maria would call either little sister to account: “Louisa, give me -those crumbs. I will save them and make a pudding.” Always there seemed -to be breakfast for the little brown bird in spite of this. He came -regularly. Sometimes Louisa and Angelina had to pick the crumbs from -the coal-hod where Maria’s over hasty housekeeping threw little ones; -but always, always, always, they kept watch for the little brown bird. -And the mornings before school time were less lonely because of his -cheer. Indeed, as the days went by, he became very tame--tame enough to -hop close to the pane as Louisa and Angelina breathlessly watched. - -The mornings gradually grew lighter and the days passed on to the -latter part of February. Louisa and Angelina talked much of their pet. -Where did the little brown bird live? Could they make him so tame he -would come upon their hands? Would he learn to eat from their fingers? -Perhaps there might be a nest with little bits of brown birds somewhere -near the house next spring! Then, Angelina and Louisa might tame -these perhaps! Maria, busy with housework, had no time to answer such -questions. She merely sniffed. - -“You two are forever talking about that little brown bird,” she said, -“I have to think of other things: I think whether there is wood for the -fire and whether there is enough food in the house. You, too, Louisa -and Angelina, you have mouths to feed!” - -It was true. There was not always enough. Louisa and Angelina knew -it. They could well understand the little brown bird’s joy at finding -plenty to eat. It was good to have a hearty meal. Then one day, before -it was time to go to school, Louisa and Angelina missed the little -brown bird! “Did you see him this morning?” they asked each other. -“Maybe he has gone away and is making a nest.” - -But the next day came and no little brown bird appeared. Another -morning passed and still no little brown bird! On their way home -from school that day Louisa whispered to Angelina that she was going -to hunt for him. And when Maria was busy, they crept out of the door -and, barefoot in the cold mud, they searched for nests by the roadside -bushes. - -They found none. - -The search led them hither and thither on and on up the hill near the -brown house and toward a cluster of cottages where the Irish immigrants -had formed a colony. Maria, shaking her finger violently, as she did -when she wished to enforce a command, insisted always that neither -Angelina nor Louisa should make friends or play with the Irish children -there. “They throw stones--they are badly brought up,” she declared. - -Up to this time, good little Angelina and Louisa had never come so -close to these other tenements. But they wandered closer in their -search for the little brown bird. It was Angelina who first spoke to -the little boys that they met flinging stones there. “Have you seen a -little brown bird?” she asked. “It might be our little bird that we -have lost. Have you seen one anywhere, perhaps?” - -But the little boys simply made up faces and stuck out their tongues. -No, they had not seen any brown birds to tell of--nor did they care. -They would have thrown stones, had not a little smile from Angelina -prevented it. Angelina felt sorry for the bad little boys who were rude. - -Louisa drew her away. “Come, Ange, we will look in another place,” she -urged. “If he has been hurt we will find him, maybe. I do not think -they have hurt him,” she comforted. But in her heart she feared it. - -So they pattered back toward home through the black chilly mud, -searching the roadside. Quite suddenly Louisa came upon him lying limp -and cold under a tree by the way. He would never twitter or chirp -again. He would never come to the window or eat from their fingers -or build a nest in spring. The two little sisters sat there by the -roadside and cried and then they carried the little brown bird home and -cried some more. Maria stopped her work and tried to be comforting. -There was little to say. She did not scold very hard about the trip -abroad in bare feet. - -They put him in the beautiful box that was Maria’s treasure--a box with -a picture on its cover, a beautiful picture all red roses. They took -him to a sunny spot near the roadside and gathered last autumn’s leaves -to cover him. One could see the place from the window. - -The mornings that came after the little brown bird went away, Ange and -Louisa tried to enthuse over paper dolls that father had brought them, -cut from a Sunday newspaper--but somehow they always drifted toward the -window, even though they knew he would never come again. - -And so time passed, long mornings, school and home-coming. It began to -be spring. Grass came by the roadside bushes that showed wee buds to -break into soft colors. Maria left the kitchen door open of a morning -and Angelina sat on the stone before the doorway, thinking. Her eyes -rested for a moment upon the place where they had placed the little -brown bird under the leaves. She called to Louisa, “Oh, come--come! -Let us see what the bird-flower is! We put him under the leaves in the -earth, and there is grown from him a flower! It is a bird-flower--a -bird-flower, Louisa!” - -They ran out to look at the little flower that grew over the spot where -the little brown bird had been. “Is it so, Ange?” asked Louisa, willing -to believe. - -Full of excitement, they ran back to busy Maria. “Our little brown bird -is grown to be a bird-flower,” they cried. “Come, Maria, come quickly -and see! It is such a pretty flower, all like a star and white!” - -Maria shook her head. “There are no bird-flowers,” she declared. But -she followed them out to the sunny spot where the grass was growing -green over the dead leaves and she thought it a beautiful flower. She -let Louisa and Angelina talk of their bird-flower, but she smiled to -herself. - -But why should not little birds who have been stoned waken, with the -flowers, in the spring sunlight? Louisa and Angelina believed in their -bird-flower and they wondered, too, if all spring flowers came from -little birds. At night when their father came home, they asked him. At -first he laughed and did not understand. Maria explained. - -“They are children,” she smiled, “and they think a bird is like a bulb -or seed. They cannot understand the difference. They watched the little -brown bird all winter, and Louisa gave it crusts that she ought to -have eaten. And they found it by the roadside where the rude children -up the hill had killed it. We put the little bird under the leaves -there and now that a flower has come in the place, they call it their -bird-flower, father!” - -Then he put a hand on each little head. “My little girls,” he said, “is -it true--then call it your bird-flower if it comforts you. I will tell -you what I think: they say that there are no little birds in heaven, -for their souls do not live, they say. Yet I know there are children up -there and that wherever the children are there must be birds to sing -to them--even the angel children would want them. And I know that your -mother would miss them, too, were they not there.” - -In the stillness they heard a song sparrow trill from the bushes on the -hillside. - -“I would like to have our little brown bird sing to our mother,” -Angelina suggested softly. - -“He might sing of us,” whispered Louisa. - -But Maria was still. - -“There are many birds left, my children. You too should sing and not be -sad, for that is what is best. We will make happiness and brightness, -you, my Angelina, and you, my Louisa. We will make a garden there in -the place where you have found your star flower! I will get seeds. We -will take Maria from her kitchen to help and there will be plenty to do -in the early mornings before school then. Such weeds as you will have -to watch for, to care for the beautiful flowers that I will plant! Ah, -then your mornings will be so glad among the flowers!” - -The three little girls smiled. - -And the garden that grew up around Ange’s bird-flower all three of them -called the garden of the little brown bird. - - - - -_Marjorie’s Mystery_ - - -_THE MAY SURPRISE_ - -_Marjorie’s May surprise was a paper May basket, of course. You know -all about that. And the story pocket that came in May, Dotty had -labelled:_ - - “_Open on May Day, too._” - -_Marjorie opened it right after the first pocket, but she had to keep -the story till afternoon to read. She read it to Dotty after they -came home. “I chose it because the little girl in the story was named -after you,” smiled Dot. And so they had the funny story of “Marjorie’s -Mystery.”_ - - - - -_VII_ - -_Marjorie’s Mystery_ - - -Upon Marjorie’s list of good resolutions, not-to-be-too-curious was a -failing hard to remember and conquer. In the first place, Marjorie was -very wide awake. She always saw everything that was happening. In the -second place and in the third place as well as the tenth and thirteenth -place, Marjorie couldn’t bear not to know everything that she wanted to -know. Sometimes, she went quite too far in her attempts to find out. At -any rate, Daddy and Mother and Mark and Dotty made fun of the failing -and Marjorie, when she stopped to think twice--which wasn’t so very -often--tried hard to overcome unnecessary curiosity. Sometimes it is a -fine thing to be curious and again, it’s bad. But upon a very memorable -day in May, once upon a time, something mysterious came to pass at -Marjorie’s home and this is to be the story of The Great Mystery of -Curiosity, Unanswered. - -It happened this way: Daddy was away; Mark had gone off since Friday to -make a visit at a boy friend’s just out of town a little way; Dotty had -also gone away. She spent the night with the little girl next door and -had not yet come home. It was a Monday morning and May Day. - -Marjorie had prepared a May Day basket for her special friend, Mabel. -She had been out in the woods on Sunday afternoon and as soon as she -was through breakfast, the bowl of May Day flowers came out--and in -arranging them they scattered all over the floor as Marjorie selected -the unwilted ones to put into Mabel’s basket. - -“Look out,” warned Mother. “Somebody came last night when you were -abed. Somebody may be down to breakfast by and by--better pick up, -Marjorie! We don’t want a disorderly floor.” - -“Oh, did Daddy come home?” questioned Marjorie. - -“No, not Daddy.” - -“Who?” - -“Oh, just somebody who wants to keep quiet this morning and rest.” - -Wasn’t that enough to make a person curious! Of course it was! Who? Who -could it be? “Is it uncle or aunt?” she insisted. “Who’s ‘company’?” - -But Mother only smiled. “You’ll find out sometime,” she said. “Not now. -If I told you, you’d run right up to Mark’s room and the person who -came last night felt sick and mustn’t be disturbed.” - -Hump! The flowers were pushed into the paper May basket and she began -to pick up the leaves and buds that had fallen on the floor. “I think -you might tell me,” she begged. “I want to know who came.” - -But Marjorie got no answer. She knew it wasn’t much use to continue to -tease, but she resolved to find out who it was. - -At school the question still pursued Marjorie. Would Mark come home -and want his room and, if he did, would _he_ know who was there? After -school she dashed home and burst through the back door and up the back -stairs. Mark’s door was closed. There was a paper pinned upon it. It -was Mother’s writing and it said, “Please don’t disturb.” - -So Marjorie passed by the door. She went into Mother’s room and found -Mother sewing. “Isn’t company ever going to wake up?” she asked. “Am I -_never_ to know who is there?” - -But she received no answer only a smile. - -Dotty was home now. Dotty didn’t know who was in Mark’s room, but she -wasn’t curious about things. She was occupied in cutting out paper -dolls, sitting on the floor in the sun beside the window. - -“What happened at luncheon?” asked Marjorie of Dotty who went to -kindergarten and came home at noon. “Did anybody _talk_ in Mark’s room -when Mother took up the tray? Did you hear anything?” - -Dotty shook her head. - -Deary me! Oh, dear! And the door was _closed_! Marjorie decided to walk -by it again. She waited and she listened. She heard nothing at all--no, -not a sound, _not a sound_! Then the telephone bell rang and she ran -down to answer it. The telephone call was from Mabel. Mabel had been at -school and she wanted to know if Marjorie had solved the mystery. - -“Who came? Who is it?” she asked. - -But Marjorie did not know. Mabel suggested that it must be Marjorie’s -aunt who came from the West. “Probably that’s it,” she said. “Why don’t -you make a May basket and go tie it on the door and--and say something. -You could tell from the voice, if it answered you, whether it was your -aunt or not.” That was a good thought. Marjorie set about making a -paper May basket. She heard Mother go up the front stairs and cross -to the back where Mark’s door was. Then, having made the basket, she -decided to try Mabel’s suggestion. Mother went into Mark’s room, came -out and went downstairs again. Marjorie waited. - -Then she went upstairs softly. Mother was in the living-room with Dotty -now, playing and helping her cut the dolls out of a big magazine sheet. -They seemed occupied. - -May basket in hand, Marjorie tiptoed toward Mark’s door and saw that -the paper had been taken off it. She hung the May basket on the knob -and knocked. There was no answer. “May I come and bring you a May Day -gift?” she softly suggested to the closed door. - -But right here, _who should appear but Mother_! “I’ll take the basket -in for you, dear,” she smiled. Marjorie was quite aware of the wicked -twinkle in her eye. “Dotty wants you to help her downstairs,” she said. - -So downstairs went Marjorie. She stopped half way as Mother opened the -mysterious door and passed in with the May basket. She saw nothing. She -heard nothing. Now, wasn’t that just dreadful! Marjorie’s curiosity was -much bigger than ever but she went down to help darling little sister, -Dotty, cut paper dolls