The Garden Party

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. 

           “Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,

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,

My lady sweet, arise.”

Hark Hark the Lark 

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.

            Avast, belay--Hurrah for Baffin's Bay!

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!

Hurrah for Baffin's Bay!”

Hurrah for Baffin's Bay! 

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.