A pleasant number is twenty. Ten girls and ten boys.
Be driven to the destination in large market or hay wagons made festive with flags. Each girl should bring luncheon enough for herself and one of the boys. And the boys should be responsible for the outfit for games, such as ropes, archery, grace hoops, tennis net, balls and racquets.
If you are not going to a regular picnic ground, you will require tables. Therefore borrow five cutting tables from your mothers and these can be folded and put in the bottom of the wagon, and four persons can easily sit at each. The boys can arrange the seats, which might be the wagon seats built to the requisite height by supporting each end on a pile of stones, or convenient rocks may be chosen, or take the rails from the post-and-rail fence adjoining. Only in that case, remember to put them back again.
Use plated spoons, forks, etc., so as to save worry, and Japanese napkins, which may do double duty, as they make pretty tablecloths, and there is no fuss about having to carry them home. If you take sandwiches, wrap them neatly in white tissue or waxed paper. Use thin wooden platters instead of china, and no one will be afraid of chipping them; besides they are so light, and after luncheon they, as also the napkins and tablecloths, may be burned up, if you are careful not to set the woods on fire.
You might find it pleasant to put the lunches, wraps, etc., in one wagon, and have all the picnickers in the other. Trusty drivers for both wagons will be necessary.
After the lunch is over and cleared away, games and races will be the order of the day.
But don’t forget you must be home by sundown. When all have bundled into the wagons to return, let song follow song. One of the big boys might act as director of the chorus.
A Birthday Floral Ball.
The entire house, including the halls, should be trimmed with asparagus and Japanese lanterns. From the drawing-room ceilings suspend inverted cones of asparagus, and as pendants from these fasten Japanese lanterns. String evergreens around the stair banisters and halls. Indeed, make of your house, including the dining-room, a sort of fairy bower, on which the Japanese lanterns at happy intervals, cast light and color.
The orchestra should be hidden in a tiny forest, and their music should be jolly, light and pretty. Among the numbers have the “Dance of the Flowers,” by Tschaikowsky. Follow this with several flower dances. Example, “The Sweet Peas Waltz.” The girls’ costume should be white tarletan, effectively trimmed with sweet peas. The boys should have sweet pea boutonnières.