Peter was absolutely humiliated; Mr. Cooper was skeptically neutral, but Mrs. Cooper was obviously pleased. "I always wanted a daughter" she said as she finished zipping the dress up the back of her son.

Peter looked disconsolately at his image in the mirror. Of all the stupid things! Not only had his mother given him a dress to wear, she had also insisted on his wearing girl's underwear, and even now was delightedly smearing lipstick on his mouth. But when she put the bow in his hair—and truly it was long enough to warrant such adorn- ment-his self-control broke down and he cried.

Leaving their sobbing son, the Coopers went back downstairs. "Supper will be ready in half an hour," his mother had said, patting him on the shoulder as she left.

When he heard the hall door close, Peter hastily got up and ran to the closet. He wasn't going to wear these things, that much was cer- tain! The third surprise opened the gate on more tears: someone (guess who?) had removed all his clothes. Instead, there hung there in the closet, a reasonably complete wardrobe of girl's clothing. Even his dresser drawers had not escaped as he soon found out. He was still trying to adjust to this when his mother called him for supper. Like a doomed criminal, he walked slowly downstairs. The rustling sound of the taffeta reproached him at every step. Shortly before he reached the bottom step, he had come to the conclusion that even behaving was better than this!

Of course, he was not helped at all by the fact that his parents had company; the boss and his wife were waiting expectantly for Peter's grand entrance-which if it lacked in grace, it surpassed in embar- rassment. "Absolutely delightful!" said the boss' wife.

Through the meal, Peter sat very silently, looking only at his plate. He discovered that if he moved very slowly, he didn't notice what he was wearing as much. When the meal was finished, he asked if he might be excused. "In a minute, dear." Several minutes later, he was accompanied back to his room by his mother and the boss' wife, who exclaimed over all the items in Peter's new wardrobe. Eventually, they left the boy alone. It was an act of mercy.

Downstairs, Cooper was saying "You know, that's the first peaceful meal we've had in a long time.” “Amazing how fast it works, isn't it?”

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