The Chinese Kitten

“Oh, Uncle Dan!”groaned Lucy, but Dora sat up and looked at Dan. Then she laughed into her pillow for almost a minute.

Before eight a big crowd collected on the meadow which was to be a park before the sun set.First they sang “America.”Then Mr. Harper made a little speech and reminded them why they were making the park, out of gratitude to the heroic boys who helped save the country from great peril.One of the ministers prayed that their work might be blessed for themselves, and for all the children who in years to come would play in the Victory Park.

Then everybody watched while the mothers and fathers of the five heroes each took a spade and turned one sod.

The minute that was done the work started.The people who were to plough the field brought the horses, harnessed ready to begin.Behind the plows came harrows, and behind them men and boys with garden forks, to remove stones and shake out sods of turf.

The flower-beds had been carefully marked with stakes, and the people who were to make them ready began to dig, one set of people to each bed.Many of the young men were in their old khaki uniforms, and the young women came in overalls and bloomers in which they had been farmerettes during the war.

There was only one mix-up.The committee who were to make the gravel paths wanted to make them at once, and this interfered with the people who were trying to dig the flower-beds.Mr. Harper explained to the gravel-path people that they would really have to wait.

Grace Benson had brought her donkey.Its name was Souris, which is the French for a mouse, and it was all mouse-color except the black tips of its ears and tail.

Grace expected Souris to help about making the park, but what could one wee donkey do?Souris was very small, and the moment Grace led him among the people he began to shiver and shake until his harness rattled.

Nobody knew why Souris was afraid.Perhaps he did not like the big cart-horses several times larger than he; perhaps they spoke unkindly to him in horse language; at any rate, Souris stood still and shook from nose to tail.Only when Grace put her arms about his neck and spoke comfortingly to him did he stop trembling.The minute she took her arms away he began shivering again.

Clearly Souris was of no use, and Grace took him home.He looked so miserable that nobody wanted him to stay and keep on feeling unhappy, but Grace felt ashamed of him.

At first only the older people could work, because horses and machines were needed, and there was nothing the children could do. But soon they could help.

The Boy Scouts cleaned a little brook which ran through the meadow.All proper parks have a brook or a lake, and so it was fortunate that the meadow possessed one.To plant flowers and bushes was easy, but to coax a brook to come from another place and run through the Victory Park might have been hard.

The boys took out of the brook all the tin cans which thoughtless people had thrown into it.Never again would there be tin cans in the Victory brook.They pulled out sticks and branches and took away some stones, but only those which Mr. Lawrence said were to go.Some must be left so the brook could make pretty ripples and have something over which to sing.

There were also stones in the meadow for the children to pick up and carry to baskets on the edge of the field. As fast as filled, men emptied these baskets into tip-carts, which took the stones away. The older boys raked where directed, so as to make the earth the proper level.

The committees which had charge of the flowers dug the beds and did it very thoroughly.They dug down nearly two feet and put in fertilizer so the roots of the new plants would have plenty of food.They prepared the beds and then said that they must have water.The summer had been so dry that the plants could not grow unless the earth was made wet all around the roots.

Nobody had thought that there must be water.Mr. Harper went into the nearest house and telephoned to the fire station.The hose-cart came immediately and fastened a hose to the hydrant.Any amount of water could be turned anywhere it was wanted.

The committee in charge of each bed had a copy of Mr. Lawrence’s plan.This told them exactly how many plants and shrubs were to go in the bed and where they were to be set.When the ground was ready the head of each committee put a marker where each was to be planted.

The High School students planted the shrubs, and then came the turn of the smaller children.Each of them carried a bulb and marched in line to the flower-bed appointed.

Each one dug a little hole for his bulb and put it in with care to get it right side up.Bulbs never grow so well when they are planted with their heads down.Then a Boy Scout with a water-pot gave it a drink, and the child covered it with loam and patted it down hard.

The kindergarten children planted tulips.Dora’s class planted daffodils and Lucy’s class did the jonquils.Every child in the public schools had a share in making the Victory Park.