out of the fashion sheet. - -But while she cut for Dotty, she kept wondering and wondering and -_wondering_. She decided that she’d write a note upon some paper and -slip it under the door and say on the paper: - - Who are you, mysterious stranger? Please answer? Are you Auntie? - If you are Auntie, let me know, please. I want to see you. If you - are Mother’s friend, Miss Phelps, please tell me? Mother says you - want to be quiet, so I can’t come in, but I want to know who you - are--please, please put an answer under your door for me. - - MARJORIE. - -That was what she did do as soon as the last doll had been cut out. At -the time, Mother was busy in the kitchen, getting tea. Dotty was still -playing with the dolls. Marjorie slipped upstairs and tucked the paper -beneath the crack. As she came to the end of the paper, she gave it a -wiggle to attract attention. She hadn’t dared to speak again as Mother -said the mysterious person must not be troubled. - -As the paper disappeared under the door Mother appeared! She came -bringing a napkin and tray with something hot upon it. She was going to -take this into Mark’s room. - -“Marjorie,” she reproved. “Are you still so curious? Well, run away -now.” - -Marjorie waited in the hall and heard Mother speaking--but nothing -else! She was almost ashamed to pursue the mystery so openly but when -Mother at last came out bringing the tray and the empty dishes, she -laughingly handed Marjorie an answer to the letter. It said in strange -scrawls that betrayed nothing of who had written them: - - Please, I feel sick. You’ll see me sometime when I am better. I - just want to sleep now. - THE MYSTERIOUS MYSTERY. - -Marjorie laughed and then she frowned. Now, _why_ couldn’t that -person-whoever-it-was have signed a name! Why not! - -“How long before the person in Mark’s room will be well?” she asked. - -“Oh, soon,” replied Mother. “I hope very soon.” - -“What time? Will I know who it is by tea-time?” - -“Maybe.” - -“Oh, deary me!” Marjorie sighed. “Well, I’ve tried every way I can to -find out,” she said. “Perhaps I’d better forget about it. I’m going to -do my home-work for school so I can forget about it.” And she sat down -at the library table with pencil, paper and books. But still, nothing -happened! - -Then it grew twilight and the light was lit in the dining-room. -Marjorie rose and set the supper-table as usual. “How many places shall -I set, Mother?” she inquired. “I don’t really mean to be curious any -more--but you see, I must know. Mark will be home tonight and there -will be Daddy--he’ll be here--and there’s you and there’s me and, I -_suppose_ The Mystery will be down, will it?” - -“The Mystery will be down,” answered Mother, “but we’ll only need four -places.” - -But right here into the room came Mark. “Hello,” he greeted Marjorie. -“Say, that’s one on you for curiosity, Marj! But the May basket was a -peach! I’d have called to you only Mother said I mustn’t else you’d -be in and talk to me and I felt pretty sick, I tell you! I got sick -at Jimmie’s house and they telephoned home here the night I went away -after you were asleep. Mother thought I’d better come right home, if -I was going to be sick, so they sent me home late at night in their -car--it’s a joke on you, Marjorie. How about a Mysterious Stranger?” - -Mother laughed. And so, too, did Marjorie. - - - - -_The Two Little Bates Girls_ - - -_THE JUNE SURPRISE_ - -_The four-leaf clover that came in June’s first pocket was a pressed -four-leaf clover marked, “To help in examination time.” The story that -came in the other June pocket was “The Two Little Bates Girls” and it -was labelled:_ - - “_Read and open after your arithmetic examination is over._” - - - - -_VIII_ - -_The Two Little Bates Girls_ - - -They were not at all alike and they were not even sisters--those -two little Bates girls. One had curly light hair and the other had -bobbed-off black hair. One was slender and the other was plump. One had -blue eyes and the other had brown ones and both were as different as -different could be, though the names of both came upon Miss Kennedy’s -school roll one after the other; first Mamie and then Mary. - -Mary had light curls that bobbed in a lively way even in arithmetic -class, where everything was rather subdued by hard problems that Miss -Kennedy set. Mamie Bates had bobbed black hair that had a way of -falling over her forehead when she was bending over work--in brief, -Mary Bates was lively and Mamie Bates was not. Mamie Bates acknowledged -that arithmetic was about the hardest thing in school but Mary Bates -said it was easy, even though Miss Kennedy’s blue pencil went over her -paper and made big blue crosses that meant “Wrong” as often as they -crossed the papers of Mamie in the same way. - -It ought not to have been so. Nevertheless the first quarterly report -that Miss Kennedy made out for Mamie and Mary Bates ranked them side by -side--seventy-six percent! That’s not a high mark; Miss Kennedy shook -her head over both marks. It was surely nothing to be proud of! - -Mary Bates refused to show her report. - -Mamie Bates hung her head woefully and explained that she had tried the -best she knew how--which was right. Both of them decided to try even -harder next quarter. And they did try. Mamie Bates mounted up to eighty -percent, and in one examination, she achieved eighty-three! “Next -time,” urged Miss Kennedy, “see if you can’t make it eighty-five!” Mary -Bates did not tell her mark. It may have been that she was ashamed of -it or it may have been that she did not want to brag. Nobody knew which. - -But when Mamie Bates went home, she told her daddy all about that -eighty-three percent and her daddy smiled and said, “Well, if you’ll -make the next one ninety instead of eighty-five, and if you’ll keep all -the other marks above eighty-three after that, by the end of the next -quarter you shall have--What do you want most?” - -“A pony and a cart,” laughed Mamie. - -“A pony and a cart,” repeated daddy. “A real live pony and a basket -cart!” - -Hooray! Think of it! Think of it--a pony and a pony cart! That was the -way things stood with Mamie Bates during the last quarter of the year -in Miss Kennedy’s room. The black bobbed hair fell over her eyes more -industriously than ever as she bent over her problems in arithmetic. In -the margins of Mamie Bates’s examination and test papers each Friday -there began to appear such delectable written words as, “Well done, -Mamie.” But the big blue crosses didn’t quite disappear--oh, no! - -Mary Bates continued to keep her marks to herself. Very rarely did she -show any. Those that she did show weren’t so bad as some of the other -girls’ papers. But there never seemed to be “Well done, Mary,” on any -one of them. Even though there was nothing of this kind, Mary Bates -seemed contented with them. She said she had received ninety-five in -deportment and that was about the best mark that anybody could ever -receive. Miss Kennedy would never give a higher deportment mark. Even -Sallie Roberts who was noted throughout the whole class room for being -“awfully good” never received a higher mark than ninety-five--but then, -only the very bad scholars received less. Mary Bates also said that she -had a splendid report in spelling. She didn’t say what, but everybody -knew that she could spell. So could Mamie. - -And so the time went by each week nearer and nearer to Mamie Bates’s -excited anticipation of that pony! The marks, so far, had been all -right. Daddy would have to keep the promise! Toward the end of the -quarter every girl in the class was wondering if she were going to pass -herself. It all depended upon the final tests. Even Mary Bates admitted -that she was a little shaky but not much. She thought she knew it all. - -Mercy! How Miss Kennedy’s class did drill! Over the old, old stumbling -blocks they went with long pieces of yellow scratch paper. It did -seem as if everybody must pass the arithmetic test! Then the week of -examinations came and with it the worst dreaded of all, _arithmetic -examination_! - -Over this, Mary Bates shook her curls soberly. Mamie Bates struggled -with black hair falling over her forehead. And then the time was up and -papers had to be handed in. Mamie Bates gave in her paper reluctantly. -Her cheeks were flushed. As soon as it had gone, she asked if she might -look at it again, just for a minute. Miss Kennedy smiled. She didn’t -let her. “Time’s up, Mamie,” she admonished. “What’s done must stay--it -isn’t fair to the rest, you know.” - -“Yes, I know,” returned Mamie, “but you see the pony and pony cart -depend upon it. The others aren’t working for so much.” But Miss -Kennedy passed on. Everybody in the class knew of daddy’s promise and -hoped Mamie would win that percent in her arithmetic--everybody. - -Mary Bates brought her paper to Miss Kennedy’s desk without even -waiting for it to be collected. “I’m sure I got everything right,” she -chirped. “It was easy! I think I’ll get ninety-five! There’s only one -thing that might be wrong.” - -Sallie Overton nudged her neighbor. “I don’t believe it,” she -whispered. “She always thinks that she knows everything. I think it was -hard, don’t you?” - -Oh, dear! Everybody seemed depressed as they left for home that -afternoon--everybody but Mary Bates who was _quite_ sure of herself -always. Everybody compared notes with everybody else on the way home -but nobody seemed sure. One had to wait till the reports came in. It -was dreadful to wait--at least dreadful for little Mamie Bates who -was thinking about daddy’s promise and the pony. One always made more -mistakes than one knew of, somehow, yet she had tried ever so hard. She -hoped she was right. She had tried not to get excited. She had tried -to stop and think over rules and she thought she ought to have done -something she hadn’t done, of course. It was fearfully hard to wait -till Monday. On Monday the report cards were to be given out. Almost -everybody was expecting some kind of a surprise that day, but the -surprise that Miss Kennedy’s class anticipated was one of percents, not -of teachers. When the class assembled, there in Miss Kennedy’s chair -and right at her desk making out the report cards sat--a substitute -teacher! She would tell nobody what the marks were and she just -snapped. Really, Miss Kennedy would have told Mamie Bates, at least. -_She_ knew about the pony. But the substitute teacher only said that -there was no hurry, they’d know fast enough. She didn’t like to be -asked questions at all. She said Miss Kennedy might not come back at -all--no, of course not! Why should she? (At this everybody looked more -worried than ever. All the class loved Miss Kennedy. Sallie Overton had -openly said that she didn’t want to pass because if she did, next year, -she’d have to leave Miss Kennedy’s room.) But at the end of the study -period, before being finally dismissed, the report cards were given -out, _at last_! - -Mamie Bates grasped hers. She hardly dared to look, but when she -did, tears sprang to her eyes and she had to shake the brown bobbed -hair over them. There it was _seventy-six percent_! The schoolroom -blurred--only seventy-six percent! And how hard she had tried to please -daddy--and how she did want that pony! Yet all hope was gone now -because the final mark had fallen below! Mechanically she stood to be -dismissed. Mechanically she went to the cloak room, and mechanically -she walked toward home. - -Seventy-six--not even eighty-three! And the pony--the pony! - -Daddy didn’t ask about reports. Mamie Bates decided to wait and give -the bad news out when she herself was a little more used to it. Perhaps -next day, she could do it. Of course, seventy-six would promote one -into the next grade, but it wouldn’t give the pony! If Miss Kennedy -had been there, she would have explained to Mamie Bates all about her -mistakes, but the substitute kept the papers. She didn’t seem to think -much of anybody’s mark--but substitutes never do seem to care. Mamie -hoped Miss Kennedy would come back next day. She’d explain everything. - -And the next day, sure enough, there was Miss Kennedy at her desk, -smiling. As Mamie came in and passed her, she smiled. “Mamie,” she -smiled, “I’m glad about your arithmetic. Are you?” - -Mamie hung her head. “It wasn’t good, Miss Kennedy,” she stated, trying -hard not to cry. “I thought I was doing it right but I must have been -careless. I really knew about everything!” - -“Let’s see your paper,” asked Miss Kennedy--but the substitute had the -paper. Miss Kennedy didn’t know of any very bad trouble. “Let’s see -your card, then,” she asked. - -Mamie took it out of her book where it was hidden, unsigned as yet by -daddy. “It’s too bad,” she sighed. “There can’t be any pony at all now!” - -“No pony? Why not?” And then Miss Kennedy saw the seventy-six percent -upon the report card! “Why, why, Mamie Bates!” exclaimed Miss Kennedy. -“Your mark is ninety-six, not seventy-six! I’ve just seen it in the -teacher’s book. That must be a mistake! Wait a minute and I’ll see.” -Off she dashed to get the examination papers in the next room. Mamie -Bates’s heart went pit-pat. She was sure Miss Kennedy was right--oh, -_the pony_! - -Yes, of course, it was a mistake--a mistake made by the substitute. She -had mixed the marks of the two little Bates girls, who were no more -alike than their arithmetic marks! - -Mary Bates said she didn’t care so long as she passed, so perhaps the -change of her mark didn’t matter so much. It was really Mamie Bates who -had worked hardest, anyhow. - -But the really lovely thing that happened, happened at the close of -school that day. When Mamie Bates came out of school, there was a pony -and a pony cart waiting by the curb and daddy was in the cart! He--how -did _he_ know about the arithmetic reports being all right? But it -didn’t take Mamie Bates long to claim the pony! She wanted to know if -he had a name and when daddy said he didn’t think so, he was called -Arithmetic right then and there. Miss Kennedy came out to see him and -had the first ride behind him. - - - - -_Arne’s Fourth of July Battle_ - - -_THE JULY SURPRISE_ - -_The July pocket that came first was opened on July third at noon. It -held a wee American flag. The story pocket came later and it held a -Fourth of July story. They read it sitting in the hammock on the porch. -It was called, “Arne’s Fourth of July Battle.”