Part 7

There on the strip of lawn before the old brick house was a Christmas tree, hung with tinsel and twinkling with lighted candles that swayed and blinked in the darkness.

That was Mrs. Quinn's merry Christmas! She and the children had hung ropes of tinsel, red and gold balls, sparkling hearts and rings and little candles out on the old spruce that grew in the corner of the yard.

"To give to any poor body going by that maybe hasn't any Christmas just a bit of the brightness!" she had explained.

Renee, watching from between the library curtains, thought it very beautiful! It was like a fairy tree, placed there in the darkness by spirit hands, breathing from its fragrant brightness a joy that all could share! Even at that moment they could see a bent old man, leading a little boy by the hand, lingering to stare at the twinkling lights!

Many years before this the Everett Works had been moved from the modest factory not far from the Everett home, where it had had its beginning, to the great pile of steel and concrete buildings distantly removed from the business center of the city. Immediately there sprang up on the stretches of fields intervening between the smoky walls of the new plant and the quiet shaded streets where the Lees and the Everetts and the Randolphs lived, a community of small, shapeless houses, one exactly like the other, divided by half-paved streets with their rows of sickly infant elms and maples; with muddy backyards barricaded by miles and miles of clothes-line, and thousands of window-panes blackened by the incessant rain of soot from the belching chimneys. Though the suburb had the beautiful name of Riverview, suggestive of cool breezes and open spaces, it was always and more fittingly known as "The Neighborhood."

To the hundreds of little dingy homes had come men, women and children from every land of the globe--here Liberty offered them asylum and the Everett Works an honest living. In the center of the community the Works had erected a splendid schoolhouse and had presented it to the city. Although its outer walls were soon stained and blackened like the rows of houses, its interior was as fresh and attractive as clean paint, pictures and many growing plants could make it! Here the children of the foreign-speaking parents were taught to be true Americans. And in its big assembly room, whose windows looked out over the rows and rows of railroad tracks with their solid wall of motionless freight cars, to the river and open fields beyond, the girls of Troop Six held their Christmas party.

Even before the last holly wreath had been fastened in place the guests began to come--whole families at a time, in holiday attire that to Pat made them look like pictures in some fairy-tales; old men and old women, younger men with hands still grimy from their work, younger women with tired faces and babies in their arms; some eager, some a little shy, all smiling.

Pat, peeping out from behind the curtain, declared that there were hundreds there and that they were talking in every language known--except Latin! But when some one at the piano began to play "America," in some way or other the strange words melted into a common tongue--the high treble of the children carrying the song along!

A hush fell on the audience when the curtains of the stage slowly parted to show the first of the tableaux. Briefly John Randolph, Keineth's father, told in Polish the story of the landing of the Pilgrims on "the stern and rockbound coast" while on the stage the Pilgrims, with painfully suppressed laughter, struggled to keep the _Mayflower_, made out of old canvas and chairs, from falling to pieces!

The next picture showed the early colonists making treaties with the Indians. Sheila, grave and dignified in Puritan collar and hat, was holding out strings of gay beads to an Indian chief, resplendent in paint and feathers, who carried over his arm the hides that the colonists needed. Then in simple words Mr. Randolph explained how the first purchases of land in the United States came about.

Peggy made an impressive George Washington at Valley Forge, while Garrett Lee and some of his friends sat about a smouldering camp-fire. Again she appeared with Betsey Ross, who was stitching on the first American flag, which part Keineth played. But Washington's dignified manner was sadly spoiled when his wig suddenly slipped to one side, so that poor Betsey had to bite her lips very hard to keep from giggling at his rakish appearance! Nevertheless the audience--especially the children who recognized in the picture a favorite school story--clapped loudly with genuine enthusiasm.

The last tableau, everyone declared, was the best of all! Captain Ricky was America, standing in white robes against a big American flag, her arms outstretched to the eager pilgrims who approached her! And these were dressed in the national costumes of almost every country on the globe; some had approached, apparently, with brave step, heads high and shoulders straight, others had come wearily; some were old and some were young; many had been carrying heavy burdens which they had cast aside. And from the wrists of each hung the broken links of the shackles that had bound them!

