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Page 48
As her hunted feeling of desperation relaxed she began to find some fun
in her new situation, and when a woman with two little boys approached
she came forward to wait on her, elated, important. "Two for five," she
said in a businesslike tone. The woman put down a dime, took up four
doughnuts, divided them between her sons, and departed.
[Illustration: Never were dishes washed better!]
"My!" said Molly, looking admiringly at Betsy's coolness over this
transaction. Betsy went back to her dishes, stepping high.
"Oh, Betsy, see! The pig! The big ox!" cried Molly now, looking from her
coign of vantage down the wide, grass-grown lane between the booths.
Betsy craned her head around over her shoulder, continuing
conscientiously to wash and wipe the dishes. The prize stock was being
paraded around the Fair; the great prize ox, his shining horns tipped
with blue rosettes; the prize cows, with wreaths around their necks; the
prize horses, four or five of them as glossy as satin, curving their
bright, strong necks and stepping as though on eggs, their manes and
tails braided with bright ribbon; and then, "Oh, Betsy, LOOK at the
pig!" screamed Molly again--the smaller animals, the sheep, the calves,
the colts, and the pig, which waddled along with portly dignity.
Betsy looked as well as she could over her shoulder ... and in years to
come she can shut her eyes and see again in every detail that rustic
procession under the golden, September light.
But she looked anxiously at the clock. It was nearing five. Oh, suppose
the girl forgot and danced too long!
"Two bottles of ginger ale and half a dozen doughnuts," said a man with
a woman and three children.
Betsy looked feverishly among the bottles ranged on the counter,
selected two marked ginger ale, and glared at their corrugated tin
stoppers. How DID you get them open?
"Here's your opener," said the man, "if that's what you're looking for.
Here, you get the glasses and I'll open the bottles. We're in kind of a
hurry. Got to catch a train."
Well, they were not the only people who had to catch a train, Betsy
thought sadly. They drank in gulps and departed, cramming doughnuts into
their mouths. Betsy wished ardently that the girl would come back. She
was now almost sure that she had forgotten and would dance there till
nightfall. But there, there she came, running along, as light-footed
after an hour's dancing as when she had left the booth.
"Here you are, kid," said the young man, producing a quarter. "We've had
the time of our young lives, thanks to you."
Betsy gave him back one of the nickels that remained to her, but he
refused it.
"No, keep the change," he said royally. "It was worth it."
"Then I'll buy two doughnuts with my extra nickel," said Betsy.
"No, you won't," said the girl. "You'll take all you want for nothing ...
Momma'll never miss 'em. And what you sell here has got to be fresh
every day. Here, hold out your hands, both of you."
"Some people came and bought things," said Betsy, happening to remember
as she and Molly turned away. "The money is on that shelf."
"Well, NOW!" said the girl, "if she didn't take hold and sell things!
Say ... "--she ran after Betsy and gave her a hug--"you smart young one,
I wish't I had a little sister just like you!"
Molly and Betsy hurried along out of the gate into the main street of
the town and down to the station. Molly was eating doughnuts as she
went. They were both quite hungry by this time, but Betsy could not
think of eating till she had those tickets in her hand.
She pushed her quarter and a nickel into the ticket-seller's window and
said "Hillsboro" in as confident a tone as she could; but when the
precious bits of paper were pushed out at her and she actually held
them, her knees shook under her and she had to go and sit down on the
bench.
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