_ - - - - -_IX_ - -_Arne’s Fourth of July Battle_ - - -Arne drove the white horse, Christopher, into Danville every morning -to take the milk to the creamery. He started from the farm as soon as -the milk was in the cans, just as Lyman or Leslie--whichever it might -happen to be--took the cows to the wood pasture. It was a long drive -over the Prairie Road into Danville Creamery. Most usually it was -uneventful. And every day, now that the last of June had come, grew -warmer and warmer. Some days it was decidedly hot on the Prairie Road, -even though Arne and Christopher started so early of a morning. - -There were almost always errands to do in Danville, after having been -to the creamery. Afterwards, Arne and Christopher had to hurry back -to the farm because there was work to do there, too. The men needed -Christopher in the fields, and Arne, too. There never was any time to -idle along the road. It seemed to Arne that work never ended. He wanted -some fun--that’s what he wanted. The other boys didn’t have to work all -the time in summer--but then, it wasn’t all of them that owned thrift -cards. Arne did. He already had earned ten stamps. When he thought of -that, then he was rather glad he had the work to do for his father. -His father gave him a thrift stamp every week that work was well and -satisfactorily done--and without shirking. So far, Arne had only missed -getting his stamp once. That was when he slipped off one day to go to -the swimming-hole with Jimmy Smith when he was supposed to be working -in the hay-field, raking. That was last week. - -As Arne reflected upon these things and Christopher jogged into -Danville that day that was the very last day of June, he slapped the -reins and decided that he would lose no more thrift stamps. He wore his -knot of red, white and blue ribbon pinned on his blue shirt and he was -“doing his bit” quite as much as anybody, even though the other boys -did have more chance to have fun. Then he looked up and saw--the circus -poster! - -Right then and there, he stopped Christopher and sat gazing at it. The -circus was coming to Danville on the Fourth of July--twenty-five cents -admission. The picture showed all manner of lovely ladies dancing on -the backs of black horses. It showed elephants that played hoop; it -pictured funny clowns and monkeys riding dogs--in short, everything -that a circus ought to be seemed suggested by the big circus poster. -“I’m a-goin’,” Arne resolved aloud. “Sure, I’m a-goin’ to it, somehow!” -Then he clucked to Christopher and the wagon rattled onward toward -the creamery. Just that one afternoon was the circus coming. It was a -splendid kind of Fourth of July treat. “I guess my father’ll let me -go,” he mused. “I guess so.” - -When he reached Danville, all the lads who were waiting for cans to be -emptied had gathered in a knot near the creamery door. Everybody was -talking about the circus. Everybody was going. - -Harold Sniffin’s cans were ready first. He and Arne came the same road -so he waited to go home with him. They tied Christopher to the back of -Harold’s cart and the two sat together and talked as they rode home -over the Prairie Road. Harold’s father let _him_ buy his own thrift -stamps. Harold was going without his weekly stamp and was going to buy -his circus ticket with the twenty-five cents. As Arne had no money, -Harold suggested this method of getting a ticket. Fourth of July did -not always bring a circus. This year there had been no spring circus at -all. Circuses couldn’t travel well on account of the railroads needing -the cars now. This circus, it seemed, had gone from town to town upon -its own feet and in its own circus wagons. - -They had decided to go together and start early when the road of -Harold’s turning came. Then they unhitched Christopher and Arne whipped -up and came clattering into the red barn at home. “There’s a circus -coming to Danville on the Fourth,” he laughed. “Guess that’s a fine -way to celebrate a _Safe an’ Sane_ day!” - -Only four more days to wait! Hooray! All that afternoon, Arne sang -happily as he ran around the farm doing chores. He reflected, as -he hoed his patch late in the afternoon, that farm work was really -patriotic work and that he, right there hoeing, was doing his bit as -much as if he were buying a thrift stamp. Of course he was! - -That night when he was coming from the barn, after having fed the -calves their bran mixture, he met his father. He explained about the -circus. He wanted the money instead of the stamp, he said. - -“All right,” said father. There the matter dropped. He did not ask -about the circus at all. - -But Arne talked a great deal about it to his mother. He talked about it -to Lyman and Leslie, who were helpers at the farm. When it was dark and -chores were done, he sat on the flat stone at the doorstep and watched -the stars come out while he thought about it some more--only four more -days! - -The morning of the first of July, Christopher trotted into Danville at -a pretty rapid pace. Indeed, he was rather white around the collar -when they at last reached the circus poster on the road to Danville. -But he earned his rest, for there Arne stopped and gazed at all the -wonderful things. The circus poster promised many, many more than were -pictured there. It said a thousand thrills would be felt by everyone -who witnessed the daring tight-rope walking. It spoke of the Wild West -and Indians that were a feature of the performance. It was only a big -poster but one felt after looking at it, that one could hardly wait -three days more before the Fourth should come! And going home from -Danville, Arne again sat beside Harold while Christopher jogged behind. -Again they talked. Again they planned. Again they undid Christopher -from the rear of Harold’s cart. Again at the crossroads, they parted -till the morrow. And again on the morrow, the very same thing occurred. - -Only one day more before the Fourth! In the country few have -firecrackers. Arne was thinking chiefly about that circus. He and -Harold planned to go in time to see the parade in the morning. Only one -day more-- - -Then the next day it rained. It rained unexpectedly in the afternoon -when the hay was all ready to pitch. They had to hurry out, even in -the rain, and stack it. Arne went with the others. He was wet through -when he came in but his spirits were undampened by the shower. Only -one night more--and then, Fourth of July and circus! Hooray! Hooray! -Hooray! Tomorrow! _Tomorrow!_ - -After he had fixed the bran mixture for the calves that night, Arne -hung around the barn where Lyman and Leslie were milking. He liked to -hear them talk and joke together. Tonight, he himself felt that there -was only one big subject of conversation and he broached this as he -came through with the empty pails that had held the calves’ supper. -“I’m goin’ to the Danville circus tomorrow,” he chirped. “Be you goin’ -too?” - -“You’re lucky, kid,” replied Leslie. “How’d you get the money?” - -“My week’s wages,” answered Arne. “The thrift stamp money.” When -he said it, somehow, it sounded queer. It sounded--yes, it sounded -unpatriotic. But Arne felt it only a second. He lifted himself with a -jump to the side of the hay-cart that stood near-by and dangled his -bare feet from denim overalls, “I’m goin’ with Harold,” he amplified. -“We’re goin’ to hitch by the creamery an’ see the parade.” He swung his -legs and whistled. The tune was _The Star-Spangled Banner_. - -“I used to think more of firecrackers an’ that kind of thing when I was -a kid,” said Leslie. “But I guess all them firecracker jiggers went -over the other side when the war come. ’Tain’t patriotic to spend money -for ’em now, these days. There’ll be bangin’ enough to suit everybody -this July Fourth, I reckon, without firecrackers. We’re fightin’ for -freedom in the same old way but our firecrackers are bigger’n they used -to be an’ it takes our boys in the trenches to handle ’em. Just as soon -as I’m old enough, I’m goin’ over there to help, I am!” - -“Me too,” said Lyman. “It’s all right doin’ one’s bit here on a farm -but I’m goin’ to help ’em win the war!” - -Leslie laughed. “Sounds as if you was goin’ to do the whole of it,” he -chuckled. - -Arne laughed. “Wish I could go, too,” he smiled. “I’d like it--oh, -I’d like to be in a big battle an’ hear the noise an’ see the guns an’ -get right at the enemy an’ plant a flag where it’d wave for victory! -_It’d be great!_ I’d rather fight in this war than any other that ever -was--more’n Bunker Hill or Lexington, I would.” He stopped. Across his -mind there flashed the phrase he had so often seen, “Help win the war.” -It was on so many posters that the government used, and weren’t the -thrift stamps helping to win the war? Surely they were! - -Lyman broke in upon these thoughts. “You couldn’t go for a long time, -kid,” he teased. “You’re just a colt. You don’t have to work in the -field a-gettin’ that hay fixed tomorrow! There’s circuses for you yet. -It’s work for us men, though, double-time work, too. We’ll be doin’ -our bit in the field on Fourth of July. It mayn’t seem glorious as a -celebration but it’s all we can do till we’re at camp for trainin’.” - -No circus for Lyman and Leslie! Work in the field on Fourth of July! -Arne stopped swinging his feet and looked thoughtful. Maybe he wasn’t -living up to the colors, after all! How about the money for that thrift -stamp? Suppose every boy and girl should buy a circus ticket instead -of a thrift stamp--how about Uncle Sam’s helping to win the war with -that money? - -Nobody knew that there was a battle going on. Nobody heard it. Nobody -saw it. The battle was between Uncle Sam’s need and Arne’s love of fun. -It was a hot battle. Sometimes it went a little in favor of Arne’s love -of fun and then, again, it came back to Uncle Sam’s need. Arne slid -down from the hay-wagon quietly and slipped off to the house. He was -quiet at supper time. At sunset, he went out to take in the flag. It -always waved from the white flag-pole in front of the house. As the -colors touched his hands, Arne knew which had won. It was Uncle Sam, of -course! - -He jogged into Danville creamery on the morning of the Fourth of July -with Christopher’s reins flapping hard as they passed by the big -poster. He met Harold. He told him. “I guess this year I won’t go to -the circus, after all,” he explained. “I want to help Uncle Sam win -this war--’tain’t much I can do but I _can_ give the money for the -stamp.” - -And when he rattled into the big red barn afterwards, he was whistling -_The Star Spangled Banner_. “I’ll bet we win this war!” he shouted to -Lyman who was bringing in a load of hay. “I’m goin’ to work with you -men today--I’m not a-goin’ to any kid circus, I ain’t!” - - - - -_The Blackberry Adventure_ - - -_THE AUGUST SURPRISE_ - -_Ever since the Surprise Book had come to Marjorie, she had been -wondering what was in that first very lumpy big pocket that was marked -for August first. She had felt of it repeatedly and guessed all manner -of things that Dotty said weren’t at all right. Indeed, it would have -been hard to guess for Dotty had put the first August surprise into a -flat box. When the box was opened, there lay a bright penny. Whoever -would have guessed it! That was a splendid surprise! The August story -was directed to be opened_ - - “_On a warm summer afternoon._” - -_As there were no other directions, Marjorie opened it upon the first -of August. That truly was a hot day--a day to make one wish to sit -still and read of the happy adventures of the little girls who went -berrying in “The Blackberry Adventure.”