<h2><SPAN name="PART_II" id="PART_II"></SPAN>PART II</h2>
<div class="figleft"><ANTIMG src="images/image_02.jpg" alt="I" width-obs="70" height-obs="72" /></div>
<p>t's a dull person who doesn't wake up Christmas Morning with a
curiously ticklish sense of Tinsel in the pit of his stomach!—A sort
of a Shine! A kind of a Pain!</p>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">"Glisten and Tears,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Pang of the years."<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>That's Christmas!</p>
<p>So much was born on Christmas Day! So much has died! So much is yet to
come! Balsam-Scented, with the pulse of bells, how the senses sing!
Memories that wouldn't have batted an eye for all the Gabriel Trumpets in
Eternity leaping to life at the sound of a twopenny<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></SPAN></span> horn! Merry Folk who
were with us once and are no more! Dream Folk who have never been with us
yet but will be some time! Ache of old carols! Zest of new-fangled games!
Flavor of puddings! Shine of silver and glass! The pleasant frosty smell of
the Express-man! The Gift Beautiful! The Gift Dutiful! The Gift that Didn't
Come! <i>Heigho</i>! Manger and Toy-Shop,—Miracle and Mirth,—</p>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">"Glisten and Tears,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">LAUGH at the years!"<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p><i>That's</i> Christmas!</p>
<p>Flame Nourice certainly was willing to laugh at the years. Eighteen
usually is!</p>
<p>Waking at Dawn two single thoughts consumed her,—the Lay Reader, and<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></SPAN></span>
the humpiest of the express packages downstairs.</p>
<p>The Lay Reader's name was Bertrand. "Bertrand the Lay Reader," Flame
always called him. The rest of the Parish called him Mr. Laurello.</p>
<p>It was the thought of Bertrand the Lay Reader that made Flame laugh
the most.</p>
<p>"As long as I've promised most faithfully not to see him," she
laughed, "how can I possibly go to church? For the first Christmas in
my life," she laughed, "I won't have to go to church!"</p>
<p>With this obligation so cheerfully canceled, the exploration of the
humpiest express package loomed definitely as the next task on the
horizon.</p>
<p>Hoping for a fur coat from her Father, fearing for a set of
encyclope<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></SPAN></span>dias from her Mother, she tore back the wrappings with eager
hands only to find,—all-astonished, and half a-scream,—a gay, gauzy
layer of animal masks nosing interrogatively up at her. Less practical
surely than the fur coat,—more amusing, certainly, than
encyclopedias,—the funny "false faces" grinned up at her with a
curiously excitative audacity. Where from?—No identifying card! What
for? No conceivable clew!—Unless perhaps just on general principles a
donation for the Sunday School Christmas Tree?—But there wasn't going
to be any tree! Tentatively she reached into the box and touched the
fiercely striped face of a tiger, the fantastically exaggerated beak
of a red and green parrot. "U-m-m-m," mused Flame. "Whatever in the
world shall I do with<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></SPAN></span> them?" Then quite abruptly she sank back on her
heels and began to laugh and laugh and laugh. Even the Lay Reader had
not received such a laughing But even to herself she did not say just
what she was laughing at. It was a time for deeds, it would seem, and
not for words.</p>
<p>Certainly the morning was very full of deeds!</p>
<p>There was, of course, a present from her Mother to be opened,—warm,
woolly stockings and things like that. But no one was ever swerved
from an original purpose by trying on warm, woolly stockings. And from
her Father there was the most absurd little box no bigger than your
nose marked, "For a week in New York," and stuffed to the brim with
the sweetest bright green dollar<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></SPAN></span> bills. But, of course, you couldn't
try those on. And half the Parish sent presents. But no Parish ever
sent presents that needed to be tried on. No gay, fluffy scarfs,—no
lacey, frivolous pettiskirts,—no bright delaying hat-ribbons! Just
books,—illustrated poems usually, very wholesome pickles,—and always
a huge motto to recommend, "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men."—To
"Men"?—Why not to Women?—Why not at least to "<i>Dogs</i>?" questioned
Flame quite abruptly.</p>
<p>Taken all in all it was not a Christmas Morning of sentiment but a
Christmas morning of <i>works</i>! Kitchen works, mostly! Useful, flavorous
adventures with a turkey! A somewhat nervous sally with an apple pie!
