CHAPTER XII
A May Party
After the little pony was fairly established in his new home, Grandma Dallas declared that she was not to be outdone by grandpa, and to make the present quite complete she would add a pony-cart; and then three merrier children could not be found than Eleanor, Florence, and Rock as they drove out, the pony scampering unweariedly over many a mile. It seemed no distance now to Mr. Snyder's and many a call did the good butterman and his wife receive from the children.
But as the first of May approached an event was promised which threatened to cast all other interests in the shade. Florence and Eleanor had started to one school after Easter, and Rock to another. Eleanor was welcomed back with open arms by most of the girls, but Olive and Janet still held aloof, and did not join her special company of friends. "She's so stuck up, now that she has a pony, that she can hardly see," Eleanor heard Janet say one day, for Eleanor was not above giving her head a little toss and looking supreme contempt at the speaker whenever they met. "And it isn't because I've a pony," she told Florence, "but I just despise her anyhow."
That very day Miss Reese made an announcement which set all the class astir. "Since I do not expect to return to you next year, girls," she said, "I thought we would have a little frolic before we part, and I have planned to go a-Maying. But not on the first of May," she added. "We will wait till it is warm enough to go with no danger of taking cold. Now, I think it would be pleasant to try to have a real May party, with a May-pole and a May-queen and all that. Each one of you will be privileged to invite one guest, a boy if you like, for we must have some boys along, and two weeks from to-day will cast votes for the queen. That will give you time to think the matter over so you will not decide hastily. I do not think we shall want to select the prettiest, nor the wealthiest, but the one who shows the most loving disposition or the most conscientious work, or some quality of mind or heart to commend her." Not a girl but hoped that she would be selected, and not one but felt that this was one of the most exciting events that she had ever looked forward to.
"Oh, Florence, suppose one of us should be chosen," said Eleanor, as the two were walking home from school. "Wouldn't it be perfectly lovely to wear a flower crown and be dressed in white and carry a sceptre. Are you going to invite any one?"
"Why, yes, I think I will invite Rock, unless you want to."
"Oh, no, so long as he comes it will not make any difference. Oh, don't you hope you will be chosen?"
Florence was obliged to confess that she did hope so, but just how greatly she desired the honor not even Eleanor knew. Florence loved everything romantic, and it seemed to her that to be a May-queen must be the summit of human bliss. She had been so short a time at the school that she hardly dared to believe that she would stand a chance of being chosen, much as she longed to be. She saw that her Cousin Eleanor was very popular and that she would be one of the first favorites. Olive Murdoch was an excellent student and was very careful about obeying rules, and she was in many respects the most attentive girl in the class. She had numerous friends, too, for where Olive liked any one she could make herself very agreeable, and had the qualities which made her a leader. Indeed, before the week was out, it looked as if the two who would receive the most votes were Olive and Eleanor.
"I shall vote for you," Eleanor told Florence.
"And, of course, I shall vote for you," Florence returned. "Oh, Dimple, if Olive Murdoch is chosen I don't believe I shall care to go to the May party. I should hate to call her fair queen and all that. Are we to vote for the maid of honor?"
"I don't know. Miss Reese hasn't said anything about it, but if we can choose the one we most want, and if I should be queen, I shall want you, of course."
"And I shall want you."
At last came the day when the votes were to be given. Twenty little girls, with hearts beating fast and with hopes high, cast in their votes; a box to receive them stood on Miss Reese's desk. It seemed to the children, as they sat there with the odor of apple-blossoms drifting in through the open windows, and the fair May green before them as they looked out, that Miss Reese never had been so long over anything. She separated the slips of paper into small heaps and carefully counted each one over more than once.
At last she looked up, and smiled to see the little eager faces. "Olive Murdoch, seven votes; Eleanor Dallas, six; Florence Graham, three; Edith West, two; Leila Clark, two; Elsie Vail, one."
"Oh," came a little murmur from the class and Olive's face wore a triumphant and self-satisfied expression, while Eleanor and Florence looked at each other, reading in one another's face the disappointment written there.
Suddenly Miss Reese spoke again: "Why, this is not right; there should be but twenty votes and there are twenty-one. Some one has given two votes. Now, shall we vote over again? Shall I call upon each girl to announce her choice? or, since there seems to be no doubt but that Olive Murdoch and Eleanor Dallas have received the greatest number of votes, shall we consider them the candidates and let the class vote over again for one or the other of these two girls? All in favor of this last plan please raise their right hands." Up went most of the right hands and Miss Reese nodded approvingly.
"Now," she said, "each girl can write her choice on a slip of paper and bring it to me, and then there will be no mistake. Jessie, give out these slips." A little flush arose to Olive's cheeks and she whispered something to the girl next her, who nodded in reply.
