Ethel Morton at Chautauqua Part 2

"Here's where your Indian friends got in their fine work," called Roger who had been going from one side of the car to the other so that nothing might escape his eyes.

Ethel would have liked to stick out her tongue at him, but she knew that her mother had a strong objection to that expression of disapproval so she contented herself with scowling terribly at her brother.

"What is the story about the Frenchmen, Grandfather?" asked Helen. "You forgot to tell us."

"So I did, but Grandmother says that we are so near to Chautauqua now, so I shall have to postpone it until we have a rainy evening."

"Are we really almost there?" cried the two Ethels, rus.h.i.+ng to the other side of the car. "See, how near the lake is. See, there's a high fence with buildings behind it--a funny old fence!"

"That's _the_ famous Chautauqua fence, I suspect," said Mrs. Morton, smiling.

"Why famous? How long is it? What's that little tent on the other side?

Oh, what funny, tiny houses!"

Everybody chattered and n.o.body paid much attention to grandmother although she answered patiently every question.

"It's famous because there isn't another town in the United States that is surrounded by a fence. It's a mile along the road and about a half mile at each end from the road to the lake. That's a fence guard's tent.

What's a fence guard? A man to show the nearest way to the gate to people who want to take a short cut through the fence. That's Piano-town. The people who are studying music practice in those little houses where they won't annoy their neighbors in the living cottages."

"Here we are," cried grandfather. "Have you all got your bundles? Don't forget your hat, d.i.c.ky."

"'All ash.o.r.e that's going ash.o.r.e,'" quoted Roger who had seen many steamers sail, and then he suddenly grew quiet and a.s.sisted his mother with his best manner, for on the platform were several young men who looked as if they might be good friends if they were impressed at the start that he was worth while and not just a kid; and there were also some girls of Helen's age and a little older whose appearance he liked extremely.

CHAPTER II

GETTING SETTLED

GETTING the Emerson-Morton party inside the grounds of Chautauqua Inst.i.tution was no mean undertaking. Roger was still acting as courier and he asked his mother to wait until the other pa.s.sengers from the car had gone through the turnstile so that the gateman might give them his undivided attention. They all had to have season tickets and when these had been made out then one after another the family pushed the stile and the gateman punched number one from the numerals on their tickets as they pa.s.sed.

"If only you were eighty or over you would have your ticket given you by the Inst.i.tution, Father," said Mrs. Morton.

"Thank you, I'm a long way outside of that cla.s.s," retorted Mr. Emerson with some tartness.

"What's the idea of the punching?" asked Helen, of her grandmother.

"You have to show your ticket every time you go outside of the fence or out on the lake," explained Mrs. Emerson. "The odd numbers are punched when you come in--as we do now--and the even numbers when you go out. It circ.u.mvents several little tricks that people more smart than honest have tried to play on the administration at one time or another."

"Why do we have to pay, anyway?" asked Roger. "I never went to a summer resort before where you had to pay to go in."

"That's because you never went to one that gave you amus.e.m.e.nt of all sorts. Here you can go to lectures and concerts all day long and you don't have to pay a cent for them. This entrance fee covers everything of that sort. Where else on the planet can you go to something like twenty or more events in the course of the day for the sum of twelve and a half cents which is about what the grown-up season ticket holder pays for his fun."

"Nowhere, I'll bet," responded Roger promptly. "Are there really as many as that?"

"There are a great many more if you count in all the things that are going on at the various clubs and all the cla.s.ses in the Summer Schools."

"Don't you have to pay for those?"

"There's a small fee for all instruction because cla.s.ses require teachers, and teachers must be paid; and the clubs call for a small fee because they have expenses which they must meet. But all the public entertainments are free."

"This is just the place I've been looking for ever since Father gave me an allowance," grinned Roger, whose struggles with his account book were a family joke.

"Mother," drawled d.i.c.ky in a voice that seemed on the verge of tears, "why don't we ride? I'm so tired I can hardly walk."

"Poor lamb, there aren't any trolleys here or any station carriages,"

explained Mrs. Morton. "Roger, can't you get another porter to take your bags while you carry d.i.c.ky?"

Thus reinforced the New Jersey army marched down the hill from the Road Gate to the square.

Mrs. Morton had taken a cottage, and the porters said that they knew exactly where it was situated. Roger, bearing d.i.c.ky perched upon his shoulder, walked between them soaking up information all the way. He noticed that both young men wore letters on their sweaters, and he discovered after a brief examination that they were both college men who were athletes at their respective inst.i.tutions.

"There are lots of fellows here doing this," one of them said.

"Working, you mean?"

"I sure do. Jo and I think you really have more fun if you're working than if you don't. There are college boys rustling baggage at the trolley station where you came in, and at the steamer landing, and lots of the boarding houses have them doing all sorts of things. Jo and I wait on table for our meals at the Bismarck cottage."

"Do you get your room, too?"

"We get our rooms by being janitors at two of the halls where they hold cla.s.ses. We get up early and sweep them out every day and we set the chairs in order after every cla.s.s. Then we do this porter act at certain hours."

"So your summer really isn't costing you anything."

"I shall come out a little bit ahead, railroad ticket and all. Jo lives farther away and he won't quite cover his expenses unless something new and lucrative turns up--like tutoring."

"Or running a power boat, Henry," smiled silent Jo.

"Did you get that job at the Springers?" asked Henry eagerly.

"I did, and it's more profitable than toting bags."

"Good for you," exclaimed the genial Henry, and Roger added his congratulations, for the young men were so frank about their business undertakings that he was deeply interested.

The Ethels, walking at the end of the procession, held each other's hands tightly so that they might look about without straying off the sidewalk.

"It's queer for a country place, isn't it?" commented Ethel Brown. "I haven't seen a cow or a chicken since we came in the gate."

"The houses are so close together there isn't any room for them,"

suggested Ethel Blue. "I haven't seen a cat either."

"I know why. Mother told me she read in a booklet they sent her that there was a Bird Club and you know bird people are always down on cats.

They must have sent them all out of town."

"Oh, here's quite a large square. See, there are stores in that big brick building with the columns and the place opposite says Post Office--"

"And there's a soda fountain under that pergola."