Intermittently, of course, a few experiments with<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></SPAN></span> flour paste! A
flaire or two with a paint brush! An errand to the attic! Interminable
giggles!</p>
<p>Surely it was four o'clock before she was even ready to start for the
Rattle-Pane House. And "starting" is by no means the same as arriving.
Dragging a sledful of miscellaneous Christmas goods an eighth of a
mile over bare ground is not an easy task. She had to make three
tugging trips. And each start was delayed by her big gray pussy cat
stealing out to try to follow her. And each arrival complicated by the
yelpings and leapings and general cavortings of four dogs who didn't
see any reason in the world why they shouldn't escape from their
forced imprisonment in the shed-yard and prance home with her. Even
with the third start and the third ar<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></SPAN></span>rival finally accomplished, the
crafty cat stood waiting for her on the steps of the Rattle-Pane
House,—back arched, fur bristled, spitting like some new kind of
weather-cock at the storm in the shed-yard, and had to be thrust quite
unceremoniously into a much too small covered basket and lashed down
with yards and yards of tinsel that was needed quite definitely for
something else.—It isn't just the way of the Transgressor that's
hard.—Nobody's way is any too easy!</p>
<p>The door-key, though, was exactly where the old Butler had said it
would be,—under the door mat, and the key itself turned astonishingly
cordially in the rusty old lock. Never in her whole little life having
owned a door-key to her own house it seemed quite an adventure in
itself to be walking thus possessively<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></SPAN></span> through an unfamiliar hall
into an absolutely unknown kitchen and goodness knew what on either
side and beyond.</p>
<p>Perfectly simply too as the old Butler had promised, the four dog
dishes, heaping to the brim, loomed in prim line upon the kitchen
table waiting for distribution.</p>
<p>"U-m-m," sniffed Flame. "Nothing but mush! <i>Mush</i>!—All over the world
to-day I suppose—while their masters are feasting at other people's
houses on puddings and—and cigarettes! How the poor darlings must
suffer! Locked in sheds! Tied in yards! Stuffed down cellar!"</p>
<p>"Me-o-w," twinged a plaintive hint from the hallway just outside.</p>
<p>"Oh, but cats are different," argued Flame. "So soft, so plushy, so
spine<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></SPAN></span>less! Cats were <i>meant</i> to be stuffed into things."</p>
<p>Without further parleying she doffed her red tam and sweater, donned a
huge white all-enveloping pinafore, and started to ameliorate as best
she could the Christmas sufferings of the "poor darlings" immediately
at hand.</p>
<p>It was at least a yellow kitchen,—or had been once. In all that gray,
dank, neglected house, the one suggestion of old sunshine.</p>
<p>"We shall have our dinner here," chuckled Flame. "After the carols—we
shall have our dinner here."</p>
<p>Very boisterously in the yard just outside the window the four dogs
scuffled and raced for sheer excitement and joy at this most
unexpected advent of human companionship. Intermittently<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></SPAN></span> from time to
time by the aid of old boxes or barrels they clawed their way up to
the cobwebby window-sill to peer at the strange proceedings.
Intermittently from time to time they fell back into the frozen yard
in a chaos of fur and yelps.</p>
<p>By five o'clock certainly the faded yellow kitchen must have looked
very strange, even to a dog!</p>
<p>Straight down its dingy, wobbly-floored center stretched a long table
cheerfully spread with "the Rev. Mrs. Flamande Nourice's" second best
table cloth. Quaint high-backed chairs dragged in from the shadowy
parlor circled the table. A pleasant china plate gleamed like a
hand-painted moon before each chair. At one end of the table loomed a
big brown turkey; at the other, the appropriate vegetables. Pies,
cakes,<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></SPAN></span> and doughnuts, interspersed themselves between. Green wreaths
streaming with scarlet ribbons hung nonchalantly across every
chair-top. Tinsel garlands shone on the walls. In the doorway reared a
hastily constructed mimicry of a railroad crossing sign.</p>
<div class="center"><ANTIMG src="images/image_04.jpg" alt="Illustration" width-obs="400" height-obs="437" /></div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>Directly opposite and conspicuously placed above the rusty stove-pipe
stretched the Parish's Gift Motto—duly re-adjusted.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Peace</i> on <i>Earth</i>, Good Will to <i>Dogs</i>."</p>
</div>
<p>"Fatuously silly," admitted Flame even to herself. "But yet it does
add something to the Gayety of Rations!"</p>
<p>Stepping aside for a single thrilling moment to study the full effect
of her handiwork, the first psychological puzzle of her life smote
sharply across her senses. Namely, that you never really get the whole
fun out of anything unless you are absolutely alone.—But the very
first instant you find yourself absolutely alone with a
Really-Good-Time you begin to twist and turn and hunt<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></SPAN></span> about for
somebody Very Special to share it with you!</p>
<p>The only "Very Special" person that Flame could think of was "Bertrand
the Lay Reader."</p>
<p>All a-blush with the sheer mental surprise of it she fled to the shed
door to summon the dogs.</p>
<p>"Maybe even the dogs won't come!" she reasoned hectically. "Maybe
nothing will come! Maybe that's always the way things happen when you
get your own way about something else!"</p>
<p>Like a blast from the Arctic the Christmas twilight swept in on her.
