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Before he realized it, Miss Satterly had somehow managed to worm from him a promise, and after that nothing mattered. The Wax-works, the tree, the whole entertainment dissolved into a blurred background, against which he was to stand with Annie Pilgreen, for the amusement of his neighbors, who would stamp their feet and shout derisive things at him.
The worst was over. The victims scented fun in the thing and perked up, and the schoolma'am breathed relief, for she knew the crowd. Things would go with a swing, after this, and success was, barring accidents, a foregone conclusion. Through all the clatter and cross-fire of jibes Happy Jack sat, nervous and distrait, in the seat nearest the door and farthest from Annie Pilgreen.
When she laid a finger mysteriously upon his arm and drew him into the corner sacred to secret consultations, the forehead of Happy Jack resembled the outside of a stone water-jar in hot weather. He knew beforehand just about what she would say. It was the tableau that had tormented his sleep and made his days a misery for the last ten days the tableau with red fire and Annie Pilgreen.
The room fairly swarmed with children, who seemed, for the most part, to be enjoying themselves very much. Charlotte May Pilgreen and Sary Denson were hunched amicably over one of the books, shuddering beatifically over a pictured skeleton. A swarm surrounded the drug store, the glass door of which stood open. The Little Doctor flew across to the group, horror white.
All the later editions of Denson, Pilgreen and Beckman have taken possession of my office and as the Countess says: 'Them Beckman kids is holy terrors an' it's savin' the rod an' spoilin' the kid that makes 'em so!" Chip laughed outright. "The Denson kids are a heap worse, if she only knew it," he said, and followed her willingly.
"Sybilly got the key an' unlocked it, an' she give us this candy, too!" tattled a Pilgreen with very red hair and a very snub nose. "I didn't, either! It was Jos'phine!" "Aw, you big story-teller! I never tetched it!" The Little Doctor clutched the nearest arm till the owner of it squealed. "How many of you have eaten some of these? Tell the truth, now."
She hoped that Happy Jack would not hate it so very much, and that it would help to break the ice between him and Annie Pilgreen. So she plucked the guitar strings tentatively and began to play. Behind the curtain, Annie Pilgreen stood simpering in her place and Happy Jack went reluctantly forward, resigned and deplorably inefficient.
The Little Doctor's going to help run the thing, and Rena Jackson and Lea Adams are in it and Annie Pilgreen. Her and Happy are down on the program for 'Under the Mistletoe', a tableau the red fire, kiss-me-quick brand." "Aw gwan!" cried Happy Jack, much distressed and not observing Weary's lowered eyelid. His perturbed face and manner gave the Happy Family an idea.
Still, the schoolma'am had said there would be tableaux, and it was a cinch she would tell Weary all about it seeing they were engaged. Weary was the kind that found out things, anyway. What worried Happy Jack most was trying to discover how the dickens Weary found out he liked Annie Pilgreen; that was a secret which Happy Jack had almost succeeded in keeping from himself, even.
Its body, swelling out corpulently below the iron belt, glowed red; and Happy Jack's wolf-skin overcoat was beginning to exhale a rank, animal odor. It never occurred to him that he might change his seat; he unbuttoned the coat absently and perspired. He was waiting to see if the schoolma'am said anything about "Under the Mistletoe" with red fire and Annie Pilgreen.
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