The tableau told its own story! For a moment there was a hushed silence, then a mighty applause shook the room. And Captain Ricky, as though she indeed embodied the gracious spirit of America, smiled back from the stage at the men and women who, like the pilgrims in the picture, had come to this land of freedom!

After this tableau the curtains at the back of the stage were drawn back, displaying a beautiful Christmas tree, trimmed only by the many lights half-concealed in its branches and by a huge, gleaming star at its top. Some of the scouts at one corner of the stage began a simple Christmas carol--the guests took it up, humming where they could not speak the words. A group of young men broke into a Polish song; other songs followed--songs that these people had brought with them across the sea.

"They are more beautiful than ours!" cried Keineth to her father.

Then, under Captain Ricky's direction, the trimming of the tree began. This was a surprise even to the girls of the Troop, who sat with bright eyes watching. For each one in the room who had had a son, a brother, a husband or a father in the service of the country, was given a silver star to hang upon the branches of the tree. One by one they went up--at first shyly, then proudly; bent old men with uncertain step, young wives, blushing, with children tugging at their skirts; old women, scarcely understanding it all but eager to hang their symbol, until the tree was a-twinkle with the gleaming stars!

From long tables in one of the classrooms adjoining steaming, fragrant coffee in big cups and turkey and chicken sandwiches were served, then ice cream and cake. Everyone talked at once--the children ran round in complete abandonment to the joy of the moment; some of the guests, too excited to eat, had already begun the dancing!

And Mrs. Lee and Aunt Pen were busy distributing among them all the small silk American flags which were the gifts of the evening!

"It's the _best_ party _ever_," Pat stopped long enough in a whirling dance to whisper to Aunt Pen.

"Where's Renee?" Aunt Pen answered.

After a moment's search she found her alone behind the big tree. She was fastening upon one of the branches her silver star! Tears dampened her cheeks.

"Oh--_my dear_!" cried Aunt Pen. Over her swept the realization of what Renee had given that "peace might come upon this world!" She caught the small hand and held it.

"Not _there_," she whispered, "but _here_!" and taking the star she hung it close to the big Star at the top.

"He gave his Son for us, too," she added softly.

*CHAPTER XIV*

*HILL-TOP*

"Picnics," explained Peggy, with a conviction born of experience, "are just as much fun in the winter as they are in the summer, 'specially when they are at Hill-top!"

For the four days following Christmas snow had fallen steadily. Each moment of the holiday time had been filled with out-of-door fun: now Mrs. Lee had suggested that--as a sort of climax--the Eagle Patrol have a picnic at Hill-top!

Pat had never heard of a picnic in the middle of the winter!

But Peggy's enthusiasm was contagious! Hilltop--Pat had never been there--was a very old farmhouse ten miles from the city, back in the hills near Camp Wichita, where Captain Ricky took her girls in the summer-time. It belonged to an old man and his wife who had been friends of Mrs. Lee's father. During the winter months they preferred to move into a more sheltered cottage nearer the barns. The house--a short walk from the lake on which the young people skated in the winter and canoed in the summer--had great square rooms and many of them, warmed by fire-places like caverns that consumed whole logs at a time. Often Mrs. Lee, who found real recreation in such little excursions with her young people--had taken the girls and boys there for week-end picnics!

"Mother says we may stay three whole days this time! We can skate and coast and have all kinds of fun! Garrett has a new bob that he made and he says he'll bet anything it can beat all the others."

"Do the boys go, too?" broke in Pat.

"Oh, yes, mother likes to have them go! They help a lot, you see, and she says it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if they weren't along. Jim Archer and Bob Slocum and Ted Scott and maybe Wynne Meade will go--and Garrett! They're _sort_ of fun!" for Peggy read disappointment in Pat's face.

"_I_ think boys are a nuisance!"

Sheila came promptly to the defense. "Perhaps--sometimes! But brothers are nice!"

Pat's experience had been limited to the bashful young brothers, miserable with too much scrubbing and stiff collars, who had occasionally visited the other girls at school.

