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Page 70
Joyce had a fresh blue satin ribbon packed away in her satchel to tie
around her Bob's neck just before reaching home. "Oh, girls!" she
exclaimed, "don't you know that those children are going to be delighted
when this fat little dumpling comes rolling out of the hamper? They will
all grab for him at once, and Mary will be so tickled she will squeal.
She always does when she is excited, and it is _so_ funny. I wish I
could hear her do it this blessed minute. Somehow I can hardly wait to
see them all now, although I don't want to leave Locust one bit. I have
had _such_ a good time!"
Mom Beck came out just then to tell them that dinner was waiting, and
Lloyd hurried them through the back hall again, although she herself ran
to the front door and looked out, before she took her seat at the table.
It was a merry meal, for Papa Jack told his best stories, and Cousin
Carl, as they all called Mr. Forbes now, recalled his funniest jokes to
make the children forget how near they had come to the parting hour. And
when the dessert was brought on they sang a duet they had learned when
school-boys together, at which every one laughed until the tears stood
in their eyes.
While they lingered at the table, Alec and Walker and Mom Beck, and all
the servants on the place who could lend a hand, were turning the lawn
into fairy-land. They had been busy for several hours putting up strings
of lanterns, and now they were lighting them, row after row. Big
lanterns, and little lanterns, round ones and square, of every size,
colour, and shape, lit up the darkness of the summer night. Huge red
dragons swung between the white, vine-covered pillars of the porch.
Luminous fish and beasts and birds, hanging from the shrubs and trees on
the lawn, set every bough a-twinkle, while all through the grass and all
through the flower beds the flashing of hundreds of tiny fairy lamps
made it seem as if the glow-worms were holding carnival.
There were tents pitched on the lawn and tables set out here and there,
and every tent was brilliant with festoons of light and every table had
a canopy fringed with flaming balls of ruby and emerald and amber.
But the most beautiful part of the whole dazzling scene was the old
locust avenue, strung from top to bottom with lights. The trees seemed
suddenly to have burst into bloom with stars, when all down that long
arch, from entrance gate to mansion, shone the soft glow of a myriad
welcoming lanterns.
[Illustration: "LET'S ALL SIT DOWN ON THE STEPS."]
"Let's all sit down on the steps and enjoy it before the people begin to
come," said the Little Colonel, after the first burst of surprise and
enthusiastic admiration was over.
"Everybody in the Valley will be heah in a little bit to say good-bye to
you all, and we told 'em to come early, because your train leaves so
soon."
Even as she spoke there was a sound of wheels turning in at the gate,
and the band in the honey-suckle arbour began tuning their violins. It
was not long before the place was gay with many voices, and people were
streaming back and forth over the lawn and porches. Grown people as well
as children were there. All who had been at the pillow-case party; all
who had entertained the girls in any way, and all who had been friends
of Betty's mother and Joyce's in their girlhood.
After awhile, when the guests were being served with refreshments,
under the lantern-hung canopies on the lawn, Mr. Forbes looked around
for Betty. She was nowhere to be found at first, but presently he
stumbled over her in a dark corner of the porch, with her shade pulled
over her eyes.
"It's too bad you can't enjoy it like the rest of us," he said,
sympathetically.
"I am enjoying it with all my heart, Cousin Carl," protested Betty. "I
have raised my shade half a dozen times and taken a quick glance around,
and the music is so sweet, and everybody comes up and says nice things
to me. I would be perfectly happy if I didn't keep thinking that this is
the last of our good times together, and in a little while I shall have
to say good-bye to Eugenia and Joyce. You know I never knew any girls
before," she added, confidentially, "and you can't imagine how much I
have enjoyed them."
"Come, walk down to the gate with me," said Mr. Forbes, presently; "I
have something to tell you." She lifted her shade an instant as they
started down the long arch of light, and gave one quick glance down the
entire way. "Isn't it glorious!" she exclaimed. "It looks as if it might
be the road to the City of the Shining Ones!"
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