Pattys Butterfly Days | Page 3

Tell me about the Pageant,-- will it be fine?"
"Oh, yes," said Jack, "the biggest thing ever. Sort of like a Durbar, you
know, with elephants and--"
"No, it isn't going to be like that," said Lora. "They've given up that
plan. It's going to be ever so much nicer than that! They're going to
have--"
"Don't tell me!" cried Patty, laughing, as she clapped her hands over
her ears. "I'd rather not hear about it! I suppose you'll be queen of it,
whatever it is, Lora?"
"I'll have a chance at it, if you're not here! That's the only comfort
about your going away. Somebody else can be the Belle of Spring
Beach for a time."

The good-natured laughter in Lora's eyes took all sting from her words,
and, indeed, it was an acknowledged fact that Pretty Patty was the belle
of the little seashore colony.
"I'm awfully sorry about it," began Nan, but Patty stopped her at once.
"There's nothing to be sorry about, Madame Nan," she cried, gaily;
"these provincial young people don't appreciate the advantages of travel.
They'd rather stay here in one place than jog about the country, seeing
all sorts of grand scenery and sights! Once I'm away from this place I
shall forget all about its petty frolics and its foolish parties."
"Yes, you WILL!" exclaimed Jack, not at all impressed by Patty's
statements, for he knew how untrue they were.
"And the Country Club summer dance!" said Beatrice, regretfully.
"Patty, how can you be reconciled to missing that? It's the event of the
season! A fancy dance, you know. A sort of Kirmess. Oh, DON'T go
away!"
"Don't go away!" echoed Lora, and Jack broke into one of the
improvised songs for which he was famous:
"Don't go away from us, Patty, Patty, We can't part with the likes of
you! Stay, and be Queen of the Pageant, Patty, Patty, Patty, tender and
true. Though you are not very pretty, Patty, Though you are liked by a
very few; We will put up with you, Patty, Patty,-- Patty, Patty, stay
with us, do!"
The rollicking voice and twinkling eyes, which were Jack's chief
charms, made Patty laugh outright at his song. But, not to be outdone in
fun, and also, to keep herself from growing serious, she sang back at
him:
"I don't want to stay at this place, I don't like it any more! I am going to
the mountains, Where I've never been before. I shall tramp the
mountain pathways, I shall climb the mountain's peak; I don't want to
stay in this place, So I'll go away next week!"

"All right for you!" declared Jack. "Go on, and joy go with you! But
don't you send me any picture postcards of yourself lost in a perilous
mountain fastness,--'cause I won't come and rescue you. So there!"
"What is a mountain fastness?" demanded Patty. "It sounds frisky."
"It isn't," replied Jack; "it's a deep gorge, with ice-covered walls and no
way out; and as the darkness falls, dreadful growls are heard on all
sides, and wild animals prowl--and prowl--and prow-ow-owl!"
Jack's voice grew deep and terrible, as he suggested the awful situation,
but Patty laughed gaily as she said:
"Well, as long as they keep on prowling, they certainly can't harm me.
It all sounds rather interesting. At any rate, the ice-covered walls sound
cool. You must admit Spring Beach is a hot place."
"All places are hot in hot weather," observed Beatrice, sapiently; "when
there's an ocean breeze, it's lovely and cool here."
"Yes," agreed Lora, "when there IS. But there 'most generally ISN'T.
To-day, I'm sure the thermometer must be about two hundred."
"That's your heated imagination," said Jack. "It's really about
eighty-four in the shade."
"Let's move around into the shade, then," said Patty. "This side of the
veranda is getting sunny."
So the young people went round the corner of the house to a cooler spot,
and Nan expressed her intention of going down to the train to meet Mr.
Fairfield.
"You people," began Patty, after Nan had left them, "mustn't talk as
you do about my going away, before my stepmother. You see, we're
going because she wants to go, but it isn't polite to rub it in!"
"I know it," said Beatrice, "but I forgot it. But, I say, Patty, I think it's
too bad for you to be trailed off there just to please her."

"Not at all, Bee. She has stayed here three months to please me, and
turn about is fair play."
"It's Fairfield play, at any rate," put in Jack. "You're a trump, Patty, to
take it so sweetly. I wish you didn't have to go, though."
"So say we all of us," declared Lora, but Patty ordered them, rather
earnestly, to drop