e grown folks see up town. And for her part she admitted
that she didn't see how a person possibly, even on a birthday, could do
those two conflicting things.

"Pooh!" laughed Mrs. Merrill, "that's easy! I was telling Dad the other
night that inasmuch as this was the first birthday in the city and on
Saturday and everything--so convenient for us all--we'd better do those
very two things."

"But how'll we do it, Mother?" asked Alice. "We can't stay home for a
party while we're down town at the theater!"

"To be sure, we can't," agreed Mrs. Merrill. "But we can stay home for a
party _before_ we go down town for a show. And that's just what we're
going to do. You hurry off to school now, dear, because it's ten of one.
And next time you see Frances Westland, you invite her to come here for
twelve o'clock luncheon a week from next Saturday. Be sure to tell her
it's an all-afternoon party, so she can stay long enough to go down town
with us."

"And who else'll we have?" asked Mary Jane, when Alice had gone. "It
wouldn't be a party with one person."

"Of course not," said her mother. "There are going to be three folks.
After school this very day you are going to invite Frances and Betty
Holden--that'll make it almost a 'Frances' party, won't it? We'll ask them
right away, even though a week from Saturday is a long time off, because
Dadah will want to get the tickets and we will all want to make our
plans."

A week and five days seem a very long time, when you have to wait for
them. But Mary Jane found that, after all, they went quicker than she had
thought they could, because there was so much to do. First she had to
decide what she wanted to have to eat at the luncheon. After much thought
and consultation the menu was made out and tacked up on the kitchen
cabinet for future reference. Mary Jane printed it out all by herself and
the letters were big and plain and could be easily read by any
cook--especially Mother. It said:

CHICKEN BALLS
HOT ROLLS
FRUIT SALAD WITH WHIPPED CREAM
ICE CREAM CAKE
HASHED BROWN POTATOES
JELLY

Chicken balls really meant chicken croquettes, but croquettes proved to be
such a big and puzzling word that Mary Jane decided she would say balls
and Mrs. Merrill agreed to take a verbal order for the croquette part of
the luncheon.

When the food was planned for,