Blue Bonnet was up early the next morning, ready for the shopping expedition which promised to be of more than ordinary interest. Aunt Lucinda seemed inclined to be almost extravagant, Blue Bonnet thought, as together they made out the shopping list and pored over the advertis.e.m.e.nts in the papers.
"Let"s begin at Hollander"s, Aunt Lucinda," Blue Bonnet said. "I love Hollander"s. We could get the Peter Thompsons there, and my evening dresses and slippers and things."
The "evening dresses" amused Miss Clyde.
"I am afraid you did not read the school catalogue very carefully, Blue Bonnet. It especially requested simplicity of dress."
"I know it did, Aunt Lucinda, but you saw how sweetly the girls were gowned at dinner. Perhaps the dresses _were_ simple, but they looked expensive and--dressy," she added for want of a better word. "That pretty dark girl that sat next me had on the darlingest pink organdy with a Dutch neck. Oh, it was so dear. I wonder where she got it?"
She had not long to wonder. The Boston shops seemed to have antic.i.p.ated the needs of girls all over the country. Blue Bonnet stood entranced before cases of the daintiest frocks that could be imagined.
"Oh, Aunt Lucinda," she exclaimed, holding up two that attracted her, "I can"t make up my mind which of these is the prettier. I adore this blue crepe with these sweet b.u.t.tons, but the white organdy is such a love with that white fixing--and, oh, will you look at that yellow chiffon! I suppose I couldn"t have chiffon, could I? It looks too partified."
Miss Clyde thought not.
"But you might try on the white, and the blue gown," she said.
They fitted admirably with a few alterations, and to Blue Bonnet"s great joy Miss Clyde took both--and yet another; a sheer white linen lawn with a pink silk slip, which called forth all the adjectives Blue Bonnet could muster.
Then came an exciting moment when slippers and hose were selected; dainty but serviceable underwear, and the little accessories that count for so much in a girl"s wardrobe.
"I feel exactly as if I were getting a trousseau," Blue Bonnet said, as they started for a tailor"s, where she was to be measured for suits.
"And, Aunt Lucinda, there"s just one more thing I want--two things! A desk and some books. You saw that desk in the room I am to have. Well, the cross--I mean Miss Cross--had her things in it. I saw them. I don"t want to share it with her. We"d be forever getting mixed up and fussing.
I"d like to avoid that."
Miss Clyde remembered the check Mr. Ashe had sent--the half of which had not yet been spent, and the instructions that everything was to be provided for Blue Bonnet"s happiness and comfort. Had she a right to refuse? She, too, wanted Blue Bonnet to be happy and comfortable, but her New England training from youth up made the lavish spending of money almost an impossibility. She greatly feared that the increased allowance Mr. Ashe had insisted upon giving Blue Bonnet for her private use at boarding-school, would inculcate habits of extravagance.
After they left the tailor"s a desk was soon found, suitable in every particular--mahogany, of course, since the other furniture in the room was.
Coming out of the furniture store Miss Clyde and Blue Bonnet pa.s.sed a floral shop. Blue Bonnet gave a little cry of surprise.
"Look, Aunt Lucinda, there"s Cousin Tracy!"
She slipped up to him quietly, putting her arm through his. He turned in a dazed sort of fashion.
"Well, well," he said. "Where did you come from?"
"Woodford."
"When, pray?"
"Yesterday."
Mr. Winthrop seemed surprised, and Miss Clyde made haste to explain.
"Look here," he said, putting his hands on Blue Bonnet"s shoulders and turning her toward the florist"s window.
A miniature football game was being shown in gorgeous crimson and gold settings. The field was outlined in flowers and the little men in caps and sweaters were most fascinating.
Blue Bonnet gave his arm a squeeze.
"It"s the Harvard-Yale game, isn"t it,--to-morrow? I"m crazy about it.
Oh, I do hope Harvard wins! My father was a Harvard man. So are you, I remember."
"Want to see it?" Cousin Tracy asked, as if seeing a Harvard-Yale game were the simplest thing possible.
Blue Bonnet fairly jumped for joy.
"Could I? Could we get tickets?"
Cousin Tracy nodded and touched his breast pocket significantly.
"I have two. Right by the cheering section."
She crossed her hands in an ecstatic little fashion that expressed the greatest excitement and joy.
"You wouldn"t mind, would you, Aunt Lucinda? Why, the We Are Sevens wouldn"t get over it in a week. It seems too good to be true."
Before Miss Clyde and Blue Bonnet parted with Mr. Winthrop all arrangements had been completed, and Blue Bonnet walked away as if she were treading on air.
