But there was so much Christmasing going on in Patty’s house, these days, that really the time passed quickly, after all.
One night Father went into Grandmother’s room straight from dinner, and though the door was shut tight and even locked, Patty could hear Father laugh, great big laughs over something so funny that it made Patty smile, too, though she couldn’t guess what the joke was about. She even lay on the floor and tried to peep under Grandmother’s door, but she couldn’t see a thing, not even feet. When Father came out, his fingers were stained the strangest colors, and there was a great streak of red on his cheek. But still Patty couldn’t imagine what he had been doing.
One day Mother went out shopping, and came home with her arms full of queer knobby bundles. Another day Grandmother went, and brought home any number of packages, large and small, that were whisked out of sight before Patty could take so much as a peep. And every night, when Father came home, Patty was shut in the dining-room until Father’s pockets were emptied and their contents hidden away.
But at last the day of Grandmother’s Party came, Christmas Eve, bright and frosty and clear.
Patty and Isabel spent the morning alone in the dining-room.
‘I promised Mother we wouldn’t peek, Isabel,’ said Patty, ‘and neither will we listen.’
So over her head Patty tied a scarf, while Isabel had a little shawl pinned under her chin that shut out every sound that could possibly drift into the room.
‘We look like beggars,’ said Patty, ‘but I don’t care. You are such a good child, Isabel, that you shall come to the party, too, just as if you were a real little girl.’
And so Isabel did. For when four o’clock came, time for the party to begin, there sat Isabel on the dining-room table dressed in her best, which of course was her one blue dress, but with clean face and hands and shining hair, waiting for the guests to arrive.
By this time Patty couldn’t sit still a minute. She fluttered up and down the hall and in and out of the dining-room. She straightened Isabel’s dress and smoothed her curls over and over again. A half-dozen times she thought she heard the doorbell ring. A half-dozen times she opened the door only to find no one there.