Chapter 14

MAY BASKETS

It was a late spring and both the wild blossoms and the early garden flowers were discouragingly scarce.

"I don't believe there is even a spring beauty or a dog-tooth violet out yet," Mrs. Halford replied doubtfully when the little girls broached the subject of May baskets.

"I don't mind your making them or hanging them--I think it is a charming custom--but I really don't see where you can get the flowers."

"Mother's got some geraniums in bloom. I think she'd let us have them," suggested Chicken Little.

"And maybe there'll be some plum blossoms out--it's three whole days till May Day and you can see the white on the buds." Gertie was always hopeful.

"Well, get your baskets ready and we'll do the best we can to find the flowers. We can take some green from the house plants to help fill up--my oxalis is blooming nicely--that will be pretty to mix in."

"I'm glad it comes Saturday. I wish we could go to the Duck Creek woods to hunt for wild flowers--I just know I could find some." Katy looked out the window longingly.

"Wait and see. Perhaps you can," Mrs. Halford answered. "But you'd better be getting your materials and start your baskets. What colors do you want?"

"I'm going to have mine all red and white--they're so nice and bright," Katy spoke up promptly.

Gertie decided on green and white and Chicken Little selected pink and blue.

They bought their materials that evening after school and started the dainty weaving at Katy's house. It was pretty, bright work and a good deal of a novelty to the children for a kindergarten had only recently been established in the town.

Katy did all the cutting of the strips of shiny paper. She had a truer eye and nimbler fingers than either of the others. But they were expert at weaving the gay-colored strips in and out, and the three finished six baskets the first evening. Mrs. Halford gave them each a box so they could keep their materials and completed baskets in good order.

"How many are you going to hang, Katy?"

"Six, but you needn't ask where for I sha'n't tell."

"I didn't hear anyone ask you, Katy," retorted Mrs. Halford slyly.

"I know two of the places anyway," added Gertie.

"I guess I know three," Chicken Little had been thinking.

"I bet you don't--where?"

"Oh, Katy, ladies don't bet," interrupted Mrs. Halford reprovingly.

"I just forgot, Mumsey, but all the girls most, say it--you're so very particular."

"You'll be glad I am some day, I hope."

"Maybe, but I--I'm not just now. And anyhow Jane doesn't know where I'm going to hang my baskets."

"I do too, but I'm not going to tell."

"You don't either--you're 'fraid to tell 'cause you don't!"

Katy was crowding the truth pretty close. Chicken Little started to protest again when Gertie came to the rescue.

"You're going to hang one for Miss Burton--I heard you say so--and one for Cousin May, aren't you?"

"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. Perhaps I haven't decided."

"You are too, Katy Halford, you said you were."

"I s'pose I ought to hang one for Miss Brown," sighed Jane. "I don't want to very bad--she's been awful cross--and Marian. I'm going to give her the prettiest one I have. I wish I could send Alice one."

"How is Alice getting on?" asked Mrs. Halford.

"All right. I guess she's learned a lot--she says she stays up till ten o'clock every night studying. Her aunt Clara gave her a pretty new dress--and a new coat. Her aunt's going to take her to the seashore with them this summer, maybe. I wish I could go to the seashore."

"I've been to the lakes--that's most like the seashore, isn't it, Mother?" Katy boasted.

"A little. But you haven't told us about the baskets, Katy. Where are the other four going? I'm getting curious myself."

Katy looked up at her mother's teasing face.

"I'll tell you, Mumsey, but I sha'n't tell the girls." Katy jumped up and whispered something to her mother.

"There, there, dear, you tickle my ear and I didn't half hear."

Katy put her mouth close to her mother's ear and hurriedly mumbled six names.

"That'll do--it feels as if you were exploding firecrackers in my ear. I guess I got them all."

"I heard, too," piped Chicken Little and Gertie almost in concert.

"You didn't either!" Katy looked up indignantly.

"I did, too. You said Miss Burton and Cousin May and Marian Morton and Papa and Grace Dart and Ernest--so there!" Gertie reeled off the names almost as quickly as Katy had.

"Gertie Halford, I think that was real mean of you to tell."

"I heard them all but Ernest, anyhow," Chicken Little said quickly.

"Jane Morton, if you ever tell Ernest I'm going to hang a May basket to him, I'll never speak to you again."

"You don't need to get so mad--I wasn't going to tell, but I just guess you told on me--and----"

"And what?" demanded Katy icily.

It had been on the tip of Chicken Little's tongue to add, "and you thought you were awful smart, too," but she suddenly remembered Mrs. Halford's presence and she didn't want to be a tattle-tale.

"Nothing," she finished lamely, and was deaf to further questioning.

The Fates favored Chicken Little and Gertie for Miss Brown suddenly decided to have a May Day hunt for wild flowers for her room instead of waiting for the usual June picnic.

