"They"re just for girls, aren"t they?"
Jimmy fidgeted uncomfortably, but before he could think of anything to say, Herb came to his rescue.
"You"d better act nicely or you won"t get any," he said with true brotherly frankness. "If you"re real good we may let you have one or two, though, just as a special favor."
"I thought those candies belonged to Jimmy," said Amy quickly. "I don"t see what you"ve got to say about them, anyway, Herbert darling."
"I guess we"d better compromise," suggested Bob, laughing. "Suppose we set them on the center table, and then we can all help ourselves. That"s fair enough, isn"t it?"
"Yes it is not!" exclaimed Herb. "The girls"ll eat them all while we boys are fooling with the radio. But I suppose we might as well let them have the things that way as any other. They"ll get them some way, you can bet on that."
"You"re just mad because you can"t have them all yourself," said Agnes serenely, as she nibbled at a chocolate. "You boys go ahead with your radio. We"ll take care of the candies."
"What did I tell you?" said Herb disdainfully. "That"s about all girls think of anyway-eating candy."
"Oh, go on," said Amy. "We don"t like them a bit better than you boys do, only you won"t admit it."
"They couldn"t like them much better than Jimmy does, that"s a fact,"
said Joe.
"Aw, forget it," said Jimmy. "We"re all in the same boat when it comes to that. Let"s get busy with the radio."
The candy incident was soon forgotten in the interest of the concert they heard that evening. There was an unusually fine program, one of the features of which was a lecture on radiophony. The boys listened attentively to this, and got some valuable information in regard to the latest developments of the science. After this was over there were a number of band and orchestral selections. The girls listened to these, too, and when they were over, Agnes made a suggestion.
"Since your set works so well, why couldn"t we give a dance?" she asked.
"You can always find a station that is sending out dance music, can"t you?"
"Say, that"s a pretty good idea!" exclaimed Bob. "There are plenty of other young people in the bungalows around here, and I don"t think we"d have any trouble in getting a good crowd."
"Fine and dandy!" exclaimed Joe. "By that time we may have our loop aerial finished, and it will be a good chance to try it out."
"Suits me all right, provided I can work the set and don"t have to dance," stipulated Jimmy. "If I try to dance these hot nights, I"ll just melt away like a s...o...b..ll in front of the fire."
"Maybe when some of the pretty girls around here come in you"ll change your mind," said Agnes.
"Well, we ought to have lots of fun, anyway," said Bob. "We"ll leave it to the girls to give the invitations, and we"ll guarantee to furnish all the music you want. We"ll make Ocean Point sit up and take notice."
"You"ve got to ask some of the younger girls, too, and not just your own set," put in Herb quickly, for his sisters were both older than he was by a few years.
"Oh, of course," promised Agnes. "This will be a free for all."
The rest of the evening they spent in making plans for the forthcoming party, and the next morning the boys set to work like beavers on the loop aerial. They hardly paused for meals, and before the day was over they had it completely made and set up. The girls, as well as the boys, were greatly interested in the first test, and they all waited breathlessly for the sounds that should issue from the throat of the horn. It was not long before the boys picked up a concert that was going on in Boston, and the effect was startling. After they had tuned out all interferences the music came in sweet and full and in such volume that they even had to tone it down a little. Mrs. Fennington, seated on the porch, could hear everything distinctly, and applauded each number.
The evening of the party arrived in due course, and the guests all arrived early, many of them curious and somewhat sceptical about hearing dance music by radio. Agnes and Amy had told them about the loud-speaking apparatus, and they were all prepared for something novel.
But it is safe to say that few of them were prepared for as pleasant an evening as this one turned out to be. Receiving conditions had never been better, and the boys had no trouble in picking up fox trots, waltzes, or any other style of dance music. Between the dances they got some more serious music that happened to be "in the air" from some other station than that sending out the dance music, and their entire apparatus worked like a charm all through the evening.
The radio boys did not spend all their time over the radio set, either.
They found plenty of opportunity to dance and laugh with the many pretty girls who had been invited, and everybody concerned enjoyed the evening hugely. Mrs. Fennington had provided plenty of ice-cream, cake, and lemonade, articles which did not lack appreciation among the youthful company.
When the party finally broke up all who had been present expressed themselves as having had a wonderful evening.
"I think we just had a perfectly spiffy time," said Agnes, somewhat slangily but with undoubted feeling. "I think I"ll be as crazy about radio as you boys are, pretty soon."
"It"s about time," commented Herb. "You never cared so much about it before, but now that you can dance to it, you think it"s fine."
"Well, she"s right," said Amy, coming to the defense of her sister.
"What is there that"s better than dancing?"
"Oh, the world"s full of better things," declared Herb. "But there"s no use my trying to tell you what they are, I suppose."
"You can"t tell "em anything," chuckled Jimmy. "They won"t believe you if you do."
"If we believed all the fairy stories Herb has told us, we"d have to be pretty silly," said Agnes.
"Well, you"re both pretty, anyway," said Joe gallantly.
"Thank you," said Agnes. "That"s more than Herb would say in a hundred years."
"I heard him saying that to one of the girls he was dancing with this evening," said Bob slyly. "How about it, Herb?"
"Aw, you didn"t anything of the kind," declared Herb, but he betrayed himself by blushing furiously.
"Poor old Herb," said Joe. "He must be pretty hard hit. What do you think, Bob?"
"Looks that way to me," answered Bob. "He sounded as though he meant it, anyway."
"Well, so I did," said Herb. "If she hadn"t been pretty, I shouldn"t have been dancing with her."
"Gracious! how my young brother hates himself," exclaimed Agnes.
"How can I hate myself, when all the girls fall for me so?" asked Herb brazenly.
"Oh, you"re a hopeless kid," said Agnes, laughing. "Come, Amy, I"m going to bed," and the two girls said good-night and left the room.
"I guess it"s about time we all turned in," said Bob. "We"ve had a mighty fine evening, though, and I"m proud of the way our outfit showed up."
The others felt the same way. They were just about to disperse when Mrs.
Fennington entered the room.
"This evening has been so successful," she said, "that I was wondering if we couldn"t give a concert in aid of the new sanitarium that is being built here. They are greatly in need of money to carry the project on, and I"m sure you would be doing a wonderful thing if you could help it along."
The boys were for the project at once, and said so.
"But do you think people will pay to hear a radio concert?" asked Herbert.
"Of course they will!" exclaimed his mother. "They pay to hear every other kind of a concert, don"t they? And when they know it is to aid the new sanitarium they will be all the more anxious to come."
"I"m sure we"ll do our share," said Bob. "We"ll be glad to give the concert, and if people shouldn"t come to it, that wouldn"t be our fault."