Meanwhile the ladies had been getting lunch in the Town Hall.Some of the older men who had stiff knees and couldn’t work out of doors, set up the long tables and brought settees and dishes.Promptly at twelve the fire whistle blew long and loud.It wasn’t for a fire at all, but the signal that everybody was to stop working and go to lunch in the Town Hall.

The park looked like nothing at all, but it did look as though there might be hope for it by sunset.

Some of the men, especially those who wore stiff collars and went into Boston every day, thought they were much too dirty to go to lunch. They said they would go home and wash.

Mr. Harper took a megaphone and spoke through it.He asked the men not to go home.He told them to brush off the dust and loam and to wash their hands at the hydrant.Most of them laughed and did just as Mr. Harper said.

Very soon all the tables in the long hall were filled, and everybody was hungry.There is nothing like digging in the dirt to make people ready for dinner.

The good things the ladies had been cooking vanished like snow before the sun.There was cold meat of various kinds, a great many baked potatoes, string-beans, and beets, and squash.For dessert were doughnuts and pies and coffee and ice-cream.

Girls of Olive’s age waited on the tables.Lucy and Dora wanted dreadfully to help, but that was one of the things they could not do until they were older. Five hundred people sat down together at lunch in the Westmore Town Hall.

When they had finished eating, Mr. Harper made another suggestion.He asked every person at the table to pick up the dishes he had used and to carry them into the kitchen on his way out of the hall.

At this everybody laughed and the waitresses clapped their hands.For them to clear those long tables would be a great deal of work, but to clear them in Mr. Harper’s way would take hardly any time at all.

Everybody picked up all the dishes he could carry and left them in the kitchen.There were still salt-shakers and bread-and-butter plates and pickle dishes to remove, but that did not take very long.And then the old men took away the tables and put the settees in place. The hall was now ready for some other use, for a meeting or a lecture.

The children ate sandwiches made of the meat and bread which was left and they also finished the doughnuts and the ice-cream.Then people began to wash the dishes.

There were ten washers, and each had two girls to wipe for her, and it was amazing how fast those piles of dishes vanished.As soon as they were wiped, they were packed in baskets.Every church in town had loaned its crockery and silver for the Victory lunch.

By four o’clock the dishes were all washed and sorted.Each church had its own.There was one spoon which nobody claimed.And by that hour the chaos in the park was changing into order.

The patient people who were to make the gravel walks got a chance to do so.The centre of the meadow was now as smooth as a table. The land had been ploughed, harrowed, raked, fertilized, and planted with lawn seed. Then it had been rolled with a big iron roller drawn by two horses. Where rough, uneven sod had lain was now a smooth brown level.

The flower-beds were planted and raked within an inch of their lives.All the shrubs and clumps of perennials were in place.You could imagine how beautiful the curved beds were going to look.The bulbs didn’t show, being tucked underground to sleep till Spring called them.Each flower-bed was outlined with turf, put in place and pounded down.

Everybody watched the gravel paths being made.They waited until the last man raked himself out of the park.The sun’s rim was nearing the horizon.There were backs that ached and hands that showed blisters, for if you are used to sitting in an office, or writing for hours at a desk, it is not easy to spend a whole day digging dirt. Everybody was tired, but everybody was pleased and happy. The Victory Park was done!

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CHAPTER XI
HALLOWE’EN

Before many days the winds finished what work Jack Frost didn’t attend to himself.The leaves were neatly whisked from all the trees except the oaks and the evergreens.Oaks are cold trees.They keep most of their leaves on all winter and let them drop only when Spring sends word that she is on the way with a new gown for each.Such pretty secrets some of the trees revealed!Who suspected birds’ nests until the boughs were bare?

In the gutters of the Westmore streets lay drifts of leaves through which the children loved to rustle on their way to school.The autumn air was full of the pleasant smell of their burning.

About the farms on the outskirts of town, cabbages were piled in green or purple heaps.Ears of corn dangled from barn rafters, drying for seed next year.In rows on the piazzas sat pumpkins.

Lucy and Dora greatly wanted pumpkins because in a few days it would be Hallowe’en.On that evening the Westmore children dressed up and pretended to be goblins and ghosts.Every respectable ghost lighted its way with a pumpkin lantern.