It crisped her cheeks,—crinkled her hair! Turned her spine to a wisp
of tinsel! All outdoors seemed suddenly creaking with frost! All
indoors, with <i>unknownness</i>!<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Come, Beautiful-Lovely!" she implored. "Come, Lopsy! Miss Flora!
Come, Blunder-Blot!'"</p>
<p>But there was really no need of entreaty. A turn of the door-knob would
have brought them! Leaping, loping, four abreast, they came plunging
like so many North Winds to their party! Streak of Snow,—Glow of
Fire,—Frozen Mud—Sun-Spot!—Yelping-mouthed—slapping-tailed! Backs
bristling! Legs stiffening! Wolf Hound, Setter, Bull Dog,
Dalmatian,—each according to his kind, hurtling, crowding!</p>
<p>"Oh, dear me, dear me," struggled Flame. "Maybe a carol would calm
them."</p>
<p>To a certain extent a carol surely did. The hair-cloth parlor of the
Rattle-Pane House would have calmed anything. And<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></SPAN></span> the mousey smell of
the old piano fairly jerked the dogs to its senile old ivory keyboard.
Cocking their ears to its quavering treble notes,—snorting their
nostrils through its gritty guttural basses, they watched Flame's
facile fingers sweep from sound to sound.</p>
<p>"Oh, what a—glorious lark!" quivered Flame. "What a—a <i>lonely</i>
glorious lark!"</p>
<p>Timidly at first but with an increasing abandon, half laughter and
half tears, the clear young soprano voice took up its playful
paraphrase,</p>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">"God rest you merrie—animals!<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Let nothing you dismay!"<br/></span></div>
</div>
<p>caroled Flame.</p>
<div class="blockquot"><p>"For—"</p>
</div>
<p>It was just at this moment that Beautiful-Lovely, the Wolf
Hound,—muz<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></SPAN></span>zled lifted, eyes rolling, jabbed his shrill nose into
space and harmony with a carol of his own,—octaves of agony,—Heaven
knows what of ecstasy,—that would have hurried an owl to its nest, a
ghoul to a moving picture show!</p>
<p>"Wow-Wow—<i>Wow</i>!" caroled Beautiful-Lovely.
"Ww—ow—Ww—ow—<i>Ww—Oo—Wwwww</i>!"</p>
<p>As Flame's hands dropped from the piano the unmistakable creak of red
wheels sounded on the frozen driveway just outside.</p>
<p>No one but "Bertrand the Lay Reader" drove a buggy with red wheels! To
the infinite scandalization of the Parish—no one but "Bertrand the
Lay Reader" drove a buggy with red wheels!—Fleet steps sounded
suddenly on the path! Startled fists beat furiously on the door!<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"What is it? What is it?" shouted a familiar voice. "Whatever in the
world is happening? Is it <i>murder</i>? Let me in! <i>Let me in!</i>"</p>
<p>"Sil—ly!" hissed Flame through a crack in the door. "It's nothing but
a party! Don't you know a—a party when you hear it?"</p>
<p>For an instant only, blank silence greeted her confidence. Then
"Bertrand the Lay Reader" relaxed in an indisputably genuine gasp of
astonishment.</p>
<p>"Why! Why, is that you, Miss Flame?" he gasped. "Why, I thought it was
a murder! Why—Why, whatever in the world are you doing here?"</p>
<p>"I—I'm having a party," hissed Flame through the key-hole.</p>
<p>"A—a—party?" stammered the Lay Reader. "Open the door!"<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"No, I—can't," said Flame.</p>
<p>"Why not?" demanded the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>Helplessly in the darkness of the vestibule Flame looked up,—and
down,—and sideways,—but met always in every direction the memory of
her promise.</p>
<p>"I—I just can't," she admitted a bit weakly. "It wouldn't be
convenient.—I—I've got trouble with my eyes."</p>
<p>"Trouble with your eyes?" questioned the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"I didn't go away with my Father and Mother," confided Flame.</p>
<p>"No,—so I notice," observed the Lay Reader. "<i>Please</i> open the door!"</p>
<p>"Why?" parried Flame.</p>
<p>"I've been looking for you everywhere," urged the Lay Reader. "At the
Senior Warden's! At all the Vestry<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></SPAN></span>men's houses! Even at the Sexton's!
