The Riddle Club through the holidays — Reading Companion

, “because I loaned it to some one.”

“Artie, I suppose,” grumbled Fred. He considered that his position as treasurer gave him the right to ask any amount of personal questions when dues were not forthcoming.

“No-o, it wasn’t Artie,” said Polly, still smiling.

“But Artie hasn’t paid his dues, either,” declared Fred, fixing that small boy with a stern eye. “Where’s your ten cents, Artie?”

Artie Marley, Polly’s brother, wriggled uneasily.

“Now----” he stammered, “now, I had ten cents. But I haven’t got it now. I’ll pay you the next meeting, Fred.”

“What did you do with the dime you had?” asked Fred.

“I spent it for ink,” said Artie, solemnly. “If I’m going to write a book, I have to write it in ink, don’t I?”

Artie Marley was much given to reading books, and now his modest desire was to write one.

“I don’t think you need a whole bottle of ink to write a book with,” said Fred, judiciously. “You could have borrowed your mother’s ink and saved the ten cents.”

Artie gazed at him with respect. He had had the same thought himself, he declared.

“But when I took the bottle from Mother’s desk, I spilled most of it on the stairs,” he confided. “And so I had to take half of the new ink I bought to fill her bottle up so she wouldn’t miss it.”

“Well, the next time,” Fred instructed him, “you want to buy something, you pay your dues first. You ought to have some sense of--of--some sense of duty!” he concluded magnificently.

“I paid my dues!” exclaimed Fred’s twin sister, Margy. “Didn’t I, Fred?”

The air with which Margy Williamson said this was too much for Jess. In spite of Polly’s warning tug at her dress she spoke “right out in meeting,” as her grandmother would have said.

“The reason you paid your dues, Margy Williamson,” said Jess, clearly, “is because you borrowed the money from Polly. That’s why she couldn’t pay hers.”

Margy flushed and Fred frowned.

“I liked lending it to Margy,” said Polly, hurriedly. “If I’d kept it, likely as not I would have spent it. Margy’s going to pay me back next week.”

“What I don’t understand,” announced Fred, still frowning, “is why this club is so hard up. We paid dues before we went to camp, and though I won’t say you fell over yourselves to pay, I didn’t have the trouble I’m having now.”

And Fred wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, as though he found his duties almost too much for him.

“Well, we didn’t pay dues all summer,” said Polly, slowly, “and I think we forgot--If you get out of a habit, you know, it’s hard to pick it up again. Didn’t any one pay this time, Fred?”

“Only Margy,” said Fred, gloomily, “and she borrowed the money.”

“Didn’t you?” struck in Artie, quickly.

“Well,” said Fred, lamely, “I had to contribute to the post-card fund in school. That took my dime.”

Ward and Artie fell into each other’s arms and tumbled over on the floor. It was their way of expressing delight.

“All the same,” declared Fred, raising his voice above the laughter that greeted his confession, “the next time this club meets, no one is going to be allowed to leave this room without paying their dues.”

Polly Marley was a tactful girl, and she knew when to change a subject.

“We haven’t decided about Hallowe’en,” she reminded them.

“That’s so,” agreed Fred, with relief. “Are we going to have a party?”

“Mother doesn’t want Ward and me to dress up and just go around,” said Jess. “So I think we’d better have a party--just us, you know. We don’t need any one else.”

The six members of the Riddle Club smiled at one another. They had the best of good times when “just us” and no outsiders were invited. Weren’t they back from a summer in camp where they proved their theory once more? Their tanned faces and bright eyes showed what a healthful summer it had been and their good spirits spoke for their happiness.

“It’s our turn to have a party,” said Margy Williamson, eagerly. “Polly and Artie had us Hallowe’en last year. We can have the kitchen at our house and do anything we please.”

“I thought you’d come to our house; but it’s all right that way,” said Polly. “Shall we dress up?”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s one bit of fun unless we dress up and wear false-faces,” declared Margy.

“We’ll know each other--can’t help it, with only six of us,” demurred Fred.

“That’s all right--we can pretend to be fooled,” said Jess Larue.

So it was decided to wear costumes and false-faces.

“Is the window open?” asked Polly, suddenly, with a shiver.

