CHAPTER XI
THE THANKSGIVING GAME
"Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along. Merrily we roll along over the deep blue sea."
"Not that way." Mimi interrupted Betsy's rollicking song. "Thisway--Notice I did _not_ say this A-way. I've learned one thing atSheridan. 'Merrily we _ride_ along, _ride_ along, _ride_ along, Merrilywe _ride_ along over the broad high_way_.'"
"But highway doesn't rhyme with anything," Betsy protested.
"Who cares! Hurrah--We're off--It could rhyme with gay; if you insist,'cause that's how I feel. This whole back seat to ourselves and we'regoing places. Whoopee! I'm afraid to open my eyes too wide for fearI'll find out I'm sitting in study hall instead of zipping along thisgrand new road. I've held my breath for days, I've been so scaredsomething would happen and we wouldn't get off."
Waiting was the hardest thing Mimi ever did. When she wanted anythingshe wanted it badly and wanted it RIGHT THEN. The two days she waitedbefore Dr. Barnes finally gave her permission to go on this wonderfulspree were a month long to Mimi. From that happy minute when Dr.Barnes, through Mrs. Cole, had said "yes" Mimi had trod lightly lestshe burst the shimmering bubble of their precious plans. Now it was allcoming true. The weekend bags were packed and stacked at their feet.Dit was on the front seat with Jack evidently having a good time. Mimicould see how she kept turning her head toward Jack and smiling up athim and talking. Strangely Jack was even better looking than hispicture. The photographer hadn't caught his friendly twinkle. When hetook both Mimi's cold little hands and said, "So you're the kid Betsykeeps writing about. I need another little Sis." Without saying so, hewas showing more than how nice he was. He was telling Mimi that Betsyliked her; liked her enough to write Jack about her, to invite her onthis thrilling trip. She unfolded a fringed plaid blanket and spread itacross Betsy's knees and tucked the other end over her own. She'd makeBetsy glad she asked her instead of an older friend.
"Isn't it all too precious?" she sighed contentedly as she nestleddown. She stared down the rolling road which cut a straight black stripthrough the hills. Without opening her lips she said to herself,"Hojoni, Hojoni." No need to say it aloud. Betsy was probably feelingthe same thing--beauty and happiness, but let her say it to herself herown way. Mimi liked to keep her magic word private unless some one wasin real trouble and needed to find the way.
"How long will it take us to get there, Jack?" Betsy had to ask twicebefore Jack heard or heeded. He was finding the trail happy, too.
"In time for supper, I hope. I had the dickens of a time getting areservation for you all. I finally got one room. I'm staying at theHouse."
Mimi knew that he referred to his fraternity house. Betsy had told herhow popular Jack had been at school. She had two of his old annuals anda picture of his chapter.
"We can manage fine," Dit was saying, "can't we, girls? Sleeping is oneof the best things we do at Sheridan--sometimes in classes. We aren'tcoming to Nashville to sleep."
Mimi didn't care if she never slept again. She was so full of tinglesand throbs she couldn't sleep if she had her own ivory bed from home.Forever afterward when she recounted her good times at Sheridan, one ofthe first things she remembered was this trip.
The sun had sunk behind the hills and the bare trees made blackoutlines against the graying sky before they reached the suburbs.Traffic had increased surprisingly in the last five miles. Once Jackswerved so quickly to avoid a collision that the car had poised thefraction of a second on two wheels before he straightened it. Mimi andBetsy rolled from one side of the back seat and back to the other.Cars, cars, cars, two abreast, often three abreast going to the city.The pigstands were surrounded with carefree travelers making loudboasts about tomorrow's score.
"Might be a good idea for us to eat supper out here, somewhere," Ditsuggested. "I imagine every place in town is packed and jammed. What doyou think, Jack?"
"Depends on how hungry we are and what you want."
Mimi wouldn't dare tell how famished she was. It wouldn't be polite.
"I had thought we'd go on in, if you all can last another half hour,and eat at a waffle place I know. It is off of the main 'drag' andwhile it will likely be swamped too, they can take care of us and Ibelieve you all would like it."
"Shall we check in at the hotel and freshen up first?" Dit asked.
"I think you look swell as you are. This is what I'd planned. Speaknow, all three of you, or forever after hold your peace, if it doesn'tsuit."
"O. K.," the three agreed.
"I thought we'd go to the waffle house and eat just as we are. ThenI'll get you all settled in your room. While I go out to the House tochange, you all can rest, dress, do what you please. Then we'll put thekids in a good movie and we'll do the town." This last was to Dit.
"Couldn't be better," was the verdict.
That's how Mimi and Betsy found themselves jammed in the lobby of amovie waiting for the feature to be over so they could find a seat.
"If Mrs. Cole could see us now," Betsy exclaimed, "no brother, nochaperon, no ball-and-chain of any description, she'd faint." Mimi feltlike a bird out of a cage too, as they watched.
The crowd came out.
