"The library can be seen from any part of the parlors. And grandpa, who bears such a close resemblance to Longfellow, can act his character. The library must be dimly lighted, because
"The night is beginning to lower,
"and the parlors will have to be almost dark while the tableau is shown, otherwise we cannot see into the library. There grandpa will sit in his favorite high chair, in the attitude of listening to the patter of little feet above him. Some unseen person, perhaps I, will read the poem which describes the scene, and after a while three young girls,
"Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair,
"will be heard descending our long stairs, and they will make a rush from the stairway through the hall and climb over the arms and back of his chair. Trust me, John, the tableau will be very pretty. I know exactly how to arrange it, and if I did not, there is a fine illustration in the edition that your father gave me last Christmas. Besides, grandpa will enjoy it so much. Indeed, it was only the other day that he told me that his party days were over."
"I'm so glad you thought of putting grandpa in, mother. But after the tableau?"
"After the tableau it will be a Children's Hour in very truth—games, songs, dances, and supper. During the dance immediately preceding the supper, paper hats will be given as favors, which everybody will don, excepting when, like yourself, their eagle plumes would interfere. In that case they can suspend them from the arm. The girls will wear broad-brimmed hats, and the boys, turbans; and the boy must invite the girl who has the same colored hat as himself to go to supper."
"But where are all these hats to come from? I guess you're the one that's forgetting that papa isn't rich."