_ - - - - -_X_ - -_The Blackberry Adventure_ - - -They came upon the old house one day when they were out blackberrying -in vacation time. It was the kind of house that people used to build -long ago. It had a long, sloping roof behind and the roof ran down -almost to the ground. The house was very weather-beaten and out of -repair. It looked battered and forlorn. Of course, it had long been -deserted. Weeds grew rank in its front yard. It was far away from any -neighbors. Solita and Sue had wandered far from the village. They -hardly knew just how they had reached the place where so many berries -grew, but they knew it was far from where they were boarding that -summer. - -Nobody seemed to have lived in the house for ever so long. Creepers -covered the fence and what was once a roadway, leading toward the -rear, was all overgrown. There were blackberry bushes thick everywhere. - -At first Solita and Sue didn’t think much about the house, though it -was rather a surprise to have come upon it suddenly. They had explored -the different roads in the country near White Farm but never a deserted -house had they found yet. At first both Solita and Sue did not observe -it because they were all-absorbed in berry-picking. It was wonderful -how fast the pails filled up with big, juicy, ripe fruit! - -Solita had her pail full and was picking more berries to fill her -white canvas hat. She didn’t stop to think that the berries would ruin -it--she just wanted to get as many berries as possible! The hat was all -she had to use. Sue was racing with her and her basket was nearly full. -There must have been at least three quarts. It was much more roomy than -the tin pail or Solita’s hat. - -The rest of the children who had started from White Farm with Sue -and Solita were lagging along the roadside in the rear. Just how far -away they were, the two leaders did not bother to consider. There was -Albert, the baby, and he was bound to go slowly with Matilda. Probably -some of the children were just fooling in the brook or sitting by the -wayside. It was not everybody who was as energetic as Sue and Solita -that hot day! - -So Solita and Sue, proud to outdo all the others, picked fast and -furiously and did not stop. Step by step they had progressed to this -wonderful, wonderful berry patch beside the old house. All of a sudden, -Solita shouted, “I’ve won!” She made her way with difficulty through -the tangle, holding her hat, piled high. The tin pail hung upon her arm -and dropped berries at every step. - -“Let’s see?” Sue questioned. “I don’t believe it; you come here an’ -we’ll compare.” - -So the two floundered around in the high growth of weeds and made for -the first clear space that there seemed to be. They met at the stone -doorstep of the old house and put their load of berries down there upon -its broad, flat tableland. - -My! But they were a sight! Solita’s pink gingham dress was torn in -several places and her arms were a sight to behold--all red scratches. -Her fingers were stained and grimy and her cap, too, was a sight. As -for Sue, her green chambray was purple with berry juice, although she -seemed to have escaped the rents from thorny creepers. But the two were -happy and they didn’t care much how they looked. They simply dumped all -the berries on the doorstep and compared the two piles. These seemed -even, so the two thought they would rest for a while and then start -back to tell the lagging children behind and urge them to hurry up. - -But Solita decided that it was no use to go away back on the road to -call the others. They might be a mile or more back, she said. “No, -don’t let’s do that! Let’s try to pick all there are and then go home -and surprise everybody.” - -“But, Solita,” Sue suggested, “we haven’t anything to put all the -berries in. How could we do that?” - -“I could gather up my skirt,” Solita volunteered. “We could pick into -that. It’s already all ruined so I don’t mind using it--it’s an old -last year’s frock.” - -“Mercy me, Solita! What would your mother say to that!” Sue exclaimed, -aghast. “The very idea! No, we’ll have to find something else.” - -“Do you suppose there’d be anything to hold them if we were to look -around here?” questioned Solita. “Maybe we might find something--an old -pail or cooking pan that has been thrown away.” - -“There might be something inside the house,” Sue mused. “That’s very -likely, but I don’t know if we could get in or not. We can try. I’m -going to push the door. Do you suppose we can get in?” They had prowled -around the house to what must have been the back door. But that back -door wouldn’t give at all. It was tight. - -The windows seemed shut fast, too. Sue said it made her feel like a -burglar to try them, but since the house had been without a tenant for -so long, of course it was not burglaring, she said. - -After they had investigated many nooks and found nothing in the near-by -shed, either, Solita suggested that they try the front door. “People -always leave things behind when they move,” she declared. “I’m sure, -if we could get in, we’d find a box or a pan or a basket. Even an old -sack might answer--anything that is like a bag could be used.” - -But when the two came to the front doorstone where the two big piles of -berries lay, Solita sat down on one side and did not try the door. - -“You open the door, Sue,” she said. - -“No, _you_ try it!” - -“You’re afraid something will jump out at you!” - -“No I’m not!” retorted Sue. “What’s there to be afraid of, anyway?” - -“I don’t know,” said Solita. “But it’s kind of spooky, I think. Let’s -go home.” But with that Solita rose and pretended to try the door. She -didn’t push it at all. - -“Oh, I can get it open! You’re not pushing,” Sue exclaimed. “We’ll do -it together. You turn and I’ll push--what’s the use of backing down? -Let’s go in.” So the two together pushed and pulled and the door -suddenly yielded. Its latch must have been very old and rusty indeed! - -The opening of the door came as a real surprise, and it swung back -against the wall inside the house with a loud bang that echoed through -all the lonely darkness of the hallway. There was only a little light -that came from the slats of broken blinds here and there in the open -room that was just off the hall. - -Sue took the lead. Solita followed, ready to run back at any minute. -It was certainly an adventure, this entering in upon the solitude of -that deserted house, long closed. “I don’t think it’s at all nice to go -into people’s houses while they’re away,” she urged. “I’m going back. -I think we ought not to have come in here at all--it’s ever so dark. I -can’t see anything--Where’re you, Sue?” - -“I’m not a scare-cat,” replied Sue. “You were the one who wanted to -find the basket for the berries. Come ahead! It isn’t dark--this is -lots of fun!” - -“I’m going to use my dress, anyhow,” protested Solita. “I don’t want -any basket.” But for the sake of company chiefly, perhaps, she followed -Sue, who was investigating the empty house. Here and there she poked -under dusty furniture and into old, vacant closets. There seemed to be -no basket--not even an old box or tin pan, rusty from disuse. “Come -ahead, Solita,” she kept saying. “Nobody’s going to eat you up. -If anybody comes for such a purpose, they can begin and eat up the -blackberries that are on the doorstep.” So she kept on hunting. Really, -after a while, when they were used to the noise that their feet made -and to the echo of their voices in the dim, closed rooms, it was rather -interesting. All they found was a rusty hammer downstairs, so Sue -decided to go above and look some more. - -Everything there was rickety and the stairs squeaked and frightened -Solita but she laughed--indeed, she was beginning to get over her -timidity and enjoy the quest. - -The chambers opened into the hall upstairs so that it looked like one -big room except at one end of the rear room where the roof sloped. -There was a real little bit of a room that must have belonged to some -child. There were two little broken toy dishes in it on the floor. -They were all thick with dust, so Sue did not pick them up. Solita was -safely in the rear near the stairs. She declared from time to time that -there was no basket and that they’d better go home but Sue kept on. It -isn’t every day that one can have a real adventure. She enjoyed the -creepy feeling that came with exploring dim corners. - -“When my great-great-grandfather was a little boy,” she mused, “he must -have lived in a house like this. Father told me a story about how he -used to slide down the roof and land on the grass below just for fun. -Fancy doing a thing like that!” - -Solita didn’t appear much interested. But Sue went on, “It was during -the American Revolution that he and my great-great-grandmother lived. -He fought in it--I mean his father, I guess,” rambled Sue. She hardly -knew what she was saying but she was chiefly trying to keep Solita -from deserting the quest. “We might find a treasure in one of these -closets,” she suggested. “Wouldn’t that be fine?” - -“Nobody goes off and leaves a treasure in an old house,” Solita snapped. - -“But it might have been hidden here by somebody and left till we came--” - -“I don’t think so.” - -“Oh, yes, it might!” - -“Where--not up here!” - -“Oh, maybe down cellar,” replied Sue, who had about finished her -explorations upstairs. She had been peeping out of the window of the -wee little room at the back of the house and had opened its window wide -to let in the sunlight and fresh air. It was only a little window. - -“You’re not going to get me to go down cellar with you,” declared -Solita. “I’m going home. There wouldn’t be any baskets or treasure -there at all and there might be rats and mice or other things--and I -won’t go!” - -“Then the treasure would be all my own, if I found it,” returned Sue. -“Suppose it was a thousand dollars tied up in a bag!” - -“If you go a step down cellar, I’m going home,” said Solita stoutly. -“I’m going this minute anyhow--good-bye!” She started toward the stairs. - -Sue felt rather obstinate. She decided that she _would_ go down cellar -even if Solita left her. She tried to close the little window that -looked down the long slope of the roof but it was hard to get it -closed again. She looked down the long slope and was half determined -to slide down it and see how it felt. If her great-great-grandfather -had done it, she could, too! Why not! It would be fun to creep out of -the window and not follow Solita--just slide down over the shingles -to the ground and run around to the front door and hide till Solita -came and then jump out and call, _boo!_ But at this minute, she heard -Solita scream and the scream was so terrified that Sue jumped toward -the stairs. Solita was running toward her. “You can’t go down the -stairs--Oh, don’t go that way!” she screamed. “A bear is sitting in the -doorway. He growled when he heard me come down the stairs. He is on the -doorstone--a big, big bear! What shall we do! We can’t get out! Oh, -dear! Oh, _dear_! Why did we ever come into this house!” - -“A real bear?” questioned Sue, grabbing fast to Solita’s torn frock. -“Tell me--you just imagined it--you couldn’t have seen one! There -aren’t any bears here!” - -But Solita struggled to free herself. “Oh, I _saw_ him,” she insisted -in a frightened wail. “He may be up here any moment. He’s so big he -could push any door in and we’re caught! We’re caught!” - -Sue, half believing and against all entreaty, peeped over the winding -balustrade rail. Yes. There _was_ a bear! Her heart went pat-pat-pat. -A shiver ran down her back. She felt cold all over and ready to sink -down in a limp heap upon the floor. But she put a warning finger to her -lips and motioned Solita to stop crying. The first thing she thought of -was to get Solita quietly into that little back room that had the open -window that gave upon the long sloping roof--that was it! They could -creep out quietly and then dash off over the back yard and into the -woods. Then, perhaps, they could turn down and find the road and warn -the other children! - -Solita stood there shivering, but Sue dragged her toward the little -room and closed the door. Solita was stupefied with the fear of that -bear’s coming upstairs after them. At first she did not understand -about the window, but Sue made her crawl through it first and told her -to run toward the woods when she got down off the roof. “I’ll come -right after you,” she urged. “Go right on and I’ll follow. He won’t see -us!” - -Poor Solita gathered her pink skirt about her and slid miserably and -cautiously down. She was almost as afraid of falling suddenly as she -was of the bear. Sue, however, made quick work of it, even as the -great-great-grandfather must have done, though there were no bears -after him. At the very end of the slope, she landed in a blackberry -bush tangle, but she pulled herself free and helped Solita. Then the -two of them darted toward the woods at the rear without a look back -to see if the big bear were following or not. Solita was sure he was -coming but Sue denied it. At last, badly out of breath, they reached -the road, after plunging through thickets and being badly torn and -scratched, after one or two excited tumbles over dead logs and much -worry about the bear. - -As they turned the corner of the road near the brook, they came upon -the children with little Albert. “Run, run!” they screamed, “run, run -quick! There’s a bear coming!” - -Then, all in a crowd, they hurried on toward the road that led to White -Farm. They had not gone very far when there appeared two men coming -toward them. They were talking together in excited French. They stopped -and asked if anybody had seen a big bear. - -“Oui, oui,” nodded Solita and she launched out into a long talk in -French that nobody else understood. It seemed that that was really the -bear Sue and Solita had run away from and he wasn’t a wild bear but a -tame one that would dance with a pole while the men sang French songs. -They had stopped to get a drink of water at a farm and the bear had got -off someway, when their backs were turned. They were delighted to know -where he was and Solita and Sue, reassured, offered to show the way. -So again they started toward the funny, old-fashioned house in a crowd -together. - -They came upon the bear, still eating blackberries on the doorstone--he -hadn’t budged! And when the Frenchmen called him, he came meekly. Then -all the children stood around in the dooryard while the bear that -Solita and Sue had escaped from danced and danced. He turned somersets, -too! It was fun. - -And then the men took off their caps and turned and went down the -overgrown driveway and off up the road. The children were already busy -with the blackberries. “I might go down cellar now, Solita,” laughed -Sue, “but I don’t believe I want to. Maybe there’d be another bear -there. I’ve had enough of one, even a tame one, haven’t you?” - -Solita laughed. “Our blackberries are all eaten,” she said. “We’d have -to begin to pick again to fill the basket and the pail. I move we all -go home, for I think it’s nearly lunch time.” - -But everybody wanted to go into the house and slide down the roof, -while little Albert made believe he was the bear and said “Grrr-r” on -the doorstone. It really _was_ a blackberry adventure for a summer -day! - - - - -_Betty Crusoe_ - - -_THE SEPTEMBER SURPRISE_ - -_September was almost school time again. There seemed to be a long, -hard thing in the September pocket that was not the story pocket. -Marjorie said it felt as if it were a stick of candy. She had wanted to -open the surprise long before September 13th, the date set, had come. -But at last it was September 13th and she tore open the seals that -held that leaf of the Surprise Book’s pocket tight. There was--why, a -pencil! Why hadn’t she ever guessed that! It was a pencil painted pink -and it had a rubber at its end. It had a pretty card tied to it that -said, “Use this when you go to school tomorrow.” The story Marjorie -opened that evening after supper. It was called “Betty Crusoe.”