Entertaining Made Easy Part 2

After supper the various stunts registered on the checks and some rollicking songs filled the remainder of a merry evening in which there had been absolutely no chance for stiffness from beginning to end.

These were some of the stunts:

_For the Men_

1. Show in five different ways how reveille affected your friends.

2. Give an imitation of a lady and her pet "Peke."

3. Go around the room without touching your feet to the floor.

4. Do a ballet act.

5. Dig a trench (in pantomime).

6. Sing a Mother Goose rhyme through your nose.

_For the Girls_

1. Give a military salute to every man in the room in turn.

2. Choose a partner to walk around the "chimney" with you ten times.

3. Count to fifty, subst.i.tuting the words "Oh, fudge!" for fives and every multiple of five.

4. Pretend to eat a bunch of grapes.

5. Represent your favorite movie actress till the others guess her correctly.

6. Flirt in three different ways.

A PROGRESSIVE MARCH PARTY

A group of high school friends, a social club of boys and girls, or a church society of young people will enjoy giving the following party in March.

Send out invitations written on cards reading as follows:

_March is the month of all the year When lamb and lion do appear, When p.u.s.s.y willow comes anew And March hare scampers into view.

If you would meet these creatures four And maybe several others more, Then come prepared for work and play To Grangers' hall, March first, the day_.

On the invitation cards, tiny hares, lions, lambs, or sprays of p.u.s.s.y willows can be outlined or traced by means of carbon paper from pictures.

The guests upon arrival draw from a basket containing tiny toy or cracker lions, lambs, rabbits and cats, whichever kind of favor they wish.

According to the favor each one draws, the guests take their places respectively at the March hare table, the lion table, the lamb table, or the p.u.s.s.y willow table. Each table is marked by a distinguis.h.i.+ng centerpiece: at the March hare table is a plaster rabbit, at the lion table, a toy lion; the lamb table has a woolly lamb on wheels, and the p.u.s.s.y willow table, a bunch of p.u.s.s.y willows or a stuffed cat.

The fun is now ready to begin, for with the implements and materials provided at each table the guests are required to produce a facsimile of the animal for which the table is named. Different materials are provided at each table, so there is no monotony, as the guests progress from table to table after half an hour's stay at each one in turn.

Modeling clay is the medium in which the March hares are to be done, and no implements except fingers are supposed to be used, though if a boy slyly makes use of his jack-knife, there are no embarra.s.sing questions asked.

The lions are to be carved from potatoes with the aid of little kitchen vegetable knives, and the lambs are to be fas.h.i.+oned from cotton wool, matches, and mucilage.

At the p.u.s.s.y willow table the guests must show how expert they can be at cutting cats, free hand, from flannel. Beads for eyes, and floss and bristles for whiskers, are also furnished.

Prizes are given for the best and the worst specimen at each table.

A rabbit's foot charm, a small reproduction of the Barye lion, or the well-known Perry picture of a lion, a Dresden-china lamb or shepherdess, and a p.u.s.s.y-cat plate, pincus.h.i.+on, or paper weight are suggestions for first prizes, and four little tin horns painted green may be given as b.o.o.by prizes to the four "greenhorns" who have the worst showing.

AN AUTUMN LEAF DANCE

In the fall, after school has opened, some cla.s.s often likes to give a reception to the entering cla.s.s. An autumn leaf dance in October is the prettiest kind of one to have.

Decorate the school hall with branches of scarlet and yellow maple leaves, or deep red and russet oak boughs.

For the dance programs make covers from water-color paper cut and painted to look like oak or maple leaves. The inside pages can be of thin white paper in the same shape. Attach little red pencils.

Plan one autumn leaf dance in which each girl receives a wreath of autumn leaves from her partner. For refreshments have orange or raspberry ice with vanilla ice-cream, and serve it on plates covered with leaf-shaped paper doilies.

A HARVEST HOME PARTY

A "RED EAR" party is what they called it in the invitations. It was the opening party of the year in the high school and the seniors planned it.

The cards they sent out said:

_Oh, this time o' the year You'll recall the red ear (It will never go out o' date); So the members of "twenty"

Have planned fun a-plenty At a regular Harvest Home fete-- You're invited_!

The school hall was delightfully decorated emphasizing the autumn colors. Bright tawny leaves banked the platform where the orchestra sat, and along the side walls globes of red and orange balloons glowed among the soft tans and browns of cornstalks. From the ceiling, myriads of red and orange paper lanterns swayed brilliantly.

The dance programs were "red ears" cut from cardboard, and tiny red pencils dangled from them. Some of the names of the dances to excite curiosity were:

The Corn Stalk The Scarecrow Skitter Farmerettes Fancy Popcorn Waltz Orchard One-step Pumpkin Pie Walk Red Ear Dance Harvest Home Revue

The Corn Stalk was in the nature of a grand march--everybody "stalking stiffly" round and round in time to the music, which ended in a rollicking one-step.