“Closed,” reported Fred. “Gee! there is a blast coming from somewhere.”

“The door’s swung open,” said Artie, rising to close it.

“I think it’s awfully cold up here,” said Margy, with customary frankness.

She wore a sweater, and so did the other girls, but there was no denying the clubroom in the loft of the barn was chilly.

“I’ve just thought!” went on Margy. “What shall we do when it’s winter? We’ll freeze to death up here.”

Jess looked distressed. The room was in her father’s barn, and she had never considered the advent of cold weather. The Riddle Club had been formed in the spring, and the meetings had been held--until the trip to camp--very comfortably in the little room.

“That’s so,” said Polly now. “We can’t meet here in winter. I don’t see what we are going to do.”

“It won’t be winter for perfect ages,” declared the hopeful Jess. “To-day is what Dora calls an ‘odd day.’ She was saying this morning that we’ll probably have warm weather again. There’s Indian summer--we haven’t had that yet. I don’t think it’s really cold up here--do you?”

“Not really cold,” answered Polly. “But I’m thinking of December. It will be cold then.”

“How did the horses and cows keep warm when they stayed in this barn?” questioned Artie. “Were they cold, too?”

“Of course not!” retorted Ward. “Horses and cows are never cold. They like cold weather.”

“They keep each other warm,” said Fred, remembering something he had heard. “The animal heat in their bodies keeps them warm. Besides, farmers put blankets on their horses in the winter time.”

“We could wrap up in blankets,” suggested Polly.

“My mother is very particular about her blankets,” said Margy. “She won’t let us take them for tents, and she has to have them washed a certain way. I don’t believe she would ever let us have them out here in the barn.”

The other members of the Riddle Club were equally sure that their mothers would object to lending blankets for club meetings.

“Well, there ought to be some way,” said Ward, thoughtfully. “Couldn’t we put in a furnace?”

“A furnace!” chorused the club. “What kind of a furnace?”

“Oh, a furnace,” repeated Ward. “A regular furnace, you know. That would keep us nice and warm.”

“And where,” asked Fred, in some amazement, “would we get the money to buy a furnace?”

“I don’t think they cost much,” said Ward. “Perhaps we have enough in your bank.”

Fred groaned in anguish and Polly laughed.

“That’s it,” said Fred, bitterly. “Never want to pay a cent in, but always willing to let it all go out. Take the last penny in the bank--what do you care? Why should dues worry you? They’re only something to throw away.”

“Don’t spend your old dues, if you don’t want to,” snapped Ward. “I don’t care whether you put in a furnace or not; I’m never cold. It’s the girls who are making a fuss.”

“A furnace costs a heap of money,” put in Polly, wisely. “We never could afford that. Besides, Mr. Larue wouldn’t let us. We might set fire to the barn.”

“Well, how about that old gasolene stove that Mother threw away last week?” suggested Artie. “There’s nothing the matter with it, except it leaks.”

“How much more do you want the matter with it?” inquired Fred. “No gasolene stove comes into this clubroom while I’m a member.”

“Then what shall we have?” asked Jess, sadly.

“I was just thinking that an electric heater wouldn’t be so bad,” said Fred. “We could run wires from the pole out in front and connect it with the heater in here. We could light the barn with the same current, too, and perhaps have meetings at night. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?”

“We could have our Hallowe’en party out here,” cried Polly. “Think of having it in the barn! Such heaps of fun!”

“I don’t see where you expect to get the money,” said Ward, coldly. “If we can’t touch those precious old dues, how are you going to have electric lights? Mr. Brewer had them put in his barn last week and it cost more than fifty dollars. He told Daddy so. They didn’t have to run the wires as far as we shall, either.”

“Have we fifty dollars in the bank?” asked Jess, curiously.

“Nowhere near,” Fred informed her. “I guess that knocks out the electric heater idea. The only thing I can see that we can do is to bring hot water bottles with us, when it is cold.”

“We can have an ice hut and crawl inside,” giggled Polly. “The Eskimos manage somehow, and we will, too, I guess.”

“Anyway, it isn’t cold yet, not real cold,” argued Jess. “And when it does snow, it will bank the window and make it warmer. I don’t believe we’ll need any kind of a heater or furnace.”

