Part 7 (1/2)
As he approached his windows to ascertain what kind of weather was to be found outside, he became aware of sounds which would indicate that some event of activity and hilarity was going on below. He realized now that he had been hearing these sounds--quite without hearing them, after the fas.h.i.+on of the absorbed workman--for the last half-hour. Looking out, he beheld an interesting affair in full swing.
At each end of the side yard the heavy snow which a late March storm had brought overnight had been shovelled and manipulated into the semblance of a fort such as lads are wont to make. Between these two entrenchments a battle was raging. But it was no lads who held the places of the combatants. Instead, as he looked, Mr. Jefferson saw rising warily from behind the fort nearest him, a girlish figure in a scarlet blanket suit, its dark head half s.h.i.+elded by a scarlet toboggan cap very much awry. A mittened hand flung a s...o...b..ll with strength and precision straight into the opposite fort, and the a.s.sailant immediately dodged down behind the embankment.
From the opposing stronghold then cautiously appeared a head snugly bound in a blue scarf, from which locks of fair hair escaped at divers points. A second s...o...b..ll, accompanied by a loose flutter of snow, wended its way uncertainly through the air, and fell a foot short of the fort behind which crouched the scarlet figure. The figure immediately rose and fired an answering volley. Peals of laughter and gay shouts rang through the air.
At this very moment a third person ran into the yard from the street, calling: ”For shame, George! I'm going to take sides with the enemy, and we'll have you out in no time!”
Jefferson saw this third figure, in sweater and cap, dash across the open, narrowly escaping a vigorous shower of missiles from the near fort, and disappear behind the farther one.
The battle was now on in earnest. Let Scarlet Toboggan fire as fast and as furiously as she might, a merciless bombardment of her protecting walls had begun. The girl in the blue scarf--and priceless furs--had sunk laughing upon the floor of her refuge, while her new ally, bringing to bear the full strength and skill of his s.e.x, battered at the entrenchments across the yard, and began to make havoc thereon.
Georgiana was a brave foe, but though she fought with surprising endurance she was beginning to be seriously worsted, several feet of her snow rampart having been shot away, when a voice behind her cried out a command, and an arm, more sinewy than hers, sent a hard shot whizzing past her head into the opposite fort with that directness of aim and effectiveness of delivery which only the male arm can accomplish.
”Duck down and make s...o...b..a.l.l.s while I fire!” the voice ordered, and Georgiana, breathless but still undaunted, obeyed.
”Keep behind me, and pile the b.a.l.l.s at the right,” directed Jefferson.
His voice was eager as a boy's. He also had pulled on sweater and cap, and as he and James Stuart faced each other across the twenty yards which separated them, they might have been a couple of school-fellows wrestling for supremacy.
”Keep 'em coming--faster--faster!” Stuart urged Jeannette, the l.u.s.t of battle upon him. ”Stop laughing and work! George is a”--he stooped to make a ball for himself--”fiend at making 'em; you've got to learn! Keep 'em coming.”
The wet snow was precisely in the right state for quick packing, and Georgiana was indeed an expert at the business. Jefferson found her hard, round b.a.l.l.s splendid missiles, and he used them with all the energy of an arm which welcomed the change from the labours of the past hours to those of the present.
”Ha! there goes that left corner!” he exulted with his comrade-at-arms, as the last of a series of well-directed shots reduced a part of the enemies' defences to a gratifying slump. ”And here comes a bit of ours,”
he added, as a ball of Stuart's ploughed through a weakened upper portion of their own rampart.
”He'll be game to the last,” panted Georgiana, working furiously.
”So will we! We'll fight to a finish, if we go without our suppers.”
The battle raged on. The combatants took no heed of pa.s.sing time, until Jeannette, growing reckless with excitement, lifted an incautious head and received a spent ball full upon her chin. No harm was done, as she protested, but Stuart raised a flag of truce and Mr. Jefferson ran across the lines to apologize.
”It didn't hurt a bit,” Jeannette reaffirmed, showing a very pink chin.
”It's lucky it didn't. I wasn't properly protecting you,” Stuart declared warmly.
”Both sides come in to supper!” commanded Georgiana. ”Please stay, Jimps; it's the only amends we can make you, and you must be as hungry as a bear.”
”Thanks; I'd like to, but I'm not properly dressed, I'm afraid.”
”Jean and I won't make a change, and you can take us coasting this evening, if you will. Do you suppose Mr. Jefferson would dream of staving off his dignity a bit longer and going, too?”
They all looked at the person mentioned and their glances were all gayly audacious.
”Is that an invitation or a challenge?” He put it to Georgiana.
”Whichever you choose to take it.”
”I'll take it as I choose, then, and accept. The spirit of sport is upon me; I couldn't work this evening if I tried.”
”Good for you! 'All work and no play,' you know,” quoted Stuart, as they went in together, a moist and merry company.