There is nothing that the girls in the Big House by the Park
like better than a nice picnic or tea party, unless it is an elegant garden
party. The weather being perfect,
Katherine Alyse and Mia Bella took the matter in hand and put together an
afternoon of refreshment and recreation in their garden that opens onto the
park.
A variety of pleasant diversions
were provided. Clarice, Bailey, and Mia
Bella set up the croquet set, and had a friendly little game. The last time she had played a serious game
of croquet, little Clarice was roundly trounced, and today she determined that
she would do better. And she did; in a
fair match, without the other two letting her, Clarice won easily.
Katherine Alyse put the finishing
touches on the well-laid table. There
were cucumber sandwiches, cheesecake with apricot glaze, and lots of lemonade.
Liesel Elizabeth and Savannah sat close
together, and looked at some new pictures in the stereoscope.
They all helped themselves to
cucumber sandwiches, poured lemonade, and sat back to nibble and sip.
Between bites, Bailey looked at the
stereoscope pictures, too.
Katherine Alyse was the chief
conversationalist, regaling the others with thrilling stories of fashion
faux-pas narrowly averted!
Liesel Elizabeth and Savannah held hands and
fed each other bites.
When all the sandwiches were gone,
they cut the cheesecake and passed it around.
Liesel Elizabeth and Savannah did not feed
each other bites of cake, as it might fall off their forks onto their frocks.
Then it was time for some
entertainment. Like all well-brought-up
Edwardian children, they all had a selection of party pieces prepared that they
could pull out whenever entertainment was called for. Bailey went first.
“This is a new piece I’ve just
started working on, and I don’t have it all memorized, so I’m going to carry
the book with me. It’s called ‘Curfew
Must Not Ring Tonight’”
“‘Sexton,’ Bessie's white lips
faltered,
Pointing to the prison old,
With its walls tall and gloomy,
Moss-grown walls dark, damp and
cold,--
‘I've a lover in the prison,
Doomed this very night to die
At the ringing of the curfew,
And no earthly help is nigh.
Cromwell will not come till sunset;’
And her lips grew strangely white,
As she spoke in husky whispers,
‘Curfew must not ring to-night!’”
Then, while Liesel Elizabeth
accompanied her on the lute, Savannah
sang “Hark! Hark! The Lark!”, a poem by Shakespeare, set to music by Franz
Schubert.
And Phoebus 'gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chalic'd flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes;
With everything that pretty is,
Next, little Clarice was up. “I don’t have anything new,” she said, “but
I’d be glad to do my favorite poem.”
“Oh, please do!” the others
responded. They knew which poem she
meant, and they all liked it, too.
“‘O Mary, go and call the cattle home,And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
Across the sands of Dee.’
The western wind was wild and dank with foam
And all alone went she.
The western tide crept up along the sand,
And o'er and o'er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see.
The rolling mist came down and hid the land;
And never home came she.”
Lastly, Katherine Alyse and Mia
Bella got up to do their piece.
“This is a novelty number from the
new Broadway musical The Wizard of Oz,”
said Katherine Alyse.
“But,” added Mia Bella, “it has
nothing whatever to do with the story of The
Wizard of Oz, either in the book or
in the musical; it’s just a funny song they threw in.”
Katherine Alyse went on, “It’s
called ‘Hurrah for Baffin’s Bay.’”
They then sang a lively acappella
duet.
“’Twas on the good ship Cuspidor
We sailed through Baffin's Bay;
We tied her to the ocean
While the Bulwarks ate some hay.
The Captain said ‘We'll tie the ship,
Whatever else betide!’
And he drank a pint of gasoline
With whiskey on the side
He had lost his breath
But soon it was restored.
We couldn't find the pole,
Because the barber moved away.
The boat was cold,
We thought we'd get the grip,
So the painter put three coats
Upon the ship!
Hip, hip! Hip, hip!
They all laughed and clapped, and
finished their lemonade.
“But we’re not done yet,” said
Katherine Alyse, “there’s still some cheesecake left, and then of course,
there’s the washing up to do!”
The girls laughed some more, and in
short order, the cake and the washing up were finished.
