Emily was standing in the middle of the parlor dressed in fine Persian
lawn, adorned with blue ribbons.
And soon the door-bell rang, and again and again and again, until all
the guests were assembled. And they each wished Emily very many happy
returns of the day.
Then Emily led her guests to a large veranda all covered with roses and
clematis, and there supper was served.
The tables were covered with beautiful flowers and all kinds of fruit,
and turkey, chicken and tongue, hot rolls and hot biscuits, and brown
bread and butter, after which came the ice cream and cake.
And _such_ a cake!
It was made in the form of a great big shoe, and lined with silver
paper. Inside the shoe there were dolls and toys for every one of the
guests, and a great big doll for Emily--just like the old woman who
lived in a shoe! And all the little guests said it was the nicest and
funniest birthday cake they had ever seen.
And as soon as supper was over Emily led her guests to the mulberry
tree which stood in the middle of the garden.
Dr. Templeton was prouder of this tree than of anything else in the
garden, for he believed it to be a great-grandchild of the mulberry
tree which Shakespeare planted at Stratford so long ago. And whenever
there was company at Templeton Hall, Dr. Templeton always brought them
out to the garden to show them the mulberry tree.
On the evening of Emily’s birthday it was hung with Chinese lanterns
from the top to the bottom--in all the gay colors of the rainbow. And
around this beautiful tree, Emily and her guests danced and played
games by the light of the lanterns until the birthday party was over.
But just then a strange thing occurred--not strange to the elves, who
knew all about it, but to Emily, her guests, and her Father and Mother.
For Rainbow, the elf, appeared on the green and a daintier little
gentleman never was seen. His blue satin coat, with silvery leaves
embroidered in wreaths, his white silken hose and gilt-buckled shoes,
and his blue Forget-Me-Not girdle, made an exquisite picture.
With three very low bows he flew straight to Emily, and told her that
the insect choir would be pleased to favor her with some music in honor
of her birthday. Then Rainbow made a motion to Tono, who had charge of
the insect choir. Tono gave the word of command, and the fiddlers,
drummers, and pipers of the insect world appeared.
The short-horned Grasshoppers were there with their bows and fiddles;
the musical Cicadas were also there with their high-tuned kettle drums;
and the meadow Grasshoppers were playing: “Zip, zip, zee-e-e! Zip, zip,
zee-e-e!”
The pale-green, bashful Katydids, who are usually heard but not seen,
were also there singing with all their might: “Katy did! she did, she
did, she didn’t!” over and over again.
And the cheery crickets with their happy chirpings, sang: “Cheer-up!
cheer-up! cheer-up!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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