Patty's Summer Days Part 4

"Now, my dear," said Mr. Banks to Ethel, "if you and Miss Fairfield will hasten your toilettes a little, we will have time for a ride on the board walk before dinner." This pleased the girls, and in a short time they had changed their travelling clothes for pretty light-coloured frocks, and went downstairs to find Mr. Banks waiting for them on the verandah. He explained that the Allens would not go with them on this expedition, so the three started off. As their hotel faced the ocean, it was just a step to the wide and beautiful board walk that runs for miles along the beach at Atlantic City.

In all her life Patty had never seen such a sight as this before, and the beauty and wonder of it all nearly took her breath away.

The board walk was forty feet wide, and was like a moving picture of gaily-dressed and happy-faced people.

Although early in April, it seemed like summer time, so balmy was the air, so bright the sunshine. Patty gazed with delight at the blue ocean, dotted with whitecaps, and then back to the wonderful panorama of the gay crowd, the music of the bands, and the laughter of the children.

"The best way to get an idea of the extent of this thing," said Mr.

Banks, "is to take a ride in the wheeled chairs. You two girls hop into that double one, and I will take this single one, and we'll go along the walk for a mile or so."

The chairs were propelled by strong young coloured men, who were affable and polite, and who explained the sights as they pa.s.sed them, and pointed out places of interest. Patty said to Ethel that she felt as if she were in a perambulator, except that she wasn't strapped in. But she soon became accustomed to the slow, gentle motion of the chairs, and declared that it was indeed an ideal way to see the beautiful place. On one side was an endless row of small shops or bazaars, where wares of all sorts were offered for sale. At one of these, a booth of oriental trinkets, Mr.

Banks stopped and bought each of the girls a necklace of gay-coloured beads. They were not valuable ornaments, but had a quaint, foreign air, and were very pretty in their own way. Patty was greatly pleased, and when they pa.s.sed another booth which contained exquisite Armenian embroideries, she begged Ethel to accept the little gift from her, and picking out some filmy needle-worked handkerchiefs, she gave them to her friend.

On they went, past the several long piers, until Mr. Banks said it was time to turn around if they would reach the hotel in time for dinner.

So back they went to the hotel, and, after finding the Allens, they all went to the dining-room.

Privately, Patty wondered how these people could spend so much time eating dinner, when they might be out on the beach. At last, to her great satisfaction, dinner was over, and Mr. Allen proposed that they all go out for a short stroll on the board walk.

Although it had been a gay scene in the afternoon, that was as nothing to the evening effect. Thousands,--millions, it seemed to Patty,--of electric lights in various wonderful devices, and in every possible colour, made the place as light as day, and the varied gorgeousness of the whole scene made it seem, as Patty said, like a big kaleidoscope.

They walked gaily along, mingling with the good-natured crowd, noticing various sights or incidents here and there, until they reached the great steel pier, where Mr. Allen invited them to go with him to the concert.

So in they went to listen to a band concert. This pleased Patty, for she was especially fond of a bra.s.s band, but Mrs. Allen said it was nothing short of pandemonium.

"Your tastes are barbaric, Patty," she said, laughing. "You love light and colour and noise, and I don't believe you could have too much of any of the three."

"I don't believe I could," said Patty, laughing herself, as the music banged and crashed.

"And that gewgaw you've got hanging around your neck," went on Mrs.

Allen; "your fancy for that proves you a true barbarian."

"I think it's lovely," said Patty, looking at her gay-coloured beads. "I don't care if I do like crazy things. Ethel likes these beads, too."

"That's all right," said Mrs. Allen. "Of course you like them, chickadees, and they look very pretty with your light frocks. It's no crime, Patty, to be barbaric. It only means you have youth and enthusiasm and a capacity for enjoyment."

"Indeed I have," said Patty. "I'm enjoying all this so much that I feel as if I should just burst, or fly away, or something."

"Don't fly away yet," said Ethel. "We can't spare you. There are lots more things to see."

