“Let’s go into the library. There’s a fine fire on the hearth and the big lamp is stationary. Ephraim can’t find fault with us for using that. We’ll make out a list of the folks to ask. You, Alfy, shall do the writing, you do write such a fine, big hand. Come on, Molly girl! I’m so glad you begged to stay behind your Auntie Lu. Aren’t you?”
“Ye-es, I reckon so!” answered the little Southerner, with unflattering hesitation. “But it’s mighty lonesome in this big house without her and West Point’s just – just heavenly!”
“Any place would be ‘heavenly’ to you, Molly Breckenridge, that was full of boys!” retorted Dolly. “But don’t fancy you’d be allowed to see any of those cadets even if you were there. Beg pardon, girlie, I don’t want to be cross, but how can I have a decent party if you don’t help? Besides, there’s Monty and Jim left. They ought to count for something.”
“Count for mighty little, seems if, the way they sneak off by themselves and leave us alone. Gentlemen, Southern gentlemen, wouldn’t act that way!”
“Oh, sillies! What’s the use of spoiling a splendid time? It’s just like a cow givin’ a pailful of milk then turnin’ round and kickin’ it over!” cried good-natured Alfy, throwing an arm around each girl’s shoulders and playfully forcing her into the cheery library and into a great, soft chair. Of course, they all laughed and hugged one another and acknowledged that they had been “sillies” indeed; and a moment later three girlish heads were bending together above the roomy table, whereon was set such wonderful writing materials as fairly dazzled Alfaretta’s eyes. So impressed was she that she exclaimed as if to herself:
“After all, I guess I won’t be a trained nurse nor a opera singer. I’ll be a writin’ woman and have just such pens and things as these.”
“Oh, Alfy, you funny dear! You change your mind just as often as I used to!”
“Don’t you change it no more, then, Dorothy C.?” demanded the other, quickly.
“No. I don’t think I shall ever change it again. I shall do everything the best I can, my music and lessons and all that, but it’ll be just for one thing. I lay awake last night wondering how best I could prove grateful for all that’s come to me and I reckon I’ve found out, and it’s so – so simple, too.”
“Ha! Let’s hear this fine and simple thing, darling Dolly Doodles, and maybe we’ll both follow your illustrious example!” cried Molly, smiling.
“To – to make everybody I know as – as happy as I can;” answered the other slowly.
“Huh! That’s nothing! And you can begin right now, on ME!” declared Miss Alfaretta Babcock, with emphasis.
“How?”
“Help me to tell who’s to be invited.”
“All right. Head the list with Alfaretta Babcock.”
“Cor-rect! I’ve got her down already. Next?”
“Molly Breckenridge.”
“Good enough. Down she goes. Wait till I get her wrote before you say any more.”
They waited while Alfy laboriously inscribed the name and finished with the exclamation:
“That’s the crookedest back-name I ever wrote.”
“You acted as if it hurt you, girlie! You wriggled your tongue like they do in the funny pictures;” teased Molly, but the writer paid no heed.
“Next?”
“Dorothy Calvert.”
“So far so good. But them three’s all girls. To a party there ought to be as many boys. That’s the way we did to our last winter’s school treat,” declared Alfaretta.
“Well, there’s Jim Barlow. He’s a boy.”
“He’s no party kind of a boy,” objected Molly, “and he’s only —us. She hasn’t anybody down that isn’t us, so far. We few can’t make a whole party.”
But Dolly and Alfy were wholly serious.
“Montmorency Vavasour-Stark,” suggested the former, and the writer essayed that formidable name. Then she threw down the pen in dismay, exclaiming:
“You’ll have to indite that yourself or spell it out to me letter by letter. He’ll take more’n a whole line if I write him to match the others.”
“Oh! he doesn’t take up much room, he’s so little,” reassured idle Molly, with a mischievous glance toward the doorway which the other girls did not observe; while by dint of considerable assistance Alfy “got him down” and “all on one line!” as she triumphantly remarked.
“That’s two boys and three girls. Who’s your next boy?”
“Melvin Cook. He’s easy to write,” said Dolly.
“But he’s gone.”
“Yes, Alfy, but he can come back. They’ll all have to ‘come’ except we who don’t have to.”
A giggle from behind the portières commented upon this remark and speeding to part them Dolly revealed the hiding figures of their two boy house-mates.
“That’s not nice of young gentlemen, to peep and listen,” remarked Molly, severely; “but since you’ve done it, come and take your punishment. You’ll have to help. James Barlow, you are appointed the committee of ‘ways and means.’ I haven’t an idea what that ‘means,’ but I know they always have such a committee.”
“What ‘they,’ Miss Molly?”
“I don’t know, Mister Barlow, but you’re – it.”
“Monty, you’ll furnish the entertainment,” she continued.
The recipient of this honor bowed profoundly, then lifted his head with a sudden interest as Dorothy suggested the next name:
“Molly Martin.”
Even Alfy looked up in surprise. “Do you mean it, Dorothy C.?”
“Surely. After her put Jane Potter.”
James was listening now and inquired:
“What you raking up old times for, Dorothy? Inviting them south-siders that made such a lot of trouble when you lived ‘up-mounting’ afore your folks leased their farm?”
“Whose ‘Party’ is this?” asked the young hostess, calmly, yet with a twinkle in her eye.
“All of our’n,” answered Alfaretta, complacently.
“How many girls now, Alfy?” questioned Molly, who longed to suggest some of her schoolmates but didn’t like a similar reproof to that which fell so harmlessly from Alfaretta’s mind.
“Five,” said the secretary, counting upon her fingers. “Me, and you, and her, and – five. Correct.”
“Mabel Bruce.”
“Who’s she? I never heard of her,” wondered Molly, while Jim answered:
“She’s a girl ’way down in Baltimore. Why, Dorothy C., you know she can’t come here!”
“Why not? Listen, all of you. This is to be my House Party. It’s to be the very nicest ever was. One that everyone who is in it will never, never forget. My darling Aunt Betty gave me permission to ask anybody I chose and to do anything I wanted. She said I had learned some of the lessons of poverty and now I had to begin the harder ones of having more money than most girls have. She said that I mustn’t feel badly if the money brought me enemies and some folks got envious.”
Here, all unseen by the speaker, honest Alfaretta winced and put her hand to her face; but she quickly dropped it, to listen more closely.
“Mabel was a dear friend even when I was that ‘squalling baby’ Alfy wrote about. I am to telegraph for her and to send her a telegraphic order for her expenses, though