For a little girl’s birthday present, she received a new tea-set, and the very day she got it, she had a tea-party. She invited all of the company herself; Mother, Father, Grandmother, and a little girl-cousin who lived next door.
“I’m going to have Cambric Tea with Ruffles, in my new cups,” she told each one, and everybody whom she invited was eager to go to the party.
“Cambric Tea with Ruffles in blue-and-gold cups,” said Father. “Why, I wouldn’t miss that party for anything. I’ll be the first one there, you just see if I’m not.”
But though he came early, the little girl-cousin was ahead of him. She did so much want to know what Cambric Tea was and what kind of Ruffles it had.
The tea-table looked beautiful with all the new dishes on it, and the little girl sat at the head to pour the tea.
“Will you have your Cambric Tea with one Ruffle or two?” she asked each of the company in turn. Grandmother was the first.
“One Ruffle, if you please,” she said.
So the little girl carefully filled a blue-and-gold cup with hot water from the blue-and-gold tea-pot and milk from the blue-and-gold cream-pitcher; and she put a tiny spoonful of sugar in it from the blue-and-gold sugar-bowl. That was Cambric Tea with one Ruffle!
“Two Ruffles for me, if you please,” said Father, and the little girl gave him two teaspoonsful of sugar in his cup of tea.
After that, everybody took two Ruffles, and everybody drank two cups of Cambric Tea. The little girl had to go to the kitchen for more hot water and milk.
There were animal crackers to eat with the tea, and they were on the blue-and-gold plates. Father said he had never eaten better elephants and tigers and bears, and that he believed the new tea-set had something to do with the way things tasted.
Whether it did or not, the party was delightful from beginning to end. Everybody thought so and said so. Even when it was over and Grandmother and Mother and Father had gone, the little girl and her cousin had fun, for they washed and wiped the dishes. They enjoyed that as much as they did the party, and they did not so much as nick or crack a single piece of the blue-and-gold china.
