CHAPTER VII

A Surprise Party

THE news was soon noised abroad among Ruth's playmates that she had another doll "zackly like Henrietta," and, because there was some mystery about it as well as because the doll was unlike others of the period, Hetty was quite a belle for a time, though Ruth determined never to take her to school again, lest Nora's spite should work her ill.

She did take her over to Annie Waite's one day where she found Nora, who, with some other little girls, had been invited to spend the afternoon. Perceiving her enemy, Ruth ran home again after a whispered consultation with Annie. Nora looked rather shamefaced when Ruth returned without her doll, but she said nothing, and, as Annie lent Ruth one of her dolls to play with, every one was supplied.

This was really a surprise party for Ruth, for Annie had found out that it was her birthday, and, knowing that Miss Hester could not very well afford parties, had begged her mother to let her have a simple little affair with Ruth as guest of honor.

It was a great occasion for Ruth who did not remember ever having a party before, and she was quite overcome when she came back and found that both Annie and Lucia had provided gifts for her.

Lucia gave her a box of candy temptingly tied up in white paper with blue ribbons, and Annie gave her a doll prettily dressed and small enough to carry in her pocket while Charlotte Bingham brought her a big bunch of chrysanthemums.

"Let's dress up," proposed Annie, suddenly, when they were at the end of their resources, having played "Mother" and "Old Witch" and a dozen other things. "I'll get sister to let us have some of her old things and we'll be ladies."

"No, let's be queens," put in Lucia.

"We don't all want to be queens," returned Annie. "It would be funny to have so many; some ought to be maids of honor."

"Then we'll choose a queen. I vote for Ruth; it's her birthday."

"I vote for her, too," chimed in Annie.

"Humph!" exclaimed Nora, tossing her head. "I don't then. I reckon I'm not going to be maid to any cha—"

"You just hush," cried Lucia, putting her hand over Nora's mouth. "She is just as good as you are and a great deal better. Her grandfather never—" she paused, for she realized that it was very rude to quarrel with Annie's guests. So she turned and said: "I'll tell you what we'll do, Annie; we'll have two queens. You and I will be Ruth's maids of honor, and the others can choose their queen, then we can go on splendid journeys to visit each other."

"All right," agreed the rest. "That will be fine. We'll choose you, Nora," said Angeline McBride, "won't we, Charlotte?"

Charlotte consented and Annie rushed off to get the proper trappings for their play. Her sister, Isabel, always had a store of these on hand for just such occasions, so presently, Annie returned with her arms piled high with all sorts of stuff; old velveteen skirts, discarded evening wraps, scarfs, shawls and jackets. She threw these down in a heap on the lounge.

"Now help yourselves," she said. "Queens take first choice, maids next. Go ahead, Ruth, and pick out what you want."

"I'm just as much a queen as she is," grumbled Nora.

"But Ruth was the first chosen," argued Lucia.

"I don't care if she was. I won't play if I can't have first choice," pouted Nora who had her eye on a blue velvet skirt.

"Oh, let her choose first if she wants to," said Ruth, with some disdain. "She'll need the best things she can get to make her look like anybody," she said in an aside to Lucia.

Lucia giggled and Nora shot them an angry look, but began to turn over the things on the lounge selecting this, discarding that till finally Lucia broke in with, "Here, here, you can't do that way, Nora. Can she, Annie? She is picking out the very best things and isn't leaving anything for any one else. She can't wear two velvet skirts."

"No, that's not the way," said Annie, seeing how things were going. "You can only choose one thing at a time."

Nora protested but was over-ruled by the others, so she stood undecided between a blue velveteen skirt and a red fur-trimmed cloak, finally deciding upon the former and Ruth was awarded the cloak.

Nora's next choice fell upon a pink silk waist while Ruth chose a dim old brocaded skirt with golden lights through it.

At this, Nora had cast a contemptuous look, but in it Ruth saw possibilities and added to her choice a pale green waist and a floating scarf. She found, too, a gold crown which fitted her little head and some dazzling ornaments.

It took some time to select, and then the two queens with their finery, carried by their maids, took possession of different rooms. There was some squabbling as to who should be the visiting queen, but finally Nora carried the day.