Peggy thought it a decided waste of time to be bothering over such a point when there was so much to plan and do! So, with a conviction intended to end the discussion, she said: "Well, they carry the logs and the water and go out and open the house and I guess we'll find them mighty useful!"

And, indeed, Pat _was_ to find one of the boys more than useful before the picnic was over!

A few hours' well-organized activity put everything in readiness for the house-party. Garrett Lee appointed himself chief of the commissary and flew tirelessly between his home and the grocery store until he had assembled enough cans of soup, bacon, weiners and other eatables peculiar to scouts' appetites to feed a regiment! Sheila and Mrs. Lee, after a brief consultation, added to the equipment many little necessities that Garrett in his masculine ignorance had overlooked. Two of the other girls collected the necessary kitchen utensils and a simple first-aid kit. Loaded down with all these and with extra blankets and the bobs, the boys and Mrs. Lee went on out to Hill-top a day in advance to open the house and prepare it for the others.

Pat, inspired by the activities of the others and not having been pressed into troop service, busied herself by packing and repacking almost every garment that she and Renee possessed!

"Patsy, dear, you _won't_ need all those things," Aunt Pen had laughed, pointing to the bulging suitcase.

Pat admitted this. "Well, it's fun packing 'em and I just had to do something," she confessed.

The next day eight merry girls boarded the funny little train that puffed off slowly toward the hills. To Renee the picnic was the most exciting of adventures! She had seen little snow--never in her life anything like the great piles, snowy white, through which the train was snorting its way! She had never had on a pair of skates in her life, nor had she ever coasted down a hill! And as Peggy told of Garrett's new bob, "Madcap," and its lightning speed, she shivered with an ecstasy of fear and wondered--if they made her ride on it--what it would feel like to fly over the snow and whether she might not just die outright of terror!

The boys, in rollicking spirits and muffled to the tips of their noses, met them at the station; together they trudged back through the snow to the farmhouse. Logs were crackling merrily in the big fireplaces and a table had been spread ready for an early supper. The girls fell to unpacking the equipment and spreading their blankets over the funny old beds and the cots which had been brought up from the nearby camp. Sheila, who had been appointed officer-in-charge, promptly, in accordance with the custom of scout outings, posted in a conspicuous place, the "standing rules."

"Oh, they're the kind of rules any good scout'll keep," Peggy exclaimed to Pat, who was regarding the slip of paper in amazement with a look on her face that said plainly "this is the funniest picnic I ever knew!" "Come on and find the others!"

For supper they ate many baked potatoes and weiners and hot biscuits, which Mrs. Lee had mixed and baked by magic--"just to have a nice beginning!" At the table the boys announced the schedule for the skating and coasting races which they had planned for the next day and fell to arguing with friendly violence over the speed of their different bobs! Garrett then insisted that the four who had grabbed the last of the biscuits should make up the Kitchen Police, whose duty it would be to clear away the supper dishes! And to the accompaniment of a mighty rattle of china plates and cups the others gathered around the blazing fire and sang.

Pat and Renee slept together in a huge four-posted bed. Gradually the big house had grown very quiet. "Isn't it fun?" Pat giggled into Renee's ear. "I've never been in the country in the winter-time before! And doesn't it feel _queer_ sleeping without sheets?" Then she sighed. "I wish I could skate well!" She was thinking of the races planned for the morrow. Renee was apprehensive, too. "Do you suppose they'll make me go down on one of those dreadful bobs?" and she shuddered at the very thought!

Poor Pat, her pride--cropping up now and then--was her besetting sin! And the next morning, when she should have been gloriously happy, it mastered her! She _hated_ the races, because she was always lagging along in the rear! She declared to herself that the boys were silly, tiresome stupids, because they made _such_ a fuss when Peggy beat them all in a race down the lake and back! Finally, disgusted, she took off the hateful skates and joined Renee near the bank.

"I think they're _stupid_," she grumbled, digging her heel into the ice and not explaining whether she meant the boys, or the skates or the races!

The coasting in the afternoon comforted her a little! Jim Archer let her steer his "Gypsy!" They beat Garrett's "Madcap" and Pat secretly rejoiced at Garrett's chagrin!

