SOMETHING ABOUT A SLEIGHRIDE PARTY
“What kind of a party is it, Martha?”
“I don’t know, except that it’s somewhere out of town and some of the girls and fellows are going to the place in sleighs. I wasn’t asked to go, and I got the information in a roundabout way.”
“Then Ruth hasn’t said anything to you about it?”
“Not a word. But I’m sure she received this Lester Bangs’ invitation.”
“And you think she may accept it?”
“I hope not, Jack. Because I don’t like Bangs. He wears such showy clothing and jewelry.”
“That’s the reason we call him Brassy—he is brassy in looks and brassy in manner. He’s just as much of a hot-air bag as Tommy Flanders,” went on the young captain, referring to an arrogant youth who the summer before had pitched for Longley Academy and been knocked out of the box.
“Isn’t it queer, he put me in mind of Flanders?” whispered Martha. “I hope you don’t have any trouble with him, Jack.” And then, as some of the others came closer, the private conversation had to come to an end.
While in the moving picture theater Jack sat with Ruth beside him. They occasionally spoke about the scenes presented to them and also about school matters in general, but not one word was said by either about the party Martha had mentioned.
“Mr. Falstein certainly gets good pictures,” remarked the girl, when the performance had come to an end and the crowd of young people was moving out of the theater. “They’re just as good as one can see in the big cities.”
“They’re the same thing, only he gets them a little later,” answered Jack.
“I like the comic pictures better than anything,” declared Andy. “I hate those serious ones. They’re generally so awfully mushy.”
“Why, Andy Rover, how you talk!” cried Alice Strobell. “I think that picture they showed today of Life in a Big City was perfectly grand.”
“Especially where the heroine sobbed herself to sleep over the sewing machine in her garret room,” went on Andy, with a snicker. “Wasn’t that just the tear-bringer?”
“I don’t care! It was just as true to life as it could be,” answered Alice sturdily.
“Well, maybe,” was the airy return of the fun-loving Rover. “Come to think of it, I never did run a sewing machine in a garret room with the snow blowing through a busted window. I’d rather sit in the shade of the old apple tree reading a good book and getting on the outside of some ripe pears,” he continued, and at this there was general laughter.
As was their custom, the young folks drifted from the theater to a nearby candy and ice-cream establishment. Here they split up into various groups at some tables in the rear. Of course, the boys insisted on treating the girls, and there was quite a discussion over what each would have. Martha and Mary had paired off with Gif and Spouter, and Fred and the twins were with some of the other girls, and this left Ruth and Jack by themselves.
Several times the young captain wanted to bring the conversation around to the question of the party that had been mentioned. But every time he checked himself.
“What were you going to say?” questioned Ruth, when he caught himself once. “You act as if you had something on your mind of special importance, Jack.”
“Not at all! Not at all!” he returned hastily. “How are you getting along with your studies, Ruth? Do your eyes interfere much with them?”
“Not a great deal. But, of course, I have to be more or less careful. But I’m doing finely, so the teachers say.”
“We’re going to have an election of officers soon,” continued the young captain. “Some of the fellows are urging me to run for major of the battalion. Ralph Mason is going to drop out, you know.”
“Oh, Jack! why don’t you run?”
“Do you want me to run, Ruth?”
“Why, of course! if there’s any chance of getting it, and I don’t see why there shouldn’t be,” she returned quickly.
Her manner was so intimate that once again he was on the point of mentioning the party. But then he shut his teeth hard and pretended to be interested in something taking place at the other tables.
“Don’t you think you could win the election if you tried?” Ruth continued, after looking at him questioningly for a moment.
“Oh, I guess I’d have as good a chance as any one in command. Of course, there are a number of other officers who would have as good a chance as I’d have. But I’m not altogether sure that I want to be major. If I held that office Colonel Colby would expect me to toe the mark all the time just as an example to the others. Even as it was, he didn’t like to have me as a captain and Fred as a lieutenant mixed up in that snowball affair.”
“Oh, but, Jack! think of the honor of being major of the battalion,” cried the girl. “I’m sure Martha and your folks will be very proud of you.”
“Would you be proud, Ruth, if I should win the position?” he asked in a low tone.
“Why, of course—we all would,” returned the girl, her face flushing slightly. “I always like to see my friends make something of themselves.”
Ruth’s tone was cordial enough, and once again Jack was on the point of switching the talk to the party. But now some of the young folks had finished, and the little gathering began to break up and he and Ruth were surrounded by the others.
“We’ve got to do some shopping,” declared Mary, when they were out on the sidewalk. “So we can’t remain with you boys any longer.” And a few minutes later the crowd separated, the girls hurrying in one direction and the cadets in another.
“You let me know if you hear any more about that party,” whispered Jack, on parting from his sister.
“I will,” she answered.
On starting back for the Hall Jack paired off with Fred and purposely lagged behind.
“Did you hear anything about a party in which Brassy Bangs was interested?” he asked of his cousin.
“Mary said that Brassy was getting up some sort of party, to come off either Thursday or Friday of this week. The crowd is going somewhere in two big sleighs.”
“She didn’t say where?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Did she say who was going?”
“As far as she knew the crowd of fellows consisted of Brassy and two or three of his chums at the Hall and some young fellows around town.”
“And what about the girls, Fred?”
“They asked Jennie Mason and Ida Brierley to go and a number of the other girls from Clearwater.”
“Did they ask May?”
“Mary wasn’t sure. But she rather thinks that May and Ruth both got an invite, although in some kind of roundabout way. Did Ruth say anything to you about it?”
