Chapter 22

UNCLE WILLIAM IS SURPRISED.

Dora's housekeeping seemed to thrive from the first. Her mother grew more cheerful and a little stronger, and she herself was rosy and happy. It was so pleasant to come home every day after school and find Fanny, their small maid, who came each morning and stayed till after lunch, setting their own little table. And then, what a pleasure to study at her beautiful desk!

"It is lovely, if it is over a confectionery, isn't it, Mamma?" she would say.

It was her great pleasure to keep this small domain in the daintiest order, and Saturday morning was sure to find her busy with her duster. On this particular morning, as she was shaking it out of the window, she saw Bess and Louise coming in.

"If you aren't busy, Dora, we want to talk to you about something." began the last-named person before she was fairly in the room.

"I am just through, and delighted to see you," she said hospitably.

"It is about the afghan," Bess explained. "We can finish it easily this afternoon, and the twentieth is Uncle William's birthday; don't you think it would be best to give it to him then?"

"We asked the boys about the party and they are in favor of it, and Aunt Zelie says we can have it. Now what kind of a party shall it be? We want suggestions," said Louise, folding her hands in her lap, and leaning back as if she had only to ask.

"Why not have a surprise party?--ask him to dinner as if it were nothing special, you know."

"The very thing!" they both exclaimed.

"Why didn't we think of surprising the dear old duck, who is always surprising us?" Louise added.

Bess shook her head at her sister. "That is not a becoming way in which to speak of your uncle. But that is a good idea, Dora; you are a very bright girl."

"Thank you, I am glad I am satisfactory. Do you need any more suggestions?"

"It must be a real party; we must trim the house and have Carl present the slumber robe; and do you think we could have a cake with candles? Forty-eight would be a good many."

"Four dozen," said Dora, as Louise paused for breath. "Why don't you leave the decorations to the boys? We have done our share in making the afghan."

"Another brilliant idea. We will," said Bess.

They discussed it again over their work that afternoon, and Constance and Elsie gave their entire approval to the plan.

A party at the Hazeltines' was always welcome, and the combination of circumstances made this particularly pleasant to anticipate.

Their fingers flew as they talked, and by five o'clock the last stitch was taken, and the work of nearly six months finished.

After surveying it fondly on all sides and trying its effect on Miss Brown's sofa, it was reluctantly wrapped in a sheet and put away till the all-important day.

It was hard to do justice to lessons the next week, with such interesting preparations to be made. Aunt Zelie had shaken her head over parties during the school term, but gave in to the plan that this was a very special occasion. They couldn't help the fact that Uncle William's birthday came in March.

Everything was ready in good time, Mr. Hazeltine was invited to dinner, and a hint was given to his wife.

At seven o'clock on Thursday evening most of the party had assembled, and the Hazeltine house was pervaded by an air of expectancy.

In the place of honor in the long drawing-room sat Miss Brown, who could not resist the united urging of Aunt Zelie and the girls.

"We arranged this corner just for you," said Bess, coming to greet her as soon as she was seated. "We knew you would look like a picture in it."

Miss Brown laughed and said that would be a new sensation, as she had never before been a picture.

"Oh, yes, you have been, but perhaps you didn't know it!" said Louise. "This time you are to know it, and every one is to admire you, for you are part of our decorations; I am glad you wore that lovely shawl."

She made a picture, truly, with her bright eyes and snowy hair against the crimson velvet of the chair, a delicate white lace shawl over her dark dress, and a copper lamp with a deep rose-colored shade throwing a soft radiance about her.

"And here is somebody to keep you company," said Bess, bringing Aunt Zelie to sit beside her.

Mrs. Howard's eyes followed lovingly her two pretty nieces as they danced away to join the group around the afghan.

"I wonder," said Miss Brown, watching them, "what difference it would have made in me if I had had such a home when I was a child."

"It is a beautiful and helpful thing to have a happy childhood to look back upon," answered their aunt. "When I meet discontented, cynical people I feel sure that no sweet true child-life lies behind them. I want my boys and girls to be able to say that their happiest times have been at home. Here comes our housekeeper."

There was certainly a housewifely air about Dora's plump little figure in her simple white dress as she came to speak to Miss Brown and get Aunt Zelie to pin on her flowers.

"Everybody is here but Ikey and Jim," announced Louise, whose blue ribbons were fluttering from one end of the house to the other.

"Here they are!" called Carl from the window, "and someone else; it must be Uncle William!"

Great excitement prevailed till the door opened and it proved to be Mr. Caruth.

"I had forgotten you were invited, but I am very glad to see you," Louise said, advancing to meet him.

"Then I should not have been missed if I had not come?" he said, shaking hands with Mrs. Howard.

"Oh, I had only forgotten for a minute, because I have so much on my mind!" she explained, laughing. "Why, Jim, what lovely flowers! Ikey, where is your buttonhole bouquet that I took so much trouble to make?"

Ikey stared blankly at his undecorated coat. "Oh! I forgot it. I put it in the refrigerator; I'll go and get it."

"In the _refrigerator_?" repeated the girls with one voice. "Just like a boy!"

"Well, why not? That is where you put things to keep;" and Ikey departed to find his posies, while Jim divided his roses between Louise and Aunt Zelie.

In three minutes Ikey came flying back quite breathless, announcing that Uncle William was at the gate.

The festive air which reigned inside found its way out through various cracks and crevices, causing Mr. Hazeltine to remark that the house looked unusually brilliant.

The truth did not dawn upon him till he stood in the parlor floor before a semicircle of bright faces, all very full of the fun of the occasion.

Across the top of the large mirror he saw "Welcome," in letters of evergreen, and a chorus of "Many happy returns!" greeted him.

"Bless me! what does this mean? Is it possible that it is my birthday?" he exclaimed.