The children consulted Father.He asked Mother if the pumpkins could be made into pies after they had been lanterns.Mother thought a moment and said she could use them.

Father bought two small pumpkins.Lucy wanted to make her own lantern and so did Dora, but they found the shell much harder than they expected.Mother was so afraid they would cut themselves that she would not let them take the sharpest kitchen knife. When Father came home from work both little girls were glad to let him help them.

Father did not find it hard to cut off the top of each pumpkin, but Mother let him have a sharp knife. Lucy and Dora scooped out the soft part with the seeds, and Father cut eyes and a nose and a mouth in each lantern. Lucy’s had teeth with sharp points, which made it look cross, but Dora’s had a smooth, curved, smiling mouth.

Mother found a bit of candle for each, and they lighted them and turned down the gas to see how they were going to look.They looked decidedly spooky.

The last day of October was windy and cold, but when the sun went down the wind went with it.This was lucky, because if it had not stopped, the policemen would not let the children build bonfires.

Directly after supper Lucy and Dora began to dress as ghosts.Each wore an old pillow-case in which Mother said they might cut holes for eyes and noses and arms. Mother tied the points so they looked like ears.She also tied tapes around their necks to make the cases fit better.Then their eye-holes would not slide about.

“I declare!”she said when they were dressed.“I wouldn’t like to meet you in the dark myself!”

Lucy and Dora jumped up and down with delight.If Mother felt that way, mere strangers would be terribly scared.

Father lighted the lanterns.He told them to be very careful not to set themselves on fire, and not to go near any burning leaves.

Mother told them not to go down into the square because big and rough boys might be out.She told them to keep in their own part of town and to ring door-bells only where they knew the people who lived in the houses.

The children said they would remember and skipped happily away.Underneath the pillow-cases they wore warm sweaters.First they rang the Bakers’ bell and Marion rushed to the door.She stopped short when she saw the two white figures with their lanterns.

“It is Lucy and Dora!”she exclaimed.“I am almost ready to come out.Which way are you going?”

They told her and ran off to make another call.The grown people in Westmore were very patient with the children that evening.They opened their doors when the bells rang and spoke pleasantly to the little ghosts.Some of them pretended to be afraid and most of them admired the sweet smile of Dora’s lantern.One gentleman gave them each a chocolate cream.

“Being a spook must be hungry work,” he said.Lucy and Dora told him that it was.

Only a few houses kept their porch lights burning and wouldn’t give the children the fun of having the door opened for them.

Lucy and Dora went to call at Miss Page’s home on the hill.Miss Page seemed to be expecting visitors, for she came to the door herself, screamed loudly and then guessed that the ghosts were Alice and Grace.The ghosts giggled and shook their heads.

“Iris and Mary,” suggested Miss Page, and she did not guess Lucy and Dora until she had named all the girls in her Sunday-school class.When the ghosts took little leaps she knew she had guessed correctly.

She gave them each a wee cake with pink icing and told them not to fall down the front steps and to be careful of their lanterns.

Next to Miss Page’s home stood Mr. Harper’s big house.

“Let us go in here,” said Lucy when they had untied the tapes on each other’s masks, eaten the little cakes, and then tied the tapes again.

“Alice will be out with the others,” said Dora.

“I know it, but there are some people at home.I can see her father sitting by the fire in the room where the curtain is up.”

Very softly the children crept on the porch and found the electric bell.In a minute they heard steps in the hall and the porch light came on.

They did not run but stood in silence, holding their grinning lanterns.Mr. Harper opened the door and when he saw them he looked for a second and then threw his arms up into the air.

“Help, Mamma!”he shouted.“Ghosts, Mamma!Come and save me!”

Lucy and Dora couldn’t help giggling.They had not expected him to act like that.They didn’t think Mrs. Harper would come, but she did.

“Goodness!”she said.“What shall we do, James?Ghosts!and not an inch of mosquito netting in the house!”

This was too much for Dora.She was so interested that she forgot she was a spook.

“Don’t ghosts like mosquito netting?”she asked.

“No, indeed!” said Mr. Harper. “It gives them hay fever. Harriet,” he said to his wife, “how could you let the mosquito netting run out?”

