“You can’t tell which it is in this crazy handwriting,” and Nan scrutinised the page.

“Yes, you can,” and Patty stared at it.  “You wouldn’t notice the difference, if you weren’t looking for it, but it is st. I see it all, Nan!  You know Bee didn’t want this luncheon, and to get out of it, she changed that date before the invitations were sent!  And you see, by the eighth, she’ll be back in school!”

“Are both dates Tuesday?” said Nan, thinking.

“Yes, of course, they are.  Isn’t it clever?  Oh, Bee never got this up all by herself,—­that Kit helped her.”

“But, Patty, then nobody will go on the first, and the Homers will be all prepared—­”

“That’s just what Bee wants!  One of her practical jokes!  Oh, Nan, I do detest practical jokes.”

“So do I!  I think they’re ill-bred.”

“But the Homers don’t think that, and Kit Cameron doesn’t, either.  We’ve discussed that matter lots of times, and we never agree.  And, besides, Nan,” and Patty had a new inspiration, “don’t you see, this party was planned for the first of April, and Bee and Kit will call this thing an April Fool joke, and therefore entirely permissible.  April Fool’s Day is their Happy Hunting Ground.  But I’m going to foil this thing, and don’t you forget it!  Seems to me it would be a pretty good joke if I’d turn the tables on those two smarties.”

“How can you, Patty?”

“I haven’t quite thought it out yet, but I have an idea.”

“But, Patty, wait a minute.  Perhaps they only changed the date on yours,—­just to fool you, you know.”

“Good gracious, Nan! perhaps that’s so!  How did you come to think of it?  But I’ll soon find out.”

Patty flew to the telephone, and in a short time learned that both Mona and Elise were invited for the eighth, and she concluded that the plotters had changed the date on all the invitations.

Next she called up Marie, and without letting her know why, asked for a list of the luncheon guests.

Marie told her at once, without asking why she wanted to know.

There were nine beside the Homers, and Patty was acquainted with them all.

She called them up each in turn on the telephone, and explained carefully that a mistake had been made in the invitations, and she hoped they would come on the first instead of the eighth.

Fortunately, all of them were able to do this, and Patty enjoined each one to say nothing about this change of date, until they should arrive at the party.

To a few of her more intimate friends,—­Mona, Elise, and Christine,- -she told the whole story, and they fell in with her plans.

And so it came about, that on the first of April preparations were going blithely forward in the Homer apartment, for Bee’s elaborate luncheon.

It was all true, exactly as Patty had figured it out; and Kit and Beatrice had planned what they considered a first-class and entirely permissible practical joke.