"Geranium Blossom! but I'm hungry," exclaimed Bob. "Mumsey, do you s'pose we're going to have any dinner to-night?"
"I think so, my boy," returned Mrs. Barlow, placidly, "but go and get a biscuit if you'd like one."
"I'll tell you what," said Nan, "let's have tea while we wait. There'll be plenty of time, for Eunice has just begun to lay the table for dinner."
"All right," said Bumble. "Patty, if you'll get the hot water, I'll cut up a lemon."
"But there aren't any lemons," said her mother. "I looked for one to-day, and they're all out."
"There aren't any biscuits, either," said Bob, coming back from a fruitless quest; "the box is empty."
"And there doesn't seem to be any sugar," said Nan, peering into the sugar-bowl on the tea-table.
"Well, I'll tell you what," said Bumble, "let's pretend to have tea. You know some people say, if you think you have anything, you have it."
"All right," said Patty, who dearly loved to pretend, "I'll make the tea."
So she pretended to measure out some tea from the caddy, and put it in the teapot. Then she poured imaginary water from the teakettle upon it, and covered the teapot tightly with the cosey. After allowing it a little time to "draw" she pretended to pour it into cups, in which Bumble had already placed imaginary sugar-lumps and bits of lemon.
Bob offered his services as waiter, and passed the cups to his mother and Nan, and also to imaginary guests, who, he pretended, were sitting on the chairs and sofa.
"This tea is delicious," said Aunt Grace, stirring in her empty cup, and sipping from her empty spoon.
"Yes," said Patty, "it is real Russian tea, Do have some more, won't you?"
"Indeed, I will," said Aunt Grace, and Patty poured her another empty cupful.
"Pass the biscuit, Bumble," said Bob, and his sister carried around the empty biscuit-jar, while the guests helped themselves to nothing.
Uncle Ted came in in the midst of the tea joke, and drank several cups of air, until Patty finally peeped into the teapot, and said, "You'll all have to stop, for there isn't any tea left."
Bob carried the cups back to the tea-table, and all declared they had had a very nice tea-party.
"But why don't you have a tea-party, girls?" said Uncle Ted, "a real one, I mean. Invite all the neighbors and have a nice spread. I'll decorate a bit with Japanese lanterns, and we'll make it a general festivity."
"Oh, lovely!" cried Bumble, "if mamma is well enough to stand the excitement."
"Aunt Grace needn't have any of the trouble," said Nan. "I'll order things, and help get the house ready. We girls will do all the work, and Aunt Grace can just be an invited guest."
"Let's make it a lawn-party," said Bob, "and we'll have supper served in a tent."
"Let me see," said Uncle Ted, "to-day is Monday. There's no use waiting too long, and the moon is nearly at its full now. Suppose we have the party on Thursday; can you all be ready by that time?"
"Oh, yes," said Nan, "there's nothing much to do. Let's write the invitations to-night."
So during dinner, which was finally announced, they completed their plans for a garden-party from five o'clock to ten Thursday evening; and after dinner Nan wrote the invitations, and Patty addressed them, while the rest discussed and decided who should be invited to the party.
Chapter XV.
The Lawn-Party
The next day Patty announced her willingness to do anything she could to assist in the preparations for the lawn-party; and Aunt Grace kissed her fondly, and said she was a dear little helper, and they would be only too glad to make use of her services.
But the day passed by and nothing was done. Everybody went for a swim in the morning, and in the afternoon Nan went driving, and Patty and the twins were invited to a neighbor's to play tennis. Then in the evening they all went for a moonlight sail.
After they returned, Patty ventured to remind her procrastinating relatives that there was very little time left in which to prepare for the various entertainments they had suggested.
"Jumping grasshoppers!" exclaimed Bob whose expletives were often of his own invention, "I meant to set old Dil at work to-day, clearing a place for a tent. Dad, we must go over to the city to-morrow, and get a tent, and some lanterns and flags. We want to make the place look gay and festive."
"Yes, we'll go," said his father, heartily, "and the girls can go with us, if they like."
"We do like," cried Bumble, "and after we buy the things, won't you take us to the Zoo, to see the baby hippopotamus?"
"But," said Patty, "I think we ought to stay at home and help Aunt Grace."
"No, no," said her aunt, "there's nothing much to do; I'll get somebody in to help Hopalong make cakes and jellies, and we can leave the house decorations until Thursday."
"Yes, that will be best," said Nan, "for to-morrow I'm going over to Montauk Point for the day, but I'll help all day Thursday."
"We'll all work with more enthusiasm when the day of the party comes," said Aunt Grace, "and now run along to bed, all of you."
Next day the family rose late, and breakfast was much later, so that it was noon before they started for New York.
Then Bob proposed that they go to the Zoo first, and do the shopping afterwards. This they did, and the result was, that, as the animals were so interesting, after they had seen them all it was too late to go to the shops.
"Whew! I'd no idea it was so late," said Uncle Ted, looking at his watch; "but never mind. We'll go home now, and I'll telegraph early in the morning, and the tent and lanterns can be sent over at once, and we can easily get them put up in time."
When they reached home they found Aunt Grace entertaining some friends who had come to spend the day. They were delightful people, and Aunt Grace had found them so absorbing that she had entirely forgotten to send for an assistant to prepare dainties for the party.
But nobody seemed to mind, and Patty concluded it was not her place to comment on the way things were going, at least, not to the Hurly-Burly people themselves.
But when she wrote that night to her father, she said:
"I'm glad you didn't describe my aunts to me, but let me discover their traits for myself. For, really, I never would have believed a family could act like the Barlows. They are out of proportion every way, but, after all, I can't help loving them, for they are such dear, kind people, and they mean to do right, only they never do anything."
But as the next day was Thursday, and some things had to be done, everybody began to hustle and bustle and fly around generally.
Uncle Ted sent to New York by a special messenger for a tent, and a lot of lanterns and gay bunting, and succeeded in getting them soon after noon. Then he and Bob and old Dil put the tent up, and hung the lanterns along the veranda and among the trees.
Nan drove all around the country trying to find a cook to assist Hopalong, but as none was to be found, Aunt Grace had to go down to the kitchen and make some of the cakes herself.
Nan and Bumble made sandwiches and squeezed lemons, and somehow the time slipped away until it was four o'clock, and the house was not yet decorated and the ice cream hadn't arrived from New York. "Nan, you and Patty fix the flowers, and I'll take the trap and fly down to the station and see if the ice cream isn't there," said Bumble,