Lucy began to think Mr. Harper was crazy, but Dora knew he wasn’t.Uncle Dan talked in just that way. She laughed and so did Mrs. Harper.

“Come in, won’t you?”asked Mr. Harper, opening the door wider.

“No, thank you,” said Lucy.“We have a great many other calls to make.But is Alice at home?”

“She is out being a goblin,” said Mrs. Harper.“I think you will find her on School Street.Could you each eat a caramel?”

The ghosts needed no second invitation.They thanked Mrs. Harper.“Do you know us?”Dora asked as they were going.

Mrs. Harper smiled.“Yes, I know you, Dora,” she said.“Mrs. Merrill’s little girls are ladies even when they wear pillow-cases.”

“What did she mean?”Dora asked Lucy as they went down the steps.Lucy didn’t know, but when they asked Mother, she seemed to understand, though she didn’t tell them.

After they had called on all the people they knew in that part of town they went to Olive’s house, but she was out, having a Hallowe’en frolic herself.

Next, the children joined one of the groups in the street.It was holding hands and dancing around a bonfire.The fire was right in the centre where one street crossed another and the automobiles could not pass.The automobiles did not like it at all, but there stood Mr. Waterman, the tall policeman, and he made them all go around another block.This night belonged to the children.

Lucy and Dora danced for a time and then began to feel rather tired.The fire was dying down and Mr. Waterman yawned behind a veil of smoke.

Before they reached home they met Father, who seemed to be out for a walk. He did not say he was looking for them, but it was not usual for him to walk about the streets at night unless he were going to church or to a lecture or to his lodge-meeting.

Father offered to carry their lanterns and both were willing to let him.Even small pumpkins grow heavy when carried around for an hour and a half.

The front porch was peppered with beans which boys had blown through air-guns.Mother thought it wrong for them to waste food in that way.

“Did you have any callers while we were gone?”Lucy asked.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Ten different ghosts have called on me.I gave each an animal cracker and they went away at once.One ghost said that elephants didn’t agree with him, so might he have a lion.”

“Did you change it for him?”asked Dora.

“I did,” said Mrs. Merrill.

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CHAPTER XII
A BUSY SATURDAY

When November came, an interesting thing happened to the Merrill children.There had been a number of letters from Miss Chandler.Mother and Father talked about them after the little girls were in bed.Father had taken the letters to show Mr. Thorne.

One afternoon Mother told Lucy and Dora that both were to have music lessons.Lucy was to learn to play the piano properly, not with two or three fingers the way she picked out tunes now, but with all ten fingers and according to rule.Miss Chandler and Miss Page and Mr. Thorne thought it would be nice for Dora to have a little violin.

Miss Chandler was sure that Dora could learn to play.She had a friend who had already chosen a fiddle for Dora.It wasn’t full-sized, but was otherwise just what grown people used.Dora thought it was beautiful.

Alice Harper had a fiddle also, and when Mrs. Merrill spoke to Mrs. Harper about a teacher for Dora, Mrs. Harper asked Dora to come to her house every Saturday morning when Alice had her lesson, and take one from the same teacher.

Alice’s teacher was a young man who came from Boston.He would be glad to have two pupils instead of one.

Lucy was to take piano lessons from Miss Ball, and also on Saturday.But Miss Ball had many pupils who wanted their lessons that day.Lucy would have to go at eight o’clock.This was a chilly hour for a music lesson, but Lucy said she did not mind.They both felt very important with music to carry about the streets.

“I shall expect you to practise every day,” said Mother.“You must remember that the lessons cost money, and the money will be wasted if you don’t try hard to learn.”

Lucy and Dora felt sure they should never want to do something else instead of practising.Mrs. Merrill said she hoped they wouldn’t.

After her first lesson Dora felt quite discouraged.She had expected that Mr. Irons would show her at once how to play.Instead, he spent all the time telling her how to hold her fingers and how to keep the bow in the proper position.He would not let her draw the bow across the strings unless her fingers were just as he wanted them.

Dora tried hard, but when Mr. Irons said she had worked long enough and might listen while Alice had her lesson, Dora decided that it would be some time before she could play that fiddle.

