Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire GirlBenson, Irene Elliott
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Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire Girl
Benson, Irene Elliott
Camp Fire Girls -- Juvenile fiction
"Now, Papa, don't you get gay," laughed Ethel. "You've led an exemplary
life for fifty years. Please keep on and don't let this mistletoe make of
you a different man."
Well--first came Mr. Casey. Every day he and Nora boarded a taxi and went
shopping, returning with huge boxes and parcels which gradually filled
Nora's closets as well as under her bed.
Then came Tom and Aunt Susan, even looking younger than before.
"Really it's ridiculous, Aunt Susan," said Ethel, "for you to keep
growing so much younger and more stylish. You've got to stop."
And the bell rang so often that Mrs. Hollister was obliged to hire an
extra maid for Christmas week. Everyone was so perfectly happy that it
was a joy to enter the house. Harvey was there as often as his hospital
practice would admit of, and he was the first to kiss Aunt Susan under
the mistletoe; and Aunt Susan, if you please, now appeared in the
daintiest of gowns--up-to-date and rather youthful. Ethel and Grandmother
laughed over it.
"Why, Grandmother, how old is Aunt Susan?"
"She's about sixty-one," said her sister--"why?"
"Nothing, but I've been thinking wouldn't it be funny if she should marry
again? She's mighty attractive in her up-to-date gowns."
"I don't see whom she could marry," said Grandmother with some asperity,
"unless Mr. Casey or Dr. Bigelow." Ethel laughed.
Christmas eve arrived. They had a large tree and distributed the gifts.
Everyone received exactly what he or she desired. Mr. Casey's generosity
was boundless. He gave Mrs. Hollister a small limousine with the
understanding that all bills should be sent to him.
"Madam," he said, "you and Nora have a great deal of shopping and social
duties to perform. Nora tells me that you go by the cars and rarely in a
taxi, and that you seldom allow her to pay her fare. Now this will set
everything right, and Grandmother--God bless her--must have her ride
daily. It is money well invested, for you and Nora can take comfort. I
have engaged a good chauffeur and have made arrangements with a garage
near by. All bills are to be sent to me. Nora will attend to the sending
of them."
Mrs. Hollister couldn't speak. They stood under the mistletoe. She just
raised herself up and gave Mr. Casey two hearty smacks, at which there
arose a shout.
"I shan't try to thank you," she said, "for I can not."
Then another surprise came in shape of a wonderful diamond la valliere or
pendant, and poor Mrs. Hollister was most embarrassed.
"Mr. Casey," she said, "you are going to get me in wrong. People may
criticise me."
Then Tom's present came--a lovely grey silk evening wrap trimmed with
chinchilla, and verily Mrs. Hollister was nearly off her head.
Grandmother received a long silk coat lined with fur and trimmed with a
large lynx collar and cuffs--from Mr. Casey also.
"Don't think that I bought out a furrier," he said, "but I know people
always need them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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