o minutes, they were deep in the game of
"Pom-pom-peel-away," and now was Mrs. Primkins' chance.

She hastily sent Augusta out to the neighbors, letting her out slyly by
the front door, so the "party" shouldn't see her, to beg or borrow
something to feed the crowd; for, the next day being baking-day, her
pantry was nearly empty, and there was not such a thing in the village
as a bakery. As soon as she was gone, Mrs. Primkins cleared the table
upstairs, hid the small biscuits and minute slices of cake, and brought
tables from other rooms to lengthen this. She then carried every cup and
saucer and plate of her own up there, and even made several
surreptitious visits herself to accommodating friends, to borrow,
telling the news, and getting their sympathy, so that they freely lent
their dishes, and even sent their boys to carry them over, and their big
girls to help arrange.

For an hour, the games went on in the side yard, while a steady stream
came in by the front door--the grand front door!--and up the august
stairs, carrying bread, cake, dishes, saucers, etc., etc., till there
was a tolerable supply, and Mrs. Primkins was in debt numerous loaves of
bread and cake, and dishes of "preserves."

At five o'clock, they were called in, and, before their sharp young
appetites, everything disappeared like dew in the sunshine. It was a
queer meal,--bread of various shapes and kinds, and not a large supply;
cakes, an equally miscellaneous collection, from cup-cake which old Mrs.
Kellogg had kept in a jar two months, "in case a body dropped in
unexpected," to bread-cake fresh from some one else's oven; cookies of a
dozen kinds; doughnuts and ginger-cakes, and half a dozen dishes of
sweet-meats, no two alike.

But all deficiencies were forgotten when they came to the nuts and
candies, for of these there was no lack. Augusta had filled every extra
dish in the house with these delightful things, and I sadly fear the
children ate shocking amounts of trash. But they had a good time. The
entertainment was exactly to their liking,--little bread and butter, and
plenty of candy and raisins. It was incomparably superior to ordinary
teas, where bread predominated and candy was limited.

After eating everything on the table, putting the remainder of the candy
in their pockets, as Nimpo insisted, they flocked into the front room,
where Mrs. Primkins told them they might play a while, if they would not
make a noise, as a little sprinkle of