Schatov's birthday party

The party began at four in the afternoon with carriages at six prompt. Schatov stood at the doorway to greet his guests as they arrived. Only a small fleck of cream at the corner of his mouth betrayed the fact that he had already snitched a bit of the birthday cream cake with strawberries. As the guests arrived he shook them warmly by the hand. First to arrive was Tutti; always first in the queue when there is grub about. He roughly pushed Miss Billy aside in his rush to the table with the cake and cucumber sandwiches. Lucio pressed something into Schatov’s hand as he entered and muttered,’ that is for you dear boy’, it seemed to be something wet and sticky. It could have been a sandwich left over from the last party. Eslabon and MonaLisa arrived together with Nancy and Emma not far behind. Maniña arrived very grandly in his own transport. Being the largest monkey at the party he caused quite a lot of titter, (mainly the young ones, Moñito and Chilin and Erik, who were not supposed to be at the party, adults only), as he strode down to the food and drink table. Sophie sang 'Monkeys gather lilacs in the spring again', whilst Lucio rudely pulled faces and put his hands over his ears. (Monkeys can be cruel.)
Naturally, as is the custom at these events, Schatov amazed everyone with his conjuring tricks. The rabbits he produced from his hat escaped and attacked the cake and this caused a lot of confusion as everyone tried to catch them and save the cake.
With the help of the rabbits, soon all the food was gone and after one more song from Sophie it was time to go home.
‘Wonderful party old chap’, said Maniña as he left the party. The MonaLisa said, ‘you don’t look a day older, how do you do it?’
So another year has gone by and Schatov gracefully said goodnight to his guests and thanked them for coming. ‘Please come again next year’ he said to each one as they headed for home.

In our photo, Schatov shares his cake with Lucio and Moñito.