_ - - - - -_XI_ - -_Betty Crusoe_ - - -All summer Betty had been in the city. Then, the last day of September -came an eventful invitation from a school-friend of her mother’s. -“Dear Betty,” it ran, “I know your mother can’t be persuaded to leave -daddy and the boys, but can’t _you_ pack up and spend the rest of the -vacation with me in my big house here at Riverby? I’m all alone for -October.” So, in two days, there was Betty in Riverby! - -Mrs. Roberts and she took long motor rides, but the rest of the -time--and much of the time--Betty had to amuse herself. She was always -longing for a boat ride on the lovely blue river that was within sight -of the house, but Mrs. Roberts never seemed inclined to go out rowing. -It was one day when she was lonely and wishing for somebody her own -age to play with that she wandered through the grounds down toward -the shore. Some magic must have been at work, for right there upon -the sandy beach sat a pink gingham dress much like Betty’s own! It -turned as Betty’s white shoes crunched the coarse gravel. “Hello,” she -greeted. “I was just wishing I had a girl to talk to and then _you_ -came!” - -Betty laughed. “I was just wishing, myself,” she smiled. “I’m staying -with Mrs. Roberts. Do you live next door?” - -The pink hair-ribbon bobbed. “I’m staying with my aunt,” it said. “I -just came from the West. I don’t know a soul my own age here and it’s -stupid. Now that you’ve come, let’s have some fun together. My name’s -Lydia. What’s yours?” - -It seemed to the two of them that they had known each other always -and, naturally, having so begun, it appeared that the two of them were -longing to go out upon the river for a row--and had been longing for -that ever since they came to Riverby. - -“Don’t I wish we could find a boat!” - -“Do you know where there is one?” - -“No--and I’ve only rowed on the lake in the park--” - -“Well, never mind. You could row out a little way, if we could find a -boat! Let’s!” - -“We wouldn’t go out very far--” - -“No, not very far. I think we can find a boat if we walk along the -shore--” - -So the two trotted along the sandy rim of the river and, after a while, -they did come upon a boat drawn high up. There were oars in it and it -appeared to be waiting for the two, just as Lydia had been waiting -for Betty a half hour before. They didn’t stop to think. They merely -accepted the boat as they had accepted each other. It was part of the -adventure, of course. With frantic tugging, they finally launched the -boat and Betty took the oars. - -As she dipped them, “I’ve got to be back by four,” she said. “Mrs. -Roberts asked me to go calling--pity me, Lydia, I’ll have to come back -and put on my best dress. I’d rather stay on the river--I hope you’ve a -watch with you. I didn’t bring mine.” - -“No, I haven’t any watch but I can tell time by the sun,” reassured -Lydia. “Do you know, Betty, I’m longing to know what’s just around the -bend of the river. We can go that far, can’t we?” - -“Sure,” replied Betty, bravely. She did not say that her arms were -already rather tired. She waited for Lydia to offer to take the oars. - -But when they reached the bend, right there in the very center of the -river was a big wooded island. Its shore was overhung with dark pine -trees. It was a most fascinating island! - -“Oh, row over to the island, Betty,” screamed Lydia. “I do so want to -go there! We can stop for a bit and then come back and you’ll be home -in time to dress for that call.” So Betty, tired but very willing to -prolong the fun, rowed on. - -They beached the boat near a rock, but while they were beaching it, out -fell an oar! Before anybody could get it, it had floated far out beyond -reach! Oh dear! Oh dear! Could anything ever be worse! Oh dear, dear, -dear! - -They sat upon the beach there under the pines and wondered what was -going to happen. What indeed? The island seemed nothing but woods, and -the boats that passed by were too far away to hear what Betty and Lydia -screamed at them. They evidently took the wild antics of the two pink -dresses on the island beach as just so much joyous kind of greeting, -nothing more. Neither Lydia or Betty could swim. So there was every -reason to believe they would stay upon that island forever. - -“My aunt didn’t know I was going off anywhere,” wailed Lydia. “She’d -never think of my being _here_!” - -“And Mrs. Roberts is expecting me to be dressed for calling at four!” - -“I don’t know what we’re going to do!” - -“Neither do I!” - -It seemed so utterly hopeless that the two put their arms around each -other and cried hard on each other’s pink gingham shoulders. Yet, as -crying did not mend matters, Betty decided to make a petticoat flag and -wade as far out as possible to hail the next boat. There was a rocky -point that might be a good station. So she and Lydia paddled out there, -leaving shoes and stockings on the shore. - -The sun was gradually sinking toward the West. Lydia insisted that -it must be at least half past four or five. She was sure they would -have to camp out upon the island all night and was tearfully worrying -about bears--“There always _are_ bears in the woods, Betty,” she said. -“I don’t want to stay here all night, oh dear! Don’t you suppose that -a boat ever will come around the bend and see our signal?” But it was -long after that that at last a launch sped by, leaving in its wake a -track of white foam. No use to scream! The launch simply did not hear -or see and there were but two in it, a lady and a man who was at the -rear. - -“Mrs. Roberts has a parasol exactly that shade,” wailed Betty. “It -might be her out looking for me only she wouldn’t think I had gone out -on the river. Since I’ve been here, we never have been boating. She’s -probably hunting for me in town or else she’s gone to call without me -by this time. Maybe she thinks I forgot the call and went to walk. -Then, of course, she’d not be worrying or looking for me till supper -time.” - -“But I should think they’d have stopped the launch when they heard us -scream, ‘Help!’ They must have heard!” - -“No,” disagreed Betty. “Maybe they never noticed or they thought we -were just a silly picnic party playing Robinson Crusoe.” - -Alas! - -“Well, we’ve got to stay here, Lydia.” - -“It’s our punishment, I suppose.” - -“Maybe we deserve it for taking a boat that didn’t belong to us.” - -They sat on the rock for a long time wondering what more they could do -and then Betty realized that she was fearfully hungry. Lydia, too, at -the same time, longed for a couple of sandwiches. “We might go look to -see if there are berries in the woods,” they agreed. - -There were no berries, of course. There was only wintergreen and that -wasn’t satisfying. They found remnants of some picnic’s old boxes--but -that was all. The picnic must have been there weeks ago for its boxes -were mere pulp now--oh dear! - -Betty’s pink dress was torn and scratched by brambly twigs that were in -that woods. Lydia’s hair had lost its ribbon and trailed down her back -in a loose tangle. The two of them were begrimed like two tramps when, -finally, Betty discovered a footprint that looked as if it were newly -made. “Friday, Man Friday,” she screamed, “Look! There must be somebody -on this island, if we can only find the one to whom this belongs! -Hooray, maybe we’ll be rescued yet! Let’s follow in the same direction -and see if we do find another picnic party--if they haven’t gone home!” - -“Oh, I hope they haven’t--I don’t want to spend the night here with -nothing to eat--Oh dear!” - -And then they found a path! - -There was another footprint upon the path too! - -Betty and Lydia hurried on, their hearts beating excitement. When they -turned suddenly, the woods ceased abruptly and they found themselves in -full view of a summer camp! - -With one wild shout, Betty ran forward to its landing. There, there was -a launch and in it the two who had passed on the river and beside them, -too, were other people. The launch was just about to start when Betty -with Lydia at her heels darted upon the dock waving wild arms. “Stop, -stop,” they cried. And then Betty saw who the lady was--why, why, it -was--it was Mrs. Roberts! It _was_! - -On the way home, Mrs. Roberts said that she hoped Betty wouldn’t decide -to play Robinson Crusoe again. She looked very sober. “Our call might -have been planned for tomorrow,” she smiled. “The camp would have been -closed then and whatever would you and Lydia have done on the island -all night!” - -“I don’t know,” returned Betty. “I’m ever so sorry. Lydia is too.” - - - - -_The Magical Circle_ - - -_THE OCTOBER SURPRISE_ - -_October’s first surprise was easy to guess, as it was marked to open -on Marjorie’s birthday, which was the twenty-second. She said it was a -birthday present--but she did not guess that the birthday present was a -pretty handkerchief as well as a birthday card! That was fun! The story -was a Hallowe’en story, so it was marked to open on the afternoon of -October thirty-first. It was called, “The Magical Circle.”_ - - - - -_XII_ - -_The Magical Circle_ - - -The family moved into the new house about the first of October. It was -the first time that Mark and Marjorie had ever moved and the event was -full of novelty. The new house was a big one in the country and the two -found much to explore in the first weeks of arrival. - -Mark was always romancing. He believed, maybe, if he were to hunt -long enough, he might find something interesting that had been left -by former tenants. He was sure that there were secret drawers in the -old desk that was in the barn and he spent hours trying to find them. -Then, too, he went about tapping the walls of the house to see if they -emitted a hollow sound. He was sure, he said, that there must be secret -panels with things hidden behind them. - -Marjorie only laughed at Mark’s romancing. She half believed in it. -It was fun, anyway. So she followed Mark’s tapping and listened to -the knocks. One day when the paperers were busy, Mark went into a -store-closet that adjoined the room and somehow he did find a place -that was hollow. It was back of a board shelf in the closet and, when -opened, was quite a hiding place. There was nothing in it. Marjorie -insisted that it was where the gas pipes had been before electricity -was installed. But Mark called it triumphantly the secret panel. He -talked a great deal about it and showed it to the neighbor’s children, -Eleanore and Mabel and Richard. He even persuaded Mother to hide -some silver in the place for safe keeping. And she did it, she said, -laughingly, to please him. - -One might have thought that Mark would stop romancing, after having -discovered a secret panel, but he didn’t rest satisfied. Having read a -story about two boys who found a lost will in a trunk in an old attic, -Mark became interested in the possibilities of their newly acquired -one. There were three rooms up there, two of them used to store the -family’s trunks. The third room Mark appropriated and made into what -he called his “den.” - -The “den” had an old matting upon its floor. The matting had been there -when Mark and Marjorie moved into the new home. Mark always accepted it -and had never found any romantic suggestions coming from that source -till one night, Richard having been allowed to spend a night with him, -they carried a mattress up there and slept on the floor, “for fun,” -they said. Mark had a lantern and they talked till nearly two o’clock -telling stories to each other. It was really great fun. Mark’s stories -were full of adventure--some of them even were creepy, as it was -nearing Hallowe’en day by day. And what was more fitting than right in -the middle of Mark’s last thriller, there should be a strange rattle -and a clinking noise! It made Mark hush and it made Richard jump. They -looked at each other in frightened silence for a minute. - -“What was it?” asked Mark, as soon as he could breathe again calmly. - -“Oh, a mouse, I guess,” returned Richard. - -“A mouse, forsooth! Nay!” returned Mark, talking in a romantic way. -“Me-thinks it is a strange noise, friend. It cometh from under this -matting. I will take up the matting and if need be the floor and we -shall see--” Here he pulled up an end of old matting. - -Richard was willing to have another of Mark’s adventures, so he -helped. It wasn’t hard to get it up--but when it was once up the most -astonishing thing came to light. Even Richard was amazed. As for Mark, -he was in his element of discovery. There upon the floor was a big -round circle. The floor was painted but the circle was not! - -“What is it?” inquired Richard. - -Mark debated. “I don’t know,” he mused. “It’s evidently something!” -He measured the circle. It was about three feet in diameter. He was -for tearing up the flooring at once, only Richard reminded him that it -would make a dreadful noise and wake everybody in the house up. Surely -a fortune and a lost will must be under it! Richard silenced Mark’s -objection to waiting till daylight and after school by saying that they -would never be allowed to sleep in the attic on a mattress again, -if the two of them got into trouble. That was true. So they sat up, -wrapped in blankets, listening for the sound that seemed to have gone -away and also for other sounds that did not come. And they wondered -excitedly how a circle like that should come to be upon an attic floor, -if not purposely put there to mark something. Richard suggested that -it might be an old astrologer’s room and that the circle was one upon -which he might have cast horoscopes. That sounded rather fascinating -but neither Mark nor Richard knew anything about astrologers or even -what they did when they cast horoscopes. So this was rather romantic -and they talked a great deal about it, once in a while switching off to -goblins and Hallowe’en. Mark and Richard discussed, among other topics, -what they should do to make Hallowe’en truly exciting. They were going -to dress up like witches and go to call upon some friends. Richard was -planning to carry his black cat in a bag and they were going to wear -masks. Probably Marjorie would beg to go too--girls always