show!" whispered Vera.

"Three Dill pickles, please; you need not wrap them up," said Alene,
laying a nickle on the counter.

Then Vera made a hasty retreat amid the raillery of her friends.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE GARDEN PARTY

"Letters for the whole bunch!" cried Lafe Bonner, coming into the
sitting-room on his return from the post-office. "Hugh Bonner,
E--s--q--Esquimau--wonder why they call his nibs that? Master Donald
Bonner, Master Roy Bonner, Little Claude Bonner, Master Walter Bonner
and--" Lafe stammered and got very red when he saw the address 'Gen.
Lafayette Bonner.' "One for me, too," he continued hurriedly; "and
last for Mrs. L. Bonner."

All the members of the family in reach took their letters, and Ivy,
seated at her new writing desk in the corner next to the window, turned
round expectantly, saying,

"Where's mine?"

Lafe held up his empty hands.

"You may search me! Somebody's forgotten this time!"

"Come here," commanded Ivy.

Lafe advanced, wearing a guileless expression until Ivy ran her hand
into his empty coat pocket, and fumbling round, found a snug space in
the lining and brought forth the missing epistle.

"Of course I couldn't fool her in that," mused Lafe sheepishly, when he
read the contents of his high titled note:

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO A

GARDEN PARTY AT THE TOWERS ON

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER THE FIRST.

HOURS 1:30 TO 8 P. M.

The opening of the mail, always an important event in the town, had
proved a pleasantly exciting one that day.

There was a shower of white envelopes from the little square window.
Almost everyone who called received one or more, according to the
number of children in the family; many regular inquirers who were never
known to get even a circular, were at last rewarded, and proudly waved
their little white banners so that all the world might see. The
unusually large number of mail-bearing pedestrians gave Main Street a
gala air.

Ivy, on watch at the window, hugged herself and smiled contentedly, for
was she not one of the conspirators who, in league with the Post-office
Department, had sent all those little white flags a-flutter through the
town?

It was Mr. Dawson who had suggested the idea.

"You have enjoyed so many merry-makings at your friends' hands, don't
you think it would be a good thing to make some return, Alene alanna?"
he inquired one evening, when they sat by the library table, he smoking
a pipe as u