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Page 53
The figures began waving to and fro, faster and faster, until they were
all drawn into a weird, uncanny dance, in which each one flapped or
writhed or swayed back and forth as he pleased, in ghostly silence. The
movements of the ones in the bolster-cases were the most comical, and
the little audience on the porch laughed until they could only gasp and
hold their sides.
At a signal from the tall leader, the sheeted party suddenly divided,
half of the masked faces grinning on one side of the steps, and half
going to the other. Then an auction began, one side being sold to the
other. The bidding was all in pantomime, and they all looked so much
alike that nobody knew whom he was bidding for, or to whom he was
knocked down. The giant was the auctioneer.
At last each bidder was provided with a partner, and two by two they all
went gravely up the steps to shake hands with Mrs. Sherman and the
girls. Every one spoke in an assumed voice, and recognition was almost
impossible. The girls talked with every one in turn, but Rob and Keith
were the only boys they had recognised when the signal for unmasking was
given, and little Bethel Cassidy was the only girl. They knew her queer
little lisp.
Cake and sherbet were brought out, and great was everybody's
astonishment when masks were slipped off, and the pillow-cases jerked
away from the wearers' rumpled hair. To Keith's disgust, he found that
the partner whom he had bid for energetically, thinking it was Sally
Fairfax, was only his brother Malcolm, and Malcolm teased him all
evening by quoting aloud some of the complimentary speeches Keith had
whispered to him under cover of their disguises.
"Oh, gracious!" roared Malcolm. "It was _too_ funny; Keith, fanning me
with one of those stubby little stocking-covered fins of his, and making
complimentary speeches about my eyes. Told me he would know them
anywhere. And he spouted poetry, he did," added Malcolm, doubling up
with another laugh. "Oh, it was _too_ good! Hi, Buddy," chucking Keith
under the chin, "are you of the same opinion still? Ain't they pretty,
'mine eyes so blue and tender?'"
"Aw, hush!" growled Keith, in a shamefaced sort of way, adding, in a
savage undertone, "I'll make _black_ eyes of 'em if you don't stop."
That was not the only odd assortment of partners, for Miss Allison had
bid for plump little Mrs. Cassidy, thinking it was one of the boys in
her Sunday school class; and one little maid of seven found that an old
bachelor uncle had fallen to her lot.
"You see we made a wholesale affair of it," said Miss Allison to
Eugenia. "We drove around the neighbourhood in two big wagonettes, and
picked up whole families at a time."
"It is the jolliest surprise I ever saw," answered Eugenia, looking all
around at the little groups laughing and talking over their
refreshments. "It is hard to tell which are having the best time, the
children or the grown people; they are all mixed up together."
As she spoke the buzz of voices ceased, for there was a sudden blinding
flash of lightning and a loud peal of thunder that made the windows
rattle. The storm which Mrs. Sherman had predicted would come before
morning, had crept up unnoticed, and caught them unawares.
"Come inside!" cried Mrs. Sherman, as, with a furious rush and roar the
wind swept across them, banging window shutters, whirling leaves and
gravel in their faces, and lashing the trees until they were bent almost
double. Another blinding glare of lightning followed, with such a crash
of thunder that Eugenia put her fingers in her ears and screamed, and
Betty hid her face in her hands.
"Hurry!" cried Mrs. Sherman. "I am afraid that some of these flying
shingles, or whatever they are, will hurt some one. It is almost a
cyclone."
Breathless and excited, they all hurried into the house, and banged the
great front door in the face of the storm. The children tumbled into the
drawing-room, the smaller ones huddling in a frightened heap in the
middle of the floor, until the fury of the storm was over. There was
nothing to do but wait with bated breath after each vivid flash of
lightning for the terrific crash that always followed, and listen to the
wind outside as it fought with the sturdy tree-tops. Now and then a limb
snapped in the fierce struggle, and fell to the ground with a loud
crackling noise.
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