Be very mysterious in your remarks about what is to go on at this party, answering all questions by whispering in the ears of your friends: “Why, don’t you know what a pastery party is like? I’m really surprised!”

There is pastry and pastry. A pastery party, to keep the secret no longer, is a scrap-book party, nothing more. O, but it’s fun! Try it. Get hold of a lot of illustrated periodicals; the more guests you have, the more magazines you need. If you can find colored picture cards besides, all the better. Ask your mother to make enough flour paste to fill several cups. Fifteen or twenty guests are not too many. A sheet, an old table-cloth, or neat pieces of wrapping-paper should be spread on the table or tables. There must be plenty of elbow-room for scrap-booking.

A pastery party need not be an expensive affair. I once had three dozen scrap-books made for about two dollars and fifty cents. This is the way I went about it: Down at the wholesale wrapping-paper store I bought a good-sized pile of sheets left over from a large order. The paper was manila, smooth, and not too thin or too thick. I cannot remember the exact measurements. At any rate, the old binder up-town cut them into two sizes, and the smaller size, eight by fifteen inches, is the best for a pastery party. There should not be more than twenty pages in a book. My covers were of terra-cotta cartridge-paper. Any medium heavy paper will do. If you wish to be economical, you can stitch each book with a single piece of string, punching the holes with a scissors-blade. The books should be numbered.

When the guests, seated at the tables, are waiting for the pie (or something) to be brought on, you and your assistants should enter, dressed in chefs’ aprons and caps, from the kitchen, first with a trayful of paste-cups, which you should set on the table in a very dignified manner, one cup for each guest. Maybe the guests will peer into their cups, and wonder whether they are expected to eat their custard without any spoons! As soon as they catch sight of the mucilage-brushes—which can be procured cheaply at the stationer’s—and the scissors, they will begin to suspect what is meant by the word “pastery.” Bring on next the scrap-books and the magazines, and tell your friends that at the end of an hour of “scrapping” rewards will be given by three grown-up judges for (1) the neatest and best-arranged book, (2) for the book containing the largest number of pictures, and (3) for the book which is filled first.

The time-limit should be exact. Every person should write down on a piece of paper the number marked on the cover of his book, and next to the number his own name. The books should be carried to the judges, who are seated up-stairs in a room with closed doors. Not until they have announced the winning numbers will they be furnished with the slips of paper containing the names to which the numbers belong. By taking these precautions the contest will be absolutely fair. The scrap-books should be given next day to the children’s ward of a hospital, or to the children’s room in a library. Each pastery-cook’s name should be written in his book, and under the names of the successful competitors should be set down what rewards they won.

The rewards might be these: A handsome scrap-book, a bottle of library paste, and a pair of scissors. While the judges are deciding, the company might play “Jenkins up!” or cut paper dolls. The refreshments might be miniature apple-pies, the size of a small saucer, for each guest. After the party is over ask those guests who did not have time to paste their books full kindly to do so at home and return them to the hostess as soon as possible.