“What is the great scheme, Betty?” asked Doris.

“I’m not telling, Dodie,” said Betty, “but you will know before long perhaps. It’s just something the boys and girls are going to do. By the way, Mother, may I consult you about something? I need permission for something not to be divulged as yet.”

“You are making us curious, Betty,” lightly said Janet. “Come on, Sue, try that new tune of yours on Betty’s piano.”

Mr. Lee had left the room and Dick followed him to ask that the car be gotten out for a ride. “All right, son. Perhaps the girls and Mother will like to go.”

Betty and her Mother escaped to the kitchen, where they started on the dishes, hoping that the sounds of china would not be noticeable in the front room. The visitors were only too good about offering their services. “You must go, Mother, with Amy Lou, because you’ve been in working all day,” said Betty, with decision, “and that will never do on Thanksgiving. Besides, there’s something else on hand and I don’t know what you’ll think of it!”

“Confess, Betty,” said Mrs. Lee, smiling and making a fine suds for her glasses and silver.

“First tell me that you’ll go, Mother, for I’ll stay and finish these up and begin to fix things for our supper.”

“All right, child. I’ll go. Now what?”

Betty at once told about the surprise party “all rather on the spur of the moment, Mother, at least as far as having it tonight is concerned. And I think Ted is in it only because he found Ramon here and thought it would be good for him to stay.”

“Why do you think so–because Ted is older?”

“Yes. But it gives him a chance to take Louise to something different, you see. I think that Ted has a sort of ‘case’ on Louise Madison.”

“I see. Yes, Betty, I think we can manage it. Haven’t you any idea how many are coming?”

“No–that’s the mischief, but I suppose not a great many.”

“We are well prepared for things to eat. If the cake does not last as long as we thought, it does not matter. Your friends will be welcome. There is that fruit cake that I baked for Christmas, too, and we can use that if we run short. We’ll make a hot drink and the cake and ice-cream, with taffy, ought to be enough in all conscience, especially on Thanksgiving. If your father is ready before we finish, whisk off the tablecloth, Betty, and use the lunch things for supper. But don’t concern yourself about the meal. Just get your room ready for the girls to take their wraps to and look around to pick up anything that is out of order. Fortunately, Amy Lou will want to go to bed before they come.”

“Yes, and everything is all fixed up for company, even if it doesn’t exactly stay put with all of us. Oh, you’re so nice, Mother! It’s such a relief!”

At this point, Janet and Sue ran out to the kitchen and took aprons from the hooks upon the wall. “Did you think that we wouldn’t want to help?” asked Sue, reproachfully. “Let me wipe and you put away, Betty, for I don’t know where things go.”

“Well, since you insist,” laughed Betty, pulling a dry towel from a drawer. “Come help me take off and fold up the big tablecloth, Janet, and a lot of the dishes and nearly all of the silver can go back on the table. Where are the other linen things, Mother?”

“Same drawer as usual. After lunch we’ll take out the leaves and,”–but Mrs. Lee did not finish, for she had nearly told the reason for making more room in the dining room. The two large rooms ought to hold quite a number of boys and girls, she thought. But Mother was tired, as Betty had surmised, and she knew that she needed to get away for a few minutes at least.

Mr. Lee had been obliged to do something to the car, or change a tire, though no one inquired what, when, after just time enough to get the main part of the dishes done, they heard a honking in front. “That couldn’t be Ted back with Ramon, could it?” thought Betty, rather panicky. But it was only the family car honking for passengers. All was well!

“Aren’t you coming Betty?” asked Janet, surprised.

“No, Janet, I want to start things and some one ought to be here in case Ramon comes back early. He has to come when they bring him, you know. Moreover, if you all go, it is just as well not to be too crowded.”

