52

NORA’S TEA-PARTY.

happened in this way. Nora had a very special
friend named Ada Morrison. Like most little
girls, Ada was fond of parties; and two or three
times every year her mother allowed her to invite
some of her playmates home to tea. On the
occasion of the last tea-party, Nora had been one
of the guests; and she was so impressed with
Ada’s hospitality that she made up her mind to
ask her mother to let her give a party too. This she did;
and as mother was quite willing, Nora, in great glee, set
about preparing for the important event.

Alas! however, as a poet of renown has told us, “ The
best-laid schemes o’ mice and men” (and little girls, too,
for that matter!) “gang aft a-gley”; and it happened that
only a week before the date of the party, when nothing
remained to be done but to send out the invitations, Nora’s
little brother was taken ill. The doctor said he must be
kept absolutely quiet, and so the party had to be given up.
Nora was greatly distressed, of course—but more on ‘her
brother's account than because of her own disappointment.
She told her mother as cheerfully as she could that they
must just put off the party till Willie was better; and on
the day when the great feast was to have taken place, she
consoled herself by giving a strictly private party to her
dollies—the only guests who could be relied upon not to
disturb Willie!

A few weeks later the proper party was given; and Nora
had, so she said, ‘‘a splendid time.” Don’t you think she
deserved it ?