Sunny Boy was glad Oliver had sent him an invitation to his party and not a Christmas card. He spent the greater part of the afternoon writing an answer to the letter. First he wrote it in pencil, and when he had shown the pencil copy to Mother and Harriet and Aunt Bessie (who came to lunch and to see if Sunny Boy was quite well after his snow storm experience) and they had all said it was a very nice answer indeed, he copied it in ink. He had to do this five times before it satisfied him. Sunny Boy would not send a letter to Oliver with the tiniest spot of ink on it, and he was willing to do a thing over and over and over to get it right. Before he had finished putting the stamp on the envelope--Harriet said Sunny Boy shook the house when he put a stamp on a letter, and indeed he thumped it as though he were pounding with a brick--Nelson and Ruth Baker came over to see him.
"Did you get lost yesterday?" asked Nelson. "When did you get home?
We only had one session in school."
Nelson went to the public school and he had to go to school in the afternoon unless the princ.i.p.al decided to have only one session, as he often did when it stormed.
"Are you going to Oliver"s party?" said Ruth. "We are. What are you going to take him?"
Sunny Boy could tell Nelson all about getting lost and when he came home, and he could explain to Ruth that he was going to Oliver"s party.
But he could not tell her what birthday gift he meant to take Oliver, because he hadn"t thought about it.
He asked Mother, after Nelson and Ruth had gone home, and she said they would go down town some afternoon before the party and find something nice.
The telephone man came to fix the wires that afternoon, and when Daddy Horton came home to dinner he said that much of the snow had been cleared away in the streets.
The next morning Sunny Boy started off to school and Daddy walked with him up to the steps, as he had done the snowy morning. It was very cold, but all the walks were clear and the great high walls of snow that had been piled up along the pavements made fine places for jumping boys. Sunny Boy tried several himself, and Daddy had to remind him that it was a quarter to nine, or he might have been late for school.
Every one talked about the blizzard in school. All the children wanted to hear from those who had been lost, and Sunny Boy and Jimmie and Perry and Carleton and the three little girls were kept busy answering questions. Miss May and Miss Davis asked questions, too, and even when they did get at their lessons they read snow stories and drew sleighs and horses and snow forts on the blackboard.
But after that day, Oliver Dunlap"s party was the most exciting thing talked about. There might be another snowstorm but, as Oliver said, he wouldn"t be eight years old again that winter.
"Oliver"s party is to-morrow, and I haven"t any birthday present for him yet," Sunny Boy said to his family at breakfast the day before the party.
"We"ll go down town and get it this afternoon, as soon as lunch is over," Mrs. Horton promised. "I didn"t mean to leave it till the last minute, dear, but I have been very busy. Hurry home from school, and we"ll go and buy him something nice."
After school Sunny Boy hurried home, and he and Mother went down town shopping as soon as they had had lunch. They looked at ever so many things which might please Oliver, and finally they decided that a little flashlight he could carry in his pocket would be a good birthday gift for him. They bought it, and Mrs. Horton wrapped it up nicely and Sunny Boy wrote on a little white card, "Many Happy Returns of the Day from Sunny Boy to Oliver," and this was tied on the outside of the package.
The next day was Oliver"s birthday. It happened to be a Sat.u.r.day.
Miss Davis said this was lucky, or she didn"t know what might have happened in school. She said no one could expect children who were going to a party in the afternoon to be very much interested in learning to spell and write in the morning.
The party was to be from two to five o"clock, and Sunny Boy, in his best white flannel suit, and carrying Oliver"s present under his arm, started about quarter of two for the birthday boy"s house.
At the same time the door of the Bakers" house opened.
"Going to the party?" called Nelson, running down the steps of his house, followed by Ruth. "What did you get for Oliver?"
Sunny Boy told him. Nelson said he had a story book to give Oliver.
Ruth had a little silver pencil, she said. Sunny Boy thought that Ruth looked very pretty, dressed all in white from her white rubbers to her white fur hat. She didn"t complain about her feet being cold, either.
But that may have been because Oliver did not live very far away.
There were about twenty children at the party, when all the guests had arrived. Mrs. Dunlap and Oliver shook hands with each, and the boys put their hats and coats in Oliver"s room while the little girls put theirs in his mother"s. Sunny Boy knew nearly all the children except one, a boy who seemed older than any of the others and who, whenever he had a chance, teased the girls by pulling their hair-ribbons or putting out his foot to trip them as they went past him in the games.
