Betty Lee, Freshman Part 17

"Are you _sure_ you want it that way?"

"Sure; and Mother will feel better about it, too."

"Very well, Carolyn. I'm sure Janet and Sue will be delighted to come, and of course I shall."

Thus it happened that Betty and her guests enjoyed an excellent moving picture, censored by Mrs. Lee, on Friday afternoon, with attendant pleasure of favorite sundaes and shopping in the big stores; and they had the evening quietly at home, early to bed this time, to catch up for the night before. "It is a good deal of fun with those boys," said Janet, "but I think that it will be more _restful_ tomorrow at Carolyn's without them."

"And you will love Carolyn's home, Janet," replied Betty, though laughing at Janet's expression.

A soft snow fell that night. In the morning the girls looked out upon a beautiful world of white, soon to be spoiled in the city by the traffic and the soot from the good furnace fires that kept the people warm. But at Carolyn's that afternoon little had occurred to lessen the loveliness of the snow scene. Beautiful evergreens drooped a little with the weight upon their branches. Drifts piled here and there by bushes that seemed to bear feathery blossoms. It was the first "real snow," d.i.c.k said, and welcome, particularly to the children.

Betty had not expected so many girls, but here were not only those whom she had invited to her expected party but a number of others. It was very satisfactory. Now Janet and Sue would know just about all the girls that she wanted them to meet.

Opinions might differ about the afternoon's being "restful." But it was as restful as girls of high school age would be likely to want it to prove. Janet and Sue were impressed with Carolyn's lovely home, inside and out, and declared that seeing it with the snow must be almost as good as seeing it with its flowers. Carolyn brought all the girls whom they had not met to each of them and although they did settle down with their bits of fancy-work or Christmas presents, Carolyn had them change their seats in order that groups of different girls might be together.

Some things made in the arts and crafts department of the school could be brought to be worked on and Betty saw articles that she "longed to make," she said. Janet was always a little quiet when she was first with girls strange to her, but her lack of conversation was not noticeable in the babel of voices after the girls were fairly launched upon various topics that interested them.

"Yes," replied Betty to one, "I've met the mysterious 'Don.' His real name is Ramon, but the boys all call him 'Don' now, I've noticed, so I suppose we might as well. He doesn't mind, he said."

"Did you hear that, Lucille? Betty Lee knows the 'Don.' Well, what is he, anyhow? Spanish, as they say. I always think that the boys may be 'kiddin' us, you know."

"He really is part Spanish and part Polish and some of his people were Hungarian, at least they lived in Hungary for a while and he said they were 'nice people.'"

"How did you know so much? Is there anything mysterious about him?"

"I was just talking to him one time. He doesn't seem the least bit mysterious to me, but I don't think that he has anybody related to him in this country. He just boards somewhere, I suppose."

"Then that isn't a bit interesting."

"Oh, yes, it is, Lucille," spoke Peggy Pollard. "Chet Dorrance said that the Don told Ted a little bit one time and there's somebody that's either after him or that he's after, I think."

"My, isn't that news for you?" laughed Lucille. "Peggy, you're always so clear!"

"Well, do you suppose that Ted would tell what the boy told him in confidence?"

"Ted must have told something."

"Couldn't Chet overhear it, maybe?"

"Then he is really mysterious, you think, Peggy."

"Yes. I asked him last night if he _was_ mysterious and he said he was!"

There was a general laugh at this. "Peggy's drawing on her imagination,"

said Mary Emma.

"Where did the Don take you last night, Peggy?" queried Lucille, "to a picture show?"

"No, but he was at the same surprise party I went to," and Peggy gave a mirthful glance in Carolyn's direction.

"Well, if Don as the boys call him isn't mysterious, you are, so let's change the subject."

Peggy had thought that with so many other girls, about twenty in all, Betty might not like to have the surprise party talked over; or it might be that some one would feel hurt at not having been included in the sudden affair. For these reasons she was quite willing to have the subject changed.