When she entered Ruth's presence, however, she was sorry she had not elected to remain in her own kingdom, for Ruth, seated upon a gilt chair which was mounted upon a window-box covered with rugs, arose to meet her in such magnificence as quite crushed Nora for the moment. Upon her head glittered the crown, her rippling chestnut hair falling below it, a gold embroidered scarf floated from her shoulders while the red fur-trimmed cloak swept as a long train far behind her, opening in front to show the brocaded skirt. Around her waist was a jeweled belt and in her hand she held a sceptre which Miss Isabel had hastily prepared for her from a stick and some gold paint.

Nora's rather short blue velvet train was held up by Charlotte. Her pink waist looked somewhat dowdy and contrasted badly with the blue skirt. She wore no crown upon her head, only a chiffon hat trimmed with mussed flowers, and the cloak which she wore, being of a terra-cotta hue, gave a combination of colors which was anything but pleasant to look upon.

"Doesn't she look a sight?" whispered Lucia.

Ruth nodded and then swept to meet her guest with a haughtiness which was not all put on.

Nora tried to courtesy, but in doing so bumped against Charlotte who still held the train, and the two tumbled over together to the amusement of the rest.

"I think it is a silly, horrid play," cried Nora, picking herself up, "and I'm not going to be in it."

"I shouldn't think you would want to be," said Lucia, scornfully.

And Nora dashed from the royal presence in anything but a dignified manner.

"The idea of her trying to look like a queen," said Lucia, loftily. "She looks more like an old crazy woman. Now Ruth is just as queenly as anything. Isn't she fine, Angeline? She knew just what would look well."

"She does look nice," Angeline confessed.

Ruth extended her sceptre. "You may ask a favor of us," she said after the manner of a fairy queen she had read about. "Your wish shall be granted."

Angeline laughed. "I don't believe you could grant many wishes."

"Oh, let's just pretend," put in Annie.

"Well, I wish for a pony."

"We will conduct our guest to the royal stable and let her select for herself," said Ruth, quick to perceive a toy horse in the closet at the end of the room, for this, being the playroom, held the children's toys. She walked with great stateliness across the floor and flung open the closet door, disclosing a horse and cart, a horse on wheels and a tin affair with two horses abreast dragging a fire-engine.

The girls shrieked with laughter, but Ruth turned a grave countenance upon them. "Oh, do pretend," she said. "What's the use of playing if we don't make-believe? You mustn't laugh that way; it keeps it from being real."

But as no one possessed sufficient imagination to see anything but the funny side of it, Angeline's wish was not granted.

"I wonder what's become of Charlotte and Nora," said Annie. "They went back to my room to take off their hats and things."

"I don't believe they are going to play queen any more," said Angeline.

"We might have tableaux or charades," suggested Lucia.

"I'll go find the others and tell them," said Annie. "You be picking out a play while I'm gone."

They were talking the matter over when Annie returned with her two missing guests.

"We are going to play robbers or something and carry off a lovely lady to a cave," announced Lucia. "Ruth's the smallest and she'll be the easiest to carry."

"Oh, I think that's line," said Annie. "What will you be, Lucia?"

"I am going to be the young knight who rescues her."

"And I'll be the chief of the robber band," said Nora, "or maybe I'll be the old woman that's always ready to receive the prisoners; you know there is always one like that in the stories."

Annie, Charlotte and Angeline, therefore, resolved themselves into a band of robbers and Ruth in her queenly robes was dragged off unmercifully.

Annie's room became the robber's den and the closet therein the special corner where the princess was bestowed. It was a large light closet with a transom over the door and held, besides clothing, a trunk and several boxes.

"Now, don't you let any one come and take away our prisoner or steal our treasure," ordered the robbers, when Ruth had been safely disposed in the den.

"Shall we bind her hand and foot?" asked Charlotte.

"Oh, yes," Nora was ready to add anything she could to Ruth's discomfort. She had quite enjoyed the process of dragging Ruth to the den and treating her harshly.

"No, we won't bind her," Annie decided. "It will be too uncomfortable; it's bad enough to shut her up."

"So then, Ayesha," said Lucia, addressing Nora, "we will go and hunt wild beasts. Guard the prisoner well and you shall have part of the ransom."

With this the three stalked off leaving Nora in possession.

With Ruth safe under lock and key, and, the knight not to be expected just yet, for there was to be a fight on the borders of the forest before he could arrive, Nora found it rather stupid in Annie's room. Upon the bed lay Ruth's red coat which Nora secretly admired. She tried it on and viewed herself in the glass. She filled out the coat more than Ruth did and considered that she looked vastly better in it.

