CHAPTER XIVNEWS INDEED!
“I have a piece of news for you,” said Mr. Fayre, as the family sat at dinner one night.
“What is it, Dads?” asked Dolly, as her father paused.
He was still silent, and his face looked a little grave as his eyes rested in turn on his two daughters and on their guest, for Dotty was still there. After a moment, he said:
“I’m afraid it will hit you hard, Trudy, and I know it will make Dolly miserable. So I hate to tell you. But it must be told. I’ve been ordered to Buffalo.”
For a moment the girls didn’t take in just what he meant, then Trudy cried, “Go to Buffalo! To live? All of us?”
“Well, Trude, I certainly couldn’t leave any of my family behind me. Mother and I are going, and I guess you girls better come along too.”
Dolly sat looking at her father, her eyes very wide and very blue as she thought over what he was saying.
“We can’t do it,” she said, finally, and as if she were disposing of the whole matter: “I can’t go away from Berwick to live.”
“But, Dolly dear, where would you live, here alone? In Treasure House?”
“She can live with me!” exclaimed Dotty, excitedly. “Why, she’llhaveto. I won’t let my Dollyrinda go away from Berwick. She’s mine, and I’ve got to keep her!”
“Is it really true, Father?” asked Trudy, looking very thoughtful. “Must we go?”
“Yes, dear,” answered Mr. Fayre. “The company has transferred me to the Buffalo office, and I must obey or leave the road. You know a freight superintendent is under orders from his superiors.”
“There isn’t anybody superior to you, Daddy,” said Dolly, who was looking blank and stunned at the news she had heard. “Can’t you tell the president, or whoever is sending you, that you won’t go?”
“I might, Dolly; but that might mean my entire dismissal, and who’d buy your hair-ribbons then, my girl?”
“But to Buffalo!” wailed Dolly. “We might as well go to Timbuctoo!”
“It’s awful,” said Trudy, with a long-drawn sigh. “Did you know about it, Mother?”
“Yes, some days ago. And I knew how sorry you girls would feel. But I know you’ll brace up and meet the disappointment bravely, for Father’s sake. He doesn’t want to hurt his girls so, but he can’t help it.”
“What will Bert say?” said Dolly; “won’t he be mad!”
“I don’t think Bert will care as much as you girls,” began Mr. Fayre, when Dotty interrupted: “My Dollyrindashan’tgo! I won’t have it! I’ll make my father buy her for me, and keep her here! That’s what I’ll do!”
“Don’t be silly, Dots,” said Dolly, who was beginning to realise that this thing was a fact. Apparently her parents had already become used to the idea, and were regretting it principally on the girls’ account.
“Do you want to go, Father?” Dolly asked. “Would you just as lieve live in horrid old Buffalo as here in beautiful, lovely Berwick?”
“No, Dolly, I wouldn’t. But I must obey orders.”
“Whose orders?”
“The general manager, child.”
“Why, that’s Mr. Forbes, isn’t it? Bernice Forbes’ father?”
“That’s the man.”
“Is he sending you away?”
“Not directly; that is, not personally. But he and the board of directors have combined to decree this thing. They consider it an honour, Dolly. It is a better position, financially, and I have earned it by my integrity and exemplary behaviour!” Mr. Fayre smiled at his younger daughter, and was so honestly sorry for her that he didn’t know what to do.
“Well, Daddy, I can’t stand it,” and Dolly shook her head. “I’ll just die, that’s all. I couldn’t live anywhere except here. You couldn’t get me another Treasure House, or another Dotty Rose, or all our crowd at school, or anything that I have here.”
“But Buffalo may be full of Dotty Roses and Treasure Houses and school crowds, that are heaps nicer than the Berwick variety!” Mr. Fayre tried to speak gaily, but at these words Dolly burst into tears and Dotty followed suit.
The family left the table, and though they tried to have calm and general conversation the effort was vain, and very soon the Two D’s went off up-stairs.
They went to Dolly’s pretty bedroom, and here their woe broke out afresh.
“Oh,” wailed Dolly, “I can’t leave this room, this pretty, sweet, lovely room, and go to old Buffalo, to sleep in an attic with rats gnawing me!”
“Why would you do that?” and Dotty stopped midway of a sob to understand this dire prognostication.
“Well, it’s as bad as that, whatever it is.”
“But if your father gets more money, more salary, you know, maybe you’ll have a grand house, like the Forbeses.”
“I don’t want a grand house. If it’s in Buffalo at all, I’d just as lieve have the ratty attic as anything else!” and Dolly renewed her weeping. She rocked her plump body back and forth in paroxysms of woe, and wailed out new horrors as they came to her distorted imagination.
