o hours (is it only two hours we have, Pollykins?)
be a little girl again to-night."

And, taking Polly's hand, she tripped away from the grown-ups on the
porch, and things were started indeed.

Grove and garden, maze and lawn, suddenly sparkled with jewelled lights;
the stringed band in the pagoda burst into gay music. Led by a silvery
vision, Polly's guests formed a great ring-around-a-rosy for an opening
measure, and the party began. And, with a fairy godmother like Miss Stella
leading the fun, it was a party to be remembered. There were marches and
games, there was blind man's buff through the jewel-lit maze, there was a
Virginia reel to music gay enough to make a hundred-year-old tortoise
dance. There was the Jack Horner pie, fully six feet round, and fringed
with gay ribbons to pull out the plums. Wonderful plums they were. Minna
Foster drew a silver belt buckle; her little sister, a blue locket; Dud, a
scarf-pin; Jim, a pocketknife with enough blades and "fixings" to fill a
miniature tool chest; and Freddy, a paint box quite as complete; while Dan
pulled out the biggest plum of all--a round white box with a silver cord.

As it came out at the end of his red ribbon, there was a moment's
breathless hush, broken by Polly's glad cry:

"The prize,--the prize, Marraine! Dan has drawn my birthday prize!" And,
under a battery of curious and envious eyes, Dan opened the box to find
within a pretty gold watch, ticking a most cheering greeting to its new
owner.

"Dan,--Dan!" Polly's jubilant voice rose over all the chorus around him.
"Oh, I'm so glad you got it, Dan!"

And Marraine's eyes followed Polly's delighted glance with the same look
of curious interest that she had bent upon Dan a while ago on the porch.

"Do you mean that this is for me?" he blurted out, in bewilderment.

"Yes, for you,--for _you_," repeated Polly in high glee. "It's real gold
and keeps real time, and it's yours forever!"

"It's too--too much--I mean it's--it's too fine for a fellow like me,"
stammered Dan. "What will I do with it?"

"Wear it," chirped Miss Polly, throwing the silken guard around his neck,
"so you will never forget my birthday, Dan."

And then a big Japanese gong sounded the call to the flower-decked tables,
where busy waiters were soon serving a veritable fairy feast. There were
cakes of table-size and shape and color; little baskets and boxes full of
wonderful bonbons; nuts sugared and glazed until they did not seem nu