A girl who wished to entertain for a visiting school friend one
evening in midsummer sent out invitations to a Japanese Garden Party.
She wrote them on the pretty little hand-decorated place-cards which
are to be found in most shops now. The Japanese writing paper which
comes in rolls is another possibility for them.
She had a wide porch and a big lawn which she decorated for the
occasion with strings of pink, yellow and green Japanese lanterns with
electric bulbs inside. Settees and wicker chairs were scattered in
cosy groups through the shrubbery, and there was a faint odor of
burning incense.
For entertainment there was dancing on the porch to the tune of a
phonograph and a program of Japanese music, including some selections
from "Butterfly" and "The Mikado."
A clever reader gave one of the Hashimura Togo stories, and also the
hostess had arranged some artistic tableaux in Japanese fashion.
When it was refreshment time, cunning little girl friends of the
hostess appeared in Japanese kimonos, hair done high and stuck full
of tiny fans or flowers. They bore Japanese lacquer trays with tiny
sandwiches (filled with preserved ginger), cherry ice and rice wafers.
A wee Japanese flag was stuck in each portion of cherry ice.
The favors were wee Japanese doilies which the guests were bidden to
hunt for under a certain group of trees. While doing so, a sudden
surprise shower of seeming cherry blossoms covered them with pink and
white petals. These were really confetti petals obligingly scattered
by the nimble little waitresses perched in the branches above.