“Iknow the sort of girls they’ll have there. All wearing shirtwaists and old ribbon bands round their foreheads! Oh, I know!”
“How do you know?” and Dotty’s admiration rose at these strange revelations.
“Oh, I sort of see them, the horrid bunch! I hate to see girls of our age in shirtwaists, and Iknowthey’ll all have them. And the boys will be horrid, too. Not nice, like our brothers and Tad and Tod, but all sort of outgrown!”
“My! Buffalo must be an awful place!”
“It isn’t only Buffalo, it’sanyplace in the United States, except Berwick. Don’t you see it, Dotty? Don’t youknowit must be so? And if not just as I’ve described, it’s something equally worse!”
“Yes, I s’pose so,” returned Dotty, awed by this instinctive knowledge of Dolly’s.
“But I’ve got to go, all the same. So I’ve got to make up my mind to it.”
“You shan’t go, and you shan’t make up your mind to it! I won’t have it. Say, Doll, how about this? If you do go,—you visit me six months every year, and I’ll visit you six months.”
“No; if I go, I shall give you up entirely, and get a new chum up there. I can’t have my most intimate friend a million miles away. And you know our people wouldn’t agree to that six months business.”
“You’ll get a new chum! Dorinda Fayre, I think you’re the most awful girl I ever saw! I believe youwantto go to your horrid old Buffalo, and have a girl with a shirtwaist on, for your intimate friend, and a band around her forehead!”
“Oh, hush up, Dotty! I didn’t mean that, and you know it! But I’m beside myself, I don’t know what I’m saying!”
And then the two girls gave way to such desperate and uncontrollable sobbing, that Trudy heard them and came to their room.
“Dolly! Dolly!” she exclaimed. “Oh, you poor little girl! Don’t cry so, darling. Try to stop,—you’ll make yourself ill. Dotty, be quiet, dear.”
Trudy’s soft voice calmed the turbulent ones a little, and she went on talking.
“Listen, Dollykins. I don’t want to leave Berwick, either. I have lots of friends here—”
“And beaux,” put in Dotty, suddenly realising Trudy’s trials, too.
“Yes,” Trudy agreed, smiling, “and beaux. But probably beaux grow in Buffalo, and friends of other sorts too. Now, I don’t in the least undervalue what it means to you two girls to part, but, Dolly, it can’t be helped. Father has to go. Now, oughtn’t we to help him, by unselfishly forgetting our wishes, and going cheerfully? That’s the only way we can help Dad, and I think it’s our duty to do it.”
“I know it is,” sobbed Dolly, “but I alwaysdidhate to do my duty!”
“But you always do it,” and Trudy smiled at her little sister. “I’ve never known you to shirk a duty because you hated to do it.”
“But I never had such a big, horrid, awful bad duty before.”
“No; and that’s all the more reason why you must meet this one bravely. Now, don’t think any more about the whole thing to-night. Go to bed and to sleep, and to-morrow things will look brighter.”
The girls both felt sure they would lie awake all night, but so exhausted were they by their strenuous grief, they fell asleep before they knew it.
But Dolly woke early in the dawn of morning, and she lay there in her pretty green room, thinking it out. And somehow, her thinking cheered her, for at rising time, Dotty awoke to see a smiling Dolly bending over her.
“Wake up, old sleepyhead! Get your eyes open, and rise to greet the morn!”
Dotty rubbed her half-open black eyes, and strove to remember what was the matter after all. Then it all came back to her.
“Buffalo!” she said, sitting up in bed. “Buff-a-lo!”
“Never mind Buffalo,” and Dolly kept on smiling. “You wake up, and get yourself up into Berwick. And if you’ll be a good girl, some day I’ll tell you something.”
“You’ve been thinking it out!” exclaimed Dotty. “I know you! Don’t deny it!”
“ ’Course I’ve been thinking it out. But don’t you tell anybody that I have. You get dressed, instanter! Do you hear?”
Dotty heard, and obeyed, and soon two calm, serene girls were on their way down to breakfast.
The subject was not mentioned at the table. The elders purposely avoided it, and the Two D’s had no desire to discuss it.
It was only as she was starting for school, that Dolly said to her mother, with a quivering lip, “Mumsie—when—”
“In about a month, dear,” said Mrs. Fayre, kissing the trembling mouth. “Don’t begin to think about it yet.”
The two D’s started off in silence. After a block or so, Dotty said, “Shall you tell the girls?”
“No,” said Dolly, shortly. “Don’t mention it, Dot. This afternoon in the house, I’ll tell you something.”
Dotty could scarcely wait till afternoon, and then when that time arrived, Dolly decreed that they should learn their lessons first, before she told the “something.”
