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
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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