“Goodness, Bertha!” exclaimed Elsie.  “If you knew how much prettier you look when you smile, you’d always wear a broad grin!”

Bertha scowled at this, and seeing it, King stopped stock-still.

“Cook up that smile again!” he cried.  “Not another step till you do!”

As the lady of the house was waiting for them on the veranda, this was embarrassing, so Bertha smiled, and then the whole group moved on.

So they kept on for the rest of the trip, King jollying Bertha whenever it was necessary, and the other girls making merriment for themselves.  Marjorie and Elsie soon became friends, for they were alike merry-hearted and pleasant-mannered.

It was about noon when they sold their last doll and turned their faces homeward.  Elsie and Bertha went with them, and when they reached Cousin Jack’s house they found Kitty and May Perry already there.

“Here you are, my little peddlers!  Here you are, with your empty carts!” cried Cousin Jack, as the children came upon the veranda.  “All sold out, I see.”

“Yes,” said Marjorie, “and we could have sold more if we had had them.”

“Then there’s nothing left for me to buy from you, and I really need a doll.”

“I’ll make you one before I go home, Cousin Jack,” said Marjorie; “and then you can keep it to remember me by.”

“All right, Mehitabel; good for you!  I’ll play with it every day,—­and when I go to see my little friends I’ll take it with me.  And now, my weary peddlers, let me tell you what you have still before you!  A number of young people, mostly retired peddlers, are coming here to luncheon with you.  But we won’t call it luncheon, because that sounds so prosaic.  We’ll call it,—­what shall we call it?”

“A festival feast,” said Kitty.  “That sounds gay and jolly.”

“So it does,” agreed Cousin Jack, “A May Day Festival Feast for the Maynards, and nothing could be pleasanter nor that!”

And even before Cousin Jack finished speaking, the young guests began to arrive, and Marjorie realized that it was a party her kind cousins had made for them.

There were about twenty guests all together, and as they wore the pretty costumes they had worn as peddlers, it was a picturesque group.

“Ho, for the Festival Feast!” exclaimed Cousin Jack, and taking Marjorie and Kitty by either hand he went dancing with them across the lawn.

Under a clump of trees they discovered that a table had been set, though it had not been visible from the house.

The table was like a vision of Fairyland, and Marjorie thought she had never before seen such a pretty one.

The decorations were of pink, and in the middle of the table was a wicker pushcart of fairly good size, filled with parcels wrapped in pink tissue paper.  From each parcel a long end of ribbon led to the plate of each little guest.  Also at each place was a much smaller pushcart of gilded wicker-work tied with pink bows, and filled with candies.