I knew you didn't go away! The Garage Man told me there were only
two!—I thought surely I'd find you at your own house.—But I only
found sled tracks."</p>
<p>"That was me,—I," mumbled Flame.</p>
<p>"And then I heard these awful screams," shuddered the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"That was a Carol," said Flame.</p>
<p>"A Carol?" scoffed the Lay Reader. "Open the door!"</p>
<p>"Well—just a crack," conceded Flame.</p>
<p>It was astonishing how a man as broad-shouldered as the Lay Reader
could pass so easily through a crack.</p>
<p>Conscience-stricken Flame fled before him with her elbow crooked
across her forehead.</p>
<p>"Oh, my eyes! My eyes!" she cried.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Well, really," puzzled the Lay Reader. "Though I claim, of course, to
be ordinarily bright—I had never suspected myself of being actually
dazzling."</p>
<p>"Oh, you're not bright at all," protested Flame. "It's just my
promise.—I promised Mother not to see you!"</p>
<p>"Not to see <i>me</i>?" questioned the Lay Reader. It was astonishing how
almost instantaneously a man as purely theoretical as the Lay Reader
was supposed to be, thought of a perfectly practical solution to the
difficulty. "Why—why we might tie my big handkerchief across your
eyes," he suggested. "Just till we get this mystery straightened
out.—Surely there is nothing more or less than just plain
righteousness in—that!"</p>
<p>"What a splendid idea!" capitulated<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></SPAN></span> Flame. "But, of course, if I'm
absolutely blindfolded," she wavered for a second only, "you'll have
to lead me by the hand."</p>
<p>"I could do that," admitted the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>With the big white handkerchief once tied firmly across her eyes,
Flame's last scruple vanished.</p>
<p>"Well, you see," she began quite precipitously, "I <i>did</i> think it
would be such fun to have a party!—A party all my own, I mean!—A
party just exactly as I wanted it! No Parish in it at all! Or good
works! Or anything! Just <i>fun</i>!—And as long as Mother and Father had
to go away anyway—" Even though the blinding bandage the young eyes
seemed to lift in a half wistful sort of appeal. "You see there's some
sort of<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></SPAN></span> property involved," she confided quite impulsively. "Uncle
Wally's making a new will. There's a corn-barn and a private chapel
and a collection of Chinese lanterns and a piebald pony principally
under dispute.—Mother, of course thinks we ought to have the
corn-barn. But Father can't decide between the Chinese lanterns and
the private chapel.—Personally," she sighed, "I'm hoping for the
piebald pony."</p>
<p>"Yes, but this—party?" prodded the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Oh, yes,—the party—" quickened Flame.</p>
<p>"Why have it in a deserted house?" questioned the Lay Reader with some
incisiveness.</p>
<p>Even with her eyes closely bandaged Flame could see perfectly clearly
that<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></SPAN></span> the Lay Reader was really quite troubled.</p>
<p>"Oh, but you see it isn't exactly a deserted house," she explained.</p>
<p>"Who lives here?" demanded the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"I don't know—exactly," admitted Flame. "But the Butler is a friend
of mine and—"</p>
<p>"The—Butler is a friend of yours?" gasped the Lay Reader. Already, if
Flame could only have seen it, his head was cocked with sudden
intentness towards the parlor door. "There is certainly something very
strange about all this," he whispered a bit hectically. "I could
almost have sworn that I heard a faint scuffle,—the horrid sound of a
person—strangling."</p>
<p>"Strangling?" giggled Flame. "Oh,<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></SPAN></span> that is just the sound of Miss
Flora's 'girlish glee'! If she'd only be content to chew the corner of
the piano cover! But when she insists on inhaling it, too!"</p>
<p>"Miss Flora?" gasped the Lay Reader. "Is this a Mad House?"</p>
<p>"Miss Flora is a—a dog," confided Flame a bit coolly. "I
neglected—it seems—to state that this is a dog-party that I'm
having."</p>
<p>"<i>Dogs</i>?" winced the Lay Reader. "Will they bite?"</p>
<p>"Only if you don't trust them," confided Flame.</p>
<p>"But it's so hard to trust a dog that will bite you if you don't trust
