"Mercy on us! This is a pretty kettle of fish!" gasped Mrs. Primkins. "I wouldn't stand it! So there!" said Augusta, sharply. "I never did see such a young one! I'd just send every chick and child home, and let Miss Nimpo take her supper in her own room--to pay her off! Things have come to a pretty pass, I think!" "I never did!" ejaculated Mrs. Primkins, not yet recovering her ordinary powers of speech. "Shall I go out and meet them, and send them packing?" asked Augusta. "No," said her mother, reluctantly, remembering the unbroken bill in her "upper drawer." "I do' know's I have a right to send them back. I didn't tell her how many, but--mercy on us!--who'd dream of such a raft! If there's one, there's forty, I do declare!" "That's the meaning of those enormous packages of nuts and things from the store," said Augusta, "that we thought were enough for an army." "But the table!" gasped Mrs. Primkins. "For such a crowd! Augusta," hastily, "fly around like a parched pea, and lock the doors of that room, till I think what we can do. This is a party with a vengeance!" Augusta obeyed, and was none too quick, for the girls crowded into the front chamber before she had secured the doors. Being a "party," of course they had to go into the house. But as soon as they had thrown off their slat sun-bonnets,--which was in about one second,--and began to look around the bare room, to see what they should do next, Nimpo was seized with a bright idea. "Girls, let's go out in the yard, and play till tea-time," she said; and the next moment sun-bonnets were resumed, and the whole troop tramped down the back stairs, Nimpo not daring, even on this festive occasion, to disturb the silence of the solemn front hall, and the gorgeous colored stair-carpet. In two minutes, they were deep in the game of "Pom-pom-peel-away," and now was Mrs. Primkins' chance. She hastily sent Augusta out to the neighbors, letting her out slyly by the front door, so the "party" shouldn't see her, to beg or borrow something to feed the crowd; for, the next day being baking-day, her pantry was nearly empty, and there was not such a thing in the village as a bakery. As soon as she was gone, Mrs. Primkins cleared the table upstairs, hid the small biscuits and minute slices of cake, and brought tables from other rooms to lengthen this. She then carried every cup and saucer and plate of her own up there, and even made several surreptitious visits herself to accommodating friends, to borrow, telling the news, and getting their sympathy, so that they freely lent their dishes, and even sent their boys to carry them over, and their big girls to help arrange. For an hour, the games went on in the side yard, while a steady stream came in by the front door--the grand front door!--and up the august stairs, carrying bread, cake, dishes, saucers, etc., etc., till there was a tolerable supply, and Mrs. Primkins was in debt numerous loaves of bread and cake, and dishes of "preserves."