THE BIRTHDAY LUNCHEON

As soon as they got home that evening, and had dinner and rested up a bit, Mary Jane hunted up a calendar so she could find out about her birthday.

And she discovered that two weeks from that same day was "her" day.

"It's Sat.u.r.day, so you can do something too!" she said to Alice. "Now, Mother, let's plan."

So they talked over all the nice things a person _might_ do for a birthday, but long before they could decide which was the very nicest of all the plans, bedtime came. Then the next morning there were interesting things to do, and n.o.body thought about plans for a day that was two weeks away. That is, n.o.body but Mary Jane thought about it, and, if the truth must be told, she thought more about the doll cart she had wished for than she did about what she might do to celebrate.

Monday noon, when Alice came home for her luncheon, she was much excited.

"Who do you s'pose I saw at recess this morning?" she demanded. "Guess!"

But Mrs. Merrill and Mary Jane couldn't guess--they didn't know anybody in Chicago to guess! Or at least they thought they didn't.

"I saw--" began Alice slowly, for she wanted the fun of keeping them waiting to last as long as possible, "I saw--Frances Westland! And she goes to my school!"

"Why in the world didn't we know that?" said Mrs. Merrill. "We should have guessed! Of course she goes to your school. I remember of thinking she wasn't very far from us."

"Can't we have her come to see us?" asked Mary Jane eagerly.

"I already asked her if she couldn't come," explained Alice, "because I knew you'd want me to, and she says she's sure she can. But she can't come next Sat.u.r.day because she and her auntie are going to Milwaukee to spend the week-end. But she thought she could come the next Sat.u.r.day."

"And that's my birthday," Mary Jane reminded her.

"I know it," agreed Alice, "but I didn't tell her. I just said I'd find out what we were doing that day and let her know this afternoon--was that all right, Mother?"

"You did exactly right, dear," said Mrs. Merrill rea.s.suringly. "Come right out to the dining-room now, because your soup is ready and you mustn't hurry yourself too much with your lunch. While we eat, we'll plan for the birthday."

Of course there were many plans to be talked of, because in a big city there are so many kinds of things one may do. And it was awfully hard to decide which plan was the very most fun--you know how that is yourself.

But after every plan that any of the three could think of had been discussed carefully, Mary Jane decided that there were two things she wanted the most to do. First, she wanted to stay home to celebrate and have a party and all that; and, second, she wanted to go down town and go to a big grown-up theater where there was music and lights and pretty things just like grown folks see up town. And for her part she admitted that she didn't see how a person possibly, even on a birthday, could do those two conflicting things.

"Pooh!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, "that's easy! I was telling Dad the other night that inasmuch as this was the first birthday in the city and on Sat.u.r.day and everything--so convenient for us all--we'd better do those very two things."

"But how'll we do it, Mother?" asked Alice. "We can't stay home for a party while we're down town at the theater!"

"To be sure, we can't," agreed Mrs. Merrill. "But we can stay home for a party _before_ we go down town for a show. And that's just what we're going to do. You hurry off to school now, dear, because it's ten of one.

And next time you see Frances Westland, you invite her to come here for twelve o'clock luncheon a week from next Sat.u.r.day. Be sure to tell her it's an all-afternoon party, so she can stay long enough to go down town with us."

"And who else'll we have?" asked Mary Jane, when Alice had gone. "It wouldn't be a party with one person."

"Of course not," said her mother. "There are going to be three folks.

After school this very day you are going to invite Frances and Betty Holden--that'll make it almost a 'Frances' party, won't it? We'll ask them right away, even though a week from Sat.u.r.day is a long time off, because Dadah will want to get the tickets and we will all want to make our plans."

A week and five days seem a very long time, when you have to wait for them. But Mary Jane found that, after all, they went quicker than she had thought they could, because there was so much to do. First she had to decide what she wanted to have to eat at the luncheon. After much thought and consultation the menu was made out and tacked up on the kitchen cabinet for future reference. Mary Jane printed it out all by herself and the letters were big and plain and could be easily read by any cook--especially Mother. It said:

CHICKEN b.a.l.l.s HOT ROLLS FRUIT SALAD WITH WHIPPED CREAM ICE CREAM CAKE HASHED BROWN POTATOES JELLY

Chicken b.a.l.l.s really meant chicken croquettes, but croquettes proved to be such a big and puzzling word that Mary Jane decided she would say b.a.l.l.s and Mrs. Merrill agreed to take a verbal order for the croquette part of the luncheon.

