The four Corners in California

by Amy Ella Blanchard

THE TOURNAMENT OF ROSES

It was after supper when Carter had been in close conversation with Mrs. Roberts that he suddenly exclaimed, "Who wants to join me at the Tournament of Roses on New Year's day? Don't all speak at once."

"I do! I do!" clamored the twins, and the other girls were not far behind in echoing the cry.

"Tell us about it," said Jack leaving Mr. Pinckney and coming to Carter's side.

"Tell me," said Jean going over to Mrs. Roberts.

"It is the flower festival at Pasadena that always takes place on New Year's Day. Every go-cart and wheelbarrow in the place dresses up in flowers and parades the streets. I thought it would be rather fun to be in the parade with my motor car," Carter told Jack.

"Oh, wouldn't it?" said Jack. "Take me, Carter?"

"We'll see. The honor of being in it is to be accorded to the one who will suggest the most appropriate scheme of decorations for my car. That is what Mrs. Bobs and I decided on. Those who are not inlookers can be onlookers from some point of vantage. Notice my vocabulary, Miss Helen. We shall have high jinks, ending up with a swell dinner and fireworks when we get home."

"I speak to furnish the dinner," said Mr. Pinckney.

"Now, I say," began Carter, "you're trying to steal my thunder."

"I think you might give an old fellow a chance when there is one," returned Mr. Pinckney in an aggrieved tone.

"Do humor the child, Carter," said Mrs. Roberts. "You know he will pout and fret and spoil everything if you don't."

Mr. Pinckney threatened his daughter with his fist. "But I don't believe in boys having all the fun. Here he's going to dress up and take the youngsters in the parade, and then wants to furnish dinner and fireworks both; it's not fair."

"You can go in the parade if you are lucky enough to suggest a dazzlingly attractive form of decoration," said Carter; "that's the bill."

"Oh, don't let him go," shrilled out Jack; "he'll take up two seats."

"Now hear that," said Mr. Pinckney. "Every one's against me."

"Poor dear," said his daughter consolingly; "they shan't tease my dear old dad."

"I've a mind to get up a rival car," said Mr. Pinckney, "and outdo that boy."

"Boy yourself," retorted Carter, and Mr. Pinckney's "ha-ha!" roared out so infectiously that every one joined in.

New Year's day was so near at hand that it required some cudgeling of brains to bring forth ideas to suit the occasion.

"I think pink is prettiest," decided Jack. "All pink roses would be lovely."

"Oh, but that's so common," objected Jean. "I like blue better; there aren't near so many blue flowers as pink ones."

"How would it do to have flowers of every color?" remarked Carter.

"If it didn't look like a crazy quilt or a rag carpet," put in Nan.

"Nuf said," replied Carter; "we'll strike that out."

"Shades of violet might be lovely," remarked Mrs. Corner thoughtfully.

"Not original enough," Miss Helen decided, "though if it comes to that, I suppose everything from the stars and stripes in red white and blue, to a portrait of the president done in flesh color will be on exhibition. What we want is something not too conspicuous, yet refined and artistic."

"Chaste and elegant fills the bill," returned Carter.

"How would it do to dress up the four Corners as North, South, East and West?" suggested Mr. Pinckney. "Dress North in fur and cover her with snowballs; South could have magnolias; East could have,—could have——"

"Could have——" repeated Carter. "Go on, Mr. St. Nick."

"I'm stuck," he confessed. "I don't believe my ingenuity could devise sufficiently distinctive costumes. We shall have to give that up. Why haven't we heard from you, Mary Lee? I see the shadow of thought resting upon your brow."

"I'm just thinking that we might use the Spanish colors," she said, "and we could wear Spanish dresses." It was plain to be seen what influenced her suggestion.

"Oh, there'll be hosts of those," Mrs. Roberts told her. "The Spanish element will come out very strong, as you will see." And Mary Lee retired to the background.

"We might take the colors of the University of Virginia," said Nan. "Cart is a University man and he might fly the college colors, yellow and blue; we could each carry a little pennant."

"Not bad," said Carter, interested at once. "We'll think that over, Nan. I'd like right well to back up the old University and give her a chance. So far nothing better has been suggested. What is your scheme, Mrs. Bobs? We haven't heard from you yet."

"I was thinking of proposing white flowers with a very little green decoration. Green and white is always so fresh looking and is very effective if used right."

Carter looked dubious. "Very effective for a wedding, maybe, but it doesn't appeal to me as striking enough."

"Red and black, then."

"The devil's colors; oh, no, we are all too young and innocent," laughed Carter. "We'll let Nan's resolution lie on the table till to-morrow and in the meantime somebody else may come forward with a new suggestion." So time went on until at last Miss Helen proposed that the white car be decked in yellow to represent the golden west and that its occupants wear white and yellow. This suggestion was unanimously approved but Miss Helen waived her right to a seat in the car and handed it over to Nan who was ecstatic. Her own scheme of using the colors of the University of Virginia had come second in favor so that it was considered proper that she should take Miss Helen's place.