Betty was glad to be by herself for a little while. She finished putting the kitchen in order, washing the last pan. Then she flew back to the bedroom to see that dresser and all were neat and to hang away a few things that she and the girls had left out. She decided that there was a prettier set of lace covers for the little dressing table and put them out. She hoped that the girls would not notice particularly and she looked up some embroidered guest towels, ready to whisk them into place when the guest should first arrive. Or her mother could put on the finishing touches in the bath room if she were welcoming the crowd. Betty felt a little excited, wanting her friends to like her home and knowing that some of them, Carolyn among others, had so much more room. It was hard to be so crowded. No, it wasn’t. It was all right when they were by themselves, and she was sure that anybody that was anybody would like her for herself! It was Betty’s first feeling of responsibility for the appearance of a house, a temporary one, to be sure. She had been accustomed to do what she was told, but the roomy old place “at home” had no such problems as this apartment.

There was a ring of the bell before Betty had thought about the light supper, though to be sure her mother had said she was to feel no responsibility for that. Betty rushed to the door, to find Ramon there. Again he looked apologetic and hesitatingly said, “I’m afraid I’m too early, but Ted and the boys brought me on. Ted is driving around to see one or two of the girls.”

“Come right in,” cordially Betty invited. “Sit down and read the paper or something till I start things a little in the kitchen. I think the earlier we get our supper, or lunch of a sort, out of the way the better, don’t you? Or did Ted tell you what is going on?”

“Yes, he did,” replied Ramon, as he obediently walked into the living room after having divested himself of his overcoat and hat. “Say, Miss Betty, we had such a wonderful dinner that you surely won’t do much for supper, will you? I feel as if it’s an imposition for me to come back, and yet,—”

“And yet what would be the use of going home and then coming right back to a party?” finished Betty.

“Well, that was it, of course; and then it is so homelike here and so different from what I have all the time.”

“Do you really like it, then?” asked Betty, pleased.

“Who could help it? And now why couldn’t I help be chef? It would be what you call fun. I could tell you of so many things that I have done since I came to your country, and I earned my meals one time in a restaurant. I do not always tell that to the boys and girls, for they do not understand, and yet my people in Spain and Hungary and Poland are of the best.”

“Father thinks it is what you are, inside, that makes you,” said Betty, nodding a determined little head. They were still standing just within the living room door.

“Oh, your father! He is a big man! I fix his car at the garage where I work after school, and before school, too. And he forgot to tell your sweet mother and yet she made me welcome.” Ramon was smiling in amusement as well as appreciation.

“Oh, could you tell that?” Betty chuckled. “Mother thought that she had successfully concealed her surprise. But she was glad to have you come, you understand that, don’t you?”

“Yes, and all of you helped.”

“Well, now let’s see, Ramon. Come on into the kitchen and help me decide what we want. We’ve got a lot of that salad fixed and if you will crack a few more English walnuts we’ll fix a pretty big glass bowl of it and pass it instead of putting salad around at each place. Nobody could finish his salad at dinner time. And I’ll put on the lunch cloth or what-you-call-it–and you can set down all that fruit and the bowl of nuts on the buffet. My, imagine me bossing the gr-reat football hero of Lyon High, and a senior at that!”

Ramon only laughed at that and took the large apron, soberly offered him by a Betty with twinkling eyes, and tried to fasten it around himself. But he was not used to tying a bow in the back, Betty told him, so she would finish the operation. “Now see what an artist you are in the dining room first, Ramon.”

Thus Betty, while she arranged the linen pieces on the table, waved a hand at the buffet and flew into the kitchen herself. “Won’t they be surprised when they come back?” she called, appearing in the door with a whole head of lettuce in her hands. “And it will be fine to have you to help us make the table small after supper. Father always has to help with that because the table sticks and we can hardly push it together. Do you think you would be strong enough?”

Ramon gave Betty an amused look. “Yes, Miss Betty, I think I’m strong enough and I’d do anything for any of you!”

“Well,” sighed Betty, “I really don’t believe in having your company work, but under the circumstances it is a great help! You see Mother had been doing so much cooking, so I made her promise to go out for a ride.” With this Betty disappeared from view, to wash the lettuce under the faucet and run into the pantry for the big glass dish or bowl.

Ramon finished arranging the fruit and nuts and went out into the kitchen declaring that he was no artist and that she could change anything that he had done. Betty managed to keep him busy, but it was only about fifteen minutes before the whole family arrived, Dick to utter another whoop at seeing his hero in an apron, and the girls to join the activities with much fun and lively conversation. Mrs. Lee was allowed only to supervise and make the coffee and Mr. Lee declared that he would not think of being underfoot in such a busy kitchen and dining room.

