The Pandorama Although the party was not supposed to begin till six o'clock, Bert turned up at half past four, bringing the `Pandoramer' with him.
At about half past five the other guests began to arrive.Elsie and Charley Linden came first, the girl in a pretty blue frock trimmed with white lace, and Charley resplendent in a new suit, which, like his sister's dress, had been made out of somebody's cast-off clothes that had been given to their mother by a visiting lady.It had taken Mrs Linden many hours of hard work to contrive these garments; in fact, more time than the things were worth, for although they looked all right - especially Elsie's - the stuff was so old that it would not wear very long: but this was the only way in which she could get clothes for the children at all: she certainly could not afford to buy them any.So she spent hours and hours making things that she knew would fall to pieces almost as soon as they were made.
After these came Nellie, Rosie and Tommy Newman.These presented a much less prosperous appearance than the other two.Their mother was not so skilful at contriving new clothes out of old.Nellie was wearing a grown-up woman's blouse, and by way of ulster she had on an old-fashioned jacket of thick cloth with large pearl buttons.This was also a grown-up woman's garment: it was shaped to fit the figure of a tall woman with wide shoulders and a small waist; consequently, it did not fit Nellie to perfection.The waist reached below the poor child's hips.
Tommy was arrayed in the patched remains of what had once been a good suit of clothes.They had been purchased at a second-hand shop last summer and had been his `best' for several months, but they were now much too small for him.
Little Rosie - who was only just over three years old - was better off than either of the other two, for she had a red cloth dress that fitted her perfectly: indeed, as the district visitor who gave it to her mother had remarked, it looked as if it had been made for her.
`It's not much to look at,' observed Nellie, referring to her big jacket, but all the same we was very glad of it when the rain came on.'
The coat was so big that by withdrawing her arms from the sleeves and using it as a cloak or shawl she had managed to make it do for all three of them.
Tommy's boots were so broken that the wet had got in and saturated his stockings, so Nora made him take them all off and wear some old ones of Frankie's whilst his own were drying at the fire.
Philpot, with two large paper bags full of oranges and nuts, arrived just as they were sitting down to tea - or rather cocoa - for with the exception of Bert all the children expressed a preference for the latter beverage.Bert would have liked to have cocoa also, but hearing that the grown-ups were going to have tea, he thought it would be more manly to do the same.This question of having tea or cocoa for tea became a cause of much uproarious merriment on the part of the children, who asked each other repeatedly which they liked best, `tea tea?' or `cocoa tea?' They thought it so funny that they said it over and over again, screaming with laughter all the while, until Tommy got a piece of cake stuck in his throat and became nearly black in the face, and then Philpot had to turn him upside down and punch him in the back to save him from choking to death.This rather sobered the others, but for some time afterwards whenever they looked at each other they began to laugh afresh because they thought it was such a good joke.
When they had filled themselves up with the `cocoa-tea' and cakes and bread and jam, Elsie Linden and Nellie Newman helped to clear away the cups and saucers, and then Owen lit the candles on the Christmas tree and distributed the toys to the children, and a little while afterwards Philpot - who had got a funny-looking mask out of one of the bon-bons - started a fine game pretending to be a dreadful wild animal which he called a Pandroculus, and crawling about on all fours, rolled his goggle eyes and growled out he must have a little boy or girl to eat for his supper.
He looked so terrible that although they knew it was only a joke they were almost afraid of him, and ran away laughing and screaming to shelter themselves behind Nora or Owen; but all the same, whenever Philpot left off playing, they entreated him to `be it again', and so he had to keep on being a Pandroculus, until exhaustion compelled him to return to his natural form.
After this they all sat round the table and had a game of cards;`Snap', they called it, but nobody paid much attention to the rules of the game: everyone seemed to think that the principal thing to do was to kick up as much row as possible.After a while Philpot suggested a change to `Beggar my neighbour', and won quite a lot of cards before they found out that he had hidden all the jacks in the pocket of his coat, and then they mobbed him for a cheat.He might have been seriously injured if it had not been for Bert, who created a diversion by standing on a chair and announcing that he was about to introduce to their notice `Bert White's World-famed Pandorama' as exhibited before all the nobility and crowned heads of Europe, England, Ireland and Scotland, including North America and Wales.
Loud cheers greeted the conclusion of Bert's speech.The box was placed on the table, which was then moved to the end of the room, and the chairs were ranged in two rows in front.
The `Pandorama' consisted of a stage-front made of painted cardboard and fixed on the front of a wooden box about three feet long by two feet six inches high, and about one foot deep from back to front.The `Show' was a lot of pictures cut out of illustrated weekly papers and pasted together, end to end, so as to form a long strip or ribbon.
Bert had coloured all the pictures with water-colours.