"Nan is so slim there is plenty of room for another," said Jack wistfully.

"So there is, kid," said Carter comfortingly. "There's plenty of room for you and the other trin on the back seat with Mary Lee, and Nan can sit by me on the front seat if she doesn't object."

Nobody objected, Nan least of all, so this beautiful arrangement was carried out, and yellow and gold filled their minds for the next few days. The car was not to be entirely massed in flowers, but was to be bordered by the yellow blossoms, these outlining the top, sides and wheels, while the front was to be a solid yellow shield. Each lassie was to carry a big bunch of yellow flowers and to wear white with a yellow sash. They were to have, too, crowns of yellow, and Carter in speckless white would have a yellow necktie and wear a yellow flower in his buttonhole.

"We ought certainly to take the prize," said Nan. "I don't believe there will be any prettier fix than ours."

"Oh, you country gal," cried Carter, "a fix, indeed. What a way to speak of my beautiful white car."

"Do we start from here, or do we go to Pasadena first and get things in order?" asked Mary Lee.

"You girls would better start from here," said Mrs. Roberts; "you will have a better chance to adorn yourselves, and Carter can meet you at the hotel."

But Carter would none of this; he would not consent to starting on ahead. "Nine miles is nothing for an automobile," he said, "and I'll let her go slow so the decorations will be in no danger of whizzing off. Besides, we'll have a much better chance to get the car looking all right and note the effect."

Mr. Pinckney threw himself heart and soul into the fun. He posted off to Pasadena early to engage the "place of vantage" where the onlooking elders could be posted to see the parade, and where he could engage a table for their dinner. It was all vastly exciting, the children thought. Jean rocked herself back and forth with delight as she sat on the veranda floor watching Nan and Mary Lee make the crowns. "Did you ever think we'd have such lovely story-book times," she said. "I could screal, I'm so happy."

"I wouldn't," returned Nan. "Screaling is for scralid scraws, and scrirming screaky pigs with crirky tails, and not for little girls of craulity."

"Oh, Nan," protested Jean, "you make such fun of me; do be criet."

"So I will, if you will promise not to criver so with excitement," Nan replied. "Hand me those scissors, please. 'She wore a wreath of roses,'" she sang, deftly tossing the crown of yellow flowers on Jean's head. "There, you look crite like a little creen."

In the pride of her coronet Jean forgot to notice the teasing and ran off to show herself to her mother.

The yellow crowns were vastly becoming, to Nan especially so, and Carter had nothing but approving looks to cast on his party of little girls as they mounted his flower-decked car, and they returned the compliment. "You certainly do look nice, Carter," said Jack.

"That white suit and yellow tie are very becoming to your style of beauty," said Nan, "but I wish you were a caballero."

"A caballero in an automobile? What an anachronism," said Carter. "I'd have to ride a horse and stow my car away in a garage, then where would you be?"

"Sure enough, where? Looking at you on your curvetting steed instead of being looked at with you. I take it all back, Carter; I don't wish you were a caballero at all."

"Well, my ladies, I'm perfectly satisfied with your appearance, individually and collectively. Those little yellow coronets are just too sweet," he added in a finicking voice.

"So is your tootsy-wootsy buttonhole bouquet," retorted Nan. "Come, let's get in. Dispose your sashes, children, so they will show a little bit. That's it. Now, I'll seat myself. See if I'm all right, Carter. Oh, I am so proud."

Indeed, so were they all. Never had there been a more excited set of children. To be part and parcel of a big parade, and such parade, was no common affair. It was a wonderful thing to share the plaudits of a great assemblage with gaily dressed ladies on coaches, with dashing caballeros and brilliantly bedecked wheelmen. Jack could scarcely sit still, and was constantly reprimanded by Mary Lee, who felt that the dignity of the party must be kept up by her.

Their elders had gone on ahead and were comfortably placed in the seats Mr. Pinckney had procured for them. The whole town was gay with flags and banners; festoons of flowers graced the fronts of the houses; arches of the same spanned the streets; all the shops and schools were closed; tiers of seats held expectant spectators; Spanish cavaliers, the descendants of the old residents of California, fell into line, their big sombreros garlanded with poppies or roses, their velvet jackets showing brass buttons, silken cords and white puffs at elbows, their white trousers displaying bright color beneath the slashes. They were the observed of all observers. Many of them wore sashes of flowers and the bridles of their horses were entwined with ribbons of the same shade. A caballero mounted on a high-stepping black horse whose decorations were yellow, made a fine showing, while the glossy white steed which followed contrasted well with the brilliant red geraniums which adorned his master, and the horse himself seemed proud of his scarlet ribbons as he tossed his flowing mane and arched his neck.

Those at the windows and balconies noticed the happy faced party of little girls in their yellow and white, but in that mass of gorgeousness their car was not specially unique, but they did not care, and scarcely one of them thought of the prize offered for the most attractive decoration. Then there were automobiles a mass of roses, coaches of violets, whose occupants wore gowns of the same hue, victorias of lilies, every conceivable conceit wrought into the moving pageant. Bicyclists in satin costumes of the picturesque period of Louis XV rode in solid line, their wheels adorned in harmony with their dress. Every sort of thing on wheels was pressed into service. Dignity, grotesqueness, grace, beauty, all were represented.

