in the week that intervened between the opening of the tea room and christmas, the patty-pans girls found their new enterprise developing from a sort of glorified doll's house, in which they could fulfil their favorite childish play of "helping mother," into a stern reality. even happie came home at night silent and white, laura openly bemoaned her fate, while margery and gretta palely and limply betrayed their indifference to everything but bed and sleep.
of course it was delightful to be so successful as they were; that is, it was delightful to review the success of each day from the vantage ground of the following morning. but at night, when feet ached, head was tired, hands weary and patience tried by a succession of women, themselves too tired from shopping to be courteous, then the tea room lost all semblance of a frolic and became a stern fact.
christmas eve came at last, just as the girls had had faith to believe it would come, on the twenty-fourth. everybody seemed to be too busy to drink tea, so it was an easy day, and happie, laura and polly came home early, in good spirits, when bob called for them. margery and gretta had been at home all day, for it would never do for them all to desert the patty-pans on christma[55]s eve.
"i have a christmas present!" bob announced jubilantly the moment the quartette got inside the little parlor. "i was bursting to tell happie—and laura and polly, of course—on the way home, but i kept it to tell all of you together. it's from mr. felton. what do you guess, girls?"
"a nice dog," cried penny, inspired by her secret desire.
"a gold watch," hazarded polly.
"money," said laura.
"oh, they've guessed everything!" happie began, but margery cried: "promotion! nothing that was for himself alone could make dear old bob look so glad."
"oh, say, margery!" protested bob. "but you guessed right. mr. felton said—well, he said i was useful to him, and he liked to have a fellow 'round whom he could trust, and he is going to give me charge of some of his inside business, rentals and things of that sort, in the office, you know, instead of sending me out. i'm to start in on ten dollars a week."
"oh, bob, dear!" cried mrs. scollard.
"well, he'd better appreciate you!" declared happie, rushing to prove her appreciation of bob by choking him.
"i'm so glad, you best of brothers!" murmured margery, with eyes alight.
[56]
"there's no one like bob," said gretta, to every one's surprise and her own consternation.
"here's where having a family comes in. you all think it's my just dues, but i can tell you i'm as pleased as punch over it," said bob. "mother, you may plume yourself on this promotion. if i weren't a good accountant mr. felton couldn't have given me my chance, and you are my teacher. you'll get twice as much income as you've been having out of your investment in me. that strikes me as the main point."
fine bob's eyes were moist. he was not quite seventeen, and it had been long weary waiting for the day when he could do a fraction of what he wanted to do for the brave mother who had struggled on alone while her children were small. here was his foot placed on the lower rung of the ladder by his christmas promotion, and he had always been sure that, given the first rung, he could climb.
mrs. scollard understood what was in bob's heart. she slipped her hand through the boy's arm, going down the tiny hall to his room.
"it is not i who have done it, my robert," she whispered. "it's your own upright, truthful honesty and industry; your sterling self. i know, my son, and i'm thankful that my one boy is what he is."
"the scollards are getting rich!" cried happie rapturously rumpling up her bronze hair, already sufficiently disordered by the wind. "margery, shall we take a house on the plaza or fifth avenue next year?[57] i always liked north washington square best of all new york."
"don't make your disobedient hair any worse, hapsie!" protested margery. "you look as if you were likely to take a padded cell." but she was not less delighted than happie, and sang like a whole field of larks, as she helped get the dinner on the table.
the scollards kept to the fashion of giving christmas gifts on christmas eve, and when the girls got the dinner out of the way and its consequent work done, they brought out the presents they had long been making and treasuring up for one another.
gretta, who had learned the family custom during the summer, had prepared in crestville for this night. she now brought forth bags and feather-stitched aprons, made of materials familiar to the girls from frequently seeing them in the all-sorts store to which black don dolor used to take them down the mountain road. and after these had been produced, gretta brought forth sunbonnets made like her own in which happie had found her lonely, painting the fence on her cousins' farm, where she had been tolerated almost intolerantly.
gretta looked ashamed of her gifts, though they were the best she could find or afford to buy. her cousins had allowed her no money; in the old days she had had none except what she could earn in small ways, and the stock of the crestville shop was not varied. there was no mistaking the fact, however, that the scollards liked gretta's gifts. they brought back the summer days, the pleasan[58]t ark, the glorious mountains and the funny, homelike little store.