Alice could really play quite well, and Dora felt more cheerful when she remembered that there had been a time when Alice had to think about her fingers and the way she held the bow.If Alice could learn to do both without thinking much about it, she could learn, too.It is a long step toward learning how to do anything when one realizes that it must be done a little at a time.

When Dora reached home that Saturday, Mrs. Merrill was mixing bread and Lucy was perfectly determined to help mix it.She had washed her hands nicely and every time Mrs. Merrill looked the other way Lucy would make dabs at the bread dough.

“Lucy,” said Mrs. Merrill, “next summer I will show you how to make bread, but you must leave this alone. You may make some gingerbread if you like.”

Lucy flew for the cook-book.She knew which rule Mother used, only Mother never had to look at the book.She got out the bowl and a spoon and the flour and the molasses.

“You don’t need to bring out the whole jug,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Pour into a cup what the rule says.”

Lucy hadn’t thought of this.It was easier than carrying out the heavy jug.She did everything just as the rule said and didn’t notice that Mother kept an eye on her mixing-bowl.When the gingerbread was put into a nicely buttered pan and safe in the oven, Lucy gave a sigh.

“Don’t you wish you could make gingerbread?”she asked Dora, who was paring apples for Mother’s pies.The Hallowe’en pumpkins were already changed into pies and eaten.

“I think I could make it,” said Dora.

Lucy was surprised, for Dora didn’t often say things like that. “Mother, could she?” she asked Mrs. Merrill.

“Anybody who can read can use a cook-book, and anybody with common sense can cook,” said Mother.

Lucy was quite annoyed.Neither Dora nor Mother understood how choice that gingerbread was going to be.She at once told Dora that she was paring the apples too deep.

“It isn’t good next to the skin,” said Dora, and she went on paring the apples in just the same way.

“Don’t be cross, children,” said Mrs. Merrill.“You might help Dora with the apples, Lucy, if you think you can do them better.I want to get everything possible done before dinner because this afternoon I mean to take you over to the city to see about your winter coats.”

“Both of us?”asked the children.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Saturday afternoon isn’t a good time to go shopping, but now you are having music lessons in the morning, I can’t manage it then.And I don’t like to take you out of school to go.”

“Are we both to have new coats?”asked Dora.She knew that Lucy was to have one, because she had outgrown her old one.It could not be buttoned without squeezing hard.Dora had expected to wear that coat herself, and she did not like its color.The color was brown.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Lucy’s old coat will do for you to wear on stormy days, but it does not look very well.She has worn it three winters. We have decided to buy you a new one.”

Dora was delighted.People in the little brown cottage thought twice before spending a dollar.Father had told the children that he was saving money so he could send them to school a long time, and was buying insurance.That meant if anything happened so Father could not work in the printing-press, there would still be money to take care of Mother and the little girls.Dora had not expected to have a new coat.

“Will it be blue, Mother?”she asked after a time.Lucy was paring apples now, and Dora didn’t think it was quite fair for her to choose those with nice smooth skins and leave the specked ones for Dora to do.But she did not say anything.

“Will what be blue, child?”asked Mother.“Look at your gingerbread, Lucy.”

“My coat,” said Dora.Lucy dropped her knife and flew to the oven.

How good that gingerbread did smell!It had turned into a desirable brown cake.

“Is it done, Mother?”Lucy asked.

“Try it and see,” said Mrs. Merrill.“We will look at the blue coats, Dora.”

Lucy brought from the pantry one of the clean straws Mother kept to test cake.She stuck it into her gingerbread.When she drew it out the straw felt dry and smooth.

“It is done,” she said.

Mother took the pan out of the oven.She tipped out the gingerbread and put it on a rack and covered it with a cloth.“It looks very well,” she said.

The fragrance of that gingerbread filled the whole house.It even penetrated to the parlor where Timothy was sleeping on the couch.He had no business there and he got up and came into the kitchen. It was not because his conscience pricked him, however, but because of the gingerbread.

Lucy came back to the table where Dora was working.She was so proud of her cooking that she no longer felt cross.She took an apple which had a big speck on the side.

After dinner everybody hurried to get the dishes washed and then Mrs. Merrill and the children went to the city.There was no need to lock the house, for Mr. Merrill would be at home.The printing-press did not run on Saturday afternoons.