“Not a word. But Martha did. She, too, thought Ruth had an invitation, but she didn’t mention May.”
“I wonder if May and Ruth will go?” questioned the youngest Rover. He was almost as chummy with Spouter’s cousin as Jack was with Ruth.
“I’m sure I don’t know, Fred. But I do know I’d hate to see either of them going out with such a fellow as Brassy.”
“It will be a shame to have any of those girls associate with him!” burst out Fred indignantly. “He’s not in their class at all—he’s altogether too loud and flashy.”
“He certainly sports a lot of cheap jewelry,” was Jack’s comment. “And that suit of clothes that he had on when he first came to the Hall was a scream.”
“Let’s go around to the livery stable and see if we can find out something about the party.”
The place Fred had in mind was located on a side street less than a block away, and it did not take the two young officers long to reach it. They found the livery-stable keeper out, but one of his assistants came forward to see what they wanted.
“Hello, Waxy,” cried Jack cordially, for he had met the young fellow many times before. “How are you these days?”
“Fine as a spider’s web,” answered Waxy, with a grin.
“I understand you’re going to use your two big sleighs for a party this week for some of our fellows?” went on the young captain.
“Yes, both sleighs are hired for Thursday or Friday night,” was the answer. “But you could get ’em for any other night you might want,” went on Waxy, with an eye to business.
“Where is the party to be held?” questioned Fred.
“I don’t know exactly. They’re to go about twelve miles out of town, so I was told.”
“Some young fellows from town helping to get it up, I believe?”
“Yes. Tom Drake, Bill Fenny, Joe McGuire, Ted Rosenblatt, and a bunch of others are interested. They’ll have one high old time, you believe me,” went on the livery-stable keeper’s assistant, with a grin.
“Rather a lively bunch, are they?” questioned Jack.
“About as lively as this town affords.”
“It’s a wonder some of our fellows are going with them,” was Fred’s comment.
“Oh, that’ll be all right. There won’t be anything out of the way,” put in Waxy hastily, afraid that he had said too much. “They’ll have a lively time, but everything will be perfectly all right.”
“Maybe,” answered Jack, and then, after a few more words with the assistant, the two cadets hurried off after their chums.
“If McGuire and Rosenblatt have anything to do with that party it will certainly be a lively one,” said Fred, on the way to the school. “They’re the liveliest fellows this town affords.”
“It won’t be any kind of a party for our girl friends to attend,” remarked Jack. “I certainly hope May and Ruth don’t go.”
“Maybe we ought to warn them, Jack.”
“If we did that somebody might say we were sore because we weren’t invited, Fred.”
“I know it. But it’s a shame, just the same.”
“We might let Martha and Mary know what we found out, and then they might put a flea in the ears of the other girls.”
It must be confessed that Jack was rather sober that night and all day Sunday. He could not get the coming party out of his mind, and he wondered constantly whether Ruth would really accept the invitation which had been extended to her. Along with a number of other cadets he attended church in town, but, owing to the fact that it had begun to snow again, none of the girls from Clearwater Hall were present at the services.
“I guess I might as well call Martha up on the ’phone,” he told Fred, Sunday evening.
“All right,” was his cousin’s reply. “And don’t forget to mention May.”
When the young captain had his sister on the wire he learned a number of things that surprised him not a little. It seemed that the matter of the coming sleighride party had been rather freely discussed at Clearwater Hall, and a number of the pupils there were divided on the question as to whether to participate in the affair or not. Jennie Mason, Ida Brierley, and four or five others were in favor of accepting, while others had either declined or were noncommittal.
“Some of the girls have gotten almost into a fight over it,” said Martha. “It’s the liveliest thing that has happened in this school in a long while. I believe if the discussion keeps up none of the girls will be allowed to go, even though two married ladies from the town are to go along as chaperones.”
“Did you hear anything further about Ruth or anything about May?” questioned Jack.
“Not a word. Of course, not having been invited myself, I didn’t care to question either of them for fear they might think I was just a bit jealous, or something like that.”
“Well, I don’t think they ought to go to any such party,” answered Jack, and then told what he and Fred had learned at the livery stable.
“I’ve heard of Joe McGuire and also heard of Ted Rosenblatt!” exclaimed Martha. “I certainly shouldn’t want to be seen in their company. I’ll have to mention this to some of the others.” And here the conversation had to come to an end.
On Monday morning Jack met Brassy Bangs in one of the corridors and noticed that the loud-spoken youth looked at him rather speculatively. Nothing, however, was said, and the young captain entered one of the classrooms and was soon deep in his studies. That evening, however, Brassy Bangs and two of his chums were missing from their usual places at one of the mess-hall tables.
“They got permission to go to town. I suppose they went to make further arrangements about that big sleighing party,” remarked Randy.
To show that he meant to do his best as captain of Company C, Jack put in a full day on Tuesday drilling his command and in the classrooms. As a consequence that evening found him pretty well worn out from his duties. Yet he had some studying he felt he must do, and so announced he was going to sit up for a while after his cousins, who occupied rooms on both sides of him, had retired.
The young captain was hard at work doing some examples in geometry when there came a sudden sharp rap on his door. Thinking that one of his school chums had come to have a word with him before retiring, he threw the door open and found himself confronted by Brassy Bangs.
“I want to have a few words with you, Jack Rover!” cried the loud-mouthed cadet savagely. And then closing the door he advanced upon the young captain in anything but a friendly manner.