“It’s going to be dark earlier every time, too,” said Margy, who had a habit of looking ahead. “In December it will be pitch dark long before five o’clock. There’s Mrs. Pepper feeding her hens now. I don’t believe it’s much after four.”

“Here, chick, chick, chick!” they could hear Mrs. Pepper, a neighbor, calling. “Here, chick, chick, chick!”

“You never catch Carrie feeding those hens,” said Jess, peering through the window. “Oh, say, what do you know----” Her voice trailed off without completing the sentence and her dark eyes began to dance.

Polly was ready to ask her what she was thinking, but the boys wanted the meeting adjourned. So in a few minutes they were rushing down the loft ladder, Ward having first carefully locked the clubroom door.

“Remember, everybody come over to our house after school to-morrow,” said Margy, as the group separated at the door, the two Larues to go into their house to supper and the other four to cross the street to the Marley and the Williamson houses, which were next door to each other. “We’ll plan about the Hallowe’en party.”

The Riddle Club were very strict about not using their clubroom for any purpose other than club meetings. The six members were practically inseparable, going to school together, playing and working together most of the time outside of school. But no matter what they did, or what they wanted to play, unless they had a meeting of their Riddle Club on hand, the clubroom was left in perfect order and kept locked.

Perhaps you know all about the Riddle Club, but if you don’t, a few words will introduce you. It had been Polly Marley’s idea--this club--and she was the president. Fred Williamson was treasurer. Fred and Margy were twins, Artie was Polly Marley’s younger brother, and Ward and Jess Larue were brother and sister. Jess was two years older than Ward. These children lived in River Bend, a town on the Rocio River. Mr. Larue was the president of the line of steamboats that went up and down the river, carrying freight and passengers.

In the first book of this series, named “The Riddle Club at Home,” it has been told how the Riddle Club flourished and spurred another group of boys and girls to form a rival dub. This was known as the Conundrum Club, and Carrie Pepper was its president. They challenged the members of the Riddle Club to a memorable riddle contest and the latter came out victors.

Of course it was not to be thought of that a summer should separate such close friends, so what could be more natural than for the whole six to go camping at Lake Bassing? They took the Riddle Club with them, by-laws, president, treasurer and all, and what happened to them during a delightful two months, you may read in the second book of the series, called “The Riddle Club in Camp.” They camped on an island, and above them lived a queer old hermit on another island, while below their camp was another island on which the Conundrum Club established themselves.

Things were bound to happen with such a lively sextette around, and no one was disappointed. Artie fell over a bluff. The Conundrum Club suggested another riddle contest, which proved to be not much more to their advantage than the first. Then the children were able to solve the mystery of the kind old hermit. Next, as the season was nearly over, they won the loving cup in the water carnival. Add to all this the new friends they made and the out-of-door glad days they had, and you’ll understand that the summer went too quickly to please them.

But schools will open in September, and the Riddle Club had to come back to River Bend. They were unexpectedly glad to get back to their own homes and to the clubroom in the Larue barn. This room had been given to them from the first meeting, and to the furniture they had collected for it, they were able to add several interesting trophies from their summer in camp.

There was the beautiful silver loving cup; a sketch of the entire club membership, made by an artist and framed for them by Mrs. Marley; the pennant they had flown in camp from their flag pole; not to mention a gun for which Artie had paid a dollar and which wouldn’t shoot but which, he thought, gave a distinguished touch to the room.

Jess mentioned the gun when, the next day, the chums met at the Williamsons’ house to discuss plans for their Hallowe’en party.

“I think,” she said soberly, “that we ought to give a play Thanksgiving and let Artie be a Puritan and carry his gun.”

“Oh, let’s!” cried Margy, with enthusiasm. “Let’s give a play! Mother gave me her old black lace dress yesterday! I could wear that.”

If there was one thing Margy loved to do, it was to “dress up” in grown people’s finery and sweep about and pretend that she was a princess.

“Who’ll write the play?” demanded Fred.

“You and Polly,” said Ward so promptly that Fred couldn’t help laughing.

“I thought you’d say something like that,” declared Fred. “But you can change your ideas right away. I know what we’re going to do Thanksgiving, but it isn’t that.”