him," frowned the Lay Reader. "It makes such a sort of a—a vicious
circle, as it were."</p>
<p>"Vicious Circe?" mused Flame, a bit<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></SPAN></span> absent-mindedly. "No, I don't
think it's nice at all to call Miss Flora a 'Vicious Circe.'" It was
Flame's turn now to wince back a little. "I—I hate people who hate
dogs!" she cried out quite abruptly.</p>
<p>"Oh, I don't hate them," lied the Lay Reader like a gentleman, "it's
only that—that—. You see a dog bit me once!" he confided with
significant emphasis.</p>
<p>"I—bit a dentist—once," mused Flame without any emphasis at all.</p>
<p>"Oh, but I say, Miss Flame," deprecated the Lay Reader. "That's
different! When a dog bites you, you know, there's always more or less
question whether he was mad or not."</p>
<p>"There doesn't seem to have been any question at all," mused Flame,
"that <i>you</i><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></SPAN></span> were mad! Did you have <i>your</i> head sent off to be
investigated or anything?"</p>
<p>"Oh, I say, Miss Flame," implored the Lay Reader, "I tell you I <i>like</i>
dogs,—good dogs! I assure you I'm very—oh, very much interested in
this dog party of yours! Such a quaint idea! So—so—! If I could be
of any possible assistance?" he implored.</p>
<p>"Maybe you could be," relaxed Flame ever so faintly. "But if you're
really coming to my party," she stiffened again, "you've got to behave
like my party!"</p>
<p>"Why, of course I'll behave like your party!" laughed the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"There <i>is</i> a problem," admitted Flame. "Five problems, to be
perfectly accurate.—Four dogs, and a cat in the wood-shed."<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"And a cat in the wood-shed?" echoed the Lay Reader quite idiotically.</p>
<p>"The table is set," affirmed Flame. "The places, all ready!—But I
don't know how to get the dogs into their chairs!—They run around so!
They yelp! They jump!—They haven't had a mouthful to eat, you see,
since last night, this time!—And when they once see the turkey
I'm—I'm afraid they'll stampede it."</p>
<p>"Turkey?" quizzed the Lay Reader who had dined that day on corned
beef.</p>
<p>"Oh, of course, mush was what they were intended to have," admitted
Flame. "Piles and piles of mush! Extra piles and piles of mush I
should judge because it was Christmas Day!... But don't you think mush
does seem a bit dull?" she questioned appealingly. "For Christmas<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></SPAN></span>
Day? Oh, I did think a turkey would taste so good!"</p>
<p>"It certainly would," conceded the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"So if you'd help me—" wheedled Flame, "it would be well-worth
staying blindfolded for.... For, of course, I shall have to stay
blindfolded. But I can see a little of the floor," she admitted,
"though I couldn't of course break my promise to my Mother by seeing
you."</p>
<p>"No, certainly not," admitted the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Otherwise—" murmured Flame with a faint gesture towards the door.</p>
<p>"I will help you," said the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Where is your hand?" fumbled Flame.</p>
<p>"<i>Here</i>!" attested the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Lead us to the dogs!" commanded Flame.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>Now the Captain of a ship feels genuinely obligated, it would seem, to
go down with his ship if tragic circumstances so insist. But he
never,—so far as I've ever heard, felt the slightest obligation
whatsoever to go down with another captain's ship,—to be martyred in
short for any job not distinctly his own. So Bertrand Lorello,—who
for the cause he served, wouldn't have hesitated an instant probably,
to be torn by Hindoo lions,—devoured by South Sea cannibals,—fallen
upon by a chapel spire,—trampled to death even at a church rummage
sale,—saw no conceivable reason at the moment for being eaten by dogs
at a purely social function.</p>
<p>Even groping through a balsam-scented darkness with one hand clasping<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></SPAN></span>
the thrilly fingers of a lovely young girl, this distaste did not
altogether leave him.</p>
<p>"This—this mush that you speak of?" he questioned quite abruptly.
