Edith's Tea-party

: STORIES _for_ LITTLE GIRLS
: Boys And Girls Bookshelf

BY LOIS WALTERS



Edith was a little girl who was just learning to write. Her mother told

her one day that she could have a tea-party on the next Tuesday, if the

weather was fine, and that she could invite her little friend Helen, who

lived on the same street, though not very far away; but she must write

the letter to ask Helen to come. So, Edith got up at her mother's

writing-desk and took some of her own
riting paper, and began to write.

She could make the letters but she could not spell very well. She asked

her mother how to spell the words and then she wrote them down. And this

is the letter she wrote:



hand-written letter



Dear Helen,



Mamma says I May ask you to come

to my tea party next Tuesday at four oclock

Bring your dolly.



your loving friend.

Edith



Then she sealed the letter in the envelop, and put a stamp on it, and

stood on the front piazza so as to give it to the postman herself.



When Tuesday came, Edith's nurse dressed her in a fresh, white frock,

and Edith dressed her dolly in her best dress, and went out under the

trees where her nurse had set the table for two. And then she sat in a

chair at the table and waited. But the big town clock struck four and no

Helen came; and then she waited for half an hour longer. Then Edith put

her dolly down on the chair and went in the house to find her mother.



"Mama," she said, "I think Helen is very rude, she doesn't come to my

party and I invited her!"






"Just wait a little longer, dear," said her mother, "and she will come.

Maybe her nurse was busy dressing Helen's little sister and brother and

couldn't get her ready in time."



"But I invited her," was all Edith could say; "but I invited her, and

she doesn't come."



Then her mother went to the telephone and called up Helen's mother. In a

moment she came back.



"Edith, dear," she said, "what day did you write Helen to come? Her

mother says she thought it was to be Thursday, and so did Helen, and

this is only Tuesday."



"But I did say Tuesday, mama," said Edith, who was almost ready to

cry. "I remember because that was the hardest word to spell, and I think

I made a blot when I wrote it."



"Well, never mind, dear; Helen is getting ready now and will be over in

a few minutes," said her mama.



And Edith was very happy, and ran out to the tea-table under the trees

with her doll to wait.



But she did not have to wait very long this time, for in a little while

Helen came running across the lawn carrying her doll; and so happy were

both little girls that Edith forgot all about the long time she had been

waiting for Helen to come.






Helen wanted Edith to know that she had not been rude in staying away,

so she brought with her the letter Edith had sent to her, so she could

show it to Edith. And there, sure enough, the word "Tuesday" was written

so badly that it looked more like "Thursday," and that was why Helen did

not think she was expected on this day.



Well, the very first thing they did was to undress their dolls and put

them to sleep under one of the bushes on the lawn--in the shade, so that

the sun would not hurt their eyes, and so that the wax would not be

melted from their cheeks. Edith put her napkin over both dolls for a

comforter, for you never know when it will blow up cold, and little

girls have to be as careful of their dolls as their own mothers are!



Very soon the maid came out with cookies and lady-fingers and

make-believe tea, and another napkin to take the place of the one Edith

had put over the dolls, and they had tea. Then the two little girls and

Edith's nurse had a nice game of croquet, and they had a lovely

tea-party after all, and Edith forgot all about waiting so long for

Helen to come.



But Edith never again made a mistake when she spelled "Tuesday."



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