The room was so still that the singing of a robin outside in the apple-tree seemed the only sound to be heard. Then one by one the girls came forward with their slips of paper. Miss Reese read each one silently, and as Olive's turn came she looked up with a queer little smile at the girl who dropped her eyes and went back to her seat with a flushed face. Miss Reese again counted the votes. "This time we have just twenty," she said. "There are for Eleanor Dallas twelve votes; for Olive Murdoch, eight." Every girl turned and looked at Eleanor whose face turned a rosy red and in her confusion she said quite loud enough for them all to hear, "Oh, Florence, I wish it had been you."
Miss Reese rapped on her desk. "Now," she said, "I think it will be best to take a different way to choose the maid of honor. Let each girl think of whom she would like and give her reason for it. I think that will make it quite interesting. You may begin, Elsie."
"I think Olive should be the one because she came so near being the queen," said Elsie.
Miss Reese nodded to the next girl who said she thought that some girl who had received no vote should be chosen.
Then came one who said: "I think Florence Graham, because she is a stranger here, and she isn't going to stay very long. I think it would be more polite to choose her." This seemed to strike the most of them favorably, and in the end Florence was made supremely happy by being elected maid of honor, and this important matter being settled, there were other questions to be discussed and the May party in all its ins and outs was talked over.
Although there were some disappointed little souls, as a rule all were well satisfied that the choice of queen had fallen where it did. Eleanor was radiantly happy and yet she could not help feeling sorry for Olive, who had counted upon being the favored one, and who gave Eleanor a look of scorn as she passed her. "She needn't look so," said Florence indignantly. "It was perfectly fair, and every one says so. I haven't a doubt but that she voted for herself," which, if the truth were known, was true, and, indeed, it was also true that the extra vote on the first ballot was cast by Olive. If Miss Reese suspected this she never said so, but she did know that Olive's name was on the slip of paper which she brought up, and that was why she gave Olive the quizzical little smile, for no other girl in the whole school had voted for herself.
Rock was jubilant when he heard the decision. "Hurrah for Queen Eleanor!" he cried. "I am just delighted, and all the more that you got ahead of Olive Murdoch."
But Eleanor looked sober when he said this. "She's dreadfully disappointed," she said, "and I'm awfully sorry for her. She studied real hard and does her lessons so well. I sort of think that she should have been chosen."
"Why, Dimple Dallas," exclaimed Florence. "I don't see how you can say that."
"I do think so. She is the best scholar in the school."
"Yes, and she's the hatefullest and the slyest." Florence was too loyal to Eleanor to believe any good of Olive.
"Well, anyhow, Jessie is a nice child and I like her," Eleanor maintained. "She was never mean to me once, and if you were not to be my maid of honor I should choose her next." This Eleanor said to Jessie, and furthermore, invited her to go with Florence, Rock and herself to gather flowers for the arbor under which the queen was to sit. Great masses of mountain laurel, wild honeysuckle and other spring blossoms they carried home in the little pony-cart, and long garlands were woven for the arbor.
"Won't you come and help us make the wreaths?" Eleanor asked Jessie.
"I should like to," she answered, "but mamma said I was to come right home as soon as we got back from the woods. I have had a lovely time, and I'd like to stay," the child repeated wistfully. "I just love that little pony."
"You shall drive with us whenever you want to," Eleanor assured her, as she bade her good-bye.
Eleanor was very thoughtful all the rest of the day, even when she and Rock and Florence were busy over the crown for the May-queen to wear the following day.
"Busy over the crown for the queen to wear"
"Busy over the crown for the queen to wear"
"Busy over the crown for the queen to wear"
"We'll keep some of the prettiest bunches to trim our dresses with," said Florence. "Bubbles, bring us a basin of water to put them in. I shall have a little bunch on each shoulder and you can have the same, Dimple. Oh, where did you get those lovely lilies of the valley?"
"Mr. Atkinson sent them to me. I met him on the street and he was asking me about the May party."
"Where are they going to set up the May-pole?" Rock asked.
"Just back of Mr. Atkinson's; in that pretty meadow with the grove at one end."
"What a lovely place!" exclaimed Florence. "Where are you going, Dimple?"
"I'm just going to speak to mamma." And a moment later she entered her mother's room with a very serious face.
"What is the matter with the May-queen?" her mother asked.
Two tears started to Eleanor's eyes and she hid her head on her mother's shoulder. "I want to be May-queen so much," she said in a stifled voice.
"Well, dearie, I don't see anything to grieve you in that."
"Do you think I ought to give up to Florence or Jessie? It seems mean not to give them the chance."
