"If you want the entertainment to be a success, you must draw up a
programme, and carry it out."
She looked very solemn, for she felt the importance of the occasion. On
the day following she and Toddles were to give their very first party;
and four little girls and four little boys, not to mention the four
dolls of the four little girls, were coming to take tea with Trot and
Toddles and mother.
Trot had thought about it a great deal, and so had Toddles, wondering
what would happen, and what they should do to make the guests enjoy
themselves.
[Illustration: "TODDLES STOOD IN FRONT OF HER."]
The two children had spent many half-hours talking the matter over, and
each time the conversation had ended by Toddles saying,--"Well, never
mind; there'll be tea." He had found out from cook that there would be
two kinds of jam provided for the tea-party, and he felt quite sure that
even if there were fourteen little boys and fourteen little girls
expected, they would enjoy themselves thoroughly if they had plenty of
jam. But Trot did not agree with him, and declared that the question
could not be settled that way.
[Illustration: "'HIGHER!' SHOUTED TODDLES."]
The speech which Trot had overheard suggested all kinds of plans, and
she made her way into the nursery to talk over the party once more with
Toddles.
Toddles was in the middle of a grand sea-fight. His tin soldiers were
sailing about on books on the sea of the nursery floor, and Toddles was
firing first at one ship, and then at another, with a large glass
marble. Toddles did not wish to be disturbed.
"Toddles," said Trot, "the tea-party is settled at last. If you want the
entertainment to be a success, you must draw up a programme, and carry
it out."
"Six down at one shot!" cried Toddles; "and the captain among them,
too."
"Toddles," said Trot solemnly, "you do want the entertainment to be a
success, don't you?"
[Illustration: "TODDLES FELL DOWN."]
Bang! bang! "There'll be tea," cried Toddles.
Trot touched him on the shoulder.
"Do come and talk about the party, Toddles," she said. "I have thought
of a new game to play at."
Toddles looked up at last; he was beginning to feel interested. Trot's
new games always meant fun, though they sometimes ended in a scolding
from nurse.
"What is it?" he asked.
"A circus," answered Trot, with a smile.
"No," said Toddles, jumping up from the floor. "Do you really mean it?"
Trot sat down in a chair, and Toddles stood in front of her, and rested
his two chubby elbows in her lap.
[Illustration: "TROT PUT THE JAR UPON HER HEAD."]
"We must draw up a programme, and carry it out," said Trot, waving one
arm, as she had seen her father do, when he had made the same remark
down-stairs.
Toddles stared; he felt very much impressed, though he did not know in
the least what Trot meant.
"And the circus will be the programme," continued Trot, drawing a dirty,
crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. "I will write it down on
this. They will come at four o'clock."
"Oh, they'll come before that," objected Toddles. "You put 'Tea at 4' on
the letters, and they are sure to come in plenty of time for tea. I
should, because of the two kinds of jam, you know."
"Never mind," said Trot; "we can't do anything before tea, so the first
thing to put down is 4 TEA;" and she wrote the word in big printing
letters.
Toddles watched her silently.
"After tea will come the circus," said Trot. "I wonder how you spell
circus?"
"But will mother let us have the circus?" said Toddles. "There won't be
room in here for all the horses and clowns, and ladies we saw the other
day."
[Illustration: "THERE WAS ... A SMASH"]
Trot laughed. "That isn't the kind of circus I mean," she said; "we're
to be the circus!"
Toddles looked more astonished than ever.
"We shall ask the party to sit in a circle," said Trot; "and then we
shall do things. Perhaps we may as well settle now what to do."
"We must jump through hoops, of course," said Toddles.
"And walk about with things on our heads," said Trot; "balancing, they
call it."
"I do wish we could walk on a rope like the man did the other day," said
Toddles.
"We will," said Trot, writing busily.
The spelling was rather a trouble to her; but Toddles quite
approved of it, and both children were satisfied with the programme when
it was finished, though perhaps any one else might have found difficulty
in understanding it. It looked something like this:
"4 TEA AFTER TEA JUMPING THREW HOOPS BALLUNCING TITE ROPES."
"Won't they be surprised?" said Toddles.
"Now we will practise," said Trot. "As we can't have any horses, I will
hold the hoop, and you shall jump through it."
"That is much too easy," said Toddles. "Couldn't you stand on a chair,
and let me jump off another chair through the hoop?"
Trot looked doubtful--"Nurse doesn't like us to stand on the chairs,"
she said.
She fetched her big wooden hoop and held it up.
"Higher!" shouted Toddles, getting ready to make a spring.
Trot raised the hoop and Toddles jumped; then somehow Toddles and the
hoop got mixed up together, and Toddles fell down on the ground.
