Mimi herself was in a turmoil3. She had not washed her teeth this morning. That was the most pressing problem.
“Cut me one, too, while you’re in the woods,” Sue laughed.
Mimi laughed back but not about the sassafras twig. Sue was a sight on earth! She had on a sweater that hung below her hips5 and a skirt that touched her ankle bones and a pair of cast-off tennis shoes.
“You look as tacky as I did the day Betsy and I slipped off.”
“You don’t look so beautiful yourself,” Sue retorted. “At least I don’t smell!”
Mimi had forgotten about the mange cure. It was like eating onions or food seasoned with garlic. You didn’t smell it on yourself. Those near you were the ones who were offended. The clothes? They probably did make her look comical. She hadn’t thought of that; she had been too happy over the fact that they were Dit’s. Last night, or this morning rather, for it was daylight before the fire chief permitted them to re-enter College Hall, the Preps had been housed with the college girls. To Mimi’s great joy, she was assigned to Dit’s room. Any other time she would have been so thrilled she would have entered turning cartwheels but not last night. That was the closest call Mimi had ever had to real tragedy. Dit had been darling to her. She had stood right by her and held one hand while Dr. Ansley bandaged the bleeding one. Then she had tucked her in bed.
“Guess I’d better ask permission right now to go for a shampoo.”
“What will you wear?”
“Nothing. Say! What’s Mrs. Cole announcing?”
“We can go to town and stay for lunch!” Betsy reported coming up to them. “All we have to do is go in pairs and sign out and sign in just like the college girls. I was scared to death we’d have to make out lists of what we needed and I knew I’d never think of it all. When I see things I need I remember. Hurry, let’s get ready. By the time we get back maybe they will let us claim our things which were salvaged7.”
“I can’t bear to think I lost my diary, my tennis racket, my boots, the cards off my Christmas packages, and the Hanfstaengel print just when I was beginning to love the cherubs8 and enjoy living with them.”
“Don’t speak of losses——” Sue choked up. Mimi knew she was worrying about her violin, a mellow9 toned old instrument which had been in the family five generations. There was something which could not be replaced. Her own losses seemed trivial in comparison.
“I want to go to town, too,” some one called as they signed up and turned to leave. “Write my name, please.”
If she had not spoken they would not have known what name to write. At first glance, Chloe looked like the little brother, Worry Wart10, in the cartoon, “Born Thirty Years Too Soon.” Yet as she walked toward them, rapidly but not rushed, there was something regal in her step and proud carriage that funny-paper clothes did not hide.
Suppose she should turn out to be a princess!
The town was ready for the girls when they arrived. The aisles11 in the five-and-ten-cent stores were as jammed as they are at Christmas shopping season. The drug stores were overrun. Dresses in sizes 12-14-16 were selling like hot cakes. Two of the thriftier12 merchants displayed signs that the four o’clock express was bringing fresh shipments of ready-to-wear, ordered by telephone that morning.
“Good as circus day,” Mimi said as they joined hands to try to “crash” Woolworth’s.
“Let’s only buy ten cent sizes of everything,” Sue suggested. “They’ll be plenty to last three days.”
“Here’s an even better idea,” said Mimi harking back to the business in hand. “Of course, we’ll each have to buy a tooth brush, a comb, and a wash cloth, but outside of those, let’s each put in a dime14 and buy one tube of tooth paste, one cake of soap, one nail file and one box of powder.”
“What! The founder15 of a beauty cult2 leave powder till last?” Sue teased. “But that is a good idea. Let’s.”
“I don’t think we should buy any clothes until we know what was salvaged.”
“Don’t worry. I can’t without permission from Aunt Marcia.”
After a grand time in the ten cent store, pushing and scrouging and getting lost from each other, the girls separated. Betsy and Mimi went to the beauty salon16. Sue and Chloe beat them back to school by an hour. Sue was still ready to tease about their hair when she came out to meet them.
Mimi never could stand to see girls who had just had their hair set going about with it pasted flat to their heads. She had laughed at many a one. Here she was looking that way herself. She felt as if her ears were sticking out a mile.
“More things have happened!” Sue called from the drive.
“They must have,” Mimi said to Betsy. “Sue has Chloe in a run.”
“They saved my violin! I knew that I had left it in Miss Taylor’s studio for her to set a new bridge before Baccalaureate music tomorrow, but the studio was so water-soaked, I knew every instrument in there would be ruined. It seems Miss Taylor sent a man in through the window for her own violin. He grabbed all four of the ones in there and mine was one of them!”
“Aunt Marcia is coming!”
Chloe had news, too.
“More parents have wired and telephoned and many of them are arriving or have sent word they were leaving soon. All the rooms at the hotel are taken.”
“Flash!” Betsy took her turn. “Let me give you a headline that seems to have been entirely18 overlooked about this fire. All the uniforms burned up. So help me, I never in all my life intend to put on another.”
Betsy hated uniforms worse than Mimi. She had worn them a longer time.
“Why Sue! If you’re kidding, I’ll never speak to you again!”
Why that would be too wonderful! Of course the cherubs weren’t in it, or her racket; but her diary was. She’d had plenty of “undies” and hose and a dress or two and goodness knows what else. The strangest things get in the funniest places, especially in trunks.
“Honest and truly. Don’t you remember? We had to move it when we put the mattresses20 through the window. You rolled it together and locked it yourself. It seems the firemen and men who helped threw out things like that. Gee21! You lucky girl.”
Sue and Chloe had taken part of the packages and they were all walking up the driveway.
“Doesn’t it seem queer to be using the College entrance?” Chloe asked.
“Mimi! Go to the office. You have a cablegram!”
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收听单词发音
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1
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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2
cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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3
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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4
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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5
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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6
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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7
salvaged
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| （从火灾、海难等中）抢救（某物）( salvage的过去式和过去分词 )； 回收利用（某物） | |
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8
cherubs
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| 小天使，胖娃娃( cherub的名词复数 ) | |
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9
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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10
wart
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| n.疣，肉赘；瑕疵 | |
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11
aisles
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| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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12
thriftier
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| 节俭的( thrifty的比较级 )； 节约的； 茁壮的； 茂盛的 | |
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13
tingle
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| vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动 | |
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14
dime
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| n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角 | |
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15
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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16
salon
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| n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室 | |
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17
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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18
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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21
gee
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| n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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