“You’re getting terribly good!” grumbled Dotty.
“I know it. I’vegotto be. PerhapsthenI’ll get something I want.”
So the two studied like everything, until they both declared they really knew all the next day’s lessons. They even heard each other some of the very hardest ones, and then, they sat down together before the fire for the “something.”
“Here it is,” said Dolly, soberly. “I’m going to get Father let off from that transfer to Buffalo.”
“You can’t,” said Dotty, with an air of calm conviction.
“I know I can’t, but I’m going to all the same. Father doesn’t want to go, neither does Mother. Nor Trudy; nor me. So why should we go?”
“ ’Cause your father is sent.”
“Yes, that’s just it. But I’m going to get him unsent.”
“Amend the Constitution?”
“Just about that. Now, look here, Dot: Who is sending Dad?”
“Mr. Forbes.”
“Of course he is. He’s Father’s boss. Now, who is Mr. Forbes’ boss?”
“The president of the railroad, I s’pose.”
“Not at all. Mr. Forbes is bossed and ruled and absolutely commanded by—”
“Bernice!”
“Yes, of course. He worships and idolises his motherless girl. And, listen, now; through Bernice I’m going to get Father repealed,—or whatever you call it.”
“Can you?”
“I will, whether I can or not.”
“Will your father like it?”
“He won’t know, till it’s all over. And if I fail, which I won’t, he need never know. I’ve thought it out, and it isn’t wrong; there isn’t a wrong thing about it. Bernice can make her father do anything in the world she wants to. I know that. So she can get him to change his mind about my father, if I can persuade her to do it. I mean, if I can persuade her to persuade her father.”
“It’s a fine scheme, Dollops, but I can’t seem to see it succeeding. Bernice can make her father do anything she wants for herself, but this is different. Why should she bother her father for your father’s sake?”
“I don’t know,” and Dolly looked uncertain; “but I’m going to try to make her do it, and sumpum tells me I shall conquer in the fight!”
Dolly looked so jubilant, so already victorious, that Dotty hadn’t the heart to express further doubt. And too, Dotty had great faith in Dolly’s powers of success when she set to work in earnest. And she surely was very much in earnest now.
“Aren’t you going to tell Trudy or your mother?”
“No; nobody at all but you. Maybe I’ll tell Bert, when he comes home for Thanksgiving. He could help me.”
“Ican help you! I mean, I will, if you’ll tell me what to do.”
“Indeed you can help me, Dot. I couldn’t do it at all without your help. See here, you don’t understand yet. If Bernice makes her father do this thing, it’ll be because she herself wants me to stay in Berwick. And here’s why. Because,—if Bernice does what I want her to, I’m going to make her the most popular girl in town!”
CHAPTER XVDOLLY AND BERNICE
Dollywent alone to see Bernice. She had wanted Dotty with her for aid and sympathy, but on thinking it over, she decided it would be better to go alone first.
The Forbes house was impressive, the man who opened the door to Dolly’s ring was awe-inspiring, but of these things Dolly was not afraid. Her fear was that she would not be able to present in the most persuasive way, the strange matter on which she had come.
When Bernice came into the reception room, she found Dolly so deep in thought she scarcely heard her.
“Hello, Dolly Fayre,” said the hostess, looking at her inquiringly. “What do you want?”
“You never could guess,” returned Dolly, not resenting this somewhat ungracious greeting.
“Oh, yes, I can, you want to beg some money for some High School performance, or else you want me to be on some rubbishy old committee. You never came here just because you wanted to see me,—myself.”
This frightened Dolly, for it struck perilously near the truth. But she plunged boldly in.
“You’re not far out, Bernice, and yet it’s nothing about school. Can any one hear us?”
“No; but I’ll shut this door. Now, what is it?”
Bernice’s curiosity was roused by Dolly’s air of repressed excitement, and her very evident embarrassment. At least, something unusual was coming.
“Bernice,” she began, “you know my father is in the employ of your father’s railroad. My father is in the freight department—”
“Yes, I know it. What of it?”
“Well, your father has ordered my father to be transferred to Buffalo.”
“Oh, Dolly, I don’t want you to go to Buffalo. Why, you’re the only friend I have in Berwick.”
“Well, this is the point, Bernice. You ought to have more friends in Berwick. With your home and everything, you ought to be the most popular girl in town.”
“I’m not!” and Bernice laughed grimly.
“That’s partly your own fault, and partly not. Now, if you’ll persuade your father to retract that order and let my father stay in Berwick, I’ll make you popular,—I will honest!”
Dolly’s eyes beamed with earnestness. Her plea was out, now it was to follow it up.
