E GERTRUDE'S PARTY.

Little Gertrude wanted to have a party. Sarah and Julia Smith had had
one, and Eliza Doane, and the twin Smith girls, and their little cousin
Mary Vose; (parties were very delightful things, why shouldn't _she_
have one?) Gertrude's mother was a sensible woman; she did not approve
of children's parties; but she had found out that it was sometimes the
cheapest way to teach her little daughter _by experience_, that her
mother always knew best; so Miss Gertrude had leave to "have a party!"

How her tongue _did_ run! "She should not ask Louisa Loft because _she_
did not invite _her_; she should not ask Louisa Thompson, because she
borrowed her 'Arabian Nights' and tore out one of the pictures; she
should not ask Janie Jones, because she heard her call her new bonnet
'a perfect fright;' she should not ask George Sales, because he was
such a glutton he would eat up all the bon-bons."

As to "supper," she would like oysters, of course; "escalloped
oysters," with wine in them, and two pyramids of ice cream, one vanilla
and one lemon; and some Charlotte Russe, and some Jersey biscuit, and
all sorts of cakes, and sugar drops with "cordial" inside, and
"mottoes" for the little beaux to give the little belles, &c., &c., &c.

Then her dress--_that_ required a _great deal of thought_; her pink
dress was too shabby to be thought of a moment; her blue one had
neither tucks, nor flounces; (and who ever heard of a party dress with
a plain skirt?) her buff one was not gay enough; in short, she had
_been seen_ in all those dresses--she ought to have a bran new one--a
cherry silk, for instance, with swan's down round the neck and
shoulders; that would be charming. Mary Scott told her, that her
Philadelphia cousin had a dress like that, and looked lovely in it.

As to the time for the party she thought a week from that day would
suit all the dress-makers--next Thursday week; then there were the
notes of invitation--should they be written on plain or embossed paper?
gilt-edged or not gilt-edged? These important questions puzzled
Gertrude hugely.

Thursday came--and so did "the cherry dress and the swan's down." The
dress-maker pinched Gertrude into it, and Gertrude, catching her breath
between the hooks and eyes, said "it fitted beautifully;" the little
satin slippers were also laced and rosetted to her mind, and her kid
gloves properly _ruche-d_ and bow-d and her hair curled by Mons.
Frizzle, till she looked like