"Get set," Mimi kidded shoving her head between Betsy's shoulders."Give me some interference and I'll lug the ball through." Mimi knew alot about football. She had watched the kids at home play on the cornerlot; had even played a time or two herself when there weren't enoughwithout her. Honky had told her a lot about it, too. He played on B. G.Hi.
"Signals," Betsy answered.
"Seven-Eleven-Hike," Mimi answered shoving hard.
By pushing and scrouging and holding to each other, they managed toplow down the aisle to two seats. The newsreel was on flashing picturesof a suspected kidnapper across the screen.
"I'd like to spit on him," Mimi hissed to Betsy as she popped thefolding seat down. All the hatred she felt for Fritzie with the tattoedarms, Freida, and the short man, who had cast a blight on Chloe's life,was in that sentence.
"I'd like to scratch him and kick him," Betsy hissed back. She wasthinking of Chloe too.
"Wonder what Sue and Chloe are doing?" Mimi said.
"Study hall," replied Betsy scornfully.
Then realizing how rude it was to even whisper at a talkie theygradually became interested in the comedy. It was Popeye and he madeMimi shriek with delight but the tattoed anchors on his brawny forearmswere an ugly reminder. They pricked the back of her mind and she wasnot quite happy. Before the feature was well begun and, as she wasbeginning to lose herself in it, a sudden commotion riveted herattention to the back of the theatre. There was a regular stampede.Mimi and Betsy turned to each other inquiringly. Each hated to admitshe did not know what was going on. They were not in the dark long.Soon every one in the theatre knew what was up and, at least in spirit,joined in the celebration. The supporters and pep squad of the visitingteam had crashed the show. They overran the lobby, the aisles, and thecheer leaders vaulted the orchestra pit to the stage. After fiveminutes of yelling and bedlam in general they left as suddenly as theyhad come. The heroine's voice sounded small indeed in the void theyleft behind them.
What next, Mimi wondered, but nothing else happened until the girlswere out of the show. They were only a block and a half from the hoteland Jack had given them explicit directions. He had even spoken to theclerk at the desk. In case they made the wrong turn en route they hadonly to look up and around to see the big neon sign of the hotelflashing welcome.
"Let's window shop," Betsy suggested before they covered the half block.
"Suits," Mimi replied.
Up and down Church Street, up and down Fifth Avenue, hand in hand, thegirls strolled exclaiming in front of this window and that. The jollycrowd jostled them but the girls elbowed along and laughed back.
"I always imagined New Orleans was like this at Mardi Gras time," Betsycommented. "Wouldn't you love to go?"
 
; "If it were any more fun than this, I couldn't live," Mimi replied.
"Let's get a sundae before we go up."
"You think of the grandest things," Mimi answered following Betsy intothe crowded drug store. There were no vacant tables so the girls sat onhigh stools at the fountain and dangled their legs. Two butterscotchsundaes appeared and disappeared.
"Let's make a night of it while we have a chance," Mimi said twirlingaround on the stool and walking over to pay the check.
"Anything you can think of?"
"Candy! Doesn't this look grand? I'll get a dime's worth of bonbons andyou get a dime's worth of caramels, that is unless you prefer someother kinds. Let's end the evening with candy."
It is a wonder they were not ill the next day but they weren't. Theyfelt fine. Mimi could hardly contain herself. They were so sound asleepwhen Dit had come in that she rolled them over to make room for herselfwithout waking either. They slept soundly as tired babies. That is whythey were so fresh this morn.
"Wonder what time Dit came in?" Mimi whispered to Betsy in thebathroom. They had managed to get up without awakening her.
"None of our business," Betsy replied. "Let's dress right quickly andgo down to the coffee shop and eat breakfast and have Dit's sent up fora surprise."
"Suits." Mimi had picked up this word at Sheridan and she found it anapt answer to many questions.
The two felt very important walking on the thick carpet to the elevator.
"I don't know if it's being away from Daddy and Mother Dear or beingfourteen or what, but I am beginning to feel so grown up. After thishotel experience I feel I could go on most any trip and take care ofmyself."
"You should never have any trouble, not you, with all the questions youcan ask."
"All right, Smartie, I'll ask you one. What do we eat and what shall weorder for Dit?"
Whatever they ordered they ate quickly so that they could get back tothe room to waken Dit before her tray was sent. In spite of theirhurry, someone else had wakened Dit. When the girls walked in, she wasstanding in the middle of the room in her negligee hugging a cardboardflorist's box almost as tall as she.
"Mums!" she cried, "Mums--It couldn't be anything else."
Dit was right. When she had snapped the green tape, raised the lid andtorn back the damp oiled paper there were six gorgeous big yellowchrysanthemums.
Mimi and Betsy looked on with envy. Oh to be grown up and have beauxwho sent flowers! Mimi was sure at that moment she could never love aman who forgot to send flowers.
Dit's fingers trembled as she took out the card.
For my three girl friends To wear to a Vandy Victory. Jack.