“I know that sounds crazy,” she went on, “but think a minute, Bernice. Your father and mine are splendid business men, so perhaps we inherit their business talent. So let’s make a business deal. If I can make good, and put you in the front ranks of our crowd, will you try to coax your father to do what I want?”
“Why, Dolly Fayre, what an idea!”
“I know it. But I don’t want to leave Berwick, none of us do, and yet, we’ll have to go, unless your father changes the orders. I’d ask him myself, only I know he wouldn’t listen to me, but he would to you.”
“Does your father know you’re doing this?”
“Mercy, no! I wouldn’t have him know it for the world! It isn’t wrong, Bernice, and it isn’t underhanded or anything like that. You know yourself, how the railroad men are ordered here and there. Now it seems to me some one else might as well be sent to Buffalo, and my father left in the New York office, where he is now. Don’t you think so? If only your father will agree.”
“I’ll make you popular,—I will honest!”
“I’ll make you popular,—I will honest!”
Dolly looked very pleading. Her little face looked up into Bernice’s with a wistful, hopeful smile. Her hands were clasped in the intensity of her feeling, and her voice quivered as she made her plea.
Bernice looked at her. “I don’t know why I should do this for you, Dolly Fayre,” she said, at last. “You’re the most popular girl in Berwick, you and Dotty Rose. Now, if you go away, I’ll stand a better chance of getting in your crowd, in your place, than if you stay here.”
Dolly hadn’t thought of this. Nor did it strike her at the moment what a selfish and self-seeking spirit Bernice showed. She knit her brows as she thought deeply what to say next.
“You see,” Bernice went on, “I’ve always wanted to be in your set. It’s the nicest set of all. And when I was in Grammar School of course I couldn’t, but now we’re all in High, I want to be one of you. And I’ll do anything I can to get there. But I think I’d stand a better chance with you away. Then I’d be friends with Dotty Rose in your place, maybe.”
Dolly looked aghast. Such presumption! But the absurdity of the idea brought her to her senses.
“Not much you wouldn’t, Bernie!” she said. “Dot is willing to do a lot for you if I stay here. But she knows I’m saying all this to you, and if you don’t help me about Father’s position with the road, you can just bet Dotty Rose won’t have anything to do with you, nor will any one else in our set!”
“Look here, Dolly, isn’t this what the boys call a ‘hold-up’?”
Dolly laughed. “It did sound like that, but listen, Bernice. It’s a straight proposition. You want to be in our set, really in it and of it. Well, I’ll see to it that you get there, if you’ll coax your father to let my father stay here. That’s all, and I don’t think it’s mean or hold-uppish. I think it’s a fair deal between us. I don’t know what my father would say if he knew I asked you, but even though he might think it undignified or silly, he couldn’t say it was really wrong. Now, could he?”
“No,” agreed Bernice, “there’s nothing wrong about it. But can you do your part?”
“Can you?”
“Yes, I know I could. I can make Dad do anything. He spoils me,—and he’d move to Kamchatka if I wanted to, or send anybody else there if I said so.”
“Yes, I knew he was like that. It’s a shame, Bernie, with all your lovely home and privileges and everything, that you’re not top of the heap here.”
“Well, I’m not. And I’m not at all sure, Dolly Fayre, that you can help to put me anywhere near the top.”
“Oh, yes, I can.”
“How? By making the girls come to see me? Or by forcing the boys to dance with me? I know of your efforts in those directions, and don’t you s’pose they make me feel cheap?”
“Bernice, I don’t wonder. And I’m glad you spoke like that. No, I don’t mean to do it that way,—not entirely. But if we go into this bargain, you and I, it must be a real bargain, and you must help,—not hinder any part of it.”
“Oh, Dolly, I’d only be too glad to help. If I could be popular,—I don’t mean actually top of the heap, but just liked by the crowd, I’d be so glad. And if you could help bring it about, I’d make father do what you want. I know I could, But, I won’t do it unless you do what you say you will.”
“All right, Bernice,” and Dolly looked thoughtful. “But, you see, if Dad’s orders are changed, I suppose it ought to be done at once. And I can’t do my part all in a jiffy, it will naturally take a little time.”
“Yes, I see that. When does your father expect to go?”
“In about a month.”
“That’ll be the middle of December. S’pose I get Father to postpone the date till, say, after Christmas. The first of the year they often make changes. That’ll give you nearly two months, and if things are working all right by then, I can easily make Father let you stay here. Why, if I told him I wanted you here in Berwick, he’d make any arrangements to keep you here.”
“Then do it now!” and Dolly’s eyes danced at this easy settlement of the whole matter.
“Nixy! You haven’t done a thing yet! I don’t want to be mean about this, but—well, you know what Idowant and it’s up to you.”