When the food was planned for, Mary Jane began to talk about the decorations. It was soon found that to be really pretty, the table tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs would have to be made by the hostess herself, so Mary Jane set to work. From the advertising sections of magazines she cut letters about an inch high. Letters enough to spell everybody's first name and last initial. She had to have the last initial because two of her guests had the same first name. These she sorted very carefully and put in envelopes; one envelope for each person and just the right letters in that envelope for the person's name. Then, she planned, when the luncheon was all ready, she would put the letters in little piles in front of each person's place and let them puzzle out the names before they sat down.

Mrs. Merrill promised to have a basket of flowers, spring flowers that Mary Jane loved so very much, in the center of the table. And Mary Jane planned to make a procession of girls and boys all around the basket.

These she cut out of magazines too and she chose girls and boys who were doing all the things that she herself liked to do.

With all these things, besides regular duties and fun, to keep her busy, Mary Jane didn't really have a chance to think her birthday was a long time coming. First thing _she_ knew it was Friday night and the birthday was the very next morning!

On Sat.u.r.day morning, she waked up knowing something nice was going to happen. Then, before her eyes were really open, she felt herself getting mother's birthday kisses and, before those were all delivered, Alice's birthday spats--six good big lively ones!

"Never you mind, Alice," she promised, "just wait till it's _your_ birthday and you'll get some of the hardest--"

"Don't stop for promises," said Mr. Merrill, coming in to deliver his spats too, "what I want is breakfast and for the life of me, _I_ can't get into that dining-room."

"_Oh!_" cried Mary Jane rapturously, "I'll be right out!"

"Not till you get dressed, you know," Alice reminded her, "so do hurry!"

For it was one of the rules of the Merrill household that birthdays and Christmases didn't really begin till folks were dressed. So Mary Jane scrabbled into her clothes and gave her face and hands about the most hurry-up washing they had ever had and then rushed out to the dining-room.

And there, standing right by her chair, was the--yes, really--the very doll cart she had picked out! She was so happy that for a minute she couldn't speak, she just stared. The next minute she was down on her knees with her arms around the whole cart--or at least as much of the cart as two six-year-old arms could get around--and she was counting over all the wonderful virtues of her gift. It surely was a cart to make any little girl proud and when Mary Jane saw her own Georgiannamore, wearing a lovely new coat (Mrs. Merrill's gift), and a pair of really truly gloves (from Alice), and sitting up as big as life in the cart, she thought the happiest day of her life had come.

After breakfast the morning raced by on wings. Of course Mary Jane had to show the cart and doll's clothes to Betty and they had to walk around the block to give the doll an airing. Then, just as they got back to Mary Jane's apartment, the postman came with a box from grandpa and grandma.

Betty was invited up for the fun of opening it and she was glad to come both for the fun and for the big pieces of grandmother's candy that she got when the box was opened. Then there was the table to set and the puzzle letters to put around and everybody to dress in their best--that's a good deal for one morning. No wonder it seemed to be an unusually short one.

At the very last minute, Mary Jane with her new white dress and pink ribbons all just as they should be, went in to the kitchen to see if she could help. And at that very minute a neighbor came in to get Mrs.

Merrill's advice about an important matter.

"Everything's ready now," said Mrs. Merrill, as she left the kitchen.

"Only, I believe, Mary Jane, it would be a good idea for you to put that whipped cream into the ice box. We won't make the salad till they get here and I want to keep it stiff and cold."

Now, Mary Jane had put things in the ice box many a time. Big things and little things and spilly things and all, and there was no reason in the world why she couldn't do it all right. No reason, except-- Just as she picked up the bowl of cream, the door bell rang a long, loud peal that she was sure must be her three guests coming all at once, so she hurried and the cream jiggled in the bowl, and slid over the edge--and all down the front of her best new dress!

Fortunately Alice came into the kitchen just then, in time to see the accident, and to notice two big tears which popped into Mary Jane's eyes and threatened to spill down her cheeks.

"Pooh!" she exclaimed comfortably, "don't you worry about a little thing like that, Mary Jane," and she made a grab for the bowl, rescued some of the cream and set it in the ice box. "I'll have you fixed up so soon that you won't know anything happened."

"But it's all down my dress," said Mary Jane, trying her very best not to cry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "But it's all down my dress," said Mary Jane, trying her very best not to cry _Page 111_]

"Oh, well," replied Alice, nothing daunted, "it's not going to stay there long." She took a clean cloth, dampened it with cold water and, with quick little dabs, scrubbed the cream all off the front of the birthday dress.

Then she took a fresh cloth, and more cold water and, putting a big, clean towel under the front of the dress, scrubbed again till every trace of the cream was gone. Then she opened the oven door so the heat would help dry the wetness and with a fresh cloth rubbed and rubbed the wet place till it was entirely dry.

"There now," she said, as she shook the dress into place, "I think the girls are here; let's go see." And immediately the accident that threatened to spoil Mary Jane's fun was forgotten.

Sure enough, the girls had come and the party began at once.