CHAPTER XXIII
THE END OF THE SUMMER
"Whew!" said Dick Phelps, in his straightforward way, "he's mad at you,isn't he?"
"Yes," said Patty, "and it's so silly! All about nothing at all. I wishyou'd take me back to him, Mr. Phelps, and leave us alone, and I think Ican straighten matters out in two minutes."
"Indeed, I'll do nothing of the sort," returned Mr. Phelps, in hismasterful way; "you promised to go to the photograph place, and that'swhere we're going. I don't propose to give you up to any young man wechance to meet!"
Patty laughed, and they went on. At the photograph booth they found manyof the gaily dressed young people, anxious to have pictures of themselvesin their pretty costumes. Patty and Mr. Phelps had to wait their turn,but finally succeeded in getting a number of pictures. Patty had sometaken alone, and some in which she was one of a gay group. Some weresuccessful portraits, and others were not, but all were provocative ofmuch laughter and fun. By a rapid process of development, thephotographers were enabled to furnish the completed pictures in less thana half hour after the cameras did their work, and as a consequence, thisbooth was exceedingly popular and promised handsome returns for thebenefit of charity.
Mr. Phelps and Patty loitered about, waiting for their pictures, whenPatty caught sight of Nan, and running to her she said, "For goodness'sake, Nan, do help me out! Kenneth's as mad as hops, and all aboutnothing! Now I want you to ask him to come to supper with our crowd, andyou must _make_ him come!"
"I can't make him come, if he doesn't want to. You've been teasing him,Patty, and you must get out of your own scrapes."
"Ah, Nan, dear," coaxed Patty, "do be good, and truly, if you'll justpersuade him to come to supper with us, I'll do the rest."
"I'll try," said Nan as she walked away, "but I won't promise that I'llsucceed."
She did succeed, however, and some time later Mr. Fairfield gathered thelarge party whom he had invited to supper, in the English Dairy.
The supper was to be a fine one, far exceeding the bounds of Dairy fare,and Mr. Fairfield had reserved a long table for his guests.
As they trooped in, laughing and talking, and seated themselves for thefeast, Patty was relieved to see that Kenneth was among them, after all.
He took a seat between Elise and Helen Barlow, and knowing Bumble's goodnature, Patty went directly to her, and asked her if she wouldn't move,as she wanted to sit there herself.
"Of course I will," said Bumble, and jumping up, she ran around to theother side of the table.
Then Patty deliberately sat down by Kenneth, who couldn't very well getup and walk away, himself, though he looked at her with no expression ofwelcome in his glance.
Without a word, Patty leaned over and selected from a dish of olives onthe table one which had a stem to it.
With a tiny bit of ribbon she tied the olive to a little green branch shehad brought in with her, and then demurely held the token toward Kenneth.
For a moment the boy looked rather blank, and then realising that Pattywas offering him the olive branch of peace, and that she had gone to sometrouble to do this, and that moreover she had done it rather cleverly,the boy's face broke into a smile, and he turned toward Patty.
"Thank you," he said, as he took the little spray, and attached it to therolling collar of his blouse. "I accept it, with its full meaning."
"You're such a goose, Kenneth!" said Patty, her eyes dancing withlaughter. "There was nothing to get huffy about."
"Well," said Kenneth, feeling his grounds for complaint slipping awayfrom him, "you pranced off with that Roland chap, after you had just toldme you couldn't leave your gypsy queen business."
"I know it," said Patty, "but Ken, he brought a nice lady to fill myplace, and besides, he asked me to go to get red flowers and I reallywanted red flowers."
"I asked you to go for flowers too," said Kenneth, not yet entirelymollified.
"Yes," said Patty, "but you didn't say _red_ flowers. How did I know butthat you'd buy pink or blue ones, and so spoil my whole gypsy costume?"
Kenneth had to laugh in spite of himself, at this bit of audacity. "Andthen right afterwards you went off again with Dick Phelps," he continued.
"Kenneth," said Patty, looking at him with an expression of mock terror,"I couldn't help myself that time! Honest, I couldn't. Mr. Phelps is afearful tyrant. He's an ogre, and when he commanded me to go, I just hadto go! He's a man that makes you do a thing, whether you want to or not.Why, Kenneth, he just marched me off!"
"All right," said Kenneth, "I'll take a leaf out of his book. After this,when I want you to go anywhere, _I'll_ just march you off."
"You can try," said Patty, saucily, "but I'm not sure you can do it. Ittakes a certain type of man to do that sort of thing successfully, and Idon't know anybody but Dick Phelps who's just that kind."