"With the dogs as—as nervous as you say,—so unfortunately liable to
stampede? Don't you think that perhaps a little mush served first,—a
good deal of mush I would say, served first,—might act as a—as a
sort of anesthetic?... Somewhere in the past I am almost sure I have
read that mush in sufficient quantities, you understand, is really
quite a—quite an anesthetic."</p>
<p>Very palpably in the darkness he heard a single throaty swallow.</p>
<p>"Lead us to the—mush," said Flame.</p>
<p>In another instant the door-knob turned in his hand, and the cheerful<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></SPAN></span>
kitchen lamp-light,—glitter of tinsel,—flare of red ribbons,—savor
of foods, smote sharply on him.</p>
<p>"Oh, I say, how <i>jolly</i>!" cried the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Don't let me bump into anything!" begged the blindfolded Flame, still
holding tight to his hand.</p>
<p>"Oh, I say, Miss Flame," kindled the entranced Lay Reader, "it's <i>you</i>
that look the jolliest! All in white that way! I've never seen you
wear <i>that</i> to church, have I?"</p>
<p>"This is a pinafore," confided Flame coolly. "A bungalow apron, the
fashion papers call it.... No, you've never seen me wear—this to
church."</p>
<p>"O—h," said the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Get the mush," said Flame.</p>
<p>"The what?" asked the Lay Reader.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"It's there on the table by the window," gestured Flame. "Please set
all four dishes on the floor,—each dish, of course, in a separate
corner," ordered Flame. "There is a reason.... And then open the
parlor door."</p>
<p>"Open the parlor door?" questioned the Lay Reader. It was no mere
grammatical form of speech but a real query in the Lay Reader's mind.</p>
<p>"Well, maybe I'd better," conceded Flame. "Lead me to it."</p>
<p>Roused into frenzy by the sound of a stranger's step, a stranger's
voice, the four dogs fumed and seethed on the other side of the panel.</p>
<p>"Sniff—Sniff—<i>Snort</i>!" the Red Setter sucked at the crack in the
door.</p>
<p>"Woof! Woof! <i>Woof</i>!" roared the big Wolf Hound.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Slam! Bang! Slash!" slapped the Dalmatian's crisp weight.</p>
<p>"Yi! Yi! Yi!" sang the Bull Dog.</p>
<p>"Hush! <i>Hush</i>, Dogs!" implored Flame. "This is Father's Lay Reader!"</p>
<p>"Your—Lay Reader!" contradicted the young man gallantly. It <i>was</i>
pretty gallant of him, wasn't it? Considering everything?</p>
<p>In another instant four <i>shapes</i> with teeth in them came hurtling
through!</p>
<p>If Flame had never in her life admired the Lay Reader she certainly
would have admired him now for the sheer cold-blooded foresight which
had presaged the inevitable reaction of the dogs upon the mush and the
mush upon the dogs. With a single sniff at his heels, a prod of paws
in his stomach, the onslaught swerved—and<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></SPAN></span> passed. Guzzlingly from
four separate corners of the room issued sounds of joy and
fulfillment.</p>
<p>With an impulse quite surprising even to herself Flame thrust both
hands into the Lay Reader's clasp.</p>
<p>"You <i>are</i> nice, aren't you?" she quickened. In an instant of weakness
one hand crept up to the blinding bandage, and recovered its honor as
instantly. "Oh, I do wish I <i>could</i> see you," sighed Flame. "You're so
good-looking! Even Mother thinks you're <i>so</i> good-looking!... Though
she does get awfully worked up, of course, about your 'amorous eyes'!"</p>
<p>"Does your Mother think I've got ... 'amorous eyes'?" asked the Lay
Reader a bit tersely. Behind his spectacles as he spoke the orbs in
question softened and<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></SPAN></span> glowed like some rare exotic bloom under glass.