Mimi's merry blue eyes shone. Betsy's cute eyes glowed with pride.After all he was _her_ brother.
There was nothing in the room large enough to contain the flowers. Theymade the vases top heavy. After toppling the second one over, Mimitried the metal waste paper basket and it leaked. As a last resort theythought of the bath tub. While they were filling it, Dit's breakfastcame.
"Another surprise," she cried. "What nice hostesses you girls are."
Indeed it was a day of surprises and one of them was not so nice.
Jack called for them in a taxi to go to the game.
"This way we can go right to the entrance of our section. Otherwise,we'd have to park, no telling where or I'd have to drive you all up andgo park the car and take a chance on finding you again. I don't want tolose you," he added to all three but he meant Dit.
The taxi reminded Mimi of her gloomy arrival at Sheridan. However, thiswas fun. There was only room for three on the back seat of the cab soMimi sat on a little seat that folded down from the side. Jack insistedon using it himself but Mimi really liked it. She clung to the strap asthey bounced along, sure that nothing in the world could be more fun.She felt so dressed up with her new beret which she wore down over oneeye as Millie had worn her sailor hat at camp. Mimi knew everyone theypassed admired the big yellow _mum_ she had pinned so carefully to herlapel. She had to be careful when she turned her head that way. Thecold yellow petals caressed her chin.
When they piled out of the taxi Jack bought them something else--cutelittle footballs dangling on black and yellow satin ribbons!
"Wait 'til Sue and Chloe see these!" she said to Betsy as they followedthe usher down to their seats.
"Be sure and save your program, too," she said to Betsy. "Watch me andif you see me chewing mine or tearing the corners off, slap my hands."
But Mimi forgot even her own program when the team came out. Therunning, kicking, passing fascinated her. It wasn't the first time Mimihad wished she were a boy. Still if you were a boy you'd have to _send_flowers, not _wear_ them.
"Wish they'd hurry and start," Jack said. "It's our game if the rainholds off. The dope says Vandy will win by two touchdowns. But rainwould make it anybody's game."
"Let me be a kill-joy for just once," Betsy said to Mimi. "Look."
Mimi's eyes followed Betsy's finger.
"Do you see what I see?"
"Ugh!--Uniforms--almost like ours."
Betsy was pointing to the rows and rows of Ward-Belmont girls.
"I can almost see Mrs. Cole! Betsy, you old meanie!"
The rain held off until the show between halves was over. Mimi would bethankful for that always. This was her first big game and the show ofthe Pep Squad and the band was a brand new thrill. Marching feet,martial music, perfectly timed yells. Mimi could not keep her eyes fromthe cheer leaders. She watched their every move. When she got back toSheridan she would try some of those antics herself. Forming of thegreat V and the singing of "Alma Mater" took Mimi's breath. She stoodreverently and throbbed to every note.
Before the last words were finished the rain which had been threateningsince noon began. It came in torrents. This was the only unpleasantthing of the whole trip.
"Shall we leave?" Jack asked.
"No, no, a thousand times no," came three answers.
Jack turned his coat wrong side out and turned his hat down. The girlsbuttoned up their coats. Mimi wished for her old felt hat so she couldturn it down. A trickle from the beret was tickling her nose. Shesquinted her eyes. She was glad she didn't use make-up or her facewould look streaked and ugly as some of the ladies who had looked solovely in the sunshine.
The game became a scramble. Mimi hated to see the jerseys of theplayers get muddy. Soon you could not tell one team from the other.Time and time again the referee called time out to dry the ball. It wasa mess. Mimi didn't know the final score for sure until she asked Jack.She knew Vandy won and for that she was glad.
"We won't be able to make any time driving back to Sheridan," Jack saidwhen they were safe from the shower in a taxi.
"That means we'd better start as soon as we can throw our thingstogether," Dit said.
"Couldn't stay over?"
"No, I promised Mrs. Cole we'd be back tonight and also that I wouldnot ask for extended permission. That's the usual thing and Dr. Barnesdoesn't like it."
"Who minds a little thing like rain?" Mimi asked. "Betsy and I don't.We'll be 'singing in the rain' all the way home."
And they did.
They sang until they were so hoarse they could hardly whisper by thetime they arrived at Sheridan. Jack was afraid they had taken cold.
"We aren't hoarse, Mrs. Cole," Betsy said later. "It's so late we arewhispering and trying not to disturb."
Mrs. Cole hustled them off giving them time for only the briefestthanks and goodbyes to Jack.
When they turned on the light in Tumble Inn to waken Chloe and Sue,they found only two empty beds.
"Well now that _is_ something!" Mimi declared. She was still clutchingher weekend bag in one hand and a wilted flower, a wet program and afaded little football in the other.
"You'll have to sleep with me," Betsy said.
That made everything all right except Mimi felt she would pop if sheh
ad to wait until morning to tell about the marvelous time she had had.Telling it was going to be almost as much fun as having it had been.