Leaf VI.

Conflagration.


Most parties are just bunches of selfish people who go off in the
corners and have good times all by themselves; but in Hillsboro it is
not that way. Everybody that is not invited helps the hostess get ready
and have nice things for the others, and sometimes I think they really
have the best time of all.

This morning Aunt Bettie came up my front steps before breakfast
with a large basketful of things for my dinner, and I wondered what
I would have collected to be served to those people by the time all my
neighbours had made their prize contributions. It took Aunt Bettie and
Jane a half-hour to unpack her things and set them in the refrigerator
and on the pantry shelves. One was a plump fruit-cake that had been
keeping company, in a tight box, with other equally rich cakes ever
since the New Year. It was ripe, or smelt so. It made me feel very
hungry.

A little later Jane was exclaiming over a two-year-old ham that had been
simmered in some wonderful liquor and larded with egg dressing, when
Mrs. Johnson came in and began to unpack her basket.

I had planned to have a lot of food and had ordered some things up from