Chapter VII: The Thanksgiving Box

THAT Marian Austin appreciated the vote of thanks tendered her by the sophomores was evidenced by the arrival of a box of roses, corresponding in number to the list of names signed. A card requested that they be distributed to "the hazers" accompanied it.

The box was addressed to the president of the class, and when Cordelia opened it in her sanctum, an interested group standing by to watch her, she exclaimed, "Well, if this isn't heaping coals of fire on our heads, I don't know the meaning of the expression; red coals, too," she added, separating one crimson rose from the rest. "I'd like to meet that girl on an equal footing and tell her that she is—"

"Chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely," put in Lee. "I'm going to wear my rose."

"I know what Ted will do with hers," said Janet, accepting the rose which Cordelia held out to her. "You will see it when you go to Latin."

And that she was not wrong in her suspicion was apparent when the girls saw Edna's rose gracing a tall glass on Miss Drake's table.

Another suspicion to which she did not give voice arose in her mind. She wondered if the sending of the roses was entirely Miss Austin's idea, or if the "hero" had not something to do with it. He had begun to resume his place in her imagination since her recent talk with Becky Burdett, though Edna had long since ceased to adore at a distance, being now absorbed in collecting photographs of a certain tenor whom she had lately heard and who, she declared, was her ideal of all that was fascinating.

Not long after the episode of the roses, Janet came in one day to find a card of invitation from Becky Burdett.

"Going, Ted?" she asked, as she threw the card down on the table.

"No, I am afraid I can't," said Edna regretfully. "I've promised to spend the day with Kathie Steele. She asked me ever so long ago for the Thanksgiving holidays, but I had that engagement for the game and wanted to be home on Saturday, so I told her I would come on Friday and stay all night. Poor Kathie, she did so want to come back to college, and is dying to hear all about everybody and everything, so it would be inhuman not to go. She was so disappointed when the doctors told her that she must not think of returning this year."

"It is something of a trip for one day."

"Yes, but I shall start early and get back by noon Saturday. I certainly do hate to miss Becky's tea. I suppose you will see all the frats there."

"Yes, and a lot of other girls."

"Well, good luck go with you. By the way, Janet, Mike says there is a box for you, and he'll bring it up."

"Good!" cried Janet. "It's from home. Dear momsey, I know she has put a store of good things in it. Suppose there should be a roast turkey, Ted. I am going to see about it right away. I can't wait."

She skurried off, returning a few minutes later with the janitor who bore a large wooden box.

"Will I open it for yez, miss?" he asked.

"Indeed you will, Mike. Have you a hammer or something of that kind with you?"

"Have I?" Mike chuckled. "I'll not be thravelin' widout it these days whin the boxes do be cumin' in so stiddy."

Janet and Edna crouched down to watch the operation of opening the box, and when the last nail had been eased out, and the lid was lifted, they gave a sigh of satisfaction.

"I just want to gloat one minute before we unpack it," said Janet. "Doesn't it look moreish? Thank you, Mike. If there's a turkey, you shall have a drumstick."

Mike gathered himself together, slipped his hammer in his pocket and went out smiling. He was much interested in these boxes.

"I do hope nothing is broken," said Janet, carefully lifting the cloth which was neatly tucked around the sides. "Ah, mother has filled in the chinks with nuts and apples. These are my favorite apples. I know just the tree on which they grew. I can see Dicky down there gathering them. What's next? Oh, a lovely, a perfectly lovely chocolate cake. But Ted, the cloth around it is a little damp. I am afraid something has spilled. Yes, there is a bottle broken, a bottle of olives. Goodness, I hope the brine hasn't oozed over everything. Fortunately the cake was on top and the box can't have been tipped much from the looks of things."

"There is a turkey!" cried Teddy. "I see its legs sticking out."

"So there is, and it's a beauty. My, doesn't it look good? My mouth waters so that I can hardly wait to taste it. A lot of the little cakes, Ted, are soaked with the brine; that's too bad. Here is a glass of jelly, and what's this? Oh, my dear, it's some of mother's lovely conserves that she is so chary of. Here is a big tin can. Mother certainly does know how to pack, if the olive jar did get broken, for there is scarcely anything hurt. This, Ted, is a can of my dear Maryland biscuits, and a roll of home-made butter. There, I think that was a fine box. What a feast we will have with that turkey. I could eat some this blessed minute. Here, give me my penknife, the big blade, please. I am going to cut off some. Which will you have, a wing or a log?"

"I don't care."

"Then, if you don't care, I'll take the drumstick; it isn't considered so delicate, but there is more on it. We'll stow the rest of the things away, and the turkey we can put out on the window-sill to keep cool. Ted, to-morrow night we'll get the girls in and have a regular spread. Who isn't to be away?"

"Lee Penrose will be here, and Grace Breitner. Cordelia may or she may not. She is divided between her desire to see the game and her desire to see her family. Charity wouldn't forego her mother's pumpkin pie for all the games in Christendom, so she won't be here, and Fay Wingate is going, too."