Tired of admiring herself, she turned to something else to amuse her. There was the daintily wrapped box which Lucia had given Ruth, and which she had begged Ruth not to open till she reached home. Nora's curiosity got the better of her. She would like to see just what was in it. Listening all the while, she stealthily untied the blue ribbons and lifted the lid. The candies looked delicious. She took out one and smelled it. Just then the robbers came clamoring up and she hastily threw Ruth's coat over box and lid.

"Is all well, Ayesha?" asked Annie in a gruff voice.

"All's well," she answered, her heart beating fast.

"There are no skulking thieves about to rob us of our gains?"

"No, sir," returned Nora, cringingly.

"She actually acts as if she were afraid of us," laughed Angeline, who with fierce burned cork eyebrows and mustache looked quite terrible.

"Guard our cave well; there are plunderers about," charged Annie. "Come, comrades, we must to the chase."

"Let no one so much as put a foot across the sill, my honest Ayesha," said Angeline. "We can trust you with our treasures but no one else. If so much as a dog approaches, drive him out." And they clattered off again.

Nora listened till they were out of hearing, then she lifted the coat and drew forth the box.

She could not resist popping one very fat chocolate into her mouth; it would never be missed. It tasted very good. She wished that it were her birthday and that some one had brought her such a box of candy. She shook the box a little and some of the pieces being disarranged the lid would not shut down tightly. Nora could not set aside the opportunity which this gave her. One tall and toothsome piece of candy seemed to be the specially annoying one which prevented the lid from fitting. She would eat that and even then the box would look full.

But just as she had slipped it into her mouth a voice from somewhere above her—it sounded in mid-air—said mockingly, "Honest Ayesha!"

Overcome with fright, Nora dropped the box on the bed and the contents rolled out.

"Let me out! Let me out, you mean piggy child," came from the top of the closet, and looking up, Nora saw Ruth's face at the transom. She had piled up some of the boxes upon the trunk, and had climbed upon them to peep through, thinking to surprise Nora, which she very effectually had done.

"Let me out this minute," she cried, "or I will tell on you."

"Oh, please don't," begged Nora overcome with shame. "I—I—was only just going to taste them; they looked so good."

"Oh, I saw you," declared Ruth. "I saw you when you opened the box and when you tried on my coat that you pretend you don't like; you seemed to think you looked very fine in it."

"Oh, Ruth, please don't tell the others," whimpered Nora.

"Let me out then so I can pick up my candies. I don't want you to touch another one. Hurry up now, or the others will be back."

Thus admonished, Nora unlocked the door, and Ruth, with a haughtiness to which the costume added effect, swept past her. She carefully replaced the candies, tied up the box and put it on a shelf in the closet.

"I don't dare trust you," she told Nora. "You are just the one to play at being a robber, only you don't have to play at it. You needn't lock me in; I'll stay, for I don't like your company."

Nora was quite crushed.

Ruth had her in her power, and, though she inwardly raged, she knew that words would only bring future mortification to her. She was very sure that Ruth would not tell, though there was no reason that she should not, she was obliged to acknowledge, and her thoughts were far from agreeable.

She did not have long to sit in silence for presently the robbers came storming back, followed by the rescuing knight who slew then; one by one, so that they fell in a limp heap just inside the door, and, with no sort of protest from the guarding Ayesha, Ruth was delivered from her imprisonment.

At this moment came word that certain good things were ready to be served in the dining-room, so there was much flurry in getting rid of superfluous garments, burned cork mustaches and such things. In the confusion and hurry, no one noticed Nora's extremely meek demeanor nor Ruth's contemptuous looks.

It was, however, an occasion which neither one ever forgot, and Ruth's former dislike to Nora was increased that day for more than one reason. After this, Nora no longer openly annoyed her, but, in fact, tried to avoid her and consequently there were more peaceful times at school for Ruth.

However, she did not refrain from expressing her scorn of Nora to Billy when she reached home after her surprise party.

"She is a piggy child," she said. "She looked all over the plate of cake and took the best piece, and she did the same way when the grapes were passed; she took the biggest, nicest bunch. All the girls noticed it. She may call me a charity child if she likes but I call her a piggy child. Aunt Hester tells us it is ill-bred to act so greedily. Lucia and Annie never do so; they always leave the best for others. Nora is a piggy child and I never want to have anything to do with her."

Truth to tell, circumstances soon arose which forbade Ruth for a long time having more to do with any of her schoolmates, for there were changes in store for her.