It was late before the shoppers came back.Dora did not wait to open the packages before telling Father that she had a pretty blue coat.Lucy had another brown one, not like her old coat, but a different shade of brown.To go with the coat was a round brown sailor hat with a ribbon hanging down the back.Dora’s hat was just like it, only dark blue, with a blue ribbon. Then Dora asked Father if he had been lonesome.

Father said he had been too busy to be lonesome.Dora wondered what he had been doing.On the floor before the Franklin stove was spread a newspaper, with chips on it, as though Father had been whittling.

Mr. Merrill looked at the new coats and hats and thought them very pretty.After supper, when they were all in the parlor, he began to whittle again.

Lucy and Dora were learning their Sunday-school lesson.Mrs. Merrill had just found out that they had not even looked at it, and she said it must be learned at once.She should be much ashamed of them if they went to Sunday school without knowing the lesson.

Dora hurried as much as she could.She read the lesson and looked up the Bible references and tried to answer the questions. But all the time she wondered what Father was making. As soon as she finished she asked him.

“What do they look like?”inquired Father.

“Like little dolls, only in pieces,” said Dora.

“That’s just what they are,” said Mr. Merrill, and then he smiled at her.Dora’s eyes grew wide.

“Father!” she said.“Are you trying to make marionettes like those we saw in Boston?Are you really?”

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” said Mr. Merrill, and he fitted a little arm to one of his bodies.“These are just tiny ones but I thought we’d begin small and see how we come out.”

“Is it to be Jack and the Beanstalk?”asked Dora eagerly.“Do let it be that, because we know how to play it.”

“This is Jack I’m working on,” said Mr. Merrill. “That’s his mother there, not put together, but I don’t know whether I can make a proper cow.”

“Father!”exclaimed Lucy, “Dora had a toy cow once on wheels and the wheels were broken.Couldn’t you use that cow?You could take it apart at the joints.”

“I am a printer, not a butcher,” said Mr. Merrill, “but I’ll look at that cow, if Dora is willing we should use it.”

Dora was willing.The cow belonged to her very little girlhood.She never played with it now.

Lucy ran up-stairs and found the cow.Mr. Merrill said it was the right size and would do nicely.He would try strings fastened to it in different places and perhaps they could make it walk without taking it apart or putting joints in its legs.

Dora began making plans.There could be a set of dolls for “Cinderella,” and, of course, they would need rabbits for the rabbit play. She asked Father at once if he could make some.

Mr. Merrill said he would prefer to finish the marionettes for Jack before he began any more, but he thought he could manage the rabbits.“How about clothes?”he asked.“Can you and Mother ’tend to that part?”

When they asked her, Mother looked rather doubtful.“I can make dolls’ clothes,” she said, “but these dolls are very small.We will try.The clothes must fit exactly right so as not to interfere with the strings to work their arms and legs.”

“Perhaps we could make paper clothes,” suggested Dora; “paste the paper right on.”

“That might answer,” said Mother, “but we will try the cloth ones.How was Jack dressed?”

The children told her and Mrs. Merrill said she would see what she could do.

Father explained that the idea was really Uncle Dan’s.Dan said it would be possible to make a little stage for the marionettes and that he would make one if Father would whittle the dolls.The back of the stage was to come up high enough so that Lucy and Dora could stand behind and not be seen while they were working the little puppets.All this was to be a Christmas present from Father and Uncle Dan.

Dora and Lucy thought it the nicest gift anybody could think of.They were perfectly sure no other little girls in Westmore would have a Christmas present like it.Mr. Merrill promised that if the first marionettes turned out well he would make the characters for another play.

Lucy and Dora planned at once to give an entertainment with the theatre and invite their Sunday-school class and Miss Page. Mrs. Merrill agreed that this would be pleasant, but she thought they would have to see how well the figures would work when they were finished, and that it might take both children a little time to learn how to pull the strings.

“I would not invite Miss Page just yet,” she said.