They started out at nine o'clock Saturday morning. It was an ideal spring day--not a cloud in the sky and the sunshine so warm that coats and jackets were shed long before they reached the woods. Some of the plum trees were out in bloom, and purple and yellow crocuses were opening in a number of the yards they passed.

"We'll surely find a few spring beauties and yellow violets," said Miss Brown hopefully.

There was only a faint glimmer of green on twigs and brown earth as they came into the timber and, for a time, the little band searched in vain. But Miss Brown showed them where to look in sheltered places and under protecting leaves. Johnny Carter found the first--a little bunch of spring beauties fragile and exquisite. After showing them proudly to "Teacher" he shyly slipped them into Chicken Little's basket.

They found the flowers more plentiful as they penetrated deeper into the woods. Gleeful shouts of discovery grew more and more frequent as they swarmed up and down the creek banks, over fallen logs and through the underbrush, merry and chattering as the squirrels themselves. Chicken Little counted seven blue-birds and Gertie ten, besides one brilliant cardinal that flashed by like a flame, whistling joyously.

Chicken Little's basket filled quickly for Johnny's sole interest in the flowers was apparently the pleasure of finding them, and he gave most of his spoils to her. Most, but not quite all. He had a little pasteboard box in his pocket into which he occasionally tucked a particularly choice spring beauty, carefully moistening its stem in the creek first.

Chicken Little got so many that she generously divided with Gertie when noon came, and Miss Brown called her flock together. She showed the children how to preserve the flowers by wrapping their stems in damp moss and packing them carefully in the boxes and baskets.

The ground was voted too damp for the picnic lunch so "Teacher" aided by the bigger boys searched till she found a great fallen tree, whose trunk and spreading branches accommodated her thirty chickens nicely.

The girls lined up along the trunk as near Miss Brown as possible, but the boys perched aloft, sitting astride some crotch or forked branch with their dinner pails hung conveniently on a twig nearby.

Doughnuts and sandwiches and apples went from grimy hands to eager mouths with a rapidity that astonished even Miss Brown despite her ten years of teaching. She had brought a big box of bright colored stick candy to top off with. One thoughtful boy gratefully started three cheers for Miss Brown by way of the thanks most of the children forgot. The hearty cheering of the shrill young voices went far to repay her for the morning's trouble, and warmed her heart much more than the stiff little "I've had a nice time, Miss Brown," "Good-bye, Miss Brown," which the more gently-bred children conscientiously repeated at parting.

Chicken Little turned to look back at the teacher's plain face as they left her at the school-house gate.

"I don't mind hanging her a basket now--she--she didn't act mad a bit today."

She went straight over to Marian's to display her treasures.

"Oh, the lovely woodsy things! I wouldn't have believed there were so many out--how I love them!" and Marian sniffed the wild-wood fragrance hungrily.

"Oh, I do hope I'll be well enough to go hunt them soon. Bring your baskets over here, Chicken Little--Katy and Gertie too, and let me help you fill them--I'd love to."

Jane had something on her mind. She wanted to lay it before Marian but shyness overcame her whenever she opened her mouth to mention it. She hung round Marian's chair restlessly till Marian discovered that she wanted something and helped her.

"What is it, Sis? Do you want some of my flowers for the baskets? Anything I've got except that big lily."

"Oh, Marian, I don't want to take your flowers--I just--wanted to ask you something."

"Ask away--I can give you advice to burn--it's about all I'm good for these days."

"It's about the May baskets. Do you think it would be all right to hang one for Carol?"

"Why sure, dear. Anybody would like one of your lovely baskets with these dear flowers."

"But--I----"

"Yes?"

"Johnny Carter gave me all his flowers and I thought maybe I ought to hang one for him."

"Well, you have plenty of flowers for two."

"Ye--es."

"Well?"

"I thought maybe it wasn't nice--to have two."

"Two what?"

Chicken Little wriggled uneasily and got rather red in the face.

"Two beaux."

Marian suppressed a laugh.

"Why, Chicken Little, I think you are a little young to be talking about beaux. I wouldn't, if I were you. Carol is Ernest's friend and he does lots of nice things for you. And you certainly don't want to neglect Johnny when he was so kind about giving you the flowers. It would be very nice for you to show your appreciation by hanging a basket for each of them. I'll write the names for you, if you want me to--then they won't recognize the writing."

"Oh, will you? And Marian----"

"Yes?"

"Don't tell Katy or Ernest--or Mother, will you?"

"I won't tell a living soul, dear, this shall be our very own secret."

"Katy's going to hang one to Ernest," said Chicken Little shamelessly betraying Katy's secret just after she had secured Marian's promise to keep her own.

"Is she? That's nice, but Chicken Little, if you don't want me to tell about you, you oughtn't to tell about Katy--ought you?"

"I am not going to tell Ernest," the child assured her hastily.

"Well, I don't believe I'd tell anybody. It's Katy's little secret. Let her tell it if she wants to."

