“I’ll help letter them, Ted,” Crullers said, anxiously. “I wish you’d let me help, girls, even if I can’t be in on the fun.”
“Well, so you shall, dear,” Polly promised, and after school hours, they all went up to Ted’s room, and made copies of the placard. It was Ted’s first year as a resident pupil, and she had felt somewhat divided from the others at first. Her father and mother were away from Queen’s Ferry, at the town house in Washington, and it necessitated Ted’s occupying a room at the Hall.
“We would have held the auction here,” Sue said, “but nobody would have come except the girls. This way, I shall sell pink popcorn and peanuts, while Ted is the auctioneer.”
“I don’t see what you’re going to sell,” Ruth put in, soberly. “You’ll destroy public confidence in all of us if it’s a joke.”
“A joke. Listen to her, Ted.” Sue shook her head sadly. “Indeed it is not a joke. We’re giving up all we dare to, aren’t we, Ted? Mother says she has to keep a watch on everything in the house for fear it will be auctioned off. But she’s donated a few things too, to help us out. She made the mystery boxes.”
“Never heard of such things,” said Ruth.
“That’s the charm,” smiled back Sue. “Just you wait till Saturday. I do hope we’ll have a good crowd.”
“We must send these to all our friends,” Polly said, and each girl took a supply home with her.
But it remained for Crullers to spring the grand surprise of Saturday. Not until the fateful hour of ten did the girls discover what Crullers had done with her poster. Sue’s home was a beautiful, old-fashioned house set far back from the main river road, and surrounded by trees. The auction was to be held in the music room, and well-filled it was too, by ten, with the girls from Calvert Hall, and a lot of Queen’s Ferry girls besides, and even some of the mothers and grown sisters. But suddenly Ruth glanced out of the broad bay window, and cried:
“Here come a lot of the choir boys, Polly. How on earth did they know about it? Rehearsal is just over, and they’re all coming here.”