Her mother smiled. "I don't think you are called upon to do anything of the kind. You were chosen fairly by the class, and you have no more right to refuse than if a presidential candidate were to say: 'Mr. So-and-so wants so much to be president. I'll give my place to him.' It is very kind of my little girl to think of such a thing, but I don't think it would do. Let the matter rest as it is. Every one will have a good time, and next year, or upon some other occasion, perhaps Jessie will have another chance."
"But Florence won't."
"Maybe she will. We might have a May party of our own next year in Florence's honor, and then she could be queen and Jessie maid of honor, if that would do."
"Oh, mamma, that is a lovely plan for you to think of, I feel real comfortable now."
And, therefore, with not a cloud to mar their pleasure the children started off for the May party. The little pony, which they had named Spice, wore a garland around his neck, and when Eleanor, dressed in white, with her maid of honor by her side, appeared in the little flower-decked pony-cart, a shout arose from the children, and with one accord they began to sing "God save the Queen."
Then Eleanor was helped down by two of her gentlemen-in-waiting, and was conducted to her throne; her crown was placed upon her head and her sceptre in her hand. Then a merry, merry time they had dancing around the May-pole, weaving in and out with their many-hued ribbons. The lookers-on in Mr. Atkinson's garden said it was the prettiest sight the town had seen in a long time.
After this they played games and sang songs and romped and ran and searched the woods for wild flowers till it was time for feasting.
When each basket was opened a store of good things appeared; these were spread out upon the grass, and the little queen was served first. But as she was eating her ice cream, she saw a pair of sparkling black eyes peeping through the fence. "Oh, there is Bubbles," she exclaimed. "Poor little Bubbles."
"What is your Royal Highness' wish concerning her?" asked Rock with quick wit, as he dropped upon one knee. "Is it yon sable maiden who has attracted your Majesty's notice?"
"Yes, it is. I wish she could have some of these good things."
"Where is the Premier?" asked Rock. "Oh, there she is. Miss Reese, her Majesty, the Queen, desires a consultation." And Miss Reese came forward.
"There is Bubbles," the queen said in very familiar language. "Please, Miss Reese, can some one take her some ice cream and cake? Is there enough?"
"An abundance. I will see that she has some," was the reply.
"May it please your Majesty, I will undertake the errand," said Rock. "Do you send me in quest of the hand-maid who has found favor in your sight?" Rock's language was a funny mixture of courtly and Scriptural expressions.
"Yes, do go, Rock, there's a dear." And Bubbles was made supremely happy by a generously piled up plate of cake and ice cream.
For some reason Don had taken a sudden liking to Rock, in spite of the latter's snubs and his coolness toward him. Rock was a bright boy with a ready wit and much ingenuity, and Don, with the admiration a small boy so often feels for a larger one, followed him around upon this May day until Rock, at first annoyed, was finally sorry for the smaller boy and began to pay him some attention, and to Eleanor's surprise, she saw the two hobnobbing like old friends before the day was out.
Whether it was on Rock's account or not, it is true that when the queen's chariot, as Rock called it, was driven up for Eleanor and Florence, no one was louder in his cheers than Don, and despite the old grievances, Eleanor could not help being pleased by this evidence of Don's good-will, and she drove off as happy as a little girl could be, followed by shouts of "Long live Queen Eleanor!" Spice shaking his mane and evidently in high feather at such a frolic.
"Has my dear daughter had a happy day?" asked Eleanor's mother as she kissed her good-night.
"So happy, mamma." There was little pause, then Eleanor said: "Don has to pick strawberries all day Saturday, for Mr. Snyder, and Rock is going to help him. May Florence and Bubbles and I go too? We can take Jessie and get through a lot."
"I cannot allow you to pick berries all day, dear, but you may spend a part of the afternoon in that way if you want to. Rock can do as he chooses, of course, but, how comes it that you are asking permission for Bubbles?"
"Don likes us all now," returned the child, "and Bubbles says if we pick for him, why, she will too, but I don't believe Olive will ever care for any of us."
"Perhaps she will. If one goes right along and does the best she knows how, after a while even her enemies will see her as she really is. What do you think Cousin Ellen said to me to-day when we stood together in Mr. Atkinson's garden looking at the May party?"
"I don't know. What did she say, mamma?"
"She said: 'Eleanor makes a very sweet little queen, doesn't she?'"
"Oh, mamma, truly?"
"Yes, truly. I think Mr. Snyder and Doctor Sullivan and—Don, perhaps, have had something to do with her change of opinion. At all events, we may hope that even Olive will be friends with you yet."
Eleanor shook her head, but just then Florence called, "Queen Eleanor, your Majesty, aren't you ever coming to bed? What makes you stay so long?"
"'Cause I'm so happy," answered Eleanor, after a last "Good-night!"