"I shall be glad of help," she said simply.
[CHAPTER XVII]
THE LAWN SOCIAL
“Never was seen such a motley crowd,—
Never was seen such a merry throng.
Never was laughter so long and loud:
Never so merry the jest and song.”
CHERRY STREET will be ablaze with light and aglow with colour," Theodore had mocked some months before. "Number 12 will be filled with diamond tiaras, and cut glass pianos, and freezers full of ice cream, to signify that a function is on!" And the spirit of his prophecy was being fulfilled.
Miss Billy, herself, had tied eighteen campaign torches to the front pickets. Now, as the twilight closed in, like tiny watchfires they sent their welcoming gleams up and down Cherry Street to the faithful. And the faithful, one hundred fifty strong, headed by Mr. Hennesy, in a wonderful dress coat of the fashion of '69, and brought up in the rear by Mr. Schultzsky, on two stout oaken crutches, partly for Miss Billy's sake, and partly for the sake of the clean street, marched to the Street Improvement Club's first lawn social.
Long vistas of Chinese lanterns in red and blue and yellow swung gaily over the lawn in double rows. Francis had furnished these. John Thomas Hennesy had brought two locomotive headlights, and these, stationed on the side where Miss Billy hoped her "berbarry haidge" might sometime be, shot their rays across the yard straight into the faces of the astonished hollyhocks, and beyond, to where Mr. Hennesy's shirt flapped, wraith-like, on the Hennesy clothes-reel. The house, thrown wide open, radiated with light and hospitality. Children, comporting themselves with a dignity befitting the occasion, were everywhere. And still the people, in twos or threes, or sometimes shyly alone, with mysterious bundles under their arms warranted to contain ten cents' worth of household merchandise, which they should presently mix up and buy again, kept coming steadily through the front gate.
Miss Billy, radiant in a pink gown, with pink sash ribbons fluttering at her waist, and her eyes shining like stars, squeezed John Thomas's arm in a little ecstasy of excitement as he knelt in the grass, putting the rapidly accumulating packages into clothes baskets.