“All right, Bernice. Will you ask your father, to-night, to put off Dad’s transfer till after the holidays?”
“Yes, I will, and he’ll do it. Now, what are you going to do first?”
“First of all, I’m going to talk to you like a Dutch uncle!” Dolly’s eyes were dancing now. Her aim was accomplished, at least, in part, and her well thought out campaign was about to be begun.
“You see, Bernice, all I can do will not count at all unlessyoudo something to help along. And what you’ve got to do, is to change your way with ’em. Now, wait a minute. You’re pretty and bright and you have lovely clothes and all that, but you go around with a chip on your shoulder! Yes, you do, and it upsets your whole apple-cart! Now, you’ve just simplygotto be sunny and sweet and if you think you see little slights or mean things, swallow them and keep on smiling. I know that sounds hard, even sounds silly, but that’s all there is to it. You’ve got to break down that sort of barrier you’ve built up around you. Do you know what they say about you? They say you’re stuck-up. That’s an awful thing in our crowd. We don’t like stuck-up people. You’re so rich, you see, so much richer than any of the rest of us, that we feel sort of shy of you, unless you come down to our level. I mean our level as to grandeur and style and those things. We don’t care if you have silk dresses when we have gingham, if you don’t rub it in. Oh,don’tyou see what I mean?”
“I don’t know as I do, Dolly,” and Bernice looked very serious. “But I begin to, and I do believe I can learn. But it’s so hard when everybody turns the cold shoulder, and nobody wants to speak to me.”
“But it’s so much your own fault! Have you ever tried, real hard, to be nice to any of the girls? Real up and downnice?”
“No, I’ve been too busy paying them back for the snubs they gave me.”
“That’s just it! And they only snubbed you because they thought you were snubbing them. Oh, I know all about it, Bernice. Don’t you s’pose I’ve heard them talk you over? And the boys. They say you’re a pretty girl and a good dancer, but—well, I’m going to tell you right out, for I believe it will help you,—they call you a lemon!”
“They do, do they? Then I don’t want anything to do with them!”
“Yes, you do! Now, hold on; they call you that, ’cause youarelemony to them! You know yourself that you snip and snap the boys awfully. They won’t stand it.”
“But, Dolly, I haven’t the sweet sunny disposition that you have.”
“Then get it! You can, if you want to. Good gracious, Bernice, if youwantto be popular and have a good time, isn’t it just too easy to quit being a sour old lemon and work up an amiable manner? Anybody would think I was asking you to do something hard! Why, it’s easier to be pleasant than not, if you only think so! Now, that’spartof your part. Next, you must invite people here.”
“Give a party?”
“Yes, if you like. I meant ask just a few at a time. But it would be a good scheme to start in with quite a party. Not too gorgeous,—but a nice,rightparty.”
“It’ll be my birthday week after next, I might have it then.”
“Just the thing! You do that, and let me help plan your party. You mustn’t have a grand ball, you know.”
“I’ll do just as you say, Dolly,” replied Bernice, meekly.
“All right,” and Dolly laughed. “This is like planning a campaign, and I s’pose it’s sort of foolish for girls of our age, but you’re in wrong, and if I can set you right, I’m only too glad to. And Ican, if you’ll do as I say.”
“I’m jollygladto do as you say! But will the crowd come to my party?”
“ ’Course they will. I’ll make ’em. Now, wait, I know you don’t like to have them come ’cause they’re made to, but it’s got to be that way at first, and then it’s up to you to make it so pleasant they’ll want to come again.”
“But seems to meI’mdoing most of this.”
“Oh, that’s the way it seems to you, does it?Does it!Well, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but youtryit without me, and see where you bring up!”
Dolly was a little annoyed at Bernice’s readiness to accept her advices and ignore the very real help that Dolly was able and willing to give.
“I know, Dolly. I sort of forgot myself.”
“Well, you try to remember yourself! And remember too, that while I want you to be one of us, at the same time, I’m bothering about you for the reason I told you when I first came here. I’m not doing it for your sake, but for my own. And, another thing. I want to stay in Berwick mostly, because Dotty Rose is here, and she and I are intimate friends and always will be. She’s ready and glad to help us in this scheme, but it’s because she wants to keep me here in Berwick. So, Bernice Forbes, don’t you try to come between Dot and me, for it won’t do a bit of good and it will do you a lot of harm.”
“I won’t, honest, Dolly. But does Dotty know all about your plan?”
“Every bit. And I tell you, Bernie, if Dot and I set out to make you have a good time, you’llhaveit, and that’s all there is about that!”
