The dome party to-day was sixty-two in number.

It was breakfast, and we opened the dome; we seated forty in the dome and twenty in the meridian-room." This "dome party" requires a few words of explanation, because it was unique among all the Vassar festivities.

The week before commencement, Miss Mitchell's pupils would be informed of the approaching gathering by a notice like the following: CIRCULAR.
The annual dome party will be held at the observatory on Saturday, the 19th, at 6 P.M.You are cordially invited to be present.
M.M.
[As this gathering is highly intellectual, you are invited to bring poems.] It was, at first, held in the evening, but during the last years was a breakfast party, its character in other respects remaining the same.
Little tables were spread under the dome, around the big telescope; the flowers were roses from Miss Mitchell's own garden.

The "poems" were nonsense rhymes, in the writing of which Miss Mitchell was an adept.
Each student would have a few verses of a more or less personal character, written by Miss Mitchell, and there were others written by the girls themselves; some were impromptu; others were set to music, and sung by a selected glee-club.
"June 5, 1881.

We have written what we call our dome poetry.