r of the furniture, and
Papa Hart, just come in from work, paced the rooms disconsolately,
asking for dinner.

"Dinner!" screamed Mama Hart, "Dinner, who's got time to fool with
dinner this evening? Look in the sideboard and you'll see some bread and
ham; eat that and shut up."

Eight o'clock finally arrived, and with it, the music and some
straggling guests. When the first faint chee-chee of the violin floated
out into the murky atmosphere, the smaller portion of the neighborhood
went straightway into ecstasies. Boys and girls in all stages of
deshabille clustered about the door-steps and gave vent to audible
exclamations of approval or disapprobation concerning the state of
affairs behind the green shutters. It was a warm night and the big round
moon sailed serenely in a cloudless, blue sky. Mrs. Tuckley had put on a
clean calico wrapper, and planted herself with the indomitable Stella
on her steps, "to watch the purceedings."

The party was a grand success. Even the intensely critical small fry
dancing on the pavement without to the scraping and fiddling of the
string band, had to admit that. So far as they were concerned it was all
right, but what shall we say of the guests within? They who glided
easily over the canvassed floors, bowed, and scraped and simpered, "just
like the big folks on the Avenue," who ate the ice-cream and cake, and
drank the sweet, weak Catawba wine amid boisterous healths to Mr. and
Mrs. Hart and the Misses Hart; who smirked and perspired and cracked
ancient jokes and heart-rending puns during the intervals of the
dances, who shall say that they did not enjoy themselves as thoroughly
and as fully as those who frequented the wealthier entertainments
up-town.

Lillian and Martha in gossamer gowns of pink and blue flitted to and fro
attending to the wants of their guests. Mrs. Hart, gorgeous in a black
satin affair, all folds and lace and drapery, made desperate efforts to
appear cool and collected--and failed miserably. Papa Hart spent one
half his time standing in front of the mantle, spreading out his
coat-tails, and benignly smiling upon the young people, while the other
half was devoted to initiating the male portion of the guests into the
mysteries of "snake killing."

Everybody had said that he or she had had a splendid time, and finally,
when the last kisses had been kissed, the last good-byes been said, the
whole Hart family sat down in the now deserted and disordered rooms, and