The Old Folks' Party.

and that young man Avas finally forced to admit that the members of the club Avould probably prove exceptions to the general rule in such matters . It Avas agreed , therefore , that they should appear to know each other at the old folks' party .

' ' All you girls must , of course , be called ' M rs . ' instead of ' Miss , '" suggested Frank , " though you will have to keep your own names , that is unless you prefer to disclose any designs you may have upon other le ' s" for which piece of impertinence

peop ; Nellie , who sat next him , boxed his ears , — for the reader must know that these young peop le were on a footing of entire familiarity and long intimacy . " Do you know what time it is 1 " asked Marywhoby virtue of the sweet

sedate-, , ness of her disposition , Avas rather the mohitress of the company . " It ' s twelve o ' clock , an hour after the club ' s curfew . " " Well , " remarked Henry , rousing from the fit of abstraction in which he had been

pursuing the subject of their preA'ious discussion , " it Avas to be expected Ave should get a little mixed as to chronology over such talk as this . " " With our watches set fifty years ahead , there'll be no danger of overstaying our time next Wednesday , anyhow , " added Frank .

Soon the girls presented themselves in readiness for out-doors , and in a pleasant gust of good-byes and parting jests the party broke up . " Good-bye for fifty years , " Jessie called after them from the stoop as the merry couples walked away in the moonlight . The followin g Aveek Avas one of numerous

consultations among the girls . Grandmother Fellow ' s Avardrobe Avas pretty thoroughly rummaged under that goodnatured old lady ' s superintendence , aud many ivere the queer effects of old garments upon young figures which surprised the steady-going mirror in her quiet chamber .

" I ' m afraid I can never depend on it again , " said Mrs . FelloAvs . She had promised to be at the party . " She looked so grave Avhen I first asked her , " Mary explained to the girls , " that 1 was sorry I spoke of it . I Avas afraid she thought we Avauted her only as a sort of convenience to help out our pantomime by the effects of her white hair . But in a

minute she smiled in her cheery way , and said , as if she saw right through me : 'I suppose , my child , you think being old a sort of misfortune , like being hunchbacked or blind , and are afraid of hurting my feelings , but you needn ' t be . The good Lord has made it so that at Avhichever end

of life Ave are , the other end looks pretty uninteresting , and if it won ' t hurt your feelings to have somebody in the party Avho has got through all the troubles you have yet before you I should be glad to come . ' That Avas turning the tables for us pretty

neatly , eh , girls ?" The young ladies would 'not have had the old lady guess it for Avorlds , but truth compels me to OAvn that all that week they improved every opportunity furtively to study Mrs . FelloAv ' s gait and manner , Avith

a vieAv to perfecting their parts . Frank and George met a couple of times in Henry ' s room to smoke it over and settle details , and Plenty called on Jessie to arrange seA'eral concerted features of the programme , aud for some other reasons for aught I know .

As each one studied his or her part aud strove in imagination to conceive how they Avould act and feel as old men and old women , they grew more interested , aud more sensible of the mingled pathos and absurdity of the projectand its decided

, general effect of queerness . They all set themselves to make a study of old age in a manner that had never occurred to them before , and never does occur to most people at all . Never before had their elderly friends received so much attention at their

hands . In the prosecution of these observations they Avere impressed Avith the entire lack of interest generally felt by people iu the habits and manners of persons in other epochs of life than their own . In respect of age , as in so many other respectsthe

, world lives on flats , Avith equally little niterest in comprehension of the levels above or beloAv them . And a surprising thing is that middle age is about as unable to recall and realize youth as to anticipate age . Experience seems to go for nothing

in this matter . They thought they noticed , too , that old people are more alike than middle-aged people . There is something of the same narroAvness and similarity in the range of