“I believe you, and I’m glad you’re so outspoken, Dolly. Now, honest, I’m going to try, but you don’t know how hard it is to be nice to those girls when they turn aside and whisper to each other about me and all things like that.”
“They won’t do that, Bernice, if you act differently toward them. Now, look here. You talk over your party with your father and if he says you can have it, get your invitations out soon. My brother and Dot’s will be home for Thanksgiving,—when is your birthday?”
“The 30th of November.”
“Good! They’ll be here then. Well, you ask your father about your party,—and—about that other matter, will you?”
“Yes, I will, to-night. And he’ll say yes to both.”
CHAPTER XVIBROTHERS AND FUDGE
Itwas a few days later that Mr. Fayre announced to his family the news that his transfer of locality had been postponed until after the Christmas holidays.
“Perhaps you won’t have to go at all, Father,” said Trudy.
“Perhaps not,” agreed Mr. Fayre. “These matters are uncertain. I should be glad not to leave Berwick, for I like my New York business, and my suburban home; but what is to be will be, whether it ever comes to pass or not.”
This was one of Mr. Fayre’s favourite nonsense speeches and always made the girls laugh. Dolly laughed now, perhaps a little more than the occasion demanded, for she knew a small joke of her own.
Dotty, too, controlled her smiles discreetly and as the subject was lightly passed over, no one suspected that the postponement was due to Dolly’s endeavours.
“Bernice Forbes is going to have a party,” Dolly said, after a time.
“Is she?” said Mrs. Fayre, interestedly. “When?”
“On the thirtieth. It’s her birthday. I ’spect it will be a lovely party. Can I have a new frock, Mother?”
“Why, I think so. You need one more new party dress this winter, and you may as well have it for that occasion.”
“I thought Bernice wasn’t much liked by your crowd,” said Trudy.
“Well, she isn’t a favourite,” said Dolly, slowly, “but I think she’s better liked than she used to be. Anyway, everybody’ll be glad to go to her party.”
“Yes,” said Trudy, “and then talk about her afterward! I think that’s mean.”
“I do too,” chimed in Dotty. “But Bernice is nicer than she used to be, more pleasant, you know. And maybe there won’t be anything to say about her party, except nice things.”
“She’ll probably have a brass band and supper from New York,” laughed Trudy.
“Well, I want you to be nice to her, Dolly,” said Mr. Fayre. “Mr. Forbes has been exceedingly kind to me of late, and if you can do anything for his motherless girl, you do it.”
“Yes, Dad,” said Dolly, meekly, though her heart was singing for joy that she was already carrying out her father’s wishes.
“Why I thought Mr. Forbes was an awful strict, stern man,” said Trudy.
“He is,” returned her father. “And he’s a just and particular man, in his business relations, as, of course, he ought to be.”
“Couldn’t you ask him, Father, not to let us go away from Berwick?” suggested Dolly, timidly.
“Gracious, no, child. I wouldn’t dream of such a thing! If he says go, I must go. But he spoke to-day as if the matter were still in abeyance—”
“In where?”
“Never mind your geography, Dollums. You wouldn’t find abeyance in any Christian country. I mean he spoke as if my going away is still uncertain.”
“Oh! Well, I’m glad of it. Every day here counts.”
Before Bernice’s birthday party came off Dolly had much to do. And Dotty ably aided and abetted her plans.
They lost no opportunity to hint to the girls and boys of Bernice’s good traits. They even said to some, that she had been misunderstood and enlisted their sympathies for the new candidate for favours.
Bernice herself tried hard to do her part. Naturally shy, hers was the disposition that takes quick offence at a seeming slight, and supersensitive to such, she often felt like returning a haughty stare. But she remembered Dolly’s instructions, and managed fairly well to control her quick temper, and overlook many things.
A few days before the party Bob Rose and Bert Fayre came home from their school for the Thanksgiving vacation.
Great rejoicing was in the two families at this event. Dotty had returned home, Genie being all well again, and Treasure House was the daily meeting place of the quartette.
“My stars! girls, but this is fine!” declared Bert, as the Two D’s showed off their possessions.
“You bet it is!” chimed in Bob, as he paraded round the House, taking in all its glories.
It was the day of their return, they hadn’t been in town ten minutes before they were rushed over to the wonderful Treasure House.
“And catch onto the dinky kitchen business! Can you cook, oh, Treasure ladies?”
“Some,” said Dolly, smiling at the recollection of the feast that failed.
“Pshaw! We’ll show you how. Say we begin now. What you got on hand?”
“Oh, wait, Bert! don’t upset things!” cried Dolly, in dismay, for her brother was ruthlessly rummaging in the cupboard for goodies.
