QUICKLY, after the first guests had arrived came the others.Nellie Parks, Grace Lavine friends of Nan, and Willie Porter and his sister Sadie, came first, and Freddie and Flossie let them in, the Porter children being some of their bestliked playmates.
All the children wore their best clothes, and for a time they were a bit stiff and unnatural, standing shyly about in corners, against the walls, or sitting on chairs.
The boys seemed to all crowd together in one part of the room, and the girls in another.Flossie and Freddie, Nan and Bert, were so busy answering the door that they did not notice this at first.
But Aunt Sarah, their mother's sister, who had come over to help Mrs.Bobbsey, looking in the parlor and library, saw what the trouble was.
"My!" she cried, with a goodnatured laugh, as she noticed how "stiff" the children were."This will never do.You're not that way at school, I don't believe.Come, be lively.Mix up - play games.Pretend this is recess at school, and make as much noise as you like."For a moment the boys and girls did not know what to think of this invitation.But just then Snap, the circus dog, came in the room, and, with a bark of welcome, he turned a somersault, and then marched around on his hind legs, carrying a broomstick like a gun - pretending he was a soldier.Bert had given it to him.
Then how the children laughed and clapped their hands! And Snap barked so loudly - for he liked applause that there was noise enough for even jolly Aunt Sarah.After that there was no trouble.The boys and girls talked together and soon they were playing games, and having the best kind of fun.For some of the games simple prizes had been offered and it was quite exciting toward the end to see who would win.Flossie and Freddie thought they had never had such a good time in all their lives.Nan and Bert were enjoying themselves, too, with their friends, who were slightly older than those who had been asked for the youngerBobbseytwins.
"Going to Jerusalem," was one game that created lots of enjoyment.A number of chairs were placed in the centre of the room, and the boys and girls marched around them while Mrs.Bobbsey played the piano.But there was one less chair than there were players, so that when the music would suddenly stop, which was a signal for each one who could, to sit down, someone was sure to be left.Then this one had to stay out of the game.
Then a chair would be taken away, so as always to have one less than the number of players, and the game went on.It was great fun, scrambling to see who would get a seat, and not be left without one, and finally there was but one chair left, while Grace Lavine and John Blake marched about.Mrs.Bobbsey kept playing quite some time, as the two went around and around that one chair.Everyone was laughing, wondering who would get a seat and so win the game, when, all at once, Mrs.Bobbsey stopped the music.She had her back turned so it would be perfectly fair.
Grace and John made a rush for the one chair, but Grace got to it first, and so she won.
"Well, I'm glad you did, anyhow," said John, politely.
Other games were "peanut races" and "potato scrambles." In the first each player had a certain number of peanuts and they had to start at one end of the room, and lay the nuts at equal distances apart across to the other side, coming back each time to their pile of peanuts to get one.
Sometimes a boy would slip, he was in such a hurry, or a girl would drop her peanuts, and this made fun and confusion.
Nan won this race easily.
In the potato scramble several rows of potatoes were made across the room.Each player was given a large spoon, and whoever first took up all his or her potatoes in the spoons one at a time, and piled them up at the far end of the room, won the game.In this Charley Mason was successful, and won the prize - a pretty little pin for his tie.