That night the following letter found its way into the Boston mail:
"COPLEY PLAZA HOTEL, BOSTON, Ma.s.s., "November 28th, 19--.
"DEAREST UNCLE CLIFF:--
"Aunt Lucinda and I came up here yesterday to buy my clothes for school, and also to see what kind of a room I was to have when I come up for good the first of January.
"Aunt Lucinda has been awfully nice about everything, letting me get most of the things I wanted. I have some loves of dresses, which I won"t take time now to describe, as you will be in Woodford so soon for Christmas and will see them. They will be fresh, too, for Aunt Lucinda says I can"t wear any of them until I am at Miss North"s. Aunt Lucinda bought me a perfect treasure of a desk--mahogany, with the cunningest shelves underneath for books. She bought me some new books, too--some that I"ve wanted for a long time. There"s "The Life of Helen Keller;" grandmother has one, and I simply adore it; and Th.o.r.eau"s "Week on the Merrimac," and one or two of Stevenson"s--Robert Louis, you know--and a new "Little Colonel," my old one is worn to shreds.
Oh, yes, and a beautiful new dictionary; it looks too full of information for anything, and there"s a perfectly dear atlas with it besides. We got a copy of Helen Hunt"s "Ramona," too. We don"t know yet if Miss North will allow me to have any love stories; but, if she won"t, Aunt Lucinda will keep it for me. I wouldn"t part with it for anything. We had such fun getting the books; only Aunt Lucinda kept fussing about modern bookstores, and wishing that I might have seen the "Old Corner Book Store,"
where she used to come when she was a girl. She says she used to spend whole days there browsing around--she really said that--and poking under the counters and behind things for what she wanted. Just fancy! I think a nice polite clerk that comes up to you with a pleasant smile and says, "What can I do for you, Madam?" is much nicer, don"t you?
"I"ve saved the worst of my news for the last. I hope it won"t make you unhappy, for there will be some way out of it, I reckon. It"s this: I hate the room-mate I"ve got to have. She"s perfectly horrid--you wouldn"t like her a bit, Uncle Cliff; and the way she shakes hands--well, it makes you feel as if you were going to have to support her until she got through with the ordeal--so limp, and lack-a-daisy. She"s tall and thin, with straw-colored hair and white eyelashes and cold blue eyes, and she"s from Bangor, Maine. I tried to talk with her for a minute while Aunt Lucinda and the house-mother were making arrangements about me, but all I could gather was that she was a Senior, and from the State of Maine. Why do you suppose these Easterners always say from the State of something? Seems so much easier to just say Maine.
"There was another girl that I sat next to at dinner (we stayed to dinner) who was real nice and so pretty. Her name is Annabel Jackson, and she"s from Tennessee. She had on such sweet clothes. I didn"t talk to her much, for I couldn"t get the other one off my mind--Joy Cross, from the State of Maine. Such a name! Joy! If it could only have been Patience or Hope or Faith--even Dolores, but I suppose it couldn"t.
"Uncle Cliff, I"ve been wishing so that Carita Judson could go to school here at Miss North"s with me. She has such a hard time with all those babies to tend. I told Aunt Lucinda that I wished I could send her out of some of my money, but she said to wait until you got here and then talk it over. I don"t know whether she could get a room now or not, the school is so full this year--that"s why I have to have the cross. You could be thinking it over, couldn"t you, Uncle Cliff, and let me know as soon as you come?
"I reckon I"ve about got to the end of my news now, except that Cousin Tracy is going to take me to the Harvard-Yale game to-morrow. I"m so wild over it that I know I sha"n"t sleep a wink to-night. I will write Alec about it when I get back to Woodford and tell him to give the letter to you and Uncle Joe to read.
"Give my love to all the folks on the ranch. How"s Benita? Did she like the lavender bags I sent for the sheets? I hope she uses them as I told her. I rather thought she might hang them around her neck or give them to Juanita. I know if the We Are Sevens were here they would send heaps of love. Aunt Lucinda sends her best regards. I am counting the days now until Christmas. I check off every day on the calendar until I see you.
"With dearest love, I am, "Your affectionate niece, "BLUE BONNET ASHE.
"P. S. Please tell Alec that Aunt Lucinda has promised to look after the General and Solomon when I"m gone. I am going to miss Chula awfully, but there is a riding-school where Miss North lets the girls get horses and ride with a teacher.
"P. S. Miss North seems very nice, but you never can tell how people are going to be until you live with them, I hope for the best. B. B."