sed getting the directory of the place, and marking
out the people they didn't know and counting up the rest. But even if
this would give the number of invitations, it would not show how many
would accept; and then there was no such directory. They could not
expect answers, as their invitations were cards with "At Home" on them.
One answer had come from a lady, that she too would be "at home" with
rheumatism. So they only knew there was one person who would not come.
Elizabeth Eliza had sent in Circumambient ways to all the members of
that society,--by the little boys, for instance, who were sure to stop
at the base-ball grounds, or somewhere, so a note was always delayed by
them. One Circumambient note she sent by mail, purposely omitting the
"Mass.," so that it went to the Dead-Letter Office, and came back six
weeks after the party.

But the Peterkin family were not alone in commotion. The whole town was
in excitement, for "everybody" had been invited. Ann Maria Bromwick
had a book of costumes that she lent to a few friends, and everybody
borrowed dresses or lent them, or went into town to the costumer's.
Weeks passed in preparation. "What are you going to wear?" was the only
question exchanged; and nobody answered, as nobody would tell.

At length the evening came,--a beautiful night in late summer, warm
enough to have had the party out-of-doors; but the whole house was
lighted up and thrown open, and Chinese lanterns hung in the portico and
on the pillars of the piazzas.

At an early hour the Peterkins were arrayed in their costumes. The
little boys had their legs and arms and faces browned early in the day,
and wore dazzlingly white full trousers and white turbans.

Elizabeth Eliza had prepared a dress as Queen Elizabeth; but Solomon
John was desirous that she should be Desdemona, and she gave up her
costume to her mother. Mrs. Peterkin therefore wore a red wig which Ann
Maria had found at a costumer's, a high ruff, and an old-fashioned
brocade. She was not sure that it was proper for Queen Elizabeth to wear
spectacles; but Queen Elizabeth must have been old enough, as she lived
to be seventy. As for Elizabeth Eliza, in recalling the fact that
Desdemona was smothered by pillows, she was so impressed by it that she
decided she could wear the costume of a sheet-and-pillow-case party. So
she wore a white figured silk that had been her mother's wedding-dress,
and over it draped a sheet as a large mantle, and put a p