“Huh!” said Ricky. He crossed his arms on his chest and looked at Emily. “What does a girl know about fighter planes anyway?”
“Oh, I’ve seen hundreds of fighter planes flying over England,” said Emily.
“You have?” asked Ricky. He had never seen a single one.
“Of course,” Emily said patiently. “Look here. See these white bands over the nose and the tail? That’s what tells you it’s an American plane. Besides—” she squinted at the blurry picture—“if you look very hard, you can tell that’s a star, not a swastika, there near the tail. All the American planes have stars on them.”
“I know that,” snapped Ricky. He frowned at the poster and started to take it down. Without turning around he said, “Do you see any other mistakes?”
“Not right off,” Emily said airily. “I’ll look more carefully later though. Molly and I are going for a walk now.” She and Molly floated down the hall, down the stairs, and outside.
It had rained during the night, and the girls had to skirt around mud puddles as they strolled along dragging their jump ropes. They were using the jump ropes as leashes for their imaginary dogs. Molly had a fine time pretending her dog was frisky.
“No, no!” she said. “Don’t go in that puddle! Bad dog!” Molly yanked her jump rope through the water. Then she pretended to trip. She giggled, “Ooops! My dog twisted the leash around my legs! This is fun, isn’t it?”
“Mmmhmm,” Emily answered in her usual soft-spoken way. Her dog seemed to be well behaved and as quiet as Emily was herself.
“Of course, it would be better if we had real dogs,” said Molly. “Do you like dogs, Emily?”
Emily’s eyes were shining. “Oh, yes,” she said. “I love dogs.”
“Me, too,” said Molly. “I think puppies are cute. And dogs are so much fun to play with.”
“Yes,” said Emily.
“Even before I was a princess, I wished I had a dog,” Molly went on. “A dog can really be your friend. Don’t you think so?”
But Emily didn’t answer. Her imaginary dog must have tugged on its leash because Emily quickly moved a few steps ahead of Molly.
During the next few days, Molly and Emily took their imaginary dogs for a walk every afternoon. Everyone in the family got used to seeing them in their matching princess outfits, dragging their jump rope leashes and playing with their invisible dogs. The two girls liked to share Molly’s roller skates, each wearing one, and skate down the sidewalk pretending their dogs were running behind.
“It’s too bad we can’t get a pair of skates for you,” said Molly to Emily one afternoon. “But they’re not making skates because of the war.”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” said Emily cheerfully. “Remember, we’re princesses, and princesses never complain about the sacrifices they have to make.”
Molly joked, “I wonder if the princesses ever skated with their dogs? I bet there’s lots of room to skate in Windsor Castle.”
They giggled as they skated up the driveway.
Mrs. McIntire was kneeling in the flower garden. She was pulling dead leaves away from some daffodils that were beginning to bloom. “Hello, your highnesses,” she said. “What’s all the giggling about?”
“We were thinking about skating in a palace,” said Molly.
“I wish you would think about what kind of birthday party you’d like to have. It’s less than a week away, you know,” Mrs. McIntire said to Molly.
“I know,” said Molly. “I just can’t decide. I was thinking of going to the movies, but we did that last year. I want to do something different.”
“How do you celebrate birthdays, Emily?” Mrs. McIntire asked.
Emily thought a moment. “In England, we used to have a tea party and—”
“A tea party!” Molly broke in. “Oooh! That’s perfect! Can we do that for my birthday, Mom?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Mrs. McIntire. “Emily can tell us exactly what to do.”
Emily glowed. “Of course, I haven’t actually had a big birthday party in a long time. Not since the war started, really, because it’s impossible to get sweets and special foods,” she added quickly. “But when I was much younger, I had a party with ten girls. The room was decorated with flowers and ribbons, and we played games and ate lovely treats.”
“Like princesses!” said Molly. “That’s what my birthday party will be: the princesses’ tea party!” Then Molly had a wonderful idea. “Emily, why don’t you share my birthday with me? It will make up for the parties you’ve missed. We’ll have a tea party, and we’ll be the princesses, you and me. We’ll dress up so we’ll look alike and everything. It will be the most wonderful birthday party anyone ever had. What do you think?”
Emily’s cheeks were as pink as posies. “I think it would be very nice indeed,” she said.
Molly knew that was an excited answer, coming from Emily. Emily must be very, very pleased, just as pleased as Molly was herself.
Planning the Party
“You see,” Emily said, “in England we do invitations like this.” Emily pushed her wispy hair behind her ears, hunched over the paper, and wrote
Mrs. James McIntire requests
the honour of your presence at a tea
to celebrate the birthdays of
Miss Molly McIntire and Miss Emily Bennett
Saturday, the twenty-second of April
four o’clock at her home
“That’s wonderful!” said Molly. “It’s so English.”
Emily smiled.
“The only thing is, I’m a little worried because I don’t think any of my friends really drink tea,” said Molly. “So probably we should have cocoa instead.”
Emily said slowly, “In England it’s always real tea. I suppose you could put lots of hot milk and honey in the tea so that your friends will like it.”
“I guess so,” said Molly. “Usually at birthday parties we have cold milk with peanut butter sandwiches or hot dogs. Of course, at Alison Hargate’s party we had ginger ale.”
Emily shook her head. “In England we have tea sandwiches, not peanut butter or hot dogs. Tea sandwiches are very thin, not like American sandwiches. And the crusts are cut off.”
“Well, that sounds okay,” said Molly. “What’s in the sandwiches?”
“Meat paste or watercress,” said Emily.
“Meat paste?” asked Molly. “What’s that?”
Emily explained. “It’s a paste sort of like peanut butter, only it’s made out of ground-up meat. Maybe ham or liver.”
“Liver?” said Molly, horrified.