Stars, Stripes and Surprises. Valerie Tripp

ice cream at tea,” said Emily.

      “No ice cream? Not even when it’s a birthday tea party? You just have plain old cake?” Molly asked.

      “Oh, no, indeed!” said Emily. “Not plain cake. At a tea party you’d have something special. Let’s see,” she thought. “It’s not proper to have treacle pudding at tea. You’d have little cakes or a tart. Yes, I think probably a tart. A lemon tart.”

      “Wait a minute,” said Molly. She wasn’t absolutely sure what a lemon tart was, but she didn’t like the sound of it. “Are you saying we’ll have a lemon tart instead of a regular cake?”

      Emily said, “Yes.”

      “But—but what do you put the candles in?” Molly sputtered. “And what do you write Happy Birthday on?”

      Emily didn’t answer.

      “Listen, Emily,” said Molly. “My very favorite birthday thing, I mean what I myself like the best, is a big layer cake. It’s not a birthday without a cake. And Mrs. Gilford has even saved enough of our cocoa ration for chocolate frosting this year. I know you’ll like it.” Emily didn’t say anything, so Molly went on, “Maybe we could make the cake look English. We could make it in the shape of a castle or something…” Her voice trailed off. The two girls sat in stony silence.

      At last Molly said, “What if we have an American cake, but all the rest of the food is English?”

      “Then it wouldn’t be a proper English princesses’ tea at all,” said Emily.

      “Yes, it would,” said Molly.

      “No,” said Emily briskly, “it would not.”

      “Okay, okay,” said Molly. “As long as you’re sure that’s what the princesses would have.”

      “Oh, yes,” said Emily. “I’m sure.”

      “Then let’s go tell Mom about the food,” Molly said to Emily. But to herself she said, Margarine sandwiches, milky tea, and a lemon tart. Maybe this tea party was not such a hot idea after all.

      But all the girls at school thought the tea party sounded absolutely wonderful. All week long, while they were playing jump rope and dodgeball and hopscotch in the fresh spring sunshine, all anyone talked about was “Emily’s tea party.”

      “How simply elegant!” gushed Susan. “It’s so grown-up! I’ve never had real tea before!”

      “You are so lucky, Molly,” said Alison Hargate. “Emily can tell you just how everything is done in England.”

      Everyone envied Molly so much that she began to think she really must be lucky. No one else seemed to think a lemon tart was so bad.

      By the night before the party, Molly and Emily both felt jittery with excitement as they blew up balloons and made party hats.

      “Hey, Emily,” said Molly. “We’d better not forget to make crowns for ourselves.”

      “Crowns?” asked Emily.

      “Sure, so everyone will know we’re the princesses,” said Molly. “I think I have two long dress-up dresses we can wear.”

      Emily laughed softly. “Oh, Molly, you’re thinking of fairy-tale princesses. Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose wear normal clothes.”

      “But I’ve seen pictures of them in crowns and long dresses,” said Molly stubbornly. “Remember? There’s a picture like that in your scrapbook.”

      “That picture was taken when their father was crowned the King of England,” said Emily. “They don’t wear those clothes for a tea party.”

      “Oh,” said Molly. She had imagined herself curtsying deep into a billow of skirt. “Well, at least I have a nice party dress from last year.”

      “In fact, since it’s a wartime party, the princesses would probably wear skirts and jumpers—you call them sweaters,” said Emily. “They’d dress just as usual.”

      This was too much. “I’m not wearing boring old school clothes to my birthday party,” Molly stated flatly. “All the other girls will have on their party dresses.”

      “The princesses—” Emily began.

      “I don’t care,” said Molly. “I’m going to wear my party dress and that’s final.”

      “But then we won’t look like the princesses,” said Emily.

      “Too bad,” said Molly.