"But they didn't ask us to their parties!" objected Jess, who was listening.
"What difference does that make?" Mrs. Larue said briskly. "Beach parties are anything but formal. Of course we must ask Carrie and Mattie to stay and share our fun."
Polly and Jess went out on the porch and talked to Carrie and Mattie till Margy came down in her pongee dress, her hair parted on one side. She usually parted it in the center.
"Here comes somebody," Carrie observed, a few minutes later. "Why, she's coming here. Do you know her?"
"That's Ella Mooney," said Polly quietly, going down the steps to meet the little girl who was advancing shyly.
She introduced Ella to the two girls she had not met and then every one came out on the porch and in the general hubbub of greetings and getting started for the beach, Ella quite forgot to be tongue-tied, and chatted as gayly as any of the others.
The boys' amazement when they saw Carrie and Mattie was so open that Polly wanted to laugh. Fred frankly scowled and his mother thought it best to keep him very busy with boxes and parcels, lest he forget his position as host and say something discourteous.
"A beach party!" trilled Carrie, when Mrs. Williamson explained what was planned. "Oh, I didn't know you were going to have a party to-night! Mattie and I would not have dreamed of coming over."
Artie was halfway down the steps with a box of stuffed eggs in his hands, but he heard this remark and turned in astonishment.
"Why, I told you we were going to have a party," he said clearly. "In the post-office this afternoon. Don't you remember? I said Ella Mooney was coming. That was why I had the marshmallows."