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CHAPTER XIII
THANKSGIVING

Having helped make the Victory Park, all the Westmore children felt responsible for its welfare.Any dog who imprudently walked on its flower-beds, or ran in circles on the grass-sown level, was at once called off, scolded, and slapped.Before the middle of November most of the dogs understood that the park was no place for them to play, at least when the children saw them.

At that time of year nothing could be expected to grow, but the children felt it their duty to see that nothing was dug up nor disturbed.Every child remembered the place where his bulb was planted and kept an eye on it. When winter was gone and spring called to the flowers, those bulb beds would have frequent visitors.

All over New England November means Thanksgiving, and it did in Westmore.There were no cousins and no grandmother to come to the Merrill cottage, for Uncle John lived in far California.

Some time, Father said, when their ship came in, they would buy a little Ford, and a tent, and go to see Uncle John and Aunt Nell.But whenever Lucy and Dora asked whether the ship was coming, Father would smile and shake his head.

Still, there was to be company for dinner.Olive and her father were invited.Everybody wanted Olive, and it would not be polite to ask her without asking Mr. Gates.Olive would not come alone, because she kept house for her father.She would not go to the beach until she arranged for him to have his meals with the people next door.

“Mother,” asked Dora on the Monday before Thanksgiving, “are we going to have a turkey?”

“Not at seventy-two cents a pound,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Even if I could afford to pay that much, I would not.I don’t think there is any need for them to cost so much.”

“Will there be a chicken?”asked Dora.

“I think we may manage that,” said Mrs. Merrill, “if they are at all reasonable in price, but we may have just a nice piece of pork or beef to roast. It isn’t what we have to eat that makes the Thanksgiving dinner, child. It is the being thankful for it.”

“Mr. Thorne said last Sunday that we must save all the pennies we can for the Christmas manger.Because there are children in Europe and Asia who haven’t even bread to eat.”

“I know it,” said Mrs. Merrill, and she went on sewing Dora’s school dress.

“I am not going to buy any more candy,” said Dora.“Yesterday Uncle Dan gave me ten cents for caramels.Wouldn’t you put it in your mite-box if you were I, Mother?”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Sometimes it chokes me to have enough to eat when I think about those children.If you and Lucy and Dan are willing, we will have pork for our Thanksgiving dinner.I will ask how much more the chicken would cost.Then we will put the difference into the fund for the hungry children.”

“Lucy will want to,” said Dora.“Uncle Dan may want things very nice because of Olive.Perhaps he would be disappointed not to have chicken.Will you ask him, Mother?”

“Ask him yourself, child.He’ll do it for you if he will for anybody.”

That evening Dora asked Uncle Dan.She did not need to coax him.Uncle Dan had heard about the hungry children.

“Sure thing,” he said.“Roast pork is good enough for me.”

When Mrs. Merrill went to market she inquired the price of a large chicken.A big one would be needed for a dinner for seven people.Then she bought the pork.

When she came home she took ninety-eight cents from her purse and gave it to the children.“You may divide it between your mite-boxes,” she said.

Thanksgiving Day was cold and blustering, which made the warm house seem all the more pleasant.A cheerful fire blazed in the Franklin stove and Father was at home.

He helped make the dining-table larger.Mother put on the best table-cloth.The pattern woven into it was bunches of drooping lilacs and Lucy and Dora thought it very pretty. Mother smoothed out every wrinkle and then the children set the table.

In the centre they put a vase of dark red chrysanthemums, cold and fragrant from the garden.Dora loved their spicy smell.They were only about as big as buttons, but something in their odor made her think of ferns and brooks and pleasant things which would come with spring.

Never was table set more carefully.Each knife and fork was laid as though the proper spot were located with a foot-rule.Dora felt that Lucy was too particular.Lucy moved almost everything Dora put in place.

When Lucy’s back was turned, Dora quietly put things as they were before.And the distance either moved them was so slight that when Lucy looked back she did not notice what Dora had done.

There was to be apple-sauce, as is the custom with roast pork, but Mother had also made cranberry sauce because Father and Uncle Dan were fond of it.

Everybody would want apple-sauce, so Lucy took a spoon and filled seven glass dishes.She placed one at each plate.The cranberry sauce was in a large dish.It was to go in front of Olive, with a spoon and more glass saucers.Dora brought the dish from the pantry, holding it carefully in both hands.