happie put on her pink sunbonnet at once, and the others followed her example. thus crestville crowned, they proceeded to open the new york packages with which each lap was filled. they were not costly presents, but there was nothing that did not represent time, thought, affection, and which did not fit the receiver's needs and tastes. consequently much laughter and more pleasure accompanied the opening of every tightly tied package.
at one of the gifts happie looked gloomy. margery had received by mail a dear little soft leather book of sonnets, and it seemed to happie that she stroked it as she handled it. now, even an enthusiastic book-lover hardly pets his books, and so it seemed to happie to argue—however, this was christmas eve, and good will to man must include, by an effort, robert gaston.
a messenger brought a packet from miss bradbury. mrs. scollard signed for it, and came back with it to her children. "from aunt keren!" she said.
margery opened it, being the eldest. it contained six mistletoe lace pins of green enamel and pearls, beautiful pins in design and workmanship. they held the holly-red ribbon around a long envelope addressed to "the six tea maidens." when this envelope was torn open by happie it proved to contain the receipt for six months' rent of the tea room! kind aunt keren, who went abo[59]ut regardless of fashion, yet did so much for others in her abrupt way!
a scarf pin in its own white box, for bob, was a slender circle of olivines, their green tint exquisite against the white satin.
"for my all-round man, gardener, coachman, farmer and guardian in last summer's green fields," the card said.
mrs. scollard silently held up a little book and a piece of yellow lace.
"my mother's little hymn book, and dear miss keren's own mother's lace," she said, as she read a brief note and laid it inside the book.
there were many small gifts from friends. happie's three e's, edith, elsie and eleanor, remembered her—laura looked as though she found it hard to be the third girl, and not as rich in friends as the two older ones. but gretta's face was a study as she handled first one and then another of her gifts. it was her first experience of a home christmas, and it bewildered her with a sense of its sweetness.
"i wonder how rosie likes her box?" she said, looking up. rosie gruber, left in charge of the ark, had not been forgotten. miss bradbury and the scollards had sent her up such a provision for the feast as would be the talk of the township for days.
"think of eunice and reba sitting all alone to-night, after scolding each other all day it's likely! no wonder they are cross!" said gretta, with a sudden pity for [60]the two women who had embittered her childhood springing from the warmth of her present happiness.
"no, they're in bed, gretta," laughed happie, who found it harder to forgive gretta's cousins than gretta did.
"yes, gretta, pitying thoughts of the unloving ones to-night!" said mrs. scollard with a smile for gretta. "it's so horrible to love nothing; worse than not to be loved, could the two conditions be separated. now the christmas hymns, laura, and then to sleep, for penny is drooping, and she must be up bright and early, because santa claus comes to her in the morning."
laura went to the piano and all the others stood around her. they all sang, more or less; margery's voice was an unfailing joy, and the harmony of the little family choir was rather remarkable.
"ralph and snigs! quick, bob, fetch them!" cried happie. and laura improvised a medley of christmas airs while they waited. it was not long; the gordon boys came only too gladly, and their mother with them. they brought more thrilling little white packages tied with holly ribbon, and the hymns had to wait a while longer. ralph handed happie her gift with a funny bow and a bashful look unlike "ralph the ready," as the scollards called him.
[61]
"your mother will let you wear it because there isn't any etiquette about a gift from a boy; it's only young ladies who can't take presents from young men. and—and i'd like a great deal to have you wear it, happiness," ralph said.
it was a delicate hoop of gold for her left wrist. happie caught it up with a cry of pleasure. "i've been wanting a bangle; you need one with short sleeves, and this is so slender it's lovely. of course i'll wear it, and of course mamma will let me! thank you heaps, ralph. here, you wish it on!"
she held out her hand all folded up for ralph to slip the bangle over it. he did so, scarlet even to his ears, as bob watched him gravely and snigs poked laura in the most unmistakable manner.
