"It did one year and I couldn't have a party or nothing. I
do think Sunday is the inconvenientest day--I wish God hadn't ever
thought to make it!"

"But we need one day of rest," said Marian, struggling with a laugh.

"Ye--es, but I think we get enough rest sleeping nights; I think Sundays
are awful tiring,--you have to work so hard remembering what you can't
do."

"I like Sundays," said Gertie, "'cause Father's home and he reads to us
Sunday afternoons."

"Father takes a nap, you can hear him all over the house--and Mother
tells us to be quiet so we won't wake him. 'Sides your mother lets you
do more things."

"I guess your folks are religiouser than ours," said Katy complacently.

"You think it is more religious to sleep Sunday afternoons, Katy?"
interposed Marian smiling.

"Well, you can't do anything bad when you are asleep," replied Katy a
little confused, but bound to stick to her point.

"Not a bad idea--whenever I am tempted to be bad after this, I'll take a
nap and throw the devil off the track that way."

"My mother says it isn't nice to talk about the devil." Katy looked so
gravely disapproving that Marian had hard work to keep her face
straight.

"Oh, excuse me--I'll be careful not to mention his Satanic majesty
again. Well, Chicken Little, are you going to have a birthday party this
year?"

"Not a really party, but Mother said I could have Katy and Gertie and
Grace Dart come to tea. There's going to be a sure enough birthday cake
with candles and my name and age in pink frosting--and we're going to
have chocolate creams--and all the dolls."

"I shall bring Violet--she's got a new dress and she's just had her hair
glued on--I curled it on the curling iron," said Gertie.

"I'm going to bring my nigger Dinah and you can play she helps wait on
the table," put in Katy.

"Dear me, is that the latest thing in dolldom, to have the guests wait
on the table?" quizzed Marian.

"I guess it would be all right to play she did," Jane responded with a
grin.

"Your mother's birthday comes soon. What are you going to give her,
Jane?"

"Yes, and Ernest's too, his is the twenty-second."

"And Valentine's day comes the fourteenth--just the day after your
birthday."

"Yes, Father says I was intended for a valentine only I was mailed too
soon. I was just wondering what I could give Mother, Marian,--and
Ernest. I've only got sixteen cents. I don't think birthdays ought to
come so near Christmas."

"Si