"I hope Cordelia will stay; she always has the faculty of keeping away the blues on a holiday. Let's gather up the stuff, Ted, and get it out of sight. It's a shame about the little cakes. I hate to lose a morsel from that box, though I am thankful there is nothing else spoiled."

They tucked away the provisions, rolled the turkey in a paper and put it outside, and then went off together to Rosalie Trent's where they were invited to dinner.

The next day being a holiday, the pair concluded to sleep late, and take a bit of breakfast in their rooms. "A slice of cold turkey, a cup of coffee, and some home-made biscuits and butter will be all I could ask," said Janet with satisfaction as she slipped into her kimono. "I am going to air this room, Ted, for a few minutes, and come in there with you. I'll set the water boiling first, so we won't have to wait for our coffee."

She went to the window to raise it, and stood still in consternation. Then she laughed. "That's a pretty good joke, Ted," she said; "but it's up to you to produce that turkey before we have our breakfast."

"What are you talking about?" said Edna, putting her head in at the door of the room where Janet was. "What do I know about the turkey?"

"Oh, nothing, of course. I suppose you'll say Fay Wingate climbed in over the transom and stole it away for a joke."

"You don't mean to say it isn't here?"

"I mean to say just that."

"Janet Ferguson, I don't believe you. You are just trying to fool me."

"I am not, Teddy Waite. Please don't keep me in suspense. Don't you really know anything about it?"

Teddy came all the way into the room and looked around as if she expected to see the turkey suddenly appear from some out of the way place. "It beats me," she exclaimed. "We put it on the window-sill, didn't we? I didn't dream it, did I?"

"Dream it, nonsense. We put it there in our sober senses. We wrapped it up in paper and put it just there. If you really don't know anything about it, either it has fallen out or some one up-stairs has hooked it by letting down a line. They have done such things to the other girls."

"I don't believe any one could get it that way. In the first place the turkey was too heavy to be drawn up by any of the slight hooks and lines the girls sometimes use for that kind of trick, and then the window-sill is too broad; besides it was wrapped up. No, it wouldn't be easy to get hold of it from above. I think it has fallen out."

Both girls craned their necks over the sill and scanned the ground below. Not a vestige of the turkey was to be seen.

"Well, it's gone," said Janet. "That is all there is about it. No spread to-night."

"Oh, we don't have to give up the spread," said Edna. "What makes me mad is to think that some of those wretched freshmen are probably enjoying our turkey. You know it was rather windy last night, and anything as roly-poly as a turkey with a leg and wing gone, could easily roll off the sill. I am positive that is how it disappeared."

They drew in their heads, and were obliged to content themselves with a more frugal breakfast than they had planned, while the freshmen below gloried in their find and picked the turkey bones with a zest.

Becky's tea was quite an affair, and as it was one of the few social events to which Janet had been able to go during her sojourn in the town, she looked forward to it with some excitement. There had been numerous minor diversions—drives, luncheons, fraternity teas, and such like functions, but a big reception, at which would be gathered the fashionable set, was something as yet outside the experience of this college girl. She found Becky surrounded by her friends.

Rosalie Trent's was the only other familiar face to Janet. After a few words with Becky, she retired to the background and looked around the room. She was smiling to herself when Rosalie came over to her.

"What is the special funny thing?" she asked. "You can't hide that look of amusement, Janet, and you shall not keep it to yourself."

"I was just thinking," said Janet, "how it reminds me of a chorus of katydids, or some of those other insects we hear in summer time. Listen a minute. I don't believe we are a bit more intelligible to a higher race of invisible beings than the katydids are to us. Is there any sense to be detached from such incessant chatter?"

Rosalie laughed. "We are a part of it, and what we say to each other seems fairly intelligent. Perhaps the katydids' talk would be, too, if we could but understand it. There is some one here Becky wants you to meet. Just wait here and I'll see if I can bring her over."

She turned away, and presently piloted through the crowd a girl whose face Janet did not see till she heard Becky's voice saying: "Miss Marian Austin, Janet. I believe you two have met before."

Then with a nod, Becky stepped back to speak to some lately arrived guests, and Janet looked up to see Marian's laughing face.

"Come fill the cup, and in the fire of spring
Your winter garment of repentance fling,—"

She said gaily. "Each morn a thousand roses brings, you say."

"Yes, but where lives the rose of yesterday?" answered Janet quickly.

"Bright girl," said Marian. "You know your Rubaiyat, I see. What I meant was that we want you to go to the dining room with us and have a cup of something."

"I'll take my garment of repentance with me," said Janet. "Those roses of yesterday were very sweet, Miss Austin. It certainly was a very lovely way of paying us back."

"Don't thank me entirely for that idea," said Marian. "It was Cousin Van's. And you don't need any garment of repentance, for you really did stand up for me."

"Oh, but I was horrid at first."

"That was when you thought we were freshmen, and there was some excuse for that. Cousin Van said there was."

"What does Cousin Van know about it?" said Rosalie, who had heard the story.

"He knows all about it, of course," said Marian. "I've wanted to know you ever since that day," she said, turning again to Janet, "and when Miss Burdett invited me to this tea, I asked her if there would be a chance of meeting you. She thought there would be, and told me to come early so I would not miss you."

