[A VALENTINE PARTY.]
BY MARY B. SLEIGHT.
he Chadwick girls, one February morning, were deep in consultation as to the best way in which to entertain their friend Dorothy Adams, who was coming the next week to make them a two days' visit.
"Why not have a valentine party instead of a tea?" suggested Catharine. "Teas are so stiff and poky when one is not acquainted with any of the other guests, and Dorothy is one that likes a thoroughly good time."
"A valentine party would be much more lively, of course," said Helen; "but where in the world could we find enough valentines to go round?"
"Write them, the same as the girls did in Grandmother Livingston's day," answered Catharine. "Even if we haven't any especial gift for verse-making, we can string some passable rhymes together, I hope."
"How would it do," asked stately Elizabeth, beginning to be interested, "to have bows or rosettes of ribbon—two of each color—distributed, and let each person take for a partner the one that wears the corresponding badge? Then, of course, there would have to be two sets of Valentines. For example— Here, give me your pencil, Catharine, please, and that empty envelope. How would this do?
"Blue No. 1, fastening her badge to the lapel of her partner's coat:
"As ladies fair, in days of old,
To chosen knights their colors gave,
This ribbon blue
I give to you;
And this, dear Valentine, I crave,
That you the little badge will take,
And bravely wear it for my sake.