did want -to go too--and they’d let her into the secret about the circle on the -attic floor too, wouldn’t they? - -Richard assented. He and Marjorie were good friends. - -“I tell you what!” exclaimed Mark, suddenly. “After we’re dressed up, -we’ll all come up here early in the evening. Maybe Mother and Daddy’ll -have gone to the pictures. Then we’ll take up the floor and see what’s -under the circle!” It seemed a thing quite fit for the night of -Hallowe’en. - -Having decided this, they again unrolled the mattress, hid themselves -in blankets and snored peacefully till dawn. - -In the morning, Mark put the matting over the very precious circle and -the two went downstairs hinting at wonderful secrets of things they had -found and strange noises they had heard. Marjorie said it seemed to her -that she had heard a queer noise too--up overhead. She said it sounded -like Mark tapping for secret panels. Then everybody laughed because of -the memory of how Mark was shut up tight in the harness-closet once -upon a time, a victim of his love of mystery and adventure. Then -Richard said he thought Mark had heard a mouse. - -“Mouse! Does a mouse rattle?” inquired Mark. “I guess you’ll find -out!” And the subject strung itself out all through the day and on -till Hallowe’en time came. Of course, in between, Mark had visited the -attic and everybody had seen the circle. Everybody declared that it was -a mystery. Nobody had ever seen anything like it upon an attic floor. -Mother laughed. She was used to Mark’s imaginings. She said she didn’t -connect it with a little harmless mouse gnawing at a hole. - -At the mention of a mouse gnawing, Mark became almost dramatic. “It was -no mouse!” he declared. “Don’t I know what a mouse sounds like!” - -Hallowe’en came, but even the fun of dressing up like witches lost -the usual flavor. Mark, Marjorie and Richard were worked up to a -pitch of excitement over the circle on the attic floor. They talked -of nothing else. Mark had read up on astrology in the encyclopedia. -He hadn’t understood it all but he talked as if he did and Marjorie -was wonderingly proud of his knowledge, while Richard was willing to -listen, though he corrected Mark’s statements now and then, having read -up on the subject at the library himself. - -It was lucky that the picture theatre claimed Mother and Daddy that -night. And the strange thing was that neither Mark nor Marjorie had -begged to be taken too. They had come in at eight o’clock sharp, -according to directions that Mother had insisted upon. They kept on -their weird garments of sheets and shawls. Mark, lantern in hand, led -the way to the dark attic room and the others followed. - -Then there began to be a real noise in that room as Mark hammered a -chisel into the flooring. It seemed to be a very thick board flooring -and it took time to get some nails out. But they yielded finally, and -the end of one floor-board that crossed the circle at its centre grew -loose enough to be pried up. (Mark had insisted that he choose the -centre of the circle. Nobody knew why, though they trusted him. He said -that the centre was the middle of a thing and that whatever was there -would be exactly under it. This sounded plausible.) - -Then Mark had Richard take the chisel and wedge up the board a bit. -It wouldn’t give very much, you know. He said Marjorie might hold the -lantern and he’d peep into the darkness underneath and see what was -there. Really, the moment _was_ very exciting. Nobody knew what Mark -might see--they felt that he was brave to take the first look, for it -might be ’most anything down there where Mark’s noise had come from! - -They were silent while Mark, lying flat down on the attic floor, peered -under the lifted end of the board. “I see gold pieces,” he gasped. -“Say, give me more light--it must be buried treasure! _Didn’t I say I’d -find it!_” - -Marjorie and Richard looked at each other. _Was it true?_ “Let _us_ -see,” they urged. Richard did peek. He said he couldn’t see very -clearly but that there was something there that he thought looked like -money. It was round and there was something that looked like a bag -there--maybe a money bag! Marjorie was so excited that she couldn’t -keep still long enough to see anything at all well. But she thought she -saw something that looked like a piece of paper. Nobody else had seen -that, so they all peeped again. “It is a lost will,” declared Mark. -And they believed him. - -Then they fell to opening the flooring in a most reckless way. It -really was dreadful--but when one is expecting to get at a money bag -and a lost will, one does not stop to consider the flooring. The board -was whacked beyond recognition. The hammer and chisel fell to work and -the flooring yielded to the onslaught. Then--Mark lifted the board! -Ah!--Ah-ha!-- - -Richard held the lantern down so that it shone full upon the treasure; -Marjorie gasped; Mark bent forward to see all there was to see. There -was a pile of broken glass and some rags, corks--and buttons! Oh, yes, -and there was a piece or so of white paper--not very large. The buttons -were of metal, round brass buttons, tarnished and old. The paper was -old white paper, yellow now. It was not a lost will at all! No, the -money bag was just a round wad of cloth and Mark’s noise was--Mark’s -noise was evidently a rat running around the rat’s nest that they had -found! Alas, alas! There was no more mystery! The three had never seen -a rat’s nest before but Richard had heard about them. He said, from -the first, he’d said it was a mouse--but everybody knows that a mouse -is very different from a rat! - -After they had all recovered from the shock of their disappointment, -they laughed a little. It really was funny--There they had been -planning what they would do with all the money after it had been -properly divided! Of course, the lost will would have given the money -to the finders, you know. - -Mark fingered the buttons, grimy with much dust. “They don’t make -buttons like this any more,” he said. “They are very interesting. -I am glad I found them.” He said that they had not yet come to the -end of the mystery. “_Why_ is there a circle on the attic floor?” he -questioned. “Why?” - -Nobody could say. Then they heard Mother’s voice downstairs. “You’ll -have to tell about the floor,” Marjorie suggested. “We can never get it -down again.” - -So they did. It was a sorry group that said good-night, even after they -had been forgiven. - -Next day when Mark returned from school, he heard the carpenter -repairing the damaged floor up in his den and he rushed up there. - -“Say,” he said, “what do you suppose anybody ever made a circle on the -floor like that for unless it was an astrologer?” - -The carpenter laughed. “Sonny,” he smiled. “I’ve been in this house -when there was a big cistern right here--Know what a cistern is? It’s -what the family used to depend upon for water in the house. When -they took it down, the floor that was painted all around it showed -the circle where the cistern had stood. That’s all. It wasn’t any -astrologer that made it.” - -After that, somehow, the news about the cistern’s having been Mark’s -mysterious circle in dim ages past, leaked out. Richard and Marjorie -and Mabel and Eleanore plagued him forever after--but, anyway, Mark -says, some day when he does find a fortune and a lost will, they’ll -stop laughing at him. Maybe that’s true. - - - - -_Ermelinda’s Family_ - - -_THE NOVEMBER SURPRISE_ - -_November’s first surprise pocket was another strange mystery. Dotty -always chuckled when Marjorie asked her to tell what it was. “I can’t,” -she laughed. “It’s a joke!” So poor Marjorie had to quiet her curiosity -and wait till the very day before Thanksgiving. Then she ripped open -the Surprise Book’s surprise and undid the paper that she found wrapped -around that queer lumpy-bumpy-feeling thing. You couldn’t guess -what Dotty had put in--it was a wish-bone. “Good wishes for a fine -Thanksgiving dinner,” it send. As for the story, that was dated to read -on the evening before Thanksgiving. It was called “Ermelinda’s Family,” -and it was a Thanksgiving story._ - - - - -_XIII_ - -_Ermelinda’s Family_ - - -Ermelinda entered High School in September. Then, too, she contributed -to the High School magazine. Going to and from school she hunted for -themes to use in school compositions. She meant to write a story some -day! That was Ermelinda’s ambition. - -As she looked over magazines at home, she imagined how her name would -look printed. Once when she was looking over a big fashion paper, -she turned to a department page and found that there was a chance -to correspond with an editor lady. So she at once wrote and between -the two there grew up a friendly intercourse upon paper. Ermelinda -confided her desire to write stories, and though none were awarded -prizes in the department, yet Ermelinda regarded the editor lady as a -friend. And once she told her how the school had solicited Liberty Bond -subscriptions. - -The boys and girls had volunteered for the work, going together from -house to house. Ermelinda enjoyed the luck of selling nine bonds -on subscription and one fifty dollar one outright. It was all very -interesting indeed. Ermelinda grew more and more enthusiastic and her -patriotism flamed hot. She went over the territory assigned and then, -on her own hook, took up new territory. It was in rather a shabby -quarter of the town but one of the girls was with her. So they entered -a doorway and went into a tenement. She was surprised to see it so gray -and destitute. - -They knocked at the first landing, but though they met with a fair -reception, they sold nothing. At the second landing it was the same. -Ermelinda caught glimpses of bare poverty in the rooms as the door -opened at her knock. She had always known that such things were, but -the vivid picture of them had never been presented. So she mounted to -the top floor and knocked. The door opened. It was a thin little ragged -boy who opened the door and there were more thin little ragged boys -inside--yes, and little girls and a baby and a mother and a father. All -of them were so poor and so unhappy! Ermelinda explained her errand -but, of course, it was hardly any use! Ermelinda wrote to her editor -about it that evening. The editor answered, “Well, wouldn’t it be -rather jolly to surprise that family with a basket of good things for -Thanksgiving Day?” - -Oh, indeed it would! She could get the girls at High School to help! -She began to plan what to put into the basket. On the way to school the -next day she told everybody she met. Ermelinda had a most engaging way -of putting facts in story form. But though some contributed five or -ten or twenty-five cents, there were others who drifted off as soon as -money was mentioned. Then Stella Wilkins came by and Ermelinda grabbed -her. - -“Say, Stella,” she began, “don’t you want to help, too? I’m getting up -a basket for Thanksgiving for a poor family I found in a tenement, they -are--” but right here she stopped short. Stella’s expression was almost -frightened. For the first time, Ermelinda noticed that Stella might -be classed as “poor.” Ermelinda had never thought much about poverty -before or noticed whether the boys and girls who came to classes -showed signs of need. She had always liked Stella. “There are some -children,” went on Ermelinda. “The little things look sick and hungry. -We’re planning to give them a perfectly splendid Thanksgiving--I -haven’t a cent to my name but I’m nabbing everybody I see--” - -Stella smiled. “Guess you know, Erm, I really can’t, though I’d like -to,” she said. “But father lost his work this fall and we’ve all had -to do without things. I’m trying ever so hard to get my little sister -a winter coat. She hasn’t any and she can’t go to school till she has -one--It’s awfully hard, Erm. I’m glad you’re helping _them_!” - -Ermelinda put an arm around Stella. “I’d like to work, too, to get that -coat,” she said. “I’ve been lucky all my life and had things done for -me but I’d be mighty proud if I could buy my little sister a coat if -she needed one!” - -They walked toward the class together. Somehow, they had become real -friends. - -She rushed home the next afternoon early in order to go buy the basket -with one of the girls. Oh, Ermelinda’s family was to have the dandiest -Thanksgiving that there ever had been! - -She put a gay crêpe tissue paper table-set into the basket. It had a -tablecloth and napkins with bright colored fruits upon it. Then all the -other things were packed tight and the basket was very heavy and very -tempting when Ermelinda’s busy fingers had finished. It was put away in -the pantry closet to stand there safely till the time should come. - -Next day Ermelinda found Kitty Fowler, who volunteered to help. “You -see, Kitty, I can’t carry that big basket all alone myself,” she -explained. “I do need somebody ever so much.” - -“Then I’ll help and I’ll be at the corner waiting for you at four -o’clock.” - -When she reached the corner with tired arms, Kitty was not there. -Ermelinda waited. It was frightfully windy and cold. It seemed as if -it might snow for there was penetrating dampness and chill in the air. -She thought of Stella trying to buy the coat for a little sister--she -wondered if, by now, the little sister had it. She hoped so. She -wondered how Stella had earned the money--Still Kitty did not come. It -was growing dusk. - -Ermelinda decided that Kitty must have forgotten. She was that -kind--always ready to help but not responsible. It was too late to go -home and get mother--beside that, mother was tired. The boys were out -skating. There was no reason why she, Ermelinda, should not go alone. -So she tugged the big basket and the bundle onward. Her arms ached and -she had to stop more than once to turn ’round about, taking the basket -in the other hand and changing the bundle. Somehow she reached the -right street and the door that led to her family up there on the top -floor. Somehow she reached the landing. She put the basket down