"Does your Mother ... think I've got amorous eyes?"</p>
<p>"Oh, yes!" said Flame.</p>
<p>"And your Father?" drawled the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Why, Father says <i>of course</i> you've got 'amorous eyes'!" confided
Flame with the faintest possible tinge of surprise at even being asked
such a question. "That's the funny thing about Mother and Father,"
chuckled Flame. "They're always saying the same thing and meaning
something entirely different by it. Why, when Mother says with her
mouth all pursed up, 'I have every reason to believe that Mr. Lorello
is engaged to the daughter of the Rector in his former Parish,' Father
just puts back his head and howls, and says, 'Why, <i>of course</i>, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></SPAN></span>
Lorello is engaged to the daughter of the Rector in his former Parish!
All Lay Readers...."</p>
<p>In the sudden hush that ensued a faint sense of uneasiness flickered
through Flame's shoulders.</p>
<p>"Is it you that have hushed? Or the dogs?" she asked.</p>
<p>"The dogs," said the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>Very cautiously, absolutely honorably, Flame turned her back to the
Lay Reader, and lifted the bandage just far enough to prove the Lay
Reader's assertion.</p>
<p>Bulging with mush the four dogs lay at rest on rounding sides with
limp legs straggling, or crouched like lions' heads on paws, with
limpid eyes blinking above yawny mouths.</p>
<p>"O—h," crooned Flame. "How sweet! Only, of course, with what's to
follow,"<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></SPAN></span> she regretted thriftily, "it's an awful waste of mush....
Excelsior warmed in the oven would have served just as well."</p>
<p>At the threat of a shadow across her eyeball she jerked the bandage
back into place.</p>
<p>"Now, Mr. Lorello," she suggested blithely, "if you'll get the
Bibles...."</p>
<p>"Bibles?" stiffened the Lay Reader. "Bibles? Why, really, Miss Flame,
I couldn't countenance any sort of mock service! Even just for—for
quaintness,—even for Christmas quaintness!"</p>
<p>"Mock service?" puzzled Flame. "Bibles?... Oh, I don't want you to
preach out of 'em," she hastened perfectly amiably to explain. "All I
want them for is to plump-up the chairs.... The seats you see are too
low for the dogs.... Oh, I suppose dictionaries would<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></SPAN></span> do," she
compromised reluctantly. "Only dictionaries are always so scarce."</p>
<p>Obediently the Lay Reader raked the parlor book-cases for
"plump-upable" books. With real dexterity he built Chemistries on
Sermons and Ancient Poems on Cook Books till the desired heights were
reached.</p>
<p>For a single minute more Flame took another peep at the table.</p>
<p>"Set a chair for yourself directly opposite me!" she ordered. For
sheer hilarious satisfaction her feet began to dance and her hands to
clap. "And whenever I really feel obliged to look," she sparkled,
"you'll just have to leave the table, that's all!... And now...?"
Appraisingly her muffled eye swept the shining vista. "Perfect!" she
triumphed. "Perfect!" Then quite abruptly the<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></SPAN></span> eager mouth wilted.
"Why ... Why I've forgotten the carving knife and fork!" she cried out
in real distress. "Oh, how stupid of me!" Arduously, but without
avail, she searched through all the drawers and cupboards of the
Rattle-Pane kitchen. A single alternative occurred to her. "You'll
have to go over to my house and get them,—Mr. Lorello!" she said.
"Were you ever in my kitchen? Or my pantry?"</p>
<p>"No," admitted the Lay Reader.</p>
<p>"Well, you'll have to climb in through the window—someway," worried
Flame. "I've mislaid my key somewhere here among all these dishes and
boxes. And the pantry," she explained very explicitly, "is the third
door on the right as you enter.... You'll see a chest of drawers.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></SPAN></span>
Open the second of 'em.... Or maybe you'd better look through all of
them.... Only please ... please hurry!" Imploringly the little head
lifted.</p>
<p>"If I hurry enough," said the Lay Reader quite impulsively, "may I
have a kiss when I get back?"</p>
<p>"A kiss?" hooted Flame. In the curve of her cheek a dimple opened
suddenly. "Well ... maybe," said Flame.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />