“Well, we ought to have lots of fun, anyway,” said Bob. “We’ll leave it to the girls to give the invitations, and we’ll guarantee to furnish all the music you want. We’ll make Ocean Point sit up and take notice.”
“You’ve got to ask some of the younger girls, too, and not just your own set,” put in Herb quickly, for his sisters were both older than he was by a few years.
“Oh, of course,” promised Agnes. “This will be a free for all.”
The rest of the evening they spent in making plans for the forthcoming party, and the next morning the boys set to work like beavers on the loop aerial. They hardly paused for meals, and before the day was over they had it completely made and set up. The girls, as well as the boys, were greatly interested in the first test, and they all waited breathlessly for the sounds that should issue from the throat of the horn. It was not long before the boys picked up a concert that was going on in Boston, and the effect was startling. After they had tuned out all interferences the music came in sweet and full and in such volume that they even had to tone it down a little. Mrs. Fennington, seated on the porch, could hear everything distinctly, and applauded each number.
The evening of the party arrived in due course, and the guests all arrived early, many of them curious and somewhat sceptical about hearing dance music by radio. Agnes and Amy had told them about the loud-speaking apparatus, and they were all prepared for something novel.
But it is safe to say that few of them were prepared for as pleasant an evening as this one turned out to be. Receiving conditions had never been better, and the boys had no trouble in picking up fox trots, waltzes, or any other style of dance music. Between the dances they got some more serious music that happened to be “in the air” from some other station than that sending out the dance music, and their entire apparatus worked like a charm all through the evening.
The radio boys did not spend all their time over the radio set, either. They found plenty of opportunity to dance and laugh with the many pretty girls who had been invited, and everybody concerned enjoyed the evening hugely. Mrs. Fennington had provided plenty of ice-cream, cake, and lemonade, articles which did not lack appreciation among the youthful company.
When the party finally broke up all who had been present expressed themselves as having had a wonderful evening.
“I think we just had a perfectly spiffy time,” said Agnes, somewhat slangily but with undoubted feeling. “I think I’ll be as crazy about radio as you boys are, pretty soon.”
“It’s about time,” commented Herb. “You never cared so much about it before, but now that you can dance to it, you think it’s fine.”