“I’m going to be a leopard,” said Polly, instantly. “It’s because we had some spotted flannel in the house.”
“And Mother is going to lend me her old astrakhan coat, so I can be a lamb,” said Margy. “I think lambs are lovely. I wouldn’t want to be any kind of homely animal, even for fun.”
Jess’s dark eyes grew round with curiosity.
“What do you suppose the boys are going to wear?” she asked.
But no one knew, and up to the night of the party no one had found out. It had been agreed among the six friends that each was to go alone to the Williamson house, so it happened that the three girls and Mr. and Mrs. Williamson were already in the big, roomy kitchen, where the party was to be, when some one knocked at the door.
“That’s Fred! I know it is!” exclaimed Margy. “I just heard him go down the front stairs and out. He’s come around to the back door.”
Margy was wearing her mother’s woolly coat, and with her shiny black shoes and black silk gloves—to represent the forefeet—made a very cunning and attractive little lamb—till one’s glance reached her face. Her false-face was that of an old witch, and the contrast between this grinning old-woman face and the woolly young lamb was too much for Mr. Williamson. He had gone into fits of laughter as soon as he saw Margy.
The arrival of Polly, in spotted flannel that covered her hands and feet much as a sleeping garment would, her face hidden behind a “Brownie” false-face, made Mr. Williamson laugh, too. But when Jess arrived, Mrs. Williamson was really alarmed about him. He laughed so hard he had to take out his handkerchief and wipe his eyes.
Even Polly and Margy had to laugh at Jess. She wore her feather suit, as she called the paper and feather costume, and she had rigged up the turkey wings with string so that they flapped—sometimes—when she pulled the string. As the nearest thing to a chicken’s head she could get in a false-face, she had chosen a mask with an extremely long and hooked nose that, she fondly hoped, looked like a chicken’s beak. She had taken an old pair of shoes and covered them with bright yellow paint, buttons and all.
Mr. and Mrs. Williamson were only waiting to greet the guests before going over to spend the evening at the Larue house. Answering the knock at the door, Mr. Williamson opened it and a kangaroo leaped into the room. For a moment the girls were startled, and then they saw that it was Fred.