But peace was restored, for Kenneth realised that Patty's explanation wasa fair one, and that he had been foolishly quick to take offence.
After supper they all went to the grand stand to see the parade of fancycostumes.
These were quite separate from the booth attendants, and a prize had beenoffered for the cleverest conceit, most successfully carried out.
When at last the grand march took place, it showed a wonderful array ofthoroughly ingenious costumes.
Of course there were many clowns, historical characters, fairies, andqueer nondescript creatures, but there were also many characters whichwere unique and noteworthy.
Mr. Hepworth, who was in the parade, had chosen to represent the fullmoon.
How he did it, no one quite knew; but all that was visible was anenormous sphere, of translucent brightness and a luminous yellow color.
Mr. Fairfield declared that the medium must be phosphorus, but all agreedthat it was a wonderful achievement, and many thought it would surelytake the prize.
The sphere was hollow, and made of a light framework, and Mr. Hepworthwalked inside of it, really carrying it along with him. It so nearlytouched the ground that his feet were scarcely observable, and the greatsix foot globe made a decided sensation, as it moved slowly along.
Patty remembered that Roger had declared he was going to take the prize,and as she had knowledge of the boy's ability along these lines, she feltby no means sure that it wouldn't eclipse Mr. Hepworth's shining orb.
And sure enough, when Roger appeared, it was in the character of aChristmas tree!
The clever youth had selected just the right kind of a tree, and cuttingaway enough twigs and branches near the trunk on one side, he had made aspace in which he could thrust the whole of his tall slender self.
To protect his face and hands from the scratchy foliage, and also torender himself inconspicuous, he wore a tight-fitting robe of dark brownmuslin, which concealed even his face and arms, though eyeholes allowedhim to see where he was going.
In a word, the boy himself almost constituted the trunk of the tree, andby walking slowly, it looked as if the tree itself was moving alongwithout assistance.
The tree was gaily hung with real Christmas trinkets and decorations, andlighted with candles.
The idea was wonderfully clever, and though it had been hard work toarrange the boughs to conceal him entirely, Roger had accomplished it,and the gay decorations hid all defects.
The judges awarded the prize to Roger, who calmly remarked to Patty,afterward, "I told you I'd get it, didn't I?"
"Yes," said Patty, "and so then of course I knew you would."
It was a rather tired party that went back to the Fairfields' house atthe close of the evening.
Nan and Mr. Fairfield issued strict orders that everybody must go to bedat once, as there were two more strenuous days ahead, and they needed allthe rest they could get.
But next morning they reappeared, quite ready for fresh exertions, andPatty declared that for her part she'd like to be a gypsy all the yearround.
"Well I never want to be a Christmas tree again," said Roger, "in spiteof my precautions,
I'm all scratched up!"
"Never mind," said his sister consolingly, "you took the prize, andthat's glory enough to make up for lots of scratches."
The second and third days of the Fair were much like the first, exceptthat the crowds of visitors continually increased.
The fame of the entertainment spread rapidly, and people came, even fromdistant parts of Long Island, to attend the festivities.
But at last it was all over, and the Fairfield verandah was crowded withyoung people, apparently of all nations, who were congratulating eachother on the wonderful success.
"Of course," said Patty, "the greatest thing was that we had such perfectweather. If it had rained, the whole thing would have been spoiled."
"But it didn't rain," said Nan, "and everything went off all right, andthey must have made bushels of money."
"Well, it was lovely," said Patty with a little sigh, "and I enjoyedevery minute of it, but I don't want to engage in another one right away.I think I shall go to bed and sleep for a week!"
"I wish I were a bear," said Kenneth, "they can go to sleep and sleep allwinter."
"You'd make a good bear," said Patty, in an aside to him, "because youcan be so cross."
But the merry smile that accompanied her words robbed them of anyunpleasant intent, and Kenneth smiled back in sympathy.
"Just to think," said Nan, "a week from to-day we'll all be back in thecity, and our lovely summer vacation a thing of the past."
"It has been a beautiful summer," said Patty, her thoughts flyingbackward over the past season. "I've never had such a happy summer in mylife. It's been just one round of pleasure after another. Everybody hasbeen so good to me and the whole world seems to have connived to help mehave a good time."
"In so far as I'm part of the whole world, allow me to express mywillingness to keep right on conniving," said big Dick Phelps, in hisfunny way.
"Me, too," said Kenneth, in his hearty, boyish voice.
Mr. Hepworth said nothing, but he smiled at Patty from where he sat atthe other end of the long verandah.
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