It was a fine, brisk fall morning when Felicity arose. She quickly slipped on her mules and silk dressing gown and set about deciding what to wear and what to do on such a beautiful day.

Pulling her favorite red toile dress out of the clothes press, she held it up to herself in front of her dressing table mirror. "This will do nicely," she said to herself.

She laid the dress on the bed and sat down on the floor, pulling out the little Noah's ark her grandfather had carved for her when she was just a baby. She set Mr. and Mrs. Noah on the deck, raised the little ladder, and carefully put the animals in pairs, biggest (elephants) to smallest (pigs). But she grew bored of this rather quickly. What would she do with such a fine day?

Finally, she sat in her writing chair and jotted a note to her friend, Elizabeth Cole, inviting her to come for cookie-baking and tea in the early afternoon.