However, as the Fête was to be held at Betty’s home, it was only right that she should be the principal in the management of it, and most of the girls were quite content to have it so.
Betty had invited four girls from Boston, and Dorothy, Jeanette, Constance, and Lena arrived a few days before the Fourth, quite ready to take part in the festivities.
The Van Courts, too, who were one of the principal families of Greenborough, had agreed to lend all the assistance they could, and so the garden-party bade fair to be a great success. It was called an “Independence Day Reception,” and the tickets were prettily printed in red and blue on white cards, and had tiny flags in the corner. They read thus:
COLUMBIA AND UNCLE SAM
AT HOME
AT DENNISTON HALL
JULY FOURTH
AT THREE O’CLOCK
Remembering Constance’s disappointment in not being able to take her part at the school commencement, Betty resolved to make it up to her on this occasion.
So, though the club girls insisted that Betty herself should take the part of Columbia, she positively refused to do so, and proposed that Constance Harper should personate the Goddess of Liberty.
This arrangement suited Susie Hale, who didn’t want Betty to have the admiration and applause that would, of course, be given to Columbia as hostess of the entertainment.
Mr. Richard Van Court consented to take the part of Uncle Sam, and thus the principal figures were arranged.
The girls of the club were to wear whatever costumes they chose.
A grand march was to be made first, in which different countries were to be represented.