Ethel Mortons Holidays

Ethel Morton's Holidays, by
Mabell S. C. Smith

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Title: Ethel Morton's Holidays
Author: Mabell S. C. Smith
Release Date: November 17, 2006 [EBook #19834]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MORTON'S HOLIDAYS ***

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Juvenile Library
Girls Series
ETHEL MORTON'S HOLIDAYS
BY MABELL S. C. SMITH
THE WORLD SYNDICATE PUBLISHING CO.
CLEVELAND--NEW YORK
MADE IN U. S. A.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1915
PRESS OF THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO. Cleveland
------------------------------------------------------------------------

ETHEL MORTON'S HOLIDAYS
CHAPTER I
PREPARATIONS
The big brown automobile gave three honks as it swung around the
corner from Church Street. Roger Morton, raking leaves in the yard
beside his house, threw down his rake and vaulted over the gate.
"Good afternoon, sir," he called to his grandfather, saluting, soldier
fashion.
"Good afternoon, son. I stopped to tell you that those pumpkins are
ready for you. If you'll hop in now we can go out and get them and I'll
bring you back again."

"Good enough!" exclaimed Roger. "I'll tell Mother I'm going. She may
have some message for Grandmother," and he vaulted back over the
gate and dashed up the steps.
In a minute he was out again and climbing into the car.
"Where are the girls this afternoon?" inquired Mr. Emerson, as he
threw in the clutch and started toward the outskirts of Rosemont where
he had land enough to allow him to do a little farming.
"Helen and Ethel Brown have gone to the West Woods," replied Roger,
accounting for his sisters. "Somebody told them that there was a wild
grapevine there that still had yellow leaves bright enough for them to
use for decorating tomorrow evening."
"I should be afraid last night's frost would have shriveled them. What
are Ethel Blue and Dorothy up to?" asked Mr. Emerson.
Ethel Blue was Roger's cousin who had lived with the Mortons since
her babyhood. Dorothy Smith was also his cousin. She and her mother
lived in a cottage on Church Street.
"They must be over at Dorothy's working up schemes for tomorrow,"
Roger answered his grandfather's question. "I haven't seen them since
luncheon."
"How many do you expect at your party?"
"Just two or three more besides the United Service Club. James
Hancock won't be able to come, though. His leg isn't well enough yet."
"Pretty bad break?"
"He says it's bad enough to make him remember not to cut corners
when he's driving a car. Any break is too bad in my humble opinion."
"In mine, too. How many in the Club? Ten?"
"Ten; yes, sir. There'll be nine of us tomorrow evening--Helen and the

Ethels and Dorothy and Dicky and the two Watkinses and Margaret
Hancock. She's going to spend the night with Dorothy."
"Anybody from school?"
"George Foster, the fellow who danced the minuet so well in our show;
and Dr. Edward Watkins is coming out with Tom and Della."
"Isn't he rather old to come to a kids' party?"
"Of course he's loads older than we are--he's twenty-five--but he said
he hadn't been to a Hallowe'en party for so long that he wanted to come,
and Tom and Della said he put up such a plaintive wail that they asked
if they might bring him."
"I suspect he hasn't forgotten how to play," chuckled Grandfather
Emerson, speeding up as they entered the long, open stretch of road
that ended almost at his own door. "Any idea what you're going to do?"
"Not much. Helen and Ethel Brown are the decoration committee and
I'm the jack-o'-lantern committee, as you know, and Ethel Blue and
Dorothy are thinking up things to do and we're all going to add
suggestions. I think the girls had a note from Della this morning with
an idea of some sort in it."
"You ought to get Burns's poem."
"On Hallowe'en?"
"We'll look it up when we get to the house. You may find some 'doings'
you haven't heard of that you can revive for the occasion."
"We decided that whatever we did do, there were certain stunts we
wouldn't do."
"Namely?"
"Swap signs and take off gates and brilliant jokes of that sort."

"As a Service Club you couldn't very well crack jokes whose point lies
in some one's discomfort, could you?"
"Those things have looked like dog mean tricks to me