can have very much of 'a party if all the boys stay away."

"We must have it," said Annie Rich, decidedly. "It would never do to
let them think that
we had given up a good time just because they wouldn't join us."

"Yes, we must have the party," said Aggie, thoughtfully, " and we must
make the boys come, if possible. It's no use for me to try to study
now, and I'm going to ask the deacon to let me go home. Some of you
girls catch Winny Curtis, and find out from him what the boys are going
to do. I'll think up some kind of a plan, and after school to-night
we'll see what can be done."

Then, refusing to answer a single question, but cautioning the girls
not to look as if they
cared in the slightest because of the letter, Aggie went into the
schoolroom, where she had no difficulty in getting permission to go
home. As a matter of fact, Deacon Littlefield would have been more
pleased than his pupils could have been, if he could have given them
all a holiday; for trying to teach a number of boys and girls who were
in the highest state of excitement over Aggie's proposed necktie party,
was a task.

Maria and Annie "caught" Winny Curtis, as Aggie had proposed; but the
information they succeeded in getting from him was limited, for the
reason that he knew nothing of the boys' plans. All he could tell them
was that "Si Kelly was fixin' it for a reg'lar high old time," but,
unfortunately, he had not been permitted to join them, even had he been
disposed to give up the party, where it seemed probable that he would
be the only boy among twenty-five or thirty girls.