lark, getting ready
for a party? Oh, would you please straighten out these chairs? They have
to go all round the room--so! Then perhaps you'd help Debby with the
favors. They are in that box by the window. Kitty got the sweetest
things in Boston. I do hope some nice man will present me with a pink
fan. I'm pining for one for my new gown."

"I shall try to remember," Jack promised humbly. "Pink, did you say?"

At last everything was in place. Kitty gave a parting glance at the
rooms. They must have fulfilled every requirement from the satisfied
look on her face.

"Boys," she called to her cousins, who were finishing a hasty lunch in
the dining-room, "you'll have to hurry. It's a quarter past seven this
blessed minute. How long does it take you to get into evening clothes?"

"Not as long as it takes you by an hour," Ferren called back. "We'll go
up to dress at eight, and then hang round for you."

"Don't you ever think it! I dress like chain lightning. Come on, Amanda,
we'll show them how long it takes us."

Amanda, living near, had brought her clothes over, intending to dress
with Kitty and stay all night. The girls scrambled through a half dozen
things forgotten at the last minute, and then proceeded to dress with
haste. But, sure enough, at a quarter past eight, Ferren, true to his
word, emerged immaculate from his bedroom, and commenced beating a
tattoo on Kitty's door.

"Go away!" Kitty called. "We're all ready. We're just resting a minute."

But Ferren, laughing scornfully, kept up the noise until the girls
appeared.

Kitty opened the door and gave him a push.

"Go away now. You see we _are_ dressed! We only have to put on a few
touches; Amanda's flowers and--"

"I know those touches, Kitty. Come along!"

In the front parlor Doctor Clark stood waiting to receive the guests
with his daughter. Mrs. Clark, being an invalid, found herself unequal
to such occasions.

"Oh, Father, you look--just lovely!" Kitty said, smiling up to him and
noting every detail of his correct evening dress. "Only--just a minute;
it's your tie! There! Isn't he splendid, Amelia? My, but this is an
occasion! I do hope everybody will have a good time. There's Blue
Bonnet. I hear her voice. She's early, isn't she? Amanda, take a peek at
the favors, will you, and tell Sarah not to get them mixed. I have
explained it all to her a dozen times, but when one doesn't dance, one
is apt to bungle."

It had fallen to Sarah's lot to presid