"now it's on and i won't take it off till you say the time for the wish is up. i hope it's a good wish, ralph! thank you and thank you!" said happie wholly unembarrassed.
they sang hymns until the clock warned them of half-past ten and penny was carried by bob into her mother's room, fast asleep.
"a dear christmas eve somehow; so quiet and nothing-special, only dear," said happie, thoughtfully, brushing her hair preparatory to braiding it for the night. gretta sighed contently. "it's my first one. i've seen fifteen twenty-fourth of decembers, but never a christmas eve before. i don't see how it could have been nicer."
[62]
"and six months rent of the tea room! dear auntie keren. i don't like to take it; i'm sure she has to go without lots of things to give us that. it isn't as though she were rich," said margery, slipping a kimono over her white gown and turning the pages of the little green leather book.
"you aren't going to sit up to read that book, margery!" protested happie. "just a book from almost a stranger, a boy you hardly know!"
margery laughed. "i knew him rather well in those long weeks at bar harbor, sister keren," she said. "and he is twenty-four years old. now your bangle is from a boy! almost a stranger too! we didn't know the gordons last christmas."
"mamma said she wouldn't have let you keep a bangle from any other boy, but it was almost like a present from a cousin, ralph runs in and out so, and she thought it would be spoiling your nice friendship to object in his case," said laura, who loved to slip in to share the three older girls' cozy talks in the intimacy of getting ready for the night. she quoted her mother with a primness of lip and manner of which mrs. scollard was incapable.
"oh, of course, i knew that in a minute," said happie easily. "it's a lovely little bangle. i do like ornaments that seem to say: 'she didn't put me on to have you notice me; she put me on because she liked me herself!' and that's what this bangle hints. of course ralphy doesn't count." it sounded ungrateful, but it was pure sisterly affection.
[63]
christmas morning's mail brought pleasant greetings and a few small gifts to the patty-pans. it also brought happie an envelope that bore the word, "invitation" as plain to be seen—though invisible—as was her name and address.
"elsie's going to have something!" exclaimed happie as she recognized elsie barker's heraldic seal. it was over this seal that happie and elsie had had their one falling-out, when happie had irreverently suggested that elsie use a dog's head instead of a coat-of-arms, since that represented the oldest family of barkers.
happie tore open the envelope now, always ready to hail the chance of a party, and found the invitation for which she looked, an invitation to a "noel party" of old-time games and merrymaking on new year's eve. with the invitation was an informal note. "dear hap," elsie wrote. "i've asked you and laura and bob, and left margery out because she's older than any of the guests, and i'm going to make this a young party. but i wish you'd tell margery that i'd like to have her come if she doesn't scorn my sixteen years' old limit. i'd like to invite your friends, the gordons, if i knew them. i'm hard up for nice boys our age. couldn't you ask me down to meet them in a day or two? then i'd invite them. i'm going to have a dandy party; just you wait till you see it! merry christmas! yours in a rush, elsie."
[64]
"scrumptious!" cried happie. "you're asked, laura; so's bob, and elsie says she'd ask margery, if she'd like to come, and——" happie stopped suddenly, and began reading the invitation, then the note, then turned each sheet of paper over as if something might have escaped. "well!" she exclaimed.
"what's the matter?" asked gretta. "how queer you look! and you were so pleased at first!"
"yes; nothing's the matter. i'm going to tell margery—and mother," happie said hurrying out to the dining-room, catching up jeunesse dorée on the way to save herself from tripping over him.
"just look here, mamma and margery," she began in an excited whisper. "here's an invitation from elsie for all of us—not the little ones, of course, but laura, and she's left out gretta! and what makes it worse is that she wants to be asked down here to meet the gordons, so she can invite ralph and snigs! i didn't see at first that gretta was left out, and i was crazy to go. but i wouldn't go if elsie did that purposely. she knows gretta is here; she must have meant it, don't you think so?"
"yes, of course," said margery.
"well, dear happie, elsie probably feels that gretta wouldn't quite fit in with all those girls, and that you'd understand it," said mrs. scollard. "i don't believe gretta would care about it."
