“I won’t come, and that’s the end of it,” said Laura. “Perhaps if I bathe my face all the morning I can come to dinner.”
After breakfast was cleared away, Hop Yet and Mrs. Howard’s little China boy Gin were given a half-holiday, and allowed to go to a—neighbouring ranch to see a “flend” of Hop Yet’s; for it was a part of the birthday scheme that Bell and Geoffrey should cook the festival dinner.
Jack was so delighted at the failure of Polly’s scheme to sew him in his tent, that he simply radiated amiability, and spent the whole morning helping Elsie and Margery with a set of elaborate dinner-cards, executed on half-sheets of note-paper.
The dinner itself was a grand success. Half of the cards bore a caricature of Polly in the shape of a parrot, with the inscription “Polly want a cracker?” The rest were adorned with pretty sketches of her in her camping-dress, a kettle in one hand, and underneath,
“Polly, put the kettle on,
We’ll all have tea.”
This was the bill of fare arranged by Bell and Geoffrey, and written on the reverse side of the dinner-cards
DINNER À LA MOTHER GOOSE.
Camp Chaparral.
August 15, 18—.