“All right, you get in the middle, Maud,” Christy said. They began over.
“Uncle John is sick abed.
What shall we send him?
A piece of pie, a piece of cake,
Apple and dumpling!
What shall we send it in?
A golden saucer.
Who shall we send it by?
The governor’s daughter.
If the governor’s daughter ain’t at home, Who shall we send it by?”
Then all the girls shouted,
“By Laura Ingalls!”
Laura stepped into the middle of the ring and they danced around her. They went on playing Uncle John till Teacher rang the bell. Nellie was in the schoolhouse, crying, and she said she was so mad that she was never going to speak to Laura or Christy again.
But the next week she asked all the girls to a party at her house on Saturday afternoon. She asked Christy and Laura, specially.
Chapter 22
Town Party
Laura and Mary had never been to a party and did not quite know what it would be like. Ma said it was a pleasant time that friends had together.
After school on Friday she washed their dresses and sunbonnets. Saturday morning she ironed them, fresh and crisp. Laura and Mary bathed that morning, too, instead of that night.
“You look sweet and pretty as posies,” Ma said when they came down the ladder, dressed for the party. She tied on their hair-ribbons and warned them not to lose them. “Now be good girls,” she said, “and mind your manners.”
When they came to town they stopped for Cassie and Christy. Cassie and Christy had never been to a party, either. They all went timidly into Mr. Oleson’s store, and Mr. Oleson told them, “Go right on in!”
So they went past the candy and pickles and plows, to the back door of the store. It opened, and there stood Nellie all dressed up, and Mrs. Oleson asking them in.
Laura had never seen such a fine room. She could hardly say “Good afternoon, Mrs. Oleson,” and “Yes, ma’am,” and “No, ma’am.”
The whole floor was covered with some kind of heavy cloth that felt rough under Laura’s bare feet. It was brown and green, with red and yellow scrolls all over it. The walls and the ceiling were narrow, smooth boards fitted together with a crease between them. The table and chairs were of a yellow wood that shone like glass, and their legs were perfectly round. There were colored pictures on the walls.
“Go into the bedroom, girls, and leave your bonnets,” Mrs. Oleson said in a company voice.
The bedstead was shiny wood, too. There were two other pieces of furniture. One was made of drawers on top of each other, with two little drawers sitting on its top, and two curved pieces of wood went up and held a big looking-glass between them. On top of the other stood a china pitcher in a big china bowl, and a small china dish with a piece of soap on it.
There were glass windows in both rooms, and the curtains of those windows were white lace.
Behind the front room was a big lean-to with a cookstove in it, like Ma’s new one, and all kinds of tin pots and pans hanging on the walls.
All the girls were there now, and Mrs. Oleson’s skirts went rustling among them. Laura wanted to be still and look at things, but Mrs. Oleson said, “Now, Nellie, bring out your playthings.”
“They can play with Willie’s playthings,” Nellie said.
“They can’t ride on my velocipede!” Willie shouted.