"The party" happened to be the ice-cream, and Brother and Sister watched eagerly as the delivery boy carried the heavy wooden tub in which the cream was packed, up the back steps.  
"Going to have a party?" he smiled at them as he came back to his wagon¹. "Have a good time!"
 
The pretty little notes of invitation, which Mother Morrison had written to six boys and six girls, friends of Brother's and Sister's, two weeks ago, had said from "four to six," so it was time to dress in the best white clothes soon after lunch. Indeed, Brother's collar bow was not tied before the doorbell rang, and Nellie Yarrow arrived.
 
"I suppose she lived so far away, she thought she might be late," said Louise.
 
She ran downstairs and showed Nellie where to put the present she had brought for Brother.
 
After that the other boys and girls came, one by one, and Brother soon had a little pile of presents on the living-room table. He opened each one, and said thank you to the child who had brought it, and he forgot to be shy, so that he really enjoyed it all very much.
 
Charlie Raynor and his sister, Winifred, were the last to come, and Winifred was excited over something.
 
"I had the most awful time with Charlie!" she announced earnestly, to sympathetic Mother Morrison. "He acted dreadful!"
 
Winifred was two years older than Charlie and felt responsible for him.
 
"Give Roddy his present now," Winifred urged Charlie. "Hurry, I tell you."
 
Silently Charlie held out a little paper bag of candy.
 
"I had all I could do to keep him from eating it on the way here," his sister explained. "He just loves candy!"
 
Brother took the bag of candy and put it with his other gifts on the table. Then the children began the peanut hunt, which was the first game Louise and Grace had planned for them.
 
This was played outdoors, and it was fully² half an hour before all the peanuts had been discovered. Then, as several of the girls wanted to start the old, old game of "Going to Jerusalem," and Grace offered to play the music, they all trooped back to the living-room.
 
"Why, Roddy, your candy is gone!" announced Sister in surprise. "When did you eat it?"
 
Brother came up to her where she stood by the table of presents.
 
"I didn't eat it," he said wonderingly. "I left it right there on top of that book. Isn't that funny!"
 
"Well, it's gone," asserted Sister. "Someone ate it!"
 
Winifred had heard, and now she turned on the unfortunate Charlie.
 
"Charles Eldridge Raynor!" she said sternly. "Did you eat Roddy's candy that you brought him? Did you?"
 
Charlie nodded miserably³. He had slipped into the room, unnoticed during the peanut hunt, and unable to longer withstand the temptation, had calmly eaten up his birthday gift.
 
"I hope," stammered⁴ Winifred with very red cheeks, "I hope you will excuse him, Mrs. Morrison. I never knew him to do such a thing before!"
 
"Oh, it isn't anything so very dreadful," declared Mother Morrison, smiling. "Any laddie with a sweet tooth might easily do the same thing. Come, children, Grace is waiting to play for you."
 
They played "Going to Jerusalem" and "drop the Handkerchief," and all the time there was the mysterious fishpond back of the table! But they could not fish till after they had had ice cream.
 
As they were playing a noisy game of "Tag" out on the lawn, Molly came to t............