It did really prove to be one of the most successful forms of money-raising for the Red Cross that had been attempted in Centerport. And later they tried Ember Night in Lumberport and Keyport.
Laura Belding was not proud of her success, however, for poor Short and Long had been badly burned. Fortunately his face was only blackened, and the doctors decided that he had not inhaled any of the scorching flame.
Laura and Purt had wrapped him in the blanket so quickly that the fire was smothered almost at once. Yet there were bad burns on his arms and body--burns that would leave ineffaceable scars.
The girls of Central High had two interests now to take them to the hospital. The stranger who did not know his name and Short and Long both came in for a lot of attention.
The latter had never known before how popular with his schoolmates he was.
Fruit, flowers, candy and the nicest confections from the Hill kitchens found their way in profusion to Billy"s bedside.
After a day or two the doctors let him see whoever came, and he could talk all right. It made him forget the smart of his burns.
Of course his sister Alice came frequently, and she had to bring Tommy, the irrepressible, along. Tommy was more interested in the good things to eat at his brother"s bedside, however, than he was in Billy"s bodily condition.
There was so much jelly, and blanc-mange, and other goodies that the invalid could not possibly consume all. Tommy sat and ate, and ate, until the nurse said:
"Tommy, don"t you know that you are distending your stomach with all those sweets? It is not good for you."
When Tommy learned that "distending" meant that his stomach was being stretched, he was delighted.
"Gimme some more, Allie," he begged his sister. "Please do, Allie dear. I want to stwetch my "tomach. It"s never been big "nough to hold all I want to eat."
The interest of Laura and her close friends in the strange man with the broken leg did not lag. He talked freely with his visitors; but mostly about Alaska and his adventures in the gold mines.
As near as he could guess, he must have come out of the mines with his "pile," as he expressed it, almost ten years before.
"What under the canopy I have been doing since, I don"t know. But if I"ve got down to two thousand dollars capital, I must have been having an awfully good time spending money; for I know I had a poke full of gold dust when I struck the coast and went over to Sitka."
"More likely he was robbed," said Chet.
"He looks about as much like a miner as Pa Belding," Laura declared.
There was too much going on just then, however, for Mother Wit to try out the thought that had come to her mind regarding this man. All these interests had to be sidetracked for school and lessons. And just at this time recitations seemed to be particularly hard. With rehearsals for the play, and all, mere knowledge was very difficult to acquire.
"I know I"m not half prepared in physics," wailed Nellie Agnew, as she and other juniors trooped into school one day, two weeks before Christmas.
"And I," said Jess Morse, "know about as much regarding this political economy as I do about sweeping up the Milky Way with a star brush."
"How poetic!" cried Laura, laughing. "I wonder if we all are as well prepared?"
"They expect too much of us," declared Dora Lockwood.
"Much too much!" echoed her sister.
"I wonder," said Laura, "if we don"t expect too much of the teachers?"
In the physics recitation Nellie Agnew, as she prophesied, came to grief.
Miss Carrington seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of whom to call on at such times. She seemed aware that Nellie had not prepared her lesson properly. It might be that the wary teacher read her pupils" faces.
Nellie"s was so woebegone that it was scarcely possible to overlook the fact that she probably felt her shortcomings in the task at hand.
Miss Carrington called on the doctor"s daughter almost the first one in physics. To say "unprepared!" to Miss Carrington was to bring upon one"s head the shattered vials of her wrath. There was no excuse for not trying, that strict instructor considered.
So Nellie tried. She stumbled along in her first answer "like a blind man in a blind alley," so Jess Morse declared. It was pitiful, and all the cla.s.s sympathized. The gentle Nellie was led to make the most ridiculous statements by the silky-voiced teacher.
"And you are a physician"s daughter!" Miss Carrington burst out at last.
"For shame!"
"If I were Nell," said Dora Lockwood to her twin, "I"d cut pills altogether after this. I"d rather take math with Mr. Sharp himself."
Miss Grace G. Carrington was never content to let a pupil fail and sit down. She nagged and browbeat poor Nellie until the girl lost her nerve and began to cry. By that time the other girls were all angry and upset, and that physics recitation was bound to go badly.
When Jess was called on she rose with blazing cheeks and angry eyes to face their tormentor. Miss Carrington saw antagonism writ large upon Jess Morse"s face.
"I presume, Miss Morse, you think I cannot puzzle you?" said Miss Carrington in her very nastiest way.
"You can doubtless puzzle me," said Jess sharply. "But you cannot make me cry, Miss Carrington."
"Sit down!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the angry teacher. "That goes for a demerit."
"And it is about as fair as your demerits usually are," cried Jess.
"Two, Miss Morse," said the teacher. "One more and you will not act in that play next week."
"If I"d been born dumb," sighed Jess afterward, "it would have been money in my pocket. I almost had to bite the tip of my tongue off to keep from saying something more."
"And so ruin the whole play?" said Laura softly.
"Huh! I guess Hester Grimes will do that," declared Jess. "She moves about the stage like an automaton. She is going to get us a big laugh, but in the wrong place. Now, you see."
The girls rehea.r.s.ed every afternoon, and the athletic work was neglected.
Mrs. Case excused those who were engaged in producing the play. "The Rose Garden" was not such an easily acted play as they had at first supposed.
Mr. Mann was patient with them; but in Hester Grimes" case he could not help the feeling of annoyance that took possession of him.
Hester Grimes took offence so easily.
"Every rehearsal I look for her to cut up rusty," Jess cried. "And somebody has got to play the part of the dark lady! It is not a part that can be cut out of the cast, although it is not a speaking part."
Hester had begun to complain, too, because she had no lines. She considered that she was being deprived of her rights, and was of less importance than the other girls, because she was dumb on the stage.
"Why! even Bobby Hargrew," she complained, "with her silly sailor part, has lines to repeat, besides that sailor"s hornpipe in the first act. Of course, you girls would wish the least important part onto me."
"What nonsense, Hester!" cried Jess. "If you really understood the play and the significance of your part, you would not say such a thing. And do, do be less like a wooden image."
"Humph! I guess I know my part, Jess Morse," snapped Hester. "It doesn"t matter at all what I do on the stage."
"What did I tell you?" groaned Bobby. ""Double! Double!" and-so-forth.
There is trouble brewing. If we all had measles or chicken-pox, and so couldn"t give the play, we"d be in luck, I verily believe."