"Wouldn't this be a delicious night to go sledding, girls?" she asked, looking out from the large window near which she sat toward the broad expanse of snow that covered the lawn and stretched beyond the clumps of bushes and trees over the s.p.a.cious grounds.

"Too soft, I'm afraid, Peggy," said Mary Emma Howland. "It didn't melt, though, when the sun came out. I wonder if it would pack and make enough. The wind had swept the ground pretty bare at our house, but hasn't out here."

"Perhaps it didn't snow everywhere alike," brightly suggested Kathryn Allen. "Sometimes it rains out in our suburb when my father says there isn't a particle of rain down town."

"The paper says that there is a blizzard out West," said Carolyn.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we did have sledding, next week anyhow?"

Betty explained to Janet and Sue what she had mentioned before, that the winters were considerably more mild here than their own and that everybody rejoiced when there were winter sports, making the most of them; but none of the three thought of any particular good time as on its way to them because of this unexpected snow. Soon came the pretty refreshments, when all the girls laid aside their work to enjoy them.

They were asked to go into another room, apparently a breakfast room, or a dining room on a small scale, Betty thought, where a round table was set for them. There a tiny turkey, which was a container for candy or nuts, stood at each place, connected with the central lights overhead by a gay ribbon. Betty's place card bore an Indian on snowshoes, a wild turkey over one shoulder and a bow in one hand.

"I 'spect there's some turkey in this 'chicken salad,' don't you, Betty?" said Janet next to her.

"Carolyn _always_ has such lovely things," replied Betty, though she had been entertained there but once before. But this was perfect for an "afternoon tea." Instead of tea they drank cocoa, however, and last they were served to tiny ice-cream roses and delicious little cakes with pink, white or chocolate frosting.

"I've done nothing but eat good things since I came to this city," Sue declared after they came home, "and we've had enough different kinds of fun to last all winter! No, thank you, Mrs. Lee, I don't believe we can eat a speck of supper, or dinner, whichever you call it here."

"We might sit down with them, girls," Betty suggested, "for we didn't really have a heavy meal at Carolyn's!"

But Betty had scarcely gotten seated at the home dinner table than she rose to answer the telephone. "Oh, who is it? I can't quite understand.

The telephone buzzes a little. Now I get itoh, yes, Chet! Honestly?

Why, yes, that would be great fun. I don't know, though."

Betty listened a little. "Wait a minute. I'll have to ask Mother and see what the girls say. Please hold the 'phone a minute."

The telephone was in the hall and Betty rushed around through the living room to where the family were. "Mother!" she began excitedly, "that was Chet Dorrance and he wants to know if we girls can go bob-sled riding tonight. It's freezing like everything and the boys have got water poured on some hillthis afternoon, you know, and the snow all packed down!"

"What boys are going and what hill is it, Betty?" inquired her father.

"Chet said that he and Chauncey Allen and Budd LeRoy would come after us. We can take the car, the street-car, he said, and get off almost right at the hill, anyhow the place where it is, one of the houses, I suppose, maybe a place like Carolyn's."

"Betty, I can't have you start in to go out with the boys in the evening."

"But this isn't like that, Mother. It's a big crowd, not so very big perhaps, but at least two bob-sleds and we take turns."

"Sure the hill doesn't deposit you near some car line or shoot you across one? I saw a kiddie nearly killed this afternoon shooting across a road, down hill, on his sled." Mr. Lee was interposing this remark.

Betty looked worried. "Chet is waiting on the line, Mother. Oh, I do want to go!"

"Suppose I talk to him, then, Betty," suggested Mrs. Lee. "I don't want to keep you from any pleasure, but I want to make sure that it is safe, you know. Yes, a crowd to enjoy the sport is all right if they are careful boys, not reckless."

"You met them all here, Mother."

"Yes." Mrs. Lee was on her way to the hall.