“The boy looks happy,” he said to his wife. “I’m glad I asked him to come. He’s a very sober, lonely chap, so far as home is concerned. He probably has a good enough time at school, especially since he made such a hit in football, as you tell me.”

“I wonder how he gets his lessons, if he works so hard,” said Mrs. Lee.

“How do any of them get their lessons?” asked Mr. Lee in return, “with all that is going on. It hasn’t hit Betty yet, thanks to our management.”

Young appetites were ready for the supper that spread so invitingly on the pretty table; for it was decided to set everything conveniently near, since they were their own servants. Then afterwards the girls quickly cleared the table, and Ramon, without remark and under Betty’s direction, took out the leaves and made the table small. Betty and Janet together at one end pushed against Ramon on the other. “It will give us more room and look better,” explained Betty to the girls, who were still ignorant of what was to come. Betty, too, was ignorant in regard to who was to come. She was as uneasy and restless as a girl could be and not show that something was on her mind. Ramon was wondering what excuse he could offer for staying so long, but it took some time to clear away the supper and while Mrs. Lee told Betty to “go and entertain her guests and she would finish up the dishes,” Betty, by way of camouflage, said, “we could leave them till morning of course; but it will be nicer in the morning not to have them before us.” Sue rather wondered at Betty’s easy compliance.

At last the bell rang, not a steady ring with perhaps another, but a series of rings in rhythm. Janet and Sue looked up surprised from a puzzle that Betty had given them and Ramon to work out. But Ramon grinned and Betty laughed, running to the door. “Something’s up,” said Sue. “I suspected it!”

Laughter and greetings filled the hall. “S’prise Party!” called Peggy’s voice.

“Ted again!” exclaimed Janet, rising, “and Peggy Pollard and Carolyn Gwynne!”

And now they thronged in, bringing the cold air with them from the open hall door. The girls entered first, surrounding Janet and Sue, to shake hands in the spirit of fun and surprise, while Carolyn saw that the names of the girls were understood by Janet and Sue who might not have met them all or had not remembered their names. Carolyn was always thoughtful.

Betty, after telling the boys to leave their hats, caps and coats in the hall, came to the group of girls and led them back to the room where they could take off their wraps and powder their noses if they liked. Mother, bless her, had swiftly put on the finishing touches and the guest towels in the bath room after Amy Lou was in bed and the various washings up after supper were completed.

“Yes, Betty,” Carolyn excitedly told Betty, “we had thought of doing it and then pretty nearly gave it up because we weren’t sure of your liking it; and I hadn’t been in this ducky apartment before and wasn’t sure that you had room for a party. But when old Ted called up and told me what boys he’d rounded up, I telephoned then to the girls and we all met at Louise’s.”

So it was a “ducky apartment,” was it? Trust Carolyn’s generous soul. Betty was sure that Carolyn liked her for herself!

Naturally Ted had a “few souls” old enough for himself and Ramon. There was Louise Madison and a pretty junior named Roberta Ayers. The Harry Norris whom Betty had first seen with Ted Dorrance was there, a good friend, evidently, of a small, fair sophomore girl, Daisy Richards. It was rather unusual, of course, this mingling of ages or classes at a small party, but the invitation to Ramon was the cause of it all, and Betty was so glad to have Ted, who had been so “nice” to her, she thought, at a party in her house. Yet, of course, she had not given the invitations. Where would she have stopped if she had? For not all the girls and boys that she would have wanted were here.

Of the younger boys there was Chet Dorrance, Chauncey Allen, Brad Warren, Budd LeRoy, James Simmonds and two freshmen boys whom Betty scarcely knew, Andy Sanford and Michael Carlin, whom the boys called Mickey or Mike according to their fancy.

Janet and Sue found themselves surrounded by the group of boys when they came in from the hall and Betty had escorted the girls back to the bedroom. Ted did the honors of introduction, but it was only a few minutes before Betty was back and acting as hostess.