Marian's admonition was well-timed but she felt it was rather wasted later that afternoon. The little girls had accepted her invitation and had brought their flowers and May baskets over for her help and advice. Katy was filling hers deftly, chattering as she worked. She was especially particular with one, taking the flowers out and rearranging them several times before she could get them to her liking.

"That must be for someone very special, Katy."

Katy looked pleased.

"Yes, it's for a very--special friend."

Marian saw that Katy wished to be questioned.

"Why, Katy, that sounds mysterious. I suppose we don't dare ask who this friend is?"

"It's somebody you know," volunteered Gertie.

Chicken Little giggled, appreciating the joke.

"Somebody you know very well," added Katy with emphasis.

"It can't be Frank?" Marian queried.

The children laughed in derision.

"You're getting a little bit warm," suggested Katy.

"Only a little bit warm--let me see--it's Dr. Morton. No?--then it must be Dick Harding."

Katy shook her head.

"I'm certainly a poor guesser. Is it Sherm?"

Jane was delighted with Marian's pretending and Gertie was burning to assist.

"He was here this morning," Gertie encouraged.

"He has weak eyes," Chicken Little was delightfully definite.

"Why, it must be Ernest!"

Katy smiled a self-conscious little smirk and the others nodded joyfully.

"Of course, how stupid I was. Let's see--you go after dark and hang the baskets on the door knob, then ring the bell and run--isn't that the way? That's the way we used to do with our comic valentines."

The little girls were not the only ones who came consulting Marian that day. Three rather sheepish boys appeared so promptly after the girls departed, that Marian suspected they had been hanging around waiting for the children to go.

"Say, Marian, do you s'pose you could help us fix up some of those May basket things everybody's talking about?"

"It's a little late in the day, Ernest. How many do you boys want?"

Ernest looked at Sherm and Sherm looked at Carol, and Carol saw something out of the window that interested him.

At length, Ernest, getting no assistance from the others, blurted out:

"One's enough for me. What do you say, boys?"

Carol and Sherm nodded.

"One apiece--my, this looks exciting. Somebody is to be very specially honored I see. It is too late to make the kind the little girls have, but you might buy some tiny baskets--I'd love to trim them up for you. Got any money, boys?"

An exhaustive search of trousers' pockets revealed a combined capital of twenty-five cents. The boys asked anxiously if it were enough.

"Yes, for three. Are you getting this for Chicken Little, Ernest?"

Ernest got red and looked uncomfortable.

"Never mind--I didn't mean to be prying--only I wish you big boys would hang some for the little girls--it would please them to death. If you don't mind my having a part in this. I'd like to put in a little money, too. Let me put in another quarter and I'll do the trimming and you boys can repay me by hanging a basket to each of the little girls as well as to your own friends."

The bargain was speedily struck and the boys hurried off downtown for the baskets and the ribbon for the tiny bows Marian had decided should adorn them.

They came back so quickly, it made Marian breathless to think of the pace they must have gone. Carol didn't come straight either. He slipped round by home to beg some blossoms from his mother's house plants. Not finding her, he promptly helped himself to all her most cherished blooms to her surprise and wrath when she discovered her loss.

Marian filled in with her own flowers and the boys hung round admiring, waiting upon her awkwardly and watching every move she made with the baskets.

"Is it all right?" she asked, holding up the first, filled with scarlet geraniums.

"Gee, that's a dandy!" Ernest approved.

"Say, I'd like to have that one," said Sherm.

"I like blue better anyway--make mine blue, will you, Marian?" Ernest added.

Marian thought of Katy's scarlet and white offering to be laid at Ernest's shrine and smiled.

"Yellow for me, please," put in Carol. "Yellow's so kind of cheerful--like sunshine or gold--I always liked dandelions only they're such a pest."

The little girls had been too happily full of their own plans to wonder whether they would get any baskets in return. But they came back that evening from the delightfully exciting task of hanging their fragrant gifts to find that friends and playmates had been equally mindful of them.

Katy had the most--seven. Jane and Gertie had each five. One of Jane's was a marvellous creation so heavy that she promptly investigated what lay beneath the flowers, finding a fat little box of candy hidden away. Another was a crude little pasteboard affair fairly overflowing with dainty spring beauties, and this, too, contained an offering in the shape of a jolly little homemade whistle. Still another had scarlet bows.

Katy wondered and wondered who sent her a similar basket with golden yellow bows on each side of the handle.

"I'm sure I heard Ernest and Sherm outside our gate. I just know Ernest gave me that," she confided to Gertie.

Gertie's biggest basket had blue bows and Gertie loved blue.

Marian never knew where the mates to the blue and yellow and red baskets found a lodging place. She did not inquire. But when she saw Chicken Little's candy she promptly exclaimed "Dick Harding!"

"I just know it was," replied Chicken Little.