"Did you come alone?" asked Rosalie.

"Yes, for auntie couldn't come, and Cousin Minnie is away, you know. That is why I am staying on."

"Isn't your Cousin Van home for Thanksgiving?"

"No, indeed! He wouldn't miss the big football game for anything, so he has gone on to Philadelphia. We really don't see him very often, though he is so near. Auntie says she used to think when he went to college that he would come home for over Sunday at least twice a month, but if he comes once he does well. However, this is his last year, and then he'll have no excuse."

Janet listened interestedly. So this was the reason why "the hero" had not appeared at church. His college was not the university nearest, but one further away. She wondered which one, but she would not ask.

Marian continued the subject. "The next thing will be the glee club concerts, so I suppose we shall not see the young man for the next two or three weeks anyhow. I wish you girls would come over to see me. With neither Cousin Minnie nor Van at home, it is rather lonely sometimes. Of course, I enjoy uncle and auntie, but they have interests that are not mine. Trix Venable is about the only girl of my own age that I know very well in town, and she has gone South for the winter. Won't you come?" she asked wistfully, turning to Janet.

"I shall be delighted to," she said, thinking what an odd turn of affairs this was.

"I've been here an unconscionable time," said Marian setting down her chocolate cup, "but you see I have gained my object: I have met you, Miss Ferguson."

"I feel my garment of repentance weighing very heavily," returned Janet.

"Don't, please don't. It is all over, and really it wasn't a thing for us to have made such a fuss about. We were in the wrong, so let us say no more about it. Come soon, both of you. I suppose Friday is the best day for you. Shall we say next Friday afternoon?"

The two girls agreed, and she left them. Soon after this, Janet and Rosalie took their departure, but not before Becky had been able to ask, "Do you like Marian? Isn't she a dear, so sincere and unspoiled."

"She is lovely," returned Janet enthusiastically.

"Do you remember that you charged me with the intention of playing a trick on you?" said Becky.

"Yes, I do," said Janet.

"Well, this is the trick," returned Becky.

Janet felt rather lonely after she had entered her room and had laid away her wraps. Edna would not be home till the next day, and there was the long evening before her. A fine chance for work, she thought, but it was a holiday, and she had already given her morning hours to hard study.

"I'll hunt up somebody," she said to herself. "Maybe Cordelia has come in."

She tapped at Cordelia's door, and found that young person with her satellite, Lee Penrose.

"I hope I haven't interrupted any confidences," said Janet.

"No, indeed," Cordelia told her. "Come right in. We have been hoping that some of you others would turn up. Been out, Janet?"

"Yes, to a tea. Becky Burdett's, you know, and girls, who do you suppose was there?"

"Can't imagine. Any celebrity?"

"No, no one like that. Marian Austin, if you please, and she is just too dear for anything. I promised to go call on her next Friday."

"You did? Well, of all things," exclaimed Cordelia. "What did she say about the gym affair?"

"Oh, nothing. She wouldn't let me talk about it."

"Nice girl. Well, Janet, we have some news, too. Professor Gaines is going to Europe for his health, and in his place we are to have a new instructor, a young man, if you please, unmarried, rejoicing in the name of Mark Evans. What do you think of that?"

"I think that is startling. Have you seen him? What is he like? Where is he from?"

"I haven't seen him and I don't know where he is from; Boston, probably, or Maine; they turn out a great many from their factories there. I hope he is good-looking and not too shy."

"He is sure to be shy and not good-looking," declared Janet. "They wouldn't select any other kind. And he'll be hard as nails, because he'll be afraid we will try to take advantage of his youth and inexperience. I pity him, poor soul."

"Oh, you do? I pity us. That's just like you, Janet. You are always ready to pity anything from a mangy cat or a spider to an erudite professor. You'll find the one to be pitied is your precious self."

"Allee samee, I don't believe he'll find it an easy berth," persisted Janet.

"Well, I am sorry enough to give up Professor Gaines. He is such a well-meaning old soul, and one doesn't have to fight for every inch of the way in his class. I never heard him say a sarcastic thing in my life."

"I never heard Professor Satterthwaite say a sarcastic thing, but—" Janet paused tellingly.

"You may well say 'but.' He doesn't have to say, when he can look. He emphasizes the saying, 'actions speak louder than words.'"

"I have no doubt the new man will try to be sarcastic. They almost always do when they are young like that. We may be able to steel ourselves against weapons of that kind, but the ones who will be hurt are the ones who will begin by glorifying him, not we."

"Oh, no, not we," chimed in Lee. "We are so superior. We can always rise above any weakness. Don't be so dead sure, Janet Ferguson. You are just the one who will want to crawl under the chair some day in sheer mortification."

"You foolish child," replied Janet. "I'm not such a milksop as to care whether a man, especially a young man, makes sarcastic speeches or not. I'd rather he would. I think I'd enjoy them. I hate the meachin' kind. Come into my room, girls, and I will regale you upon olives and chocolate cake."

"Rare combination," said Lee.

"Stay here," said Cordelia, "and we'll make a rarebit."

And Janet stayed.