“Unhand me, villain!” and Bert shook off Dolly’s restraining hand. “I seek what I seek!” and with a flourish he brought out a package of chocolate and the sugar bowl. “Fee fi fo fum, I smell the scent of Fudgerum. Go to it, Dollops! See how quick you can turn out a panful!” Bert took out his watch as if to time her. “One, two three! Go!”
Falling into the spirit of the thing, Dolly whisked out a sauce-pan and long-handled spoon, while twice as quickly, Dotty seized a knife and began to shave off the chocolate. Fudge was a thing theycouldmake, with no chance of failure, so the two worked smoothly together, and in an incredibly short time, the delectable compound was cooling, to be cut into squares.
“You’re the right sort of sisters for a chap to have,” said Bob, looking admiringly at the two smiling, flushed faces before him.
“You’re two pretty good brothers,” Dotty flashed back, and Bert remarked. “Cut out the taffy, and look after the fudge.”
So they marked it off in squares and diamonds, and the impatient boys began on it at once.
“Guess we’ll bring home some chaps for the Christmas Vake, hey, Bob?” and Bert nodded at his chum.
“That’s a go. But not many, for this house has all the modern improvements, except size, it seems to me.”
“Oh, it holds quite a good many,” Dolly said; “we’ve had sixteen here at a time and it wasn’t so awfully crowded.”
“All right. We’ll bring Chalk and Cheese, eh, Bert?”
“Yep. Give me another piece of fudge, Dollums.”
“You’ll be very exceedingly ill,” remarked Dolly, gravely, as she handed her brother the plate. “Now, see here, Bert, and you, too, Bob, I’ve got you sweetened up, I want to tell you something. To ask you something, rather.”
“Clever Dolly! First fudge, then demands. Well, go ahead. To the half of my kingdom!”
“Now, listen, I’m serious. It’s about Bernice Forbes.”
“No, you don’t!” and Bert grinned. “I know the fair Bernie! None for this citizen, thank you! What you want? Me to take her to a party, I’ll bet. Well, you lose! See?”
“Now, Bert, be quiet,” and Dolly gave him a pleading glance. “Don’t jump at things so. Be still a minute.”
“All right,” put in Bob. “My chum, at his sister’s request, will now be mum. But I’ll take the floor. I hereby assent that Us Two, being for the moment in a position to grace the fair town of Berwick by our gracious presence, utterly decline to spoil our all too short stay in these parts, by so much as an allusion to the impossible Forbes damsel.”
“But youmustlisten,” and Dolly looked so honestly distressed, that the boys woke up to the fact that she was serious.
“Fire away, then,” said Bert, “but cut it short. What’s it all about?”
“It’s this,” burst out Dotty, for Dolly couldn’t seem to find the right words. “We’re booming Bernice. And you two have got to help!”
“Help! Help!” cried Bert, faintly. “Do I get you aright?”
“You do!” and Dotty wagged her black head, vigorously. “You sure do! Now, the situation is this—”
“Let me tell,” said Dolly, who had recovered her nerve. “For reasons of my own, which I will not explain at present, but which affect you, Bert, as much as me, it is necessary that we make Bernice popular—”
“What!” exploded Bob. “Bernice popular! Oh, Jiminy Crickets! that’s a good one!”
“Yes, popular,” repeated Dolly, severely. “And if it seems so difficult to you, then there will be all the more glory in accomplishing it. Now, don’t stop to argue; just realise that we’re going to do it. Look on it as a stunt, to be wrastled somehow, and—and chip in and help us. Are you wid us or agin us?”
Dolly was standing now, and flung out her arms like an importunate orator, pleading for the sympathies of his audience. A determined fire shone in her deep blue eyes, a determined smile curved her red lips, and as she paused for a reply, Bob shouted, “To the last ditch!”
“Good for you!” and Dolly thanked him with a beaming smile. “Now, Bert, of course you’re in it, too. So here’s the game. We four are to do all we can, in a clever and quiet way, to make Bernice Forbes’ party a howling success, and—”
“Told you it was a party!” growled Bert. “Hate parties!”
“No, you don’t hate parties. You love ’em. And this party is next Tuesday, and if you two boys don’t go in and win,—for me—you’re no good!”
“What’s it to you, Doll?” asked her brother, detecting the earnest note in Dolly’s voice.
“It means a lot, Bert,” and Dolly’s voice shook a little. “But never mind that now. You two just do as we girls—”
“Ours not to reason why,” exclaimed Bob; “ours but to do or die! and we’ll do anything or anybody you say. Now, as to details, what is our special rôle at this party racket?”
“Just this,” said Dotty. “To push up Bernice’s stock! Be awfully nice to her yourselves. Make the other boys be nice to her, too. See that she has a partner for every dance and a good time at every game,—or whatever they have. Hover round her at supper time, and in general make her think she’s It!”