[65]
"she ought to have the invitation all the same," said decided happie. "she can refuse it if she wants to. of course i know she's a country girl, never has seen society—but, my goodness! i've told the girls all about her, how handsome and nice she is, and i should think elsie might risk her getting on! i'm sure elsie knows lots of girls that have bad enough manners! gretta hasn't bad manners; she only isn't used to things. and talk about society! elsie says it's to be a young party—it isn't the cotillion, or anything like that. i should think gretta might get on among girls of fifteen, if elsie means what she says about giving sort of an old-fashioned christmas merrymaking. at any rate she's my friend, staying here with us, and i know enough of society customs to know elsie has no business to slight my guest when she asks this family, and i won't have her slighted. i'm going up this afternoon to see elsie and find out if she could have forgotten gretta, and if she left her out purposely i won't go to her party; neither will bob, and i don't imagine elsie will care what laura does, because she's only thirteen—anyhow, i don't see how she could go without us."
happie turned indignantly to walk away, but paused as her mother said:
"dear happie, you can't make the world over. people won't accept others on their merits. we love gretta, and we see her precisely as she is, and we know that her little lacks come from the one lack of opportunity. b[66]ut you can't alter social conditions, dear, and it is wise to take the world as you find it."
"mother, do you mean that you want me to accept an invitation that slights gretta? it isn't as though we were women grown; we are only schoolgirls. and you hear stories all the time of the funny things women do when they have money that takes them into society—i mean vulgar, new-rich women, not used to nice people. gretta would never make mistakes that came from vulgarity. do we have to accept quite horrid people, because they've money, and let a refined young girl be slighted, because she has only a little bit of money, and is from the country? do you think it would be nice in me to go to elsie's party if she won't ask gretta?" happie poured out her eloquence with the passionate protest of a big nature in its first, youthful encounter with the inconsistencies and injustice of which hearts that feel and eyes that see find the world too full. she had yet to learn that customs have grown out of an average of experience, and that, on the whole, life would not be happier for any one concerned if social standards were different.
"dear little hapsie, no, i would not approve of your accepting an invitation that slighted your guest," said mrs. scollard laying her hand on happie's shoulder. "you owe something to gretta; you must defend her because she has come into our family as she has. but i am only trying to point out to you that elsie feels a[67]s most people would, and does not consider herself called upon to investigate the merits of a particular case. dear, you will learn to be patient with an absurd world as years go on. i love you for being loyal and for hating shams and injustice, but be just to the other side also. social customs are no more consistent than are the human beings who made them. i don't want you to beat yourself too fiercely against the barriers; it would wound you, not them. only in heaven, hapsie, can real standards prevail. you must expect the world to worship the idols itself sets up."
"there's no one like you, motherums, so gently firm, so patiently in earnest," said happie. "i'll try to stand by gretta without being fierce to elsie."
"run down to elsie's now, dear, and remember she has a right to choose her guests," said mrs. scollard, kissing the flushed face turned up to hers.
happie hurried on her coat and hat and flew down to the barkers' for five minutes with elsie in her room, as she prepared for a great family dinner at her grandmother's, who adhered to the older fashion of festival dinners at one o'clock, like the solemn sunday of her generation.
"yes, happie, i did mean to leave out your pennsylvania dutch girl, or whatever she is," elsie replied firmly to happie's direct question. "it's all very well for you to have her in your flat, and very likely she is pretty, and not rough, but i can't ask her into my set—[68]you ought to see that."
"you are not obliged to ask her, elsie. i don't see how you can tell whether you can ask her or not unless you meet her—as you wanted to meet the boys," said happie with a quiet manner and a home thrust. it was evidently not dangerous to risk boys on happie's guarantee! elsie flushed as she recognized happie's advantage. "but, on the other hand, we scollards can't accept your invitation, elsie. it's all right, only bob and i won't come, thank you," happie continued.
"if you want to be a goose," said elsie much annoyed, "i can't help it. you are not in society yourself, happie, so you don't understand."
the blood of happie's ancestors, signers and puritans, involuntarily arose in her at this hint, forcing her to say, forgetful of the christmas spirit: "edith wouldn't have slighted gretta, but the charlefords can afford to ask whom they please."
she took her departure on the heels of this remark, which she repented before she had walked a block. for the charlefords were genuine aristocrats, while the barkers were "new people." but it was true that edith would not have slighted gretta.