"Oh dear!" said Trot. "I am sorry; we must try again."
Toddles picked himself up, and rubbed his elbows.
"Don't you think it will look stupid to jump through hoops when we can't
ride on horses?" he said. "Of course if we had horses it would be easy
enough. I think we had better leave that part out."
[Illustration: "'LET US TRY WALKING THE ROPE.'"]
"Perhaps we had," said Trot; and she slowly drew her pencil through
"JUMPING THREW HOOPS."
"We can both balance things," said Toddles, "I know;" and he jumped up
quickly and ran across the room. "I will lie on my back, and put the
footstool on my feet--"
"And throw it up in the air, and catch it," cried Trot. "Like the man
with the tub the other day. That will be fine!--What shall I do?"
"Walk about with that pot on your head," suggested Toddles.
"That old thing," said Trot; "that will be very easy."
Toddles lay down on his back, and stuck the footstool on his feet, and
Trot put the jar upon her head.
"It is quite easy," said Toddles, "and I am sure the party will like
it."
"Quite easy," said Trot.
There was a sound of something falling, a cry, a little scream, and a
smash.
"Oh!" cried Toddles.
"E--ee--eh!" cried Trot.
[Illustration: "THERE WAS A VERY LOUD SCREAM THIS TIME."]
"It came right on my nose," said Toddles. "I believe it's broken."
"I'm sure my toe is," said Trot.
There was no doubt at all about the pot, it was very much broken.
"Hush!" said Trot, "there's nurse!"
Toddles stopped in the middle of a scream, and the two children crept on
their hands and knees to the door, and listened eagerly--but it was a
false alarm.
"Let us try walking the rope," said Trot.
"I suppose you will do that," said Toddles, rubbing his nose; "though we
haven't any rope."
"Then we must find something else," said Trot cheerfully, determined not
to be beaten. "I think a walking-stick would do beautifully to practise
on, and we'll get nurse to give us a rope to-morrow."
"It looked very easy the other day," said Toddles, as Trot began to
arrange one end of the stick on a chair, and the other on a stool; "but
I don't expect it is."
"We'll be more careful this time," said Trot. "You hold the
walking-stick so that it sha'n't slip, and I'll hold this long stick so
that I sha'n't slip."
"All right," said Toddles, in a tone of voice which meant that he
thought it was all wrong.
There was a loud scream this time--a scream that brought nurse up-stairs
very quickly, so that she might see what was the matter.
Both the children were on the floor, and sticks, chair, and stool were
flying in every direction.
For a minute nurse was doubtful which was Trot, which was Toddles, and
which were sticks and chair.
"What are you doing?" said nurse.
But neither of the children answered. Toddles's head felt as if it had
suddenly become twice its usual size, and Trot did not feel quite sure
where she was, or whether she was standing on her head or her heels.
[Illustration: "TODDLES AND TROT WERE SITTING SIDE BY SIDE."]
Nurse picked them up, and kissed them and comforted them, but quite
forgot to scold the two miserable little pickles.
They didn't say anything about the circus, and somehow or other Toddles
thought he would like to go to bed early; and of course there was no use
in Trot staying up by herself, so she went to bed early too.
Next morning the children slept late, and did not seem very eager to get
up when they did wake.
"Trot," said Toddles, sighing deeply, "it is the party day. What shall
we do about the circus?"
Trot only answered with something between a groan and a growl.
"Children," said mother, coming into the nursery after breakfast, "shall
we write to the boys and girls, and tell them to come another day?"
And though you will probably be astonished to hear it, Toddles and Trot
nodded their heads and smiled.
"You wouldn't like it not to be a success," said mother.
"Trot," said Toddles, when mother had left the room, "you won't write a
programme next time."
"If I do, Toddles," said Trot, "you may carry it out--out of the room, I
mean."
But after all there was one part of the programme carried out.
At four o'clock that same afternoon Toddles and Trot were sitting side
by side on the nursery floor, looking and feeling very unhappy and
miserable.
"If only we hadn't hurt ourselves," said Trot, "we might have been
having the party now."
"And the two kinds of jam," said Toddles. "Oh dear! oh dear!"
"Oh dear! oh dear!" said Trot.
The door opened, and nurse came into the room.
"Miss Trot, Master Toddles," said she, "you are to have tea down-stairs
with mistress to-day."
Toddles and Trot looked surprised; but they jumped up quickly from the
floor, forgetting for the moment all their aches and pains.
"Do you think," whispered Toddles to Trot, as they walked slowly
down-stairs, "that there will be two kinds?"
Trot nodded her head. "I hope so," she said.
And there were.
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