Renee, from the top of the long hill, had watched the flight of the bobs with trembling fascination.

"Come along on Madcap," Garrett had called out. The three girls on it waved entreatingly to her. She had not the courage to refuse! White with terror she slipped in between Garrett and Peggy. The others shouted wildly as the bob began to move slowly down the hill but poor Renee's breath caught in her throat. As it went faster and faster she hid her face against Garrett's wooly back.

"Hang on!" cried Peggy behind her. Renee was certain they were flying! But just as she felt she _must_ die with terror a wild "hurrah" went up, she opened her eyes--they were sliding over the ice at the bottom of the hill and the Madcap had won!

And to Renee's utter amazement she wanted to go down again--_right away_!

Afterwards Garrett let her steer the bob, and although they ended in a snowdrift and were almost buried in the soft snow, it did not in any way dampen her enthusiasm over the new sport she had learned!

"Oh, it was _wonderful_!" she exclaimed to Pat as they walked with the others toward Hill-top. "I thought I'd be so frightened and I wasn't!"

"Jim Archer's bob is much the best," Pat answered in such a disagreeable voice that Renee looked at her in hurt astonishment! How _could_ there be enough difference in two bobs to make Pat speak to her in that tone!

However, hot oyster soup and pancakes scattered for a time the little cloud that threatened and through the meal Pat's voice was as merry as the merriest. After supper, leaving the Kitchen Police to their sad lot, the others again donned caps, sweaters and mittens and fell to building in front of the old farmhouse door two great snow forts, between which, in the morning, a mighty battle would be waged!

And Jim Archer, one of the self-appointed generals, asked Pat--before he asked any of the others--to be on his side!

This was balm to Pat's hurt vanity. Perhaps she couldn't skate as well as the others, but she guessed Jim Archer knew she could throw a snowball as straight and as hard as any boy! Anyway, Garrett Lee was too conceited! So that night, as she slept cuddled down in the big four-posted bed, she dreamed that she stood alone on the frosty breastwork of the fort she had helped build and by an onslaught of snowballs, thrown with unerring aim, drove Garrett Lee and his army to complete and ignominious surrender!

Poor Pat--the next day was to bring to her pride a sad fall!

*CHAPTER XV*

*PAT'S PRIDE AND ITS FALL*

The next morning a bright sun peeped up over the hills touching field and lake, trees and house-tops with a frost of diamonds. At an early hour hungry boys and girls were demanding their breakfast "quick" and were hurling orders over the banister at the sleepy Kitchen Police, toiling below.

The snow-ball fight ended in a complete rout of Garrett's army, which put Pat in high spirits, and, although it had not been quite like her dream of the night before, Jim Archer _had_ said to her, to her secret joy:

"Say, you throw as good as a boy!"

The remainder of the morning was spent playing hockey and coasting; the boys allowing the girls to race the bobs down the hill. Renee, quite by herself, steered the beautiful Madcap twice to victory! Perhaps never in her life had she felt so keenly alive or so happy! She stood looking over the little lake and the surrounding hills and drawing in long breaths of the frosty air. Its keenness made her cheeks and fingertips tingle, put a ringing note in the youthful voices around her and an added brightness into happy eyes!

"Let's all just skate this afternoon--no races or anything like that!" declared Peggy at luncheon and the suggestion met with instant approval.

"Oh, _don't_ you wish we were just coming? Did you ever know days to go by so fast?" lamented one of the others.

"This hasn't gone by yet! To-night we're going to toast marshmallows!" put in Bob Slocum.

"And have a good sing! We always end a picnic that way!" explained Peggy to Pat.

"And breakfast bright and early to-morrow, so that we will be all packed in time for the----"

"Lightning mail train!" Garrett added to his mother's injunction.

Mrs. Lee was never happier than when she was with her "boys and girls!" She loved each and every one of them as though they had all been hers from babyhood. She watched them now as they trooped away toward the lake, skates jingling over their arms. Something within her quivered with pardonable pride as her eyes rested for a moment on Garrett's manly young figure striding on ahead of the others. And when Peggy's voice, always boyishly loud, reached her ears as she shouted back to one of the other girls, her mother shook her head and laughed: "Oh, Peggy child, what a tomboy!"

