One teacher planned a very happy May party for her little boy and girl
pupils. There was no chance to set up a big May pole out-of-doors for
the children to wind, but her idea turned out to be more original and
maybe even more jolly.
There were eighteen children included in the party, which was held in
the park. On arriving, each child was given a little peaked paper cap
of bright colored tissue paper. The boys liked these as well as the
girls did, although they found them harder to keep in place on their
heads. As soon as the children had donned their caps, three of the
tallest children were appointed to "help teacher." This helping
consisted in marching proudly out from behind a screen of bushes,
carrying three gay little May poles, decked with flowers and colored
paper streamers. They had been made by swinging a barrel hoop from
a broomstick handle, by means of a number of ribbon-like strips of
cloth. Of course the hoops were wound with the cloth, and besides that
were trimmed with apple blossoms and lilacs.
From the rim of each hoop the cloth strips hung straight down for two
or three feet. The colors on the May pole matched the colored caps
that the children wore.
There proved to be just fifteen streamer, and each child was allowed
to pick out a streamer to correspond with the color of the cap worn.
Thus a little girl with a pink cap would pick out a pink streamer; a
little boy with a green cap, a green streamer, and so on. The children
who held the May poles were then asked to stand at some distance apart
out in the open space of the park, and each little group of five
danced round and round, and back and forth, holding and twisting their
colored streamers.
Somehow this amused them almost all the long spring afternoon.
Different children took turns holding the May poles and sometimes they
would even form a procession and hippity-hop around the park. They
paraded down Main Street for a little way, but came back to the park
in time to play "Drop the Handkerchief," "Hide and Seek," and "Tag,"
before refreshments were served.
They were perfectly delighted, of course, with strawberry lemonade,
brown bread sandwiches, and little frosted cup cakes, which their
teacher's mother had made and on which she had outlined in pink
candies the individual initials of the children.