Mr. Lee had disappeared long since. Mrs. Lee was putting Amy Lou to bed at last accounts and the door of bedroom and dressing room was shut. Dick and Doris, feeling rather out of it, had moved into the kitchen till Betty, at last seeing everything started, thought of them and looked them up.

“No, Betty,” said Dick, “I don’t want to be introduced all around! But I’ll come into the dining room, if you want us, and talk to some of the boys, if it happens that way.”

“I’d like to have you at least see the fun and of course when the refreshments are served you must be with us. I’ll probably need you. Would you mind?”

“I’ll help,” said Doris. “It would look better.”

“So it would. And will you, Dick?”

“Yes.”

“And you can help pull the taffy. I do hope Mother will know how to cook it, though perhaps Louise knows.”

“I’ll tell her,” said Dick, and Betty felt relieved about the family. Everything was just all right! And Mother did know, she said.

Ted and Louise were good at starting games. Brad, however, was prevailed upon to play some lively tunes upon Betty’s piano and the rest hummed to tunes or sang when there were words to the melodies.

Pencils and paper were called for by Louise Madison, who announced that five minutes, or less, would be given for every one to make words out of what would be given them when they were ready to commence. Betty hurried to get paper and as many pencils as the family could command. Fortunately, most of the boys carried pencils in their pockets, Dick and Doris had a supply of stubs among their school things, and with much whirling of the pencil sharpener in the kitchen, they were soon ready.

“And, O, Mother, won’t you please start the candy to cooking? It has to cool and be pulled after that, you know.”

“Yes, I know,” said Mrs. Lee, who rather regretted sacrificing the excellent syrup from the home town, so much better than that she bought in the city. But it was worth while, for Betty’s pleasure, and to entertain her friends, after all. “I will see to it and call you when it is ready. Luckily Amy Lou is sound asleep.”

But no sooner had Betty remarked to Louise, as she handed her the supplies, that her mother was starting the syrup than Louise cried, “Oh, I have to learn how to do that. I never pulled candy but once and it was such fun. Would your mother mind having me around?”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t.”

Immediately the kitchen was invaded by several of the girls, but all except Louise came back for the game. Ted, thereupon, told the “Don” to “call time,” and he vanished in the direction of the kitchen, while a few smiles were exchanged among those that were left. “Ted will know how to boil candy for taffy after this,” said Kathryn Allen.

“Well, somebody has to try and taste it.” smiled Betty.

“Everybody ready!” called the “Don,” quite at his ease by this time and with a real home atmosphere back of him. Had he not been the only one of them invited to the Thanksgiving dinner? And Mr. Lee had not known then that he was a football player, either. “Don” was not aware that that fact would have made no difference to Mr. Lee, one way or another, though he was not opposed to the game.

“Five minutes, Louise Madison said,” he continued. “I will now announce the words. No proper names, or foreign words, Louise says. It’s ‘Lyon High School.’”

The scribbling began. “Can you use slang?” inquired Brad.

“Better not.”

“Why isn’t there an ‘e’ or a ‘t’ in it?” remarked Janet. “I could make so many more.”

Carolyn was writing fast and furiously. “Oh, give us five minutes more, so we can really think on each letter!” she begged.

“Of course a girl will beat,” said Chauncey. “They’re so much better in English!” Chauncey was pretending to scratch his head and think. In reality he was too lazy to bother with a game he did not enjoy, though too polite to beg off. He had sixteen words and that was enough. He bet nobody else had “solo.”

But Chauncey was right on the girls’ having the most words. Several boys had twenty words in the five minutes, but the girls made a business of it and Kathryn Allen had the largest number, though Andy Sanford, who was on the staff of the school paper, came within two of her number, forty-five.

“How did you do it so fast, Kathryn?” asked Mary Emma.

“I just went lickity-cut in any old order till I got through the letters that way. Then I went back again and did a little thinking that time and had the other few minutes to do it in. I took ly and li and lo, and did the same way with all the letters.”

“Did anybody else get solo?” asked Chauncey.

Alas, Kathryn had that, also holy, of which Chauncey had not thought.

