children, dropping the subject of the doll to look
at me; "why, we should like that very much. What sort of a party is it?"

"A reading party," I answered. "I have some papers I have been thinking
of reading to you, to get your opinion of them before I put them in a
book; and I shouldn't be surprised if there was a paper of candy in my
drawer besides."

"Why, do you write books?" asked Baby, opening her bright eyes very wide
indeed, as if to be certain what a real live author looked like.

"To be sure I do," I said, laughing. "Funny stories, and sad ones, too;
and some that are every word of them true, and others that are told me
by my friends; and you shall tell me whether they are true or not."

So we all made haste into my room--not the same I had when I first came,
but one on the front piazza, near Neighbor Nelly's. The papers I meant
were my own, Tom's, and the Fat Gentleman's stories, which I had brought
down with me, to look over and correct. The candy I had bought for Nelly
and Jimmy, as I told you, and forgotten all about to that moment. Little
Robby came trotting along just then, so we asked him to be of the party;
and Mrs. Lawson, looking out to see why we were in such a bustle, made
up the company.

I wish you could have been at Our Party that afternoon. We made a cosey
little group, I assure you. Mrs. Lawson sat by the table with her
sewing; Tom established himself close to my chair, and Nelly nestled by
my other side. Baby and Jimmy sat on hassocks, contrived from carpet
bags, at my feet; dear little Robby was lifted to my knee, and the
reading began. Oh, the laughter, and comical wonder, and blushes, when
my little neighbors found the stories were about them! Nelly burst out
with "Oh, Neighbor Oldbird!" and hid her face on my shoulder every time
there was some special praise of herself. Tom turned perfectly crimson
when we came to his story, and was in and out of his seat twenty times,
begging me to stop, during its progress, his splendid black eyes
glancing appealingly at me and Nelly by turns. I wouldn't spare him a
single word, however; and when I came to his declaration at the end,
concerning Nelly, there was a general shout of laughter.

"There's an eligible offer for you, Miss Nell," I said solemnly. "You'd
better take it into consideration!" and so on, until Mrs. Lawson begged
me to stop. She did not like to have ideas about marriage put into the
children's heads; and I, when I reflected, was