Entertaining Made Easy Part 6

The couples then scatter into the surrounding woods, and hunt for animal crackers which have previously been hidden by a committee of juniors.

The prize for the couple getting the most game might be an animal toy.

Next, volunteers to "Run the Gauntlet" may be called for. The others form in two parallel lines facing each other, armed with pieces of chalk. The victims must run down between the lines to a goal at the end, while the cruel Indians on each side reach out to put a chalk mark on them. The victim who gets the least chalk marks is permitted to select five of his tormentors to perform a series of stunts, previously planned by the junior entertainment committee.

Appropriate ones are these: 1. Give an Indian war whoop. 2. Do an Indian war dance. 3. Give Indian names to five people here. 4. Make a speech in sign language. 5. Tell an Indian story.

Supper should be eaten around a big camp-fire, and should consist of coffee cooked over the fire, nut-bread sandwiches, cold chicken and potato chips, and chocolate ice-cream under individual miniature tepees of brown paper.

Paint on each tepee in black some symbol apparently mysterious but in reality characteristic of the owner. Thus, a girl with a beautiful voice and a talent for singing may have a quaint bird on hers; an athlete, a pair of Indian clubs; a domestic science girl, a bowl and spoon or a kettle, and so on.

Redskins and Palefaces complete the menu, Palefaces being cookies with white icing and features marked in candies, and Redskins being apples.

Toasting marshmallows over the fire and singing school ditties and old favorites will end this unique party delightfully.

A PROGRESSIVE MOTOR PARTY

A group of girls who lived in the country gave a delightful farewell party for one of their number who was to move out of town to another part of the world. They called it a Progressive Rainbow.

At four o'clock one Sat.u.r.day afternoon they all met at one of the homes.

The porch was decorated in a red color scheme. A row of red j.a.panese lanterns hung from the roof all around. Red cus.h.i.+ons were scattered about in the chairs and on the steps, and a jar of crimson rambler roses adorned the table.

Everybody sat about and gossiped for a little while, and then fruit c.o.c.ktails, to which strawberries gave the touch of red, were served.

A tray of red ribbon streamers was pa.s.sed, and each girl pinned one on her blouse, as the beginning of her rainbow badge.

The guest of honor found with her favor a package tied with red tulle, which she was requested not to open till the end of the afternoon.

After this, two automobiles, owned by members of the group or their families, whisked the party along two miles of fresh country road to the home of another girl in the group.

Little tables had been set on the lawn with a bouquet of old-fas.h.i.+oned marigolds in the center of each one, and a toy orange balloon tied to the back of each chair by a long string. Here were served jellied orange soup in cups, and saltines.

The girls received orange-colored favor ribbons to pin next to their red ones, and the guest of honor received another prize packet, this time tied with orange tulle.

From there they all jumped again into the waiting cars and were transported to the home of a third girl for the third course.

This time it was served in the dining-room, which was decorated with yellow snapdragons. A basket of them filled the center of the table, and at each place was a scalloped sh.e.l.l containing deviled crab meat garnished with lemon quarters and accompanied by tartar sauce. Cubes of hot yellow cornbread were delicious with the crab.

Again the pa.s.sing of the yellow ribbons to the girls and the presenting of the yellow-tied package to the guest of honor were the signals for leaving to go to the next house.

The automobiles quickly took them there, where the main course of the dinner was to be eaten. Maidenhair ferns were lovely in a green bowl on the table, and tiny wood ferns were scattered over the white tablecloth.

The menu consisted of broiled chicken, fresh green peas, small boiled potatoes with parsley, and rye rolls.

By this time the girls were getting interested in their rainbow of ribbons, to which the green was now added, and the guest of honor received her fourth package, green-tied.

Motoring to the salad course, the group found the dining-room lighted by blue candles, though the guests were begged not to feel blue.

Ragged robins were arranged as a centerpiece, and fluttering blue tissue b.u.t.terflies marked the places.

The salad was prunes stuffed with peanuts in hearts of lettuce, served with French dressing and Dutch cheese b.a.l.l.s.

By the time the sixth stop was reached the sun had set and the moon was coming up, so that the girls sat on the veranda in the moon-light and sipped grape-juice ice to the music of romantic ditties. Lavender streamers were added next to the blue ones, and their badges were complete.

As they finally drove up to the last house, they were greeted by a rainbow of tulle which arched the entrance to the porch.

With their fluttering rainbow ribbon badges and the armful of rainbow packages belonging to the guest of honor, they felt very much at home with the rainbow, and the guest of honor was not even surprised to be asked to seek the pot of gold at the foot.

In the yellow pottery jar which she discovered were as many gold nuggets as there were girls, and each nugget was a little gilt-paper-wrapped joke for the trip.

The real, sure-enough farewell gifts to keep were in the packages progressively received, and there was a jolly time opening them under the rainbow.

BIRTHDAYS AND OTHER ANNIVERSARIES

Birthdays you particularly wish to celebrate happily and successfully.

There's your mother's birthday or your brother's or your little son's or daughter's birthday or the birthday of the popular president of your special club.

Then there are the various wedding anniversaries that call for suitable recognition, especially the five, ten, and twenty-five year ones.

Besides these there are countless other events that you want to commemorate pleasantly in some way afterward. These various occasions offer fascinating possibilities for the most delightful of social affairs.

A BACHELOR SUPPER

"_When I was a bachelor I lived by myself And all the bread and cheese I got, I put upon the shelf; The rats and the mice, they made such a strife I was forced to go to London to buy me a wife.

The streets were so broad and the lanes were so narrow I was forced to bring my wife home in a wheelbarrow_."

This old Mother Goose rhyme was the keynote of a bachelor supper which one girl gave for her brother and a few of his friends on his birthday.

The centerpiece on the table was an arrangement of bachelors' b.u.t.tons and at every place was a tiny toy wheelbarrow filled with candies, a wee dressed-up dolly dame perched atop of each load.

The rhyme also furnished the reason for the first course, which was most suitably bread and cheese, only the bread was in the form of b.u.t.tered rounds of toast and the cheese was a delicious Welsh rarebit, accompanied by coffee or gingerale.

Ice-cream in cantaloupes with a chocolate mouse nibbling at the rind followed, to be eaten with those most delicious of all cookies--home-made "hermits."