Two Little Women Part 26

"Oh, dear, will I ever get grown up!" and Genie sighed with envy of her sister and Dolly.

"But how do you know who anybody is?" went on Dolly, who had never heard of this game before.

"You don't! that's the fun of it. You can't tell the girls from the boys, and you must try to make your voice different, so n.o.body will know who you are. Have you plenty of sheets, Mother, to fix us up?"

"Yes, indeed; one apiece will do you I think, if they are wide ones."

"We'll make our own masks," said Dotty, who had attended parties of this sort before.

So they cut masks from white muslin, with a little frill across the bottom and holes to fit their eyes.

"Now we must put a piece of gauze or net behind these eye-holes," said Dotty, out of her full experience, "for if we don't, they'd know your eyes and mine in a minute, Dollyrinda."

"Then how can we see where we're going?"

"Oh, we can see through the thin stuff easily enough, but our eyes don't show plainly to other people."

So insets of fine white net were put in the eye-holes and the dainty white masks were really pretty affairs.

They had made them not exactly alike, lest duplicates should lead to suspicion of their ident.i.ty.

When it was time to get ready for the party Mrs. Rose pinned the girls into their sheet draperies.

"Make us as different as possible, Mother," advised Dotty, "so they'll never think we're us."

Mrs. Rose pinned Dolly's sheet into the semblance of a j.a.panese kimono, while she arranged Dotty's in full folds round the neck and let it hang in a Mother Hubbard effect.

Dolly's pillow-case headdress was bunched on either side of her head, like rosettes over her ears, and Dotty's hung in a plain flat fold down her back like an Italian girl's.

The masks were adjusted and the girls were ready to start. They wore white gloves and white shoes and looked like a pair of very lively ghosts.

Mr. Rose escorted them over to the Holmes Camp, or nearly there,--for it was the plan that each phantom must sneak in as stealthily as possible, in order to remain unknown.

So sometime before they reached their destination, Dotty ran on ahead, and with great manoeuvring, managed to slip in unseen and saunter among the crowd already gathered.

Silently, among the trees, Mr. Rose led Dolly until he saw a good opportunity and then with a whispered "Scoot in there!" he indicated a chance for her to make her entrance, and he himself went back home.

It was dusk, not dark, but the light of the big camp fire made convenient shadows to screen the entrance of the guests.

It seemed a weird sight to Dolly as she somewhat timidly made her way in. Twenty or thirty white-robed figures were bowing and sc.r.a.ping or dancing wildly about or talking to each other in high squeaky voices and short sentences.

"Know me?" somebody said, stopping in front of Dolly.

The voice seemed a little familiar, and yet Dolly couldn't quite place it. It might be Jack Norris, or it might be one of the Holmes boys. But in a spirit of fun she nodded her head affirmatively, with great vigour, as if to declare that she knew the speaker perfectly well, but she would not speak herself.

"Who?" squeaked the high voice, hoping Dolly would speak and thus reveal her own ident.i.ty.

But Dolly was too canny for this. Instead she joined together her thumb and forefinger of each hand and held them up to her eyes, making circles like eye-gla.s.s rims. Now, in sunny weather, Guy Holmes wore big gla.s.ses with sh.e.l.l rims, and as this described him fairly well, it was a stroke of triumph on Dolly's part. For it was Guy Holmes himself, and he doubled up with laughter at the clever identification.

But he shook his head as if Dolly were greatly mistaken in her guess, and so she didn't know whether she had been right or not.

When all had arrived, they danced in a circle round the fire, chanting wild sounds that had no meaning or rhythm but were supposed to be ghostlike wails and groans.

Then a game was played, under the direction of Mr. Holmes, by which it was endeavoured to learn who the different phantoms were.

Their host led them to what was really the drying-ground for the family laundry. A clothesline stretched on four posts formed a square, and from the clothesline depended brown paper bags of varying sizes, from large to tiny, each held by a slender string.

"One at a time," Mr. Holmes explained, "our ghostly friends will go into the square, and being blindfolded, will endeavour to hit a bag with a stick. If the attempt is successful the ghost may return unchallenged, but if he fail to hit a bag the others may guess from his gestures who it is."

The bags were not very near together, there being only three or four on each side of the clothesline square.

Mr. Holmes selected one of the phantoms and escorted it to the middle of the square, placed a stick in the outstretched hand, blindfolded the motionless figure, turned it round with a whirl and said, "Step forward, and hit where you choose, and see if you can bring down a bag."

The ghost was very evidently a boy, for two vigorous arms grasped the stick and with a couple of long strides the white figure stalked forward.

A vigorous blow ensued, but the stick came down between two of the bags and made no hit.

"Now you may guess who it is," said Mr. Holmes, "as our friend ghost did not strike anything. If you guess right, he must take off his mask, but if not he may retain it. Only one guess allowed."

Somebody sung out the name of Jack Norris, as the ghost was about his height, but the white figure shook its head vigorously and glided back among the crowd.

The game went on. Sometimes a ghost would hit a bag and the flimsy paper would burst and a quant.i.ty of peanuts or popcorn would scatter on the gra.s.s, to be scrabbled for by the rollicking phantoms.

One bag held confetti which scattered through the air in a gay shower of colour.

When it was Dolly's turn, she was determined that she would act as differently as possible from her usual manner and so fool everybody.

After she was blindfolded and turned round, she took the stick and with little mincing steps, imitated exactly the gait of Josie Holmes. She made a wild dash with the stick, but failed to hit a bag and Maisie Norris called out at once, "You're Josie Holmes! I know that walk!"

Dolly shook her head vigorously and ran back to the crowd. She chanced to stand next to a very tall ghost who gravely patted her cheek as she stood beside him. Dolly looked up quickly, for she did not like this familiarity from a stranger, and she was sure the phantom was too tall to be any of the boys she knew. Of course, as the party was large, there were many of the guests whom Dolly had never met, and she resented the act of the stranger and drawing herself up with great dignity turned her back upon him.

But the tall ghost jumped around in front of her and patted her other cheek, the while he gave a cackling, rattling, ghostly chuckle.

To be sure Dolly's cheek was covered by her mask and the ghost wore white cotton gloves, but she did not at all like his familiar manner and she walked quickly away from him.

A few moments later the tall ghost himself went to take his turn with the stick.

Blindfolded and whirled about, he went with short, steady steps straight forward, and with a big whack he chanced to bring down a good sized bag. It was filled with the feathers of a whole pillow, and great laughter ensued as, like snowflakes, the feathers flew through the air.

His heavy stroke had sent the bag flying upward and as it burst the feathers descended in a shower.

Since he had broken a bag, the ident.i.ty of the tall ghost was not even guessed at, so Dolly had no chance to learn his name.

However, everybody was laughing and sneezing, as the feathers drifted down and flew into their mouths or tickled their ears.

Only a few of the ghosts' names were guessed correctly, as many of them had carefully disguised their shapes and sizes. Thin people had put on sweaters or bulky coats to make themselves appear stout, and short people had built up high headdresses in an effort to seem taller.

By the time the game was over every one was in most hilarious mood, and the few who had been guessed and so had removed their masks, were teasing the others in efforts to make them talk.

"I know you," said Elmer Holmes, pausing in front of Dolly. "You're Dotty Rose!"