A delicious odor of boiling syrup was commented upon by several. Louise, carrying the glass in which she had just tested the candy, came in to inquire who had the most words and how many. “All right, Kathryn gets the prize. Ted, where’s that prize?”

From the kitchen Ted appeared, hunting in his pocket for something.

“Nobody said there was to be any prize. That’s not fair,” said Sim, grinning.

“Would you have worked harder, Sim?” Ted inquired. “Here it is, Kathryn,” and he handed her a long, slim package tied with a blue ribbon. They all watched while Kathryn took the ribbon and tissue paper from what was so evidently a gift “of pencils. Two five centers, Kathryn,” said Ted. “May they bring you to fame.”

“You did well, Kathryn,” said Louise. “Somebody got fifty at a senior party the other day, but I’m not sure but we had more time.”

“Help me, Andy,” said Kathryn, “and let’s see how many we can get. Please give me all the papers, so we can compare.” Consequently, while Ted, accused of “licking his chops” over all the candy he was tasting, followed Louise out to the kitchen, and somebody started up the music again, Kathryn and Andy, helped by Betty, who gathered up all the other efforts, made a fairly full list. “I had just started on the s-h’s,” said Andy. A little later, after working as much out themselves as they felt like doing and comparing their papers, they announced that they could read what they had if any one wanted to hear.

“Let’s hear them, Andy,” called Chauncey from near the piano. “How many words can the experts make out of the old school name?”

“Leaving out abbreviations, plurals, and odd words, here they are: lying, lingo, lion, lo, log, loch, loo, loon, loin; yon, yo-ho; O, oh, on, oil, oily, only; no, nigh, noisy; high, ho, hog, hill, hilly, holy, his, hollo, holly; I, is, in, ill, illy, inch, inly; go, gill, gin; scion, shiny, shin, shy, si, sigh, sign, silo, silly, sill, sin, sing, sling, soil, solo, soon, song, son, sol, so; chic, chill, chilly, chin, cling, clog, cog, coil, coin, colon, con, colony, coo, cool, coolly, coon, cosy, coy–and we forgot lynch, shoo and shooing, and Andy says that colin is another word for quail and that shoon is in the dictionary. So that’s over eighty and pretty good, we think.”

Chauncey started a mild applause and remarked that Andy and Kathryn would probably teach English some day.

“Not on your life,” said Andy, “though I may run a paper at that!”

Mrs. Lee could not help wondering if every one would be careful not to drop his candy while it was in the process of being pulled, but she said nothing and provided plenty of greased receptacles. Ted and Louise started several other quiet games while the candy was getting to the proper temperature. Then they began to try a small portion.

“How many want to pull?” asked Ted. Every one wanted to try “just a little bit,” which was well, or the supply would not have been sufficient. Those who had never pulled candy before were instructed, that there should be no sticky or slippery masses clinging more unhappily than wet dough to the greased hands–after a great performance of hand-washing in the kitchen.

All this made much laughter and general merriment, not to mention certain antics of Ted and Harry and a few of the younger boys. But no one tried any “sticky” tricks, as Betty put it; for once upon a time, Dick had come home from a party with his hair full of taffy, horrible dictu!

In various stages of whiteness, the separate pieces of taffy were carefully laid upon the owner’s saucer or plate, with a clean white label bearing the “name of the author,” said Betty. Much had been eaten during the pulling, for some “preferred their taffy hot,” they claimed; but each was to take a little home, to prove that they had pulled it, Ted said. Oiled paper would be in demand, thought Mrs. Lee, who hunted up a roll to have ready.

But the ice-cream had arrived. The big white cake was cut, also a loaf of fruit cake; and in the chairs which had been gathered up and brought to the front of the house with the appearance of the guests, the girls and boys sat to eat slowly the cold cream, enjoy their cake and lay the foundations of future friendships or cement those already formed. The high school “case” between Ted Dorrance and Louise Madison was not particularly serious in its outlook; for Ted, like many boys, was admiring a girl older than himself just now, but some demure young miss of a younger class, or not in his school at all, was likely to take his later attention.