A girl who wanted to give an inexpensive jolly little party in honor of a visiting friend in October issued invitations to a nut gathering.

At the top of each correspondence card which served as an invitation, she glued half an almond shell upon which a face was marked in ink.  Below this nut head the rest of the figure was drawn in ink on the card, and the inscription read: 

    Pretend you’re a squirrel for once
    And join my nut-gathering stunts,
  Friday, October the eleventh
    at half-past eight.

The first amusement of the evening was introduced by suspending from the chandelier in the center of the room a cocoanut decorated with a comical face and a pointed paper cap perched on top.

Each person from a distance of ten feet was allowed three throws at this cap with a little light rubber ball, the object being to knock Mr. Cocoanut’s cap off.  The best marksman won a prize.

This first nut stunt caused so much fun that no one wanted to be lured away to a Nut Exhibit.  Ten varieties of nuts were represented by pictures or objects and little slips of paper and pencil were distributed for recording guesses.

The display was as follows: 

1.  A bit of butter on a plate

2.  A stout, old-fashioned stick

3.  A can of canned peas with indicating label

4.  A single pea

5.  A map of South America with the outlines of Brazil especially prominent

6.  A picture of typical English stone or brick wall

7.  A can or cup of cocoa

8.  A photograph of Hazel Dawn, the movie star

9.  A beetle specimen (dead or alive)

10.  Three ears of corn arranged to form the letter A

  Answers

  1.  Butternut
  2.  Hickory nut
  3.  Pecan nut
  4.  Peanut
  5.  Brazil nut
  6.  English walnut
  7.  Cocoanut
  8.  Hazel nut
  9.  Betel nut
 10.  Acorn

The winner of this contest also had a prize.  Of course a nut party would hardly be complete without a peanut hunt and there was also a peanut race in which the object was to transfer the peanuts from one end of the room to another on the blade of a table knife.

In still another peanut contest the object was to pitch ten peanuts into a narrow-necked jar at a distance of about twelve feet.

To choose partners for refreshments a basket of English walnuts was passed, each little nut with a painted face and a paper cap of some sort.  Blue sailor caps, soldier caps, Red Cross nurse head-dresses, Scotch Tam o’ Shanters, babies’ bonnets, girls’ gay garden hats, were all represented.  There were only two of a kind, and the two individuals who selected them were of course partners.

In addition each nut proved to be only a hollow nut shell; in one was a conundrum, in its mate the answer.

The refreshments were nut-bread sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, hot cocoa, cocoanut macaroons, vanilla ice-cream with chocolate nut sauce, and peanut brittle.