A strawberry luncheon given at the summer home of one of my Chicago friends reminded me that the Juniors would delight in a strawberry festival all their own. Where there is a hospitable farm or garden with a large strawberry-patch, whose owner agrees to give the berries for the festival if the Juniors will pick them, the way is open.

Usually in our northern latitudes the strawberries ripen just in good time for the beginning of vacation, so that without interference with school preparations the Juniors can pick the berries in the morning while the dew is still on them. Twenty Juniors, each with pail or basket, will make short and merry work of the picking. Then the fruit should be kept in a cool place until afternoon, when it is taken to the church basement or wherever the festival is to be, and hulled. There might be a slight reward given to the Junior who picks the most berries, also to the one who hulls the most, provided that the hulling is done carefully.

Cake and ice-cream should be previously engaged, and some of the boys may call for the cakes at the various homes in the afternoon. The ice-cream, of course, will be delivered by the dealer, unless that, also, is home-made and presented. Sugar for the berries must not be forgotten.

With a few hints from the Junior superintendent the older girls can arrange the tables, decorating them as prettily as they please with flowers and ferns brought by the younger ones; and the boys may help prepare the checks or tickets, with prices plainly marked. There should be separate checks for the berries, ice-cream, and cake, so that, whatever the order, the checks may be ready to send with each plate.

If the occasion has been well advertised, as it will be—trust the Juniors for that!—people will come in large numbers; and the Juniors, previously drilled, may wait on them, the larger ones attending to the “dishing out” in another room, while the smaller ones, dressed in fairy and brownie costumes, act as waiters. Two of the Juniors, a boy and a girl, might serve as cashiers.

When all have been served, toward the close of the evening there may be several songs and recitations, ending with a fairy drill, following the plan of the “holly and mistletoe drill” described elsewhere in the book. If the room, or at least the wall back of the platform, be decorated in green or in pink, with roses and ferns in profusion, the drill will appear to better advantage.

The Juniors and their superintendent will find plenty of work, as well as profit and play, in connection with this occasion, as is the case with most strawberry festivals; but all will enjoy it; and, if thought out well in advance, the details may be so divided as to make the labor light. The flower committee of the older society will readily lend a hand with the decorations if they are asked; and the fancy drill could of course be omitted, although it is a very pretty feature. If given, it should be by the smaller Juniors, both boys and girls, in their fairy and brownie costumes, and all carrying small, light trays instead of half-hoops.