"Yes; Dave and I have," said Joel, "we have lots and lots."
It didn"t take Jack long to be over in front of the cabinet, and pulling out its many drawers. So that he was lost to all the fuss of dressing that Joel and David were undergoing, and it wasn"t till he had been clapped on the back most vigorously with a, "Wake up, old chap," that he realized that the dreaded time had arrived when he must go out to his first company. Then a dreadful feeling came over him.
"Oh, I can"t go," he declared, his face turning as red as a beet, and he stood still, perfectly miserable.
"Why, Mrs. Sterling expects you," began David!
Joel had no such gentle ways.
"Come along, you," he cried, hauling Jack away from the cabinet and hurrying him off downstairs. Then he began to chatter as hard as he could, saying the first things that came into his head, until the gray stone mansion was reached, and they were fast and safe within the door.
Joel drew a long breath and began to mount the stairs.
"Any boys here yet?" he asked, looking up at Gibson in the upper hall.
"Yes," said Gibson; "three boys have come."
Joel didn"t wait to ask who they were; he left David to bring Jack along and raced in to speak to Mrs. Sterling and the members of the Comfort committee.
"I am very glad to see you, Joel." Mrs. Sterling beamed at him from her sofa, feeling quite sure of the success of the first company she had given to the boys, now that Joel Pepper had come.
Joel gave her a bright little nod; then, remembering himself, he went over to her sofa and stuck out his little brown hand.
"I"m glad I"ve come," he said, bobbing at the same time in great satisfaction to the boys.
"Where is your friend, Joel?" asked Mrs. Sterling, in disappointment. "I surely thought you would bring him."
Joel glanced around in dismay, then pranced out into the hall. A scuffling noise struck upon his ear, and leaning over the banister, he saw David and Jack apparently hanging on to each other and whirling around in the hall below. He was down over the stairs in a flash.
"He says he must go home," said David, still holding fast to the edge of Jack"s jacket, and looking up with a very pink face.
Jack looked thoroughly ashamed, but he still cast wild eyes at the big front door, as Joel considering whatever was to be done at all, should be done quickly, launched him upstairs, and before he had a moment to breathe freely, pushed him into the beautiful sitting-room above with a, "Here he is."
The room swam all around before Jack, as he went up to the sofa-edge, and Mrs. Sterling"s soft, white hand took his hot, nervous one. He didn"t know in the least what she said, or how she looked, as he couldn"t raise his eyes, but he remembered afterward that her voice was sweet and low, and that somehow he wasn"t so afraid after that, and then Joel dragged him into a knot of boys, for by this time several were pouring into the room. And in five minutes Jack felt as if he had known them all for years, and he quite forgot that this was the first time he had ever gone into company.
When the bustle of the arrival was over, and every member of the Comfort committee was present, Mrs. Sterling said:
"Now I think, Gibson, the first thing we should do is to have supper."
So Gibson went over and touched the electric b.u.t.ton on the wall, and in came the butler and two maids bearing trays full--well, just crowded with all the good things a boy could desire to eat. And these having been placed on the big, mahogany table in the center of the room, usually filled with books and magazines, but which had been cleared for the purpose, each boy was invited to come up and be helped to whatever he wanted, an invitation that wasn"t long left unaccepted.
Joel, in his fear that Jack would somehow be left out in the cold, bent all his energies toward getting him something to eat. The consequence was, that he forgot all about waiting on Mrs. Sterling, and, glancing around after he had poked a plate of cold chicken and jelly into Jack"s hand, he saw two or three of the boys--Frick and even little Porter Knapp--vying with each other to be the first to serve their hostess.
"Ugh!" cried Joel, seizing the first thing on the table that caught his eye. It proved to be the salt-cellar, and he rushed up and presented it with a flourish.
"Ho, ho!" exploded Frick, as the little knot of boys parted in the middle, "why we"ve only got her a napkin and a plate."
Joel glanced down ruefully at the salt-cellar in his hand, and was going to beat a retreat with it, quite crestfallen.
"Thank you, Joel; I shall want it pretty soon," said Mrs. Sterling, smiling into his red face. "There, we"ll put it on the table"--for Mrs. Gibson had been busy drawing up a light stand to the side of the sofa--"and will you bring me some cold chicken?"
"Me?" cried Joel, perfectly radiant, but scarcely believing that he could be meant, after his awkwardness.
"Yes, you," said Mrs. Sterling, laughing; "so hurry, and get it, Joel."
No need to tell him that. Joel sprang at the table again, bore off a plate of the desired delicacy, and a spoonful of currant jelly by its side, and flew back again.
"Is that right?" he asked anxiously, with a dreadful feeling that he ought to have asked her if she wanted brown or white meat.
"How did you know I am very fond of white meat, Joel?" asked Mrs. Sterling.
"And above all things I like the wing."
"Do you?" cried Joel, in a transport. "Now what else?"
"Nothing now, and the next time, why, I must let Frick and some of the other boys help me," said Mrs. Sterling, "so run back and get something to eat yourself, Joel."
So Joel, with a mind to edge up to see how Jack was getting on, found to his amazement that he was laughing and talking with the last boy with whom he would have supposed it to be possible--Curtis Park!
"Dear me!" exclaimed Joel to himself, tumbling back instinctively when he saw that he wasn"t wanted, and he fell up against David.
"I couldn"t help it," said Davie, who had been quite miserable since his ill success in getting Jack over the stairs after Joel. He was aimlessly crumbling up a biscuit on his plate, and eating nothing.
"Well, "tisn"t any matter," said Joel, "and he"s here now, and having a good time; just hear him laugh," he added enviously.
"Is that Jack laughing?" asked David incredulously, poking his head around the intervening boys to see for himself.
"Yes, it is," said Joel, bobbing his head decidedly.
"Oh, well, then, it"s all right," said David happily. So he ran off to fill his plate and go over in the corner to eat its contents with a group of boys of whom he was especially fond.
Joel, left alone, was feeling very dismal, when suddenly he looked over, and caught Jack"s eye. Curtis Park was saying something very jolly--Joel knew it was, for he caught sc.r.a.ps of it, and so did some of the other boys who pushed up to hear the rest. But Jack Parish evidently didn"t listen, for his eye had been anxiously roving around the room, and just at that moment, they rested on Joel, and they lighted up so unmistakably that Joel sprang forward, a light in his own.
"Did you want me, Jack?"
"Yes," said Jack, "I did." The words were not much, but they seemed to satisfy Joel.
XXVI
MR. HAMILTON DYCE A TRUE FRIEND
And after every boy protested that he couldn"t eat another bit, the butler and the two maids packed up the trays and carried them down again.
"Now, Comfort committee," said Mrs. Sterling, "all draw up here."