 Eddie has a serious problem: he s in love, or at least he thinks he is. The object of his love is Elsie, who just moved in down the hall. He thinks the feeling is mutual since she is keeping a pair of his sneakers for good luck. But not to place pressure on himself or Elsie, Eddie asks Tom to throw him an early birthday party so that Elsie will be just one of several people there on their first "date". Tom, with Mrs. Livingston s assistance, agrees. Elsie is the first to arrive, and based on her actions, it does seem like she likes Eddie as much as he likes her. Things change when Richard Katkov arrives, escorting a last minute guest to the party: Margaret. Once Eddie sees Margaret, he forgets all about Elsie. Tom has a heart to heart about Eddie suddenly ignoring Elsie in favor of Margaret. Tom wants Eddie to decide what the right thing to do would be, but Eddie, in a quandary, states that if he s not old enough to have a puppy, he s not old enough to make such an important decision. At the end of the day however, Eddie goes back to Elsie, saying that love is when the object of affection doesn t have all the outward trappings of beauty, but you still think they re "neat". Because of Eddie s grown up behavior, Tom gets Eddie another gift: his much wanted puppy.