and -knocked. She had planned how nice it would be just to hand the basket -in and say, “Santa Claus came for _Thanksgiving_ and brought you this.” -Then she would run away and they would call, “Thank you! Thank you!” - -Maybe they had not heard; Ermelinda knocked loudly again. No answer! -She knocked again. All was silent! Then a woman in a blue apron came -out upon the second floor landing and screamed up at her, “They’ve -moved away. What d’you want anyhow? That family went off last -week--Nobody’s there!” - -At last, Ermelinda understood! But the woman did not know where they -had gone. She suggested that Ermelinda ask the janitor on the first -floor. - -It crossed Ermelinda’s mind that she might give the basket to the -woman on the second landing, but as she came down the wide-open door -showed a table with food upon it. The janitor didn’t know where that -family had gone--he said the man had work and they had gone away. Yes, -they had been in hard straits for a while--didn’t pay rent at all, -he said. But now there was nothing for Ermelinda to do about it. The -bitter disappointment of the expedition made a lump in Ermelinda’s -throat--why, if the fairy godmother had come to help Cinderella and had -not found her, that is about how the fairy godmother would have felt! - -Little Lady Bountiful almost cried but she took up the packages and -walked home. She told mother all the story and then she wept. There -were all those good things for somebody’s happy Thanksgiving and where -should they go? - -At last, mother suggested that she herself would buy the things in the -basket and that Ermelinda might give the money to some public charity. -She wrote her editor and asked what to do. The editor wrote back and -said _she_ thought Ermelinda was right: that the boys and girls might -be told, perhaps, but that since they had given the money without -sacrifice, it ought to be used to help some need. Ermelinda received -the letter from the postman just as she started for school. She opened -it in the cloak-room and there she met Stella, who was just hanging her -tam upon a neighboring hook. - -They went into class. Suddenly in the midst of her conjugating of a -Latin verb, a thought came to Ermelinda--Oh, how about the coat for -Stella’s little sister? She would find out! At noon, she found Stella, -eating lunch upon a bench. “Say, Stella,” she began, “we’re friends. -Tell me, did you get it--that coat for your little sister?” - -Then Stella told her. No! There was no coat. She couldn’t get that -work. The little sister had colds and Stella was worried. As they -talked, Stella told Ermelinda just how bitterly blue everything was. -They parted as the bell rang for classes. - -After school, Ermelinda labored over a letter that it was rather fun -to write. She worked hard because of the fact that she was trying -to disguise her handwriting. The letter was from Cinderella’s Fairy -Godmother to Stella and inside the envelope, sealed with a blue bird -seal, Ermelinda put the money! Then she sent the letter inside another -to her editor in the city and asked her to mail it there. She told her -Cinderella’s fairy had asked her to send this letter to somebody who -mustn’t know where the Fairy Godmother lived. And the editor mailed the -letter in the city. So the deed was done. - -It was about three or four days afterwards that Stella came upon -Ermelinda studying hard, her head in a book. “I want to tell you, you -were so interested,” she beamed. “My little sister’s got the coat, -only I didn’t really give it to her _myself_. The money came in a -letter that was mailed in the city. It was ever such a dear letter and -signed by Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. I think it must have been from -a real fairy, somehow, but I don’t know who could have known about the -coat--I don’t know anybody else who might have sent it, unless it was a -_real_ fairy!” - -“I’m glad your little sister has the coat,” Ermelinda chuckled. - - - - -_The Directory Santa Claus_ - - -_THE FIRST DECEMBER SURPRISE_ - -_When Dotty had made the Surprise Book upon that memorable day when -she had not been able to go to school, she had calculated wrongly, so -Marjorie’s Surprise Book had more than the usual number of leaves and -it lasted till the following Christmas. The first surprise of that -December which closed Marjorie’s Surprise Book seemed very thick and -fat indeed. It proved to be two stories in place of one and with them -was a Christmas card. “I’m sorry that the Surprise Book must end,” -sighed Marjorie. “Aren’t you, Dot?” And of course, Dotty held out hopes -that Santa Claus might bring another! I shouldn’t wonder if he did, for -Santa Claus likes to make surprises. Maybe it was he, himself, who had -told Mother how to make the first Surprise Book, long ago. They each -chose one of the Surprise Book’s Christmas surprise stories for Mother -to read aloud on Christmas afternoon when the stories were opened. -Dotty’s came first. It was “The Directory Santa Claus.”_ - - - - -_XIV_ - -_The Directory Santa Claus_ - - -Christmas holidays had begun and school was out. The scholars had -spoken Christmas pieces that told of gift-giving and Santa Claus. - -Rose Schneider and Lili Fifer, with school-books under their arms, -pushed open the heavy oak door of the big city library and trotted with -one accord upstairs to join the line of children waiting to get in. - -“I got a dandy book,” Lili volunteered as they wedged into the waiting -line. “It was all about a little girl that went to see Santa Claus. -I’m bringin’ it back now. Say, Rose, you get it on your card. It’s an -awfully nice story.” - -But Rose shook her head. The thin snub of her nose turned up even -higher than ever. It added emphasis to her refusal. “There ain’t any -Santa Claus,” she said. “I never had any Christmas presents from him.” - -“Well,” Lili insisted, “I ain’t either but _I_ think there _is_ a Santa -Claus all right. He don’t know us, maybe, but he’s awfully good to some -children. My cousin that goes to Sunday School gets a doll, and a box -of candy, and an orange from him every Christmas. He has a long white -beard an’ he’s ever so jolly!” - -“Salvation Armies, they make Santa Clauses. They’re not real--only -anybody dressed up. Most likely your cousin’s Santa Claus was like -that,” Rose retorted. “The Salvation Army Santa Clauses they always -stand by the street corners to catch Christmas dinner pennies in their -pails.” - -“No. ’Twasn’t that kind of a Santa Claus! _He’s real!_” - -“Well, you won’t find him in no _directory_,” Rose argued. “You just -go an’ look. All real folks’ names is in it an’ you won’t find Santa -Claus. There _ain’t_ any!” - -With this parting thrust, Rose squeezed through a sudden opening in the -line and escaped into the reading room beyond. - -Lili waited for her book to be discharged, then she raised a -questioning little hand toward the lady at the library desk. - -“Please,” she asked, “where is the directory book?” - -“Downstairs,” the librarian answered. And downstairs Lili went. - -The directory book was really very, very big indeed. It was almost a -pity that it couldn’t be a story book, for one could never have done -with a story book _that_ size. There’d always be something new to read -in it. When the fat volume was opened on its desk, Lili studied it -at random trying to make out what it all meant. She decided to begin -at the very beginning, so she commenced with _A_, turned on to _B_, -and ran her forefinger down page after page. It took a great deal of -time and patience. The text was very small and Lili was afraid she -might overlook it. Down page after page it travelled till it came to -_Claus_--Oh, there it was: Claus, Adolph, carpenter! No. That couldn’t -be Santa Claus--the whole name wasn’t right. And beside that, _he_ -wasn’t a carpenter, Lili felt sure. - -How many people there were by the name of _Claus_! Well, with patience, -one might find the right one! “Then I shall tell Rose that there is a -Santa Claus for sure,” thought Lili. On down the list she went. - -There was an S. T. Claus. That was the nearest to it. Who knows what -that S. T. might mean in the way of abbreviation? The address was not -far from the library. Lili decided to go down the avenue and find out -if it were where the _real_ Santa Claus lived. - -The long winter twilight was beginning when Lili came out of the -library. Already the lights from the grocery and the drugstore on the -corner beyond warmed the cold gray stone of the pavement with red -light. Further over, past the intersecting street, an arc lamp made a -misty star in the dimness. Toward the star of light Lili made her way. - -Yes, yes, she was on the right side of the street--she was getting -nearer, nearer! Lili’s heart went pit-a-pat. Oh, there it was--There -it was! It was a little shop that bore the number. Over its window was -a sign, S. T. Claus. Somewhere Lili thought she had seen Santa Claus’ -name written that way! It was the _very_ place, no doubt! - -In the shop-window was a wee green tinsel-covered tree. Toys -were caught in the branches. They overflowed onto the broad base -of the display-window--cats, dogs, carts, steam-engines, dolls, -baby-carriages, jumping-jacks--Oh! - -Lili stood staring, transfixed with wonder, for--for there in the -store, visible through the lighted window, was a small, jolly-looking, -white-bearded man--exactly like the picture of Santa Claus in the -story book! To be sure, his white beard was not _quite_ so long, and -he wore a gray knit coat instead of a bright red one with white fur on -it. But his occupation of stringing Christmas tree chains was so very -Santa-Claus-like, there could be no mistake in identity! - -Just here, he came to the window and added a box of gay candles to the -display of toys. He looked out at Lili through the frosty panes and -smiled. “Hello,” he called by way of cheery greeting. - -“Hello,” returned Lili, and, somehow, before she knew it, she was -standing in the shop beside the worn counter, looking up into the merry -face of Mr. Claus. - -“It was through the directory that I found you,” she smiled. “Rose -Schneider, she says there ain’t no _real_ Santa Claus--but I says there -is for _sure_! A lot of children must have passed here an’ not known -where Santa Claus lived maybe! But _I_ found you!” - -Santa Claus doubled in a hearty chuckle. “And here I am all the time,” -he laughed, “just every day.” - -“Didn’t anybody know you was the real Santa Claus?” Lili gazed -confidently into the old man’s bright eyes. “They had ought to know by -the sign,” she suggested. - -“How should they?” the little man replied. “Santa Claus--everybody -knows he likes to be an ordinary citizen. You won’t tell the kids, will -you?” - -Lili hesitated. “No, not if you don’t want I should. But there is Rose -Schneider an’ she says there ain’t any real Santa Claus. It was through -her saying that I found you in the directory. She said there wasn’t no -such name there”-- - -There was a silence. - -“I’ve got it,” he announced suddenly. “Just why don’t Rose believe in -Santa Claus--because he never brought her any presents or what?” - -“I think it’s because you’ve forgot her mostly,” returned Lili. “I says -to her you forgot me, too--but you didn’t know about us maybe.” - -He thought. - -“Where do you two kids live?” he questioned. - -She told him. - -“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said he. “I don’t want the other children -to find it out that I _am_ the real Santa Claus, so you’d better not -tell them. You run home now an’ you keep it quiet. Wait till real Santa -Claus time at Christmas! THEN, Rose will believe!” - -Ah, yes. And she _did_! It was a wonderful, wonderful Christmas for -Lili and Rose. It was better even than Rose’s cousin’s Christmas, for -they shared together a little tree that was left on Christmas Eve “From -Santa Claus,” and each little girl had a doll, and some candy, and a -game. “It’s from the _real_ Santa Claus an’ I know him but _you_ don’t, -Rosie Schneider!” Lili beamed. - -And Rose retorted, “I do too believe in the real Santa Claus!” - -“I want a story about the _real_ Santa Claus and the little girl,” she -demanded of the librarian at the children’s reading room next day. -“Lili Fifer, she says it’s an awfully good story and she likes I should -know more about him. It’s true for sure, ain’t it?” - -And the librarian smiled. - - - - -_Mary Elizabeth’s Soldierly Christmas_ - - -_THE SECOND DECEMBER SURPRISE_ - -_Marjorie’s Christmas story was called “Mary Elizabeth’s Soldierly -Christmas.” She said she liked it better than the story Dotty chose -from the Surprise Book’s Christmas pocket. You can tell what you think -about it for yourself, for here it is._ - - - - -_XV_ - -_Mary Elizabeth’s Soldierly Christmas_ - - -Mary Elizabeth looked up from the soldier scarf she was learning to -knit. Her mother, in the rocker beside Mary Elizabeth’s hassock, -caught a bit of anxious thought that rested between Mary Elizabeth’s -brown eyes. “What is it?” she asked, putting her hand down upon Mary -Elizabeth’s to stop the knitting needles. - -“I was thinking,” Mary Elizabeth sighed, “just thinking, Mother. It’s -going to be a very soldierly Christmas this year, isn’t it? But the -children--they don’t realize it and they’re thinking and talking about -Santa Claus. Are we going to have the tree this year?” - -Mary Elizabeth’s mother patted Mary Elizabeth’s hand softly. “We’ve -always had one, haven’t we, daughter?” she said. “Can you remember the -time when we did not have one?” - -“No,” laughed Mary Elizabeth. “I suppose it was when I was too small -a baby ever to have a tree or so little that I didn’t know what the -lights were and thought I would like to play with their sparkles--but -I do remember the tree we had when I was a little bit older. It was -before any of the children came. I was about three years old, I think. -You told me that the tree was made in honor of the little Christ -Child’s birthday and I always thought you meant a little child like -myself and expected