“Well, Sweet Sister, what you say, goes! But you’ve given us a pretty large order! You know the lady, I take it?”
“Yes, but you don’t. At least, you don’t know that she’s a heap nicer than she used to be. Also, you don’t know what a great big whopping reason there is for all this. If you did, you’d—why, you’d fly over there at once, there’d be no holding you!”
“And can’t we know?”
“Not just now,” said Dolly, looking mysterious. “Some day, if you’re good, I may tell you. Till then, you must work in the dark. Oh, youaregood boys! I knew I could depend on you! Have some more fudge.”
“Oh thank yousomuch! Say, if we promise to do all and more than mortal can ask to further that crazy project of yours, can we drop the subject for now?”
“Yes, but remember you’ve promised,” and Dotty shook her finger at the two jolly boys, who were willing to please their sisters, but who took little interest in Bernice Forbes and her success.
“Seems to me,” observed Bob, as they returned to discussion of Treasure House, “that this is too good a piece of property for two simple girls! Why, it’s worthy of boy occupants. Want to rent it?”
“No-sir-ee, Bob!” laughed Dolly. “We’ve been weeks getting it into shape, and fixed just exactly as we want it, and we don’t propose to have a lot of boys rampoosing all over it. You are invited to inspect it,—and then I don’t know as you’ll be asked again.”
“Well, I like that! Why, we supposed you’d give us the freedom of it while we’re at home, at least.”
“Oh, we won’t lock you out, except when we’re studying,” said Dotty. “But there won’t be much studying while you’re home, for it’s our vacation too.”
Just then a rap sounded on the brass knocker of Treasure House, and Bob flung open the door to admit the three Rawlins and two Browns.
“Hullo,” cried Tad and Tod together; “when did you fellows get home?”
“Just to-day,” answered Bert, as they all said hullo to each other and then found seats for themselves on chairs, window-boxes or floor.
And then a general chattering broke loose. Everybody talked at once, and Bob and Bert were welcomed back like long lost brothers. But soon the boys all had their heads together, telling of Clayton’s wonderful new football, and the girls had grouped themselves on the other side of the room and were eagerly discussing Bernice’s party.
“We’re going, now, Doll,” shouted Bert. “Going over to Clayt’s. All us fellows. Don’t weep, ladies, but wemustleave you now.”
“All right,” said Dotty. “We can spare you. Of course, we just hate to have you go, but if you must—”
“Oh, we’ll come back. But it’s too great a day to stay inside. You girls had better go out for a run yourselves.”
“Maybe we will,” said Dolly. “But wait a minute, boys. I want to ask you something. Won’t you each promise to dance twice with Bernice at her party?”
“Goodness, gracious! Bernice again!” and Tod Brown pretended to fall in a faint.
“Yes, again and yet and all the time!” declared Dolly, laughing at Tod’s ridiculous antics. “Now, own up, you know you can’t go to her party and not dance with her—”
“Why go?” demanded Clayton.
“Of course you’ll go! Wild horses couldn’t keep you away! But as you’re going, why not be decent about it, and do the really nice thing? If each of you will dance twice, and a few others once, she will have all the partners she wants.”
“Are you her press agent, Dolly? What has come over you?” asked Tad.
“Never you mind about that. You just do as I say.”
Now Tad was pretty apt to do as Dolly said, and so he bowed and scraped, saying, “What you say goes. Two ismynumber. Hey, fellows?”
“Two it is!” sung out Tod, and the rest voiced agreement. “Now can we go, mum?” begged Tad.
“Yes,” said Dolly, “you’re good boys, and you may run and play.”
“Whatareyou up to, Dolly?” asked Grace, as the boys ran off, laughing and jumping about.
“Gracie, you know how much I want to make Bernice more popular. Well, this is my chance, and I want all you girls to help me. If we take her up and are nice to her, the boys will do as we tell them, and the other girls will fall in line, and it will be all right. But if we fall down on it, the whole plan will drop through.Dobeon my side, won’t you, Grace?”
Wily Dolly knew that Ethel would do whatever Grace did, and also that Maisie May would agree to whatever the Rawlinses agreed to.
“Yes, I will,” declared Grace. “I think we haven’t been very nice to Bernice, and I’m ready to try to be friends with her, if she’ll have it. But, Dolly, you know she isn’t very easy to be nice to.”
“I know, Grace, but I think we’ll find her better natured nowadays. Any way, let’s be awful nice to her at her own party, and try to make it a grand success.”
“All right,” said Grace, “I’ll do allIcan.”
“Metoo,” said Ethel, and then Dolly was satisfied.