ttle vanity to please a friend, and her joy was reflected in the eyes
that sparkled round the happy Princess.

"Oh, you dear, kind things, to think of me and give me all your best
clothes! I never shall forget it, and I'll do anything for you. Yes!
I'll write and ask Mrs. Piper to lend us her ermine cloak for the king.
See if I don't!"

Shrieks of delight hailed this noble offer, for no one had dared to
borrow the much-coveted mantle, but all agreed that the old lady would
not refuse Jill. It was astonishing how smoothly everything went
after this, for each was eager to help, admire, and suggest, in the
friendliest way; and when all were dressed, the boys found a party
of very gay ladies waiting for them round the couch, where lay the
brightest little Princess ever seen.

"Oh, Jack, I'm to act! Wasn't it dear of the girls to choose me? Don't
they look lovely? Aren't you glad?" cried Jill, as the lads stared and
the lasses blushed and smiled, well pleased at the frank admiration the
boyish faces showed.

"I guess I am! You are a set of trumps, and we'll give you a first-class
spread after the play to pay for it. Won't we, fellows?" answered
Jack, much gratified, and feeling that now he could act his own part
capitally.

"We will. It was a handsome thing to do, and we think well of you for
it. Hey, Gus?" and Frank nodded approvingly at all, though he looked
only at Annette.

"As king of this crowd, I call it to order," said Gus, retiring to the
throne, where Juliet sat laughing in her red table-cloth.

"We'll have 'The Fair One with Golden Locks' next time; I promise you
that," whispered Ed to Mabel, whose shining hair streamed over her blue
dress like a mantle of gold-colored silk.

"Girls are pretty nice things, aren't they? Kind of 'em to take Jill
in. Don't Molly look fine, though?" and Grif's black eyes twinkled as he
planned to pin her skirts to Merry's at the first opportunity.

"Susy looks as gay as a feather-duster. I like her. She never snubs a
fellow," said Joe, much impressed with the splendor of the court ladies.

The boys' costumes were not yet ready, but they posed well, and all had
a merry time, ending with a game of blind-man's-buff, in which every one
caught the right person in the most singular way, and all agreed as they
went home in the moonlight that it had been an unusually jolly meeting.

So the fairy play woke the sleeping beauty that lies in all of us, and
makes us lovely when we rou