we don't want any doll parties!" said Ernest.

"'Twon't be a doll party--it'll be a people's party," protested Jane.

"Maybe Mother'd give me some spice cakes. She's making some," suggested
Gertie tactfully.

Carol, who was a bit of a glutton, pricked up his ears.

"Let the kids have their duds if they want them. It won't spoil the
goodies."

"Oh, well, I don't care what they have, but I'm not going to eat from
their old doll things," said Sherm, who prided himself upon being above
childish things.

"Nobody wants you to, you old cross patch, but you will, won't you,
Carol? And I bet Ernest and Sherm'll want to when they see what we've
got," and Katy bustled off with fire in her eye, resolved to produce a
spread that should make the boys' mouths water.

She dispatched Chicken Little for the dishes with instructions to beg
Alice for something for the feast, while she and Gertie foraged at home.

Mrs. Halford was a jolly little woman who readily entered into the
child's scheme.

The boys were set to tending the roasting apples and potatoes, and the
little girls spread their tiny table daintily with a big towel for a
tablecloth and rosebud china about as big as a minute.

One untoward accident occurred before the spread was ready and came near
wrecking the whole plan. While the girls were off after more food a
plate of tempting cookies disappeared bodily from the table, plate and
all, and loud and wrathful were the laments.

"You mean things--you've got to put those cookies right back!"

"You sha'n't have a single bite if you don't!"

The boys grinned sheepishly. The cookies resting joyfully in their
barbarian young stomachs could not very well be restored.

"I'll tell Mother on you," put in Chicken Little as a last threat.

"Tattle-tale, much good it'll do you. Here's your old plate, and we've
eaten the cookies. Trot along for the rest of your stuff--we won't take
any more," said Ernest.

"Well, you boys can't have but one doughnut apiece, now." Katy tossed
her head indignantly.

However Katy herself was the first to suggest dividing her second
doughnut with the boys when the time came.

Ernest and Sherm had begun to treat the doll's table idea with more
respect as one after another tid-bit appeared. Quince preserves settled
the matter for Sherm, and Ernest's last objection to doll parties
vanished when Alice appeared with a custard pie.

Alice, who had heard Chicken Little's complaint about the way