"That"s Jerry Mullet," whispered Oliver to Sunny Boy. "He"s a cousin of Perry Phelps". I didn"t know he was visiting Perry when I sent the invitations, but Mrs. Phelps called up Mother and asked if Jerry couldn"t come to the party. I don"t like him very much, do you?"
"Oh, I guess so," said Sunny Boy, who wanted to be polite and who liked Perry Phelps so much he wanted to like his cousin, too.
Among the games they played were several in which prizes were given to those who won the game. Ruth Baker won the spider web prize, much to her delight, for she was the youngest of the little girls, and it made her feel quite grown up to be asked to an eight-year-old party and to win a prize also.
"We are going to play the donkey game before supper," announced Mrs.
Dunlap, after they had played several other games. "The donkey game is old, but Oliver thinks you will like it," went on Mrs. Dunlap. "I will blindfold you, children. You first, Jerry."
Jerry was blindfolded and turned around three times. Then he started for the picture of the donkey pinned up on the wall. A shout of laughter greeted him when he pinned the tail on one of the donkey"s long ears.
Nelson Baker was next, and he pinned the tail on a leg. Helen Graham pinned it on his neck. Dorothy Peters took a long time to decide where she would stab her pin and then, after all her trouble, only succeeded in pinning the tail on the donkey"s nose. Child after child went up, and not one of them pinned the tail anywhere near the place where a donkey"s tail should grow.
"Now, Sunny Boy, you come and try it," said Mrs. Dunlap, smiling at Sunny Boy. "Never mind if these children do laugh. They are ready to laugh at nothing now. You pin the tail on the donkey, and then we"ll go out to the dining-room and see what Kate has to surprise us."
CHAPTER XII
JERRY LOSES HIS TEMPER
Sunny Boy stood very still to have the handkerchief tied over his eyes.
He was glad it was his turn, and he meant to pin that donkey"s tail almost in the right place, if not the exact spot.
"There you are, Sunny Boy," said Mrs. Dunlap gaily, turning him around and around gently, three times. "Now you are ready to try your luck."
Sunny Boy tried to remember where the donkey was pinned. He walked forward slowly, taking queer little short steps. When your eyes are blindfolded, you know, you feel every moment as though you were going to step down into a hole. Suddenly Sunny Boy lifted his pin with the donkey"s tail on it and made a quick jab. He was sure he had reached the picture of the donkey.
"Ouch!" shrieked a boy"s voice.
After that came a moment of perfect silence; and then, such a shout of laughter! Girls and boys seemed to be shouting together and Sunny Boy thought he heard Mrs. Dunlap laughing with them. He pulled off the handkerchief, and then he saw what they were laughing at. He had pinned the donkey"s tail on Jerry Mullet!
"Oh, my! Oh, my!" laughed Perry Phelps, rolling over on the floor.
"Oh, Sunny Boy, I never saw anything so funny in my life! You lifted that pin so high in the air and brought it down on Jerry"s arm before he knew what you were going to do. I never saw anything so funny!" and Perry rolled over on the rug and began to laugh again.
All the children were laughing, and pretty Mrs. Dunlap had tears in her eyes because she had laughed so much. Only Jerry Mullet looked cross.
"I hope I didn"t hurt you," Sunny Boy said to him. "I didn"t mean to stick a pin into you."
Before Jerry could do more than scowl, Perry sat up on the floor wiping his eyes.
"What I want to know--" he said, "is Jerry a donkey?" And then he began to laugh again, and this time the children shouted with him.
They thought this was the funniest question, and they laughed and laughed and kept saying to each other: "Is Jerry a donkey, because Sunny Boy pinned the donkey"s tail on him? Is Jerry a donkey?"
"I"ll show you whether I"m a donkey or not," growled Jerry, frowning at them all. "I"ll show you! I won"t stay at your old party!"
And he dashed upstairs and into Oliver"s room where his hat and coat were. Downstairs he came flying, and never stopped in the parlor to tell Mrs. Dunlap he was going or to say that he had had a pleasant time. No! Instead, Jerry opened the front door and banged it after him with a crash that shook the house.
"He"s gone!" said Sunny Boy, dismayed. "He"s mad!"
"I"m afraid he is," admitted Mrs. Dunlap. "And I"m sorry. He didn"t have his ice-cream."
"He didn"t like it "cause I pinned the donkey"s tail on him," said Sunny Boy sorrowfully. "But I didn"t mean to."
"No, of course you didn"t," answered Mrs. Dunlap. "Don"t feel bad over that, Sunny Boy. I"m afraid we teased Jerry too much about it, though.