to see him--” - -Mary Elizabeth paused. “Then I grew bigger, and by and by there were -all the children and the baby, and I was the oldest and we all thought -that a funny friend who was a jolly old man called Santa Claus brought -us the toys we found in our stockings. We thought all the play was -real--about his coming down the chimney and about his sleigh with the -eight reindeer. It used to seem strange that so big a man as Santa -Claus could squeeze down our chimney and by and by I suspected it was -all a play and you told me that it was just a funny, jolly way to make -the very little children enjoy the fun of Christmas surprises. You -told me then that I might help toward Christmas myself by trimming the -tree. That was to be my part: each year I was to do it all myself and -every year I tried to make it some new and lovely kind of a surprise. I -always have loved to fix the tree. I always have felt that it must be -the kind of a tree that the little Christ Child would love if he came -in the way that I used to think you meant when I was still little.” - -“Your tree has always been a beautiful tree, Mary Elizabeth,” Mother -smiled. “It has always been a tree that shone with happiness. Each year -we have loved it so that the children could not bear to part with it at -New Years, you know.” - -Mary Elizabeth smiled. But her question still remained unanswered. -“Will there be a tree this year?” she asked. “I’m afraid the children -would be sad without it, Mother.” - -“I, too, have been thinking, Mary Elizabeth,” said Mother. “It is -indeed a soldierly Christmas. What do you think we had better do?” - -“Well,” answered Mary Elizabeth, thoughtfully. “We have the ornaments, -though I usually buy some new ones. I would have to get candles. The -tree would not cost so very much, only it seems as if every penny ought -to go to the little French and Belgian children--and there are the -soldiers to send things to--and when everything is the way it is, why -it really hardly seems like Christmas!” - -“I know,” returned Mother. “But we sent all the money in the children’s -bank and all your money and my money, Mary Elizabeth. We have the -soldiers’ things all done--almost. I think we ought to have the tree -for the children and you can fix it up somehow, can’t you?” - -“Yes,” smiled Mary Elizabeth, but she was thinking that she must -somehow find a way to make that tree as pretty as usual--even without -any money to buy things! - -That day and the next, Mary Elizabeth pondered the question. She -thought of this and of that but nothing seemed quite right. There was -no way to earn any money. And the tree had no star for the top. It had -been lost, somehow. It was not with the tree fixings in the box in the -attic! How to get a new star, that was one question. How to get the -candles was another. And Mary Elizabeth’s tree had always been a tree -that people came in to look at and admire. It was not like any other -tree. It was always a surprise, somehow. Money was needed to buy things -to make it wonderful. Money was needed to make it a bright surprise as -usual! - -At school, Mary Elizabeth found herself puzzling over this problem as -vacation time drew near. It was harder for her than any arithmetic -problem, for it could not be solved at all. Twice she saved five cents -by walking home and that bought candles. But the problem remained as -usual. It was _how to get more money_. - -Then there came the day when the magazine came. It was always something -of an event when the magazine came. It had new pictures in it and often -it had cut-out pages for the little children. Once there had been a -circus with clowns to cut out and ever since that time, Brother somehow -got hold of the paper as soon as Mother took it from its wrapper. He -was always hoping for more circus, you know. He knew its pages by -heart and spelled out the titles and headings of the pictures. When -Mary Elizabeth came home one day, he announced that the magazine had -come. - -“What’s in it?” questioned Mary Elizabeth. - -“Pictures,” Brother replied mysteriously, “but not any of a circus. -It’s a puzzle page. You have to guess what the pictures are and they’ll -give a prize of five dollars to the one who answers and tells what the -pictures are.” But Brother was still busy with the magazine and Mary -Elizabeth was called away to help Mother with the little sister. She -did not see the page, though she thought about it and wondered if she -could answer all the questions and get the money that way to trim the -Christmas tree. In the evening, after supper, after the little children -had gone off to bed and Brother, too, with them, she found the magazine -and looked it over. Yes, it was a contest. And the pictures were Mother -Goose. It seemed easy to guess them--Mary Elizabeth guessed Simple -Simon right away. It was the picture of a funny doll fishing in a -little pail with a hook and line. She tried the others. She was not so -sure of all but she guessed them with the help of the little children’s -Mother Goose to refresh her memory. She was so excited that she felt -the prize was already hers. She was sure she _must_ win! - -Just think of it: the first prize was five whole dollars and the second -prize was two whole dollars and there were eight other prizes each of -one whole big dollar--ten chances that Mary Elizabeth might earn some -money for her Christmas tree! Her hands shook as she took up pen and -put it to paper. She used her very best paper and three times or more -she discarded what she had written and tried to do better. She wrote -with extreme pains and slowly. It took all the evening just to write -the short answer. She put it into its envelope to mail on the way to -school next day, but she said nothing about it as she kissed Mother -good-night. - -Nearer and nearer came Christmas time. The little children talked more -than ever about Santa Claus. Brother planned what kind of a stocking he -would hang up. They talked about the tree and asked Mary Elizabeth what -she supposed Santa Claus would make as a tree surprise this year. At -these times, laughingly, Mary Elizabeth suggested that there would be -candles on the tree and that perhaps there would be tinsel. She said -that, maybe, Santa Claus would send all his Christmas to the little -French and Belgian children and not have much to make into a surprise -here at home. She told them stories about Santa Claus and the Santa -Claus Land. She played with them to keep them amused but she thought -all the time of the Mother Goose Contest and as time went on, she felt -less sure each day of having won. Once she passed by the ten cent store -and found a beautiful gold star and wanted to buy it. Then one day -Mary Elizabeth actually found a ten cent piece near a shop upon a busy -sidewalk in town. Her heart went thump at the sight of it. She asked -several persons if they had lost anything and they replied, “No.” So -Mary Elizabeth went straight to the ten cent store and bought a star, -right away. - -All this time, Mary Elizabeth watched anxiously for the postman. The -time set for the close of the contest came and passed. No letter was -brought to Mary Elizabeth. She knew that she would have had a letter -if she had won any prize, of course. But Mary Elizabeth, with her heart -heavy as lead, wondered whether she had really ever believed she would -win. She admitted that she had. She was sure her work was right--that -is, all answers were correct. The writing was neat. There were no -blots. She had done her very best. - -Mary Elizabeth was too soldierly to cry. She told nobody. She set -about planning how she would cut paper ornaments out of colored wall -papers and paste them together. She would make some paper dolls and -dress them like fairies with the tissue paper she had. She would make -wings with tissue paper, too. She would ask Mother to let her make -some gingerbread animals and men to use on the tree. She would gild -some nuts and pinecones maybe. There was the star. There was the box -of candles. Those were _something_! But if only she did have money, -she would trim her tree with the emblems of all the Allies and have a -really soldierly Christmas tree! - -Mary Elizabeth went into her room and locked her door tight. She -took the key of her lower bureau drawer and sat down upon the floor -beside it and drew it out. In it lay all the Christmas tree things -with the box of candles and the star. As she looked at the bright -Christmas things, a tear dropped upon her lap--oh, it might have been -so different! - -Why is it that when one is just in the midst of Christmas planning -somebody comes to the door and knocks? Did you ever spread all your -things out on a bed or a table or on the floor and fail to have -somebody come to knock at your door and demand to be let in right away? -There came a knock at Mary Elizabeth’s--but first, the latch had been -tried. “Let me in, Mary Elizabeth!” cried Brother. - -“I can’t,” returned Mary Elizabeth. - -“You can.” - -Thump-thumpety-thump. - -“Go ’way,” admonished Mary Elizabeth. “I shan’t let you in! You can’t -come in.” - -“Well, you’ll be sorry,” said the muffled voice of Brother. “You’ll -be sorry,” but he left off knocking at the door and ran away. Mary -Elizabeth wondered if perhaps he suspected about the play of Santa -Claus. He was getting to be quite big. Maybe he knew about the tree. -Maybe he would have to be let into the fun of Christmas planning next -year--but was it fun? Wasn’t it dreadful to worry about the tree and -plan how to make it all new? No, it was not worry! No, it was not! -Mary Elizabeth denied this stoutly. It was part of the self-sacrifice -of Christmas to think about it as she had--and there would be a lovely -tree! Yes, there would, somehow; she’d manage to make a grand surprise -of it. Oh, yes, she would. Mary Elizabeth smiled and was ashamed of -that little hot tear. She put the Christmas tree things back into the -drawer one by one and she closed and locked the drawer. Then she went -to the window and looked out across the snow. She thought maybe some -cotton would look pretty and snowy on the tree like that. She heard -Brother at the door again but she wasn’t quite ready to let him in. She -wanted to be alone and think. She did not want to tell stories about -Santa Claus. - -His little voice came plaintively, “Please, Mary Elizabeth, let me in. -I’ll tell you something nice, if you’ll let me in.” But Mary Elizabeth -was not ready to hear what Brother thought Santa Claus was going to -bring. She did not go to the door. Then she heard his soft little -footsteps trot away down the hall and she felt sorry. She opened the -door to run after him and there, where Brother had left it, there lay a -big square envelope with the name of the magazine upon it! - -Mary Elizabeth gasped. She tore it open and read: - - - DEAR MARY ELIZABETH: - - Your good work has merited the reward of the Second Prize of two - dollars offered in the Mother Goose Contest. The money is enclosed - and we hope that it will bring with it a Very Happy Christmas! - -Happy Christmas! Hooray! Oh, how fine! Happy Christmas--why, _of -course_, Happy Christmas! Wasn’t it splendid! Wasn’t it a surprise! -Waving the letter, she hugged everybody that she met, Brother, Mother -and all the children. Something splendid had happened, they all -agreed. Everybody congratulated Mary Elizabeth. But only Mother really -guessed why Mary Elizabeth didn’t spend it all right then and there the -very first day in buying candy and peanuts. That was what Brother and -the little children suggested. - -But next day, after vacation had really begun and when the little -children and Brother were safely out of the way, Mary Elizabeth with -her little red kid purse slipped out of the house and off to buy the -flags of the Allies to use for the Christmas tree. - -Mary Elizabeth had decided, too, what the Christmas surprise was to be. -Yes, it should be a tree covered with flags and Old Glory should be -with the star at the top! - -And then came tree-trimming! And the tree was--oh, oh, it was ever -so much more wonderful than any tree had ever been before. Everybody -said so! The little children said so. Brother said so! Mary Elizabeth -herself knew it was so! All the little poor children who came to the -tree said so! - -It was Mother, however, who knew about the very soldierly Santa -Claus that had made the tree so lovely. “It honored the little -Christ Child’s Birthday, dear,” she said as she kissed Mary Elizabeth -good-night. “It is the tree of the soldiers who are fighting for all -that Christmas means.” - -“The star was there,” replied Mary Elizabeth. - - - - -CONCLUSION - -_The Last Leaf of the Surprise Book_ - - -The last leaf of Marjorie’s Surprise Book was very, very thin. It did -not make Marjorie poke and feel and wonder what was inside its pocket. -It was marked to open at the Christmas tree. So the first thing that -she did was to pull its Christmas seals off and read what was written -inside: - - “I hope you will always be happy-- - As happy as you can be, - As happy as all the happy times - That you have shared with me.” - -“I made that up,” said Dotty, proudly. “I did it all myself.” Really, -I think that Marjorie’s Surprise Book belonged to both little girls, -don’t you? But which one do you suppose liked it best? Was it Marjorie -or was it Dotty? What do you think? For myself, I think it was the one -who made it and gave it and thought it and planned it all. So, maybe, -there is somebody that you love to whom, you, too, would like to give a -Surprise Book like this of Marjorie’s. - -And because I myself love all you children, I am giving _you_ the story -of a Surprise Book right here--now! - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Surprise Book, by Patten Beard - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SURPRISE BOOK *** - -***** This file should be named 56170-0.txt or 56170-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/1/7/56170/ - -Produced by MFR, David E. 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