ll who's to be invited."

"All right. Head the list with Alfaretta Babcock."

"Cor-rect! I've got her down already. Next?"

"Molly Breckenridge."

"Good enough. Down she goes. Wait till I get her wrote before you say
any more."

They waited while Alfy laboriously inscribed the name and finished
with the exclamation:

"That's the crookedest back-name I ever wrote."

"You acted as if it hurt you, girlie! You wriggled your tongue like
they do in the funny pictures;" teased Molly, but the writer paid no
heed.

"Next?"

"Dorothy Calvert."

"So far so good. But them three's all girls. To a party there ought to
be as many boys. That's the way we did to our last winter's school
treat," declared Alfaretta.

"Well, there's Jim Barlow. He's a boy."

"He's no _party_ kind of a boy," objected Molly, "and he's only--_us_.
She hasn't anybody down that isn't us, so far. We few can't make a
whole party."

But Dolly and Alfy were wholly serious.

"Montmorency Vavasour-Stark," suggested the former, and the writer
essayed that formidable name. Then she threw down the pen in dismay,
exclaiming:

"You'll have to indite that yourself or spell it out to me letter by
letter. He'll take more'n a whole line if I write him to match the
others."

"Oh! he doesn't take up much room, he's so little," reassured idle
Molly, with a mischievous glance toward the doorway which the other
girls did not observe; while by dint of considerable assistance Alfy
"got him down" and "all on one line!" as she triumphantly remarked.

"That's two boys and three girls. Who's your next boy?"

"Melvin Cook. He's easy to write," said Dolly.

"But he's gone."

"Yes, Alfy, but he can come back. They'll all have to 'come' except we
who don't have to."

A giggle from behind the portieres commented upon this remark and
speeding to part them Dolly revealed the hiding figures of their two
boy house-mates.

"That's not nice of young gentlemen, to peep and listen," remarked
Molly, severely; "but since you've done it, come and take your
punishment. You'll have to help. James Barlow, you are appointed the
committee of 'ways and means.' I haven't an idea what that 'means,'
but I know they always have such a committee."

"What 'they,' Miss Molly?"

"I don't know, Mister Barlow, but you're--it."

"Monty, you'll furnish the entertainment," she continued.

The recipient of this honor bowed profoundly, then lifted his head
with a sudden interest as Dor