For Pat the skating was much more fun, now, when there were no races! More accustomed to her skates she managed to get over the ice in better and easier fashion than she had on the day before. She was pleasantly conscious, too, that she made a rather pretty picture in her scarlet sweater and tam-o'-shanter--several of the girls had declared that they were going to immediately make red tams.

"Let's have a turn, Pat!" and Garrett Lee extended two warmly mittened hands in genial invitation. So Pat linked her arms with his and together they flew over the glittering stretch. With her balance supported by Garrett's strong grasp she skated easily; as they sped along down the length of the lake the wind whipped her breath and sent the blood bounding through her veins!

At the end of the lake they stopped "to take in air," as Garrett put it.

"Let's skate down there," cried Pat, pointing to the Inlet just beyond. There a narrow gorge, cutting deeply through the hillsides, let into the lake. Garrett knew that, because of its steep banks, its changing depths of water and strong eddies, the ice there was very unsafe.

"Oh, no, it's dangerous there! We never go into the Inlet, even in the summer! That's a rule!"

Poor Pat--she fancied Garrett was treating her like a little child! So she answered with a toss of her head:

"I haven't bothered to read the rules! I'm not afraid--if you are!" and she turned toward the Inlet.

"Pat--don't! It _isn't_ safe--honest!"

The more earnest and concerned Garrett grew the more headstrong Pat! She started toward the Inlet, calling over her shoulder: "Oh, you're just a 'fraidy-cat'!"

Garrett watched her for a moment. There was no doubting her intention! He started after her and at the mouth of the Inlet overtook her.

"Pat," he begged, "mother'll be angry! I tell you it's one of the rules!"

But Pat simply shrugged her shoulders.

"_Dare_ you to come with me, little boy!" she laughed teasingly. The Inlet, its banks rising steeply on each side, filled with dancing shadows made by the sun through the bare branches meeting overhead, looked very inviting! Thrilled with a sense of adventure, Pat skated with short strokes into the narrow opening.

Garrett had no choice but to follow her! Deeply alarmed, he again begged her to turn back! Now she pretended not to hear him!

But in a few moments she suddenly screamed and wildly waved her arms! At a bend in the narrow gorge the ice had cracked under her weight!

"Garrett!" she cried, turning.

"_Go on! Keep moving!_" he shouted. But Pat, terror-stricken, stood still, stretching out her arms imploringly. Garrett reached her just as the ice with a sharp crackle broke into pieces, dropping them both into the water.

Its iciness for a moment stunned Pat. Then she slowly realized that Garrett was supporting her with one arm and begging her to cling to the thin edge of the ice, to which he was holding with his other hand. His steady voice gave her courage! She tried to say something but her teeth only chattered together.

"We'll get out all right!" Garrett said, hopefully. "Hold on as lightly as you can!"

"Oh, don't let go of me--don't let go of me!" implored Pat, wanting to cry.

"I won't! Keep up your nerve!" And Garrett strengthened his hold under Pat's arm. He looked about him. From a tree growing out of the bank stretched a bare limb just a little way out of reach.

"We'll work along slowly until you can reach that branch! Take it easy, Pat!"

He began moving his grasp on the edge of the ice, slowly, cautiously, for sometimes it cracked, sending terror to Pat's soul! She recalled hearing someone tell how very deep the water was in the Inlet! And it was _so_ black and cold!

"Come on! We'll make it!" he called out cheerily. They drew nearer and nearer the branch; soon Pat could reach it.

"Now let go of the ice and grab it! I'll hold you!"

"Oh no, no!" implored Pat, clinging tighter.

"You've _got_ to, Pat! It's our only chance!" Summoning all the strength he had in his fine young body he lifted her as he spoke! The effort made great veins swell on his forehead. With a gasp of terror she caught and clung with both arms to the branch.

"Get your legs around it, too," directed Garrett. "Now work yourself along! _Hurry_, Pat!"