And so there were. After the concert they walked on, and on, continually seeing new and interesting scenes of one sort or another. Indeed, they walked so far that Mr. Allen said they must take chairs back. So again they got into the rolling chairs, and rolled slowly back to the hotel.

Patty was thoroughly tired out, but very happy, and went to sleep with the music of the dashing surf sounding in her ears.

CHAPTER IV

LESSONS AGAIN

But all this fun and frolic soon came to an end, and Patty returned to New York to take up her studies again.

Grandma Elliott was waiting for her in the pretty apartment home, and welcomed her warmly.

Mrs. Elliott and Patty were to stay at The Wilberforce only about a fortnight longer. Then Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield were to return and take Patty away with them to the new home on Seventy-second Street. Then the apartment in The Wilberforce was to be given up, and Grandma Elliott would return to Vernondale, where her son's family eagerly awaited her.

"I've had a perfectly beautiful time, Grandma," said Patty, as she took off her wraps, "but I haven't time to tell you about it now. Just think, school begins again to-morrow, and I haven't even looked at my lessons. I thought I would study some in Philadelphia, but goodness me, there wasn't a minute's time to do anything but frivol. The wedding was just gorgeous!

Nan was a dream, and papa looked like an Adonis. I'll tell you more at dinner time, but now I really must get to work."

It was already late in the afternoon, but Patty brought out her books, and studied away zealously until dinner time. Then making a hasty toilette, she went down to the dining-room with grandma, and during dinner gave the old lady a more detailed account of her visit.

After dinner, Lorraine Hamilton and the Hart girls joined them in the parlour. But after chatting for a few moments with them, Patty declared she must go back to her studies.

"It's awfully hard," she said to Lorraine, as they walked to school next morning, "to settle down to work after having such a gay vacation. I do believe, Lorraine, that I never was intended for a student."

"You're doing too much," said Lorraine. "It's perfectly silly of you, Patty, to try to cram two years' work into one, the way you're doing."

"No, it isn't," said Patty, "because then I won't have to go to school next year, and that will be worth all this hard work now."

"I'm awfully sorry you're going away from The Wilberforce," said Lorraine. "I shall miss you terribly."

"I know it, and I'll miss you, too; but Seventy-second Street isn't very far away, and you must come to see me often."

The schoolgirls all welcomed Patty back, for she was a general favourite, and foremost in all the recreations and pleasures, as well as the cla.s.ses of the Oliphant school.

"Oh, Patty," cried Elise Farrington, as she met her in the cloakroom, "what do you think? We're going to get up a play for commencement. An original play, and act it ourselves, and we want you to write it, and act in it, and stage-manage it, and all. Will you, Patty?"

"Of course I will," said Patty. "That is, I'll help. I won't write it all alone, nor act it all by myself, either. I don't suppose it's to be a monologue, is it?"

"No," said Elise, laughing. "We're all to be in it, and of course we'll all help write it, but you must be at the head of it, and see that it all goes on properly."

"All right," said Patty, good-naturedly, "I'll do all I can, but you know I'm pretty busy this year, Elise."

"I know it, Patty, and you needn't do much on this thing. Just superintend, and help us out here and there."

Then the girls went into the cla.s.s room and the day's work began.

Patty had grown very fond of Elise, and though some of the other girls looked upon her as rather haughty, and what they called stuck-up, Patty failed to discern any such traits in her friend; and though Elise was a daughter of a millionaire, and lived a petted and luxurious life, yet, to Patty's way of thinking, she was more sincere and simple in her friendship than many of the other girls.

After school that day Elise begged Patty to go home with her and begin the play.

"Can't do it," said Patty. "I must go home and study."

"Oh, just come for a little while; the other girls are coming, and if you help us get the thing started, we can work at it ourselves, you know."

"Well, I'll go," said Patty, "but I can only stay a few minutes."

So they all went home with Elise, and settled themselves in her attractive casino to compose their great work.