"There they are!" cried Jack as their car passed the hotel windows at which sat their party. "See, there's mother waving her handkerchief. She knows us and Mr. St. Nick has a flag. See him, he is getting red in the face with waving it so hard."

"I feel as if I were part of a triumphal procession," said Nan to Carter, "as if ahead of us might be some great king whom we are escorting to his palace, and that we girls were the ladies in waiting to attend his queen. This might be the bridal procession and we might be going from the church after the ceremony. He is a Spanish king, of course, because those are his courtiers on horseback."

Just at this juncture the band struck up Dixie. Carter was on his feet in an instant waving his hat and shouting, "Three cheers for the old Dominion!" The girls shrilled out their cheers and bystanders smiled at the enthusiastic four whose example was followed by so many as to prove that the land of Dixie had many representatives in that crowd.

Up and down the parade passed in review, but at last it came to an end and the girls sought their friends at the hotel. "Wasn't it the grandest thing you ever saw?" cried Jack throwing herself on Mr. Pinckney, thus knocking to one side her coronet which was already awry.

"Yes," he assured her, "it was about as fine as anything I ever saw."

"Aren't you sorry you weren't in it?" asked Jean.

"Well, no, to tell you the truth I am not, for I think we all saw much more than you did."

"It wasn't so much the seeing as the being," remarked Nan.

"And did you hear us cheer when they played Dixie?" asked Jack.

"Hear you?" said Mr. Pinckney laughing. "I heard a mighty shout but I didn't know it was you making all the noise."

"Pasadena is such a beautiful place I don't know why we didn't come here to live," said Jean.

"Sh!" reproved Mary Lee. "You know we stayed in Los Angeles because we wanted to be near Mrs. Roberts and Mr. St. Nick, and I am sure it couldn't be lovelier anywhere than where we live."

"Who is ready for the New Year's dinner?" asked Mr. Pinckney. "Aren't you all nearly starved?"

"Oh, I forgot about its being New Year," said Nan. "It certainly isn't a bit like any New Year we ever knew, but it is one I shall never forget."

"Shall we wear our crowns to dinner?" asked Jack.

"If you like," Mr. Pinckney told her.

But the coronets being rather limp from wear, were taken off and the party went down to the dining-room in the rest of their festal array. While a delicious dinner was served them they made merry over the favors provided by Mr. Pinckney whose ingenuity in this direction brought a great clapping of hands. For Carter there was a tiny automobile, for Nan a little piano, for the señorita a guitar, for Mary Lee a glass box of great California prunes, the many sided box top showing the prismatic colors. Jack received a little toy kid, Jean an astronomical globe with the sign of the Gemini prominent. Before Mrs. Corner's place was a five-sided box of candy to represent the five Corners. Miss Helen had a book called "A Little Corner in the World"; for Mrs. Roberts was a bobbing Chinese figure and for Mr. Roberts a toy bob-sled.

"Father has had the best sort of time getting these, I know," said Mrs. Roberts. "I can just see him prowling around the shops. It is the way he used to about our Christmas gifts when we were children."

"I came near getting a nanny-goat for Miss Zeph," said Mr. Pinckney, "but I didn't want to destroy the effect of the kid."

"But you ought to have had a Santa Claus," said Jack regretfully. "What are you doing, Carter?"

"Just wait a minute," he said, keeping busily on with the manipulation of an orange. Every one's eyes were upon him as he deftly cut away the skin, made eyes of raisins, a nose of a candied cherry, daubed the cheeks with currant jelly, and smeared the chin with the same, then leaning over he took the jeweler's cotton from the box containing Mrs. Roberts' Chinese figure, made a beard and hair of it, stuck the orange on top of a larger one by means of matches, made arms of flower stalks, and legs of orange twigs, a tiny pipe was improvised and stuck in the mouth of the figure, then with a flourish Carter presented it to Mr. Pinckney who received it amid shouts of laughter.

"Such a clever, clever boy," said Miss Helen approvingly.

"A second Michael Angelo," laughed Mrs. Roberts.

"But," cried Jack, "Mr. St. Nick's nose isn't a bit red."

"But it says 'nose like a cherry,' in the Night before Christmas," Jean reminded her.

"Yes, but there are white cherries," objected Jack. She felt that perhaps Carter might be making fun of her dear old friend and she eyed the latter gentleman closely to see if his feelings were hurt by this effigy. On the contrary he chuckled each time he looked at the figure which he declared he would treasure as long as it lasted.

Through the arched and flower-decked streets they took their way home to finish the day by setting off the fireworks Carter had provided. Then they sang songs; so sandwiching songs with fireworks they passed the evening and when the odor of gunpowder had died away came the scent of orange-blossoms and roses to gladden their senses as they strolled home.