“Fred!” said Polly, in a warning voice. “You told me you’d promised you wouldn’t tell.”

“Well, who’s telling?” demanded Fred. “I haven’t said a word.”

Of course that drove the others frantic with curiosity, but though they teased and coaxed and, finally, Ward and Artie threw themselves on Fred and got him down on the rug, not another word could they shake from him.

“You’ll know all about it in plenty of time,” he kept repeating.

“Does Polly know?” demanded Jess.

“No,” replied Fred; “not even Polly knows. No one knows but me.”

“Not Mother or Dad or Dora or----” Ward was beginning in a sing-song tone, but Fred put a hand gently over his mouth.

“Do keep still,” he said good-humoredly. “All the mothers and fathers know. Now stop asking questions.”

“You said no one knew except you alone,” Artie protested.

“I meant no one in the Riddle Club except me,” explained Fred.

“Well, anyway, we have Hallowe’en to think about,” said Polly, the tactful. “If we’re going to wear costumes, it’s time we planned ’em.”

“I had a perfectly wonderful idea,” declared Jess. “But I don’t know that I’ll tell it now; I can keep secrets, too.”

“Oh, Jess, darling, this isn’t a secret--it won’t be one very long, at any rate,” said Polly, softly. “We’ll all know soon, and it is something we’ll just love to do. I’m sure of that. Tell us your idea, Jess! Please do.”

It was impossible to resist Polly when she spoke like that, and Jess yielded. As a matter of fact, she had kept her wonderful idea to herself about as long as she cared to. She had reached the point where she was eager to share it with some one.

“I think it would be a good idea,” she said proudly, “to come to the party dressed like animals!”

They stared at her silently, and she was disappointed. She had the plan so clearly in her own mind, she thought it must be plain to them all.

“Yes, animals,” Jess repeated. “You know all the people who go to Hallowe’en parties dress like clowns and gypsies and dancing girls and Brownies, and like that. Well, at our party, why couldn’t we come dressed like--like chickens and pigs and things?”

A shout of laughter interrupted her.

“Ward would make a handsome pig,” said Artie, a little unkindly.

Ward was a very fat boy, with a round, good-natured face that flushed at the slightest exertion. He couldn’t run two blocks without getting out of breath.

“I’ll be a pig,” said Ward now, “if you’ll be the goat.”

Artie reached for him and they went over on the rug in one of their friendly tussles. Mrs. Williamson had given them the dining-room to meet in, and had told them to have “all the fun you want.”

“I’m going to be a chicken,” announced Jess, fearful that some one else might want to take her character. “I thought of it yesterday when we were watching Mrs. Pepper feed her chickens.”

“Where will you get the feathers?” asked the practical Margy.

“Oh, there must be feathers somewhere,” said Jess, carelessly. “I’ll fix that part all right.”

“It would be kind of fun, wouldn’t it?” Fred decided. “I wonder if we can get animal false-faces? I’m going to ask Dad to-night.”

Mr. Williamson kept the department store in River Bend, and he always carried a stock of false-faces for Hallowe’en. Fred was sure that if there were such things as “animal faces” his father would have them.

“Let’s not tell what kind of animals we’re going to be,” suggested Polly. “I love to be surprised.”

“You’d better tell your mother, Margy,” said Ward. “If she sees a bunch of animals coming to her house Hallowe’en night, she may think a circus broke loose somewhere and not let us in.”

“You can’t scare my mother,” declared Margy, proudly. “I don’t believe she’d be afraid of an elephant, if she met him. Not on Hallowe’en, at any rate.”

“We’re going to have the house to ourselves--did you know that?” said Fred. “Everything we need for the party will be all ready in the kitchen, and Mother is going to leave things to eat in the pantry. She and Dad are going over to Ward’s house. And Mr. and Mrs. Marley, too.”

“They’ll have a party of their own, I guess,” said Jess. “I don’t believe it is much fun for them to duck for apples and do the things we do. They would rather listen to Mrs. Marley play the piano and my mother play her violin than fuss around with Hallowe’en games.”

“They’re going to have the radio set that night, too,” Ward announced. “Fred said he’d take it down from the clubroom and set it up in the parlor. There’s a big musical program from some city that night.”