"Yes, and it's a _s'prise_ party; aren't you _s'prised_?" demanded Carie, unable to keep quiet any longer.

"Surprised? I should say so! I shall have to have forty-eight kisses from somebody."

Carie immediately volunteered her share, and altogether it is probable that he really received more than he was entitled to.

He made his way to Miss Brown's corner after a while, and when the excitement subsided a little Carl stepped forward and said in an extremely lawyer-like manner: "I have the honor to be chosen spokesman this evening, to welcome you and wish you many happy returns of the day in the name of the members of the Order of the Big Front Door, who in testimony of their affection for you tender you this reception. I am also requested to present to you, in behalf of the Merry Knitters, this slumber robe, the work of their own fair fingers, which they offer as a slight token of their appreciation of all your kindness to them. May your dreams be sweet!"

Aleck and Ikey advanced and threw the slumber robe over a chair before the astonished Uncle William.

For it moment it quite took his breath away. He was touched and gratified that the girls should have done so much work for him, and found it necessary to clear his throat vigorously before he replied to Carl's graceful effort.

"I am sure I can truthfully say that only once before in my life have I been so completely surprised. I thank you all most heartily for remembering an old fellow like me, and I particularly thank the M.Ks. for their beautiful gift. I shall prize it as one of my greatest treasures. I also thank Miss Brown for coming to my party; I consider it a great honor. As I had not the same opportunity as my nephew for preparing a speech I shall not say any more except to thank you all again."

He sat down amid great applause.

The slumber robe became for a while the centre of attraction. It was as great a surprise to Aunt Marcia as to her husband, and she admired it extremely, praising the young needlewomen warmly.

"Mr. Caruth and I feel envious, and want to know what you have done that so much work should be bestowed on you?" said Mr. Frank Hazeltine, joining the group around it.

"You see, Father, he is a sort of public benefactor; he gets up wonder balls and takes us to the circus, so he has to be publicly rewarded," Louise explained gayly.

"I am sure I was Santa Claus once," said Mr. Caruth.

Supper was announced presently, and what a birthday supper it was! Mandy and Sukey had done their best for Mr. William, and their best was not to be sniffed at. Aunt Zelie contributed menu cards, each with a flower and a quotation on it.

Dora thought hers the prettiest of all. On it were a thistle and a wild rose, and the lines were:

"Duty, like a strict preceptor, Sometimes frowns or seems to frown. Choose her thistle for thy sceptre, While youth's roses are thy crown."

"It was written by a poet for his own little daughter Dora," said Mrs. Howard.

Aleck had:

"The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they while their companions slept Were toiling upward in the night."

"Cousin Zelie thinks I am lazy," he said, laughing.

"Mine is better than Dora's, and I know where it came from, and she has not an idea," said Carl. His lines were:

"My good blade carves the casques of men, My tough lance thrusteth sure, My strength is as the strength of ten Because my heart is pure."

"I don't care, for I can find out, and that is half the fun," Dora replied, comparing hers with Louise's, which had lilies of the valley on it, and these lines:

"I pray the prayer of Plato old-- God make thee beautiful within, And may thine eyes the good behold In everything save sin."

Uncle William put his card away before anybody had seen it, and refused to show it, in spite of much coaxing.

"It is too complimentary; modesty forbids," Carl suggested.

"Why didn't you and Miss Helen favor us with something original, Mrs. Howard?" asked Mr. Caruth.

"He is making fun of the Harp Man's Benefit," said Miss Hazeltine.

"I am afraid we exhausted our genius on that occasion," her cousin answered, laughing.

"Uncle William, there is one thing you must tell us," said Bess, "and that is, _when_ you were more surprised than to-night?"

"Oh, that was long ago!" he replied. "It was Aunt Marcia who surprised me." All eyes turned to Mrs. Hazeltine.

"Aunt Marcia, how did you do it?"

"I am sure I can't tell you. I think I am the one most apt to be surprised."

"You'll have to tell," said Carl, turning to his uncle.

"Well, if you must know, it was when she said '_Yes._'"

Everybody laughed, and his wife said majestically: "My dear, you are very absurd." But she did not appear seriously displeased.

"I don't understand," remarked Helen; "what did she say yes _to_?" and this of course brought down the house.

After supper was over they danced and played games till, all too soon, the evening was over.

"Good times never last quite long enough," Louise said, as her uncle was arranging for the farewell Virginia reel.

"I thought they lasted the year around," remarked Mr. Caruth, who stood beside her.

"I mean special ones," she answered gayly, as she went off with him to take her place, leaving Ikey rather crestfallen.

The others had quickly paired off: Carl and Dora, Aleck and Bess, Jim and Elsie, Will and Constance. Elsie called "Tucker" aggravatingly as she passed.

"Anyway, I didn't want to dance with her," he said to himself.

Miss Hazeltine was playing for them, and Aunt Marcia sat with Miss Brown looking on; Aunt Zelie stood in the doorway.

She smiled at Ikey when he looked in her direction, saying: "Do you want a partner?"

His gloom turned to rapture. "Oh! Mrs. Howard, will you?"

"I'll try," she answered, as they took their places, his heart beating quickly with pride and delight. And never was a dance performed with more reverent devotion.

"Why, Aunt Zelie, that is not fair!" called Carl, as he and Dora danced down the middle and back again.

"I didn't know you danced, Mrs. Howard," said Jim, upon whom Ikey cast a triumphant glance.

When it was over she was besieged with partners for another, but she refused, declaring it was too late.

So ended Uncle William's surprise party.

When the door had closed on the last guest and Bess at the piano was playing a snatch of a waltz, Carl pounced upon his aunt and carried her off before she knew it.

"Ikey shall not get ahead of _me_," he said, as after sailing twice around the room he dropped her breathless on the sofa.