The pumpkin shades mellowed the light in the great room. In one corner stood a queer booth for which the committee had been obliged to have a janitor’s assistance. A placard warned “Danger,—Witches’ Caldron,” and one of the senior witches stood there to keep out the curious till after the senior stunt.
There would have been fun enough in the mere costuming and social fun of the occasion. Shirley, from behind her sheet and white mask, ready to help with the stunts if necessary, enjoyed the scene. She wondered which costume concealed Sidney, but did not see any one that looked like her so far as she could tell.
Madge Whitney declared that she would never dress to make herself look hideous. As Autumn, she wore a wreath of artificial leaves, in the gay colors of fall, and carried a cornucopia from which trailed grapes and their vines, over red and yellow apples. Her dress was gay with the autumn colors. One of the sophomores came as Autumn, too, but carried a “sheaf” of wheat and a basket of corn and fruit.
There were ghosts galore, for every one who had neither time nor energy to do anything else fell back on a sheet, with some slight addition. Clown costumes, too, were popular, in all varieties. Bluebeard, Spanish pirates, characters from history and from fiction, high and low, challenged recognition.
If Madge went as Autumn, Caroline had decided to go as Winter. She wore kingly robes, white, with a frosted crown, a white beard, sparkling with frost, purchased for the purpose, and a white wig to cover any trace of her own locks. Some glass pendants and the artificial snow or frost made a very realistic appearance.
Some lords and ladies in suits which were used at the senior plays were elegant in their carriage and speech. It was a motley company and the little bells of the clowns tinkled as they walked.
The teachers did not join the masked company, but sat or stood around the room to watch the fun.
Madge stood by Shirley when Miss Gibson clapped her hands for order and announced that the company would be entertained by the seniors, who were presenting the witches scene, Act four, Scene one, of Macbeth. Neither of the girls had seen this practiced, as Miss Gibson had consented to train them for a good presentation of it.
“Sidney wouldn’t be in it at all,” said Madge.
“Yes, I know,” said Shirley. “It was just as well, for it gave Olive a chance to be Macbeth. They give it only as far as the vanishing of the witches, Miss Gibson says, and they make the apparitions just ordinary ‘ghosts.’ Stella is one of them.”