What possessed Timothy just then?He liked to weave himself in and about people’s feet when he was hungry, but Timmy had eaten his dinner.If he had not been fed, there would be no peace for anybody in the Merrill kitchen.Timothy was not hungry and he should have been washing his face before the parlor fire, not walking in front of Dora.

Dora tripped over him.She held on to the dish, but spilled the cranberry on the table, all over Mother’s clean Thanksgiving cloth!

“Now, see what you’ve done!”cried Lucy, perfectly horrified.

Poor Dora picked herself up.What cranberry wasn’t on the table-cloth was on her pretty white dress.

What a dreadful thing to happen! But the worst was that Lucy spoke as though she thought Dora meant to do it. Would Mother think the same?

Mrs. Merrill came out of the pantry and for a moment she looked as though she didn’t know what to do any more than the children.Dora stood with her lip quivering and her eyes full of tears.

“Well, that is too bad,” said Mrs. Merrill. “Stop crying, Dora; it doesn’t mend matters. Of course you didn’t mean to do it.”

Mrs. Merrill looked at the table-cloth.Then she looked at Dora and looked at the clock.She unbuttoned Dora’s dress.

“Take this into the shed, Lucy,” she said, “and put it in one of the tubs.Go and put on your blue gingham, Dora.Hurry, both of you, for we must take off the dishes and put on another cloth.”

Trying not to cry, Dora went up-stairs.

“Dora was very careless, wasn’t she?”asked Lucy, coming back from the shed and helping gather up the plates and silver.

“It was an accident,” said Mother with a sigh.“It might have happened to you.”

All the same, Lucy had not spilled the apple-sauce, and she felt virtuous.

“Put that cat out,” said Mrs. Merrill.“I can’t have him under foot a minute longer.”

Lucy put the beloved pussy into the shed and when she came back she no longer felt proud because she had not spilled things.

“Mother,” she said when the table was cleared, “I think I will put on my pink gingham.”

Mrs. Merrill looked at her.

“Because,” said Lucy, “Dora hasn’t another white dress to wear.”

“That is a good plan,” said Mother, and she smiled at Lucy.

Dora came back, rather wet about the eyelashes.Lucy buttoned the blue dress and Dora settled the Chinese kitten in place.After all, Vega was enchanting against blue.

The stained table-cloth went into the tub with Dora’s dress.There was no time to attend to them.Mother put on another cloth, not so fine nor so pretty, but just as white.

The children set the table again and this time neither was fussy about the way the other did things.Only at intervals Dora’s lip quivered.

“Is there any more cranberry sauce?”she asked Mother.

Mrs. Merrill shook her head.“I bought only a quart of berries,” she said.

“There won’t be any for Father and Uncle Dan,” said Dora.

“They never knew there was any,” said Mrs. Merrill.“They won’t miss it at all.”

“Oh, Mother!”said Lucy, “something is wrong with the gas stove.”

Mrs. Merrill hurried to the stove.Yes, the flame was turned too high and the macaroni was scorching.

“This dinner seems possessed,” she sighed as she turned down the gas and took out the macaroni.

Just then Olive came running in with a gay greeting.She kissed the little girls and Mother, too, because it was Thanksgiving.She ran up-stairs and left her coat and hat in the children’s room. Then she flew down.

“What shall I do?”she asked.“Mash these potatoes?”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Unless you’d rather make the gravy.”

“Your gravy is better than mine,” said Olive and she stuck a fork into the potatoes.They were done and she whisked them off the stove.

With Olive’s coming, ill-luck went away.Nobody upset anything more, and nothing burned.

Father, Uncle Dan, and Mr. Gates came in together and Mother sent them directly into the parlor.She said it was bad enough to have a cat getting underfoot; she could not stand three men.

When they sat down to dinner, nobody could have guessed that the table had twice been completely set. If Olive noticed that this was not the best table-cloth, she didn’t say anything, but of course, nobody would be so rude as to speak of a thing like that.

The roast pork was done to a turn.Everybody enjoyed it and was glad that it wasn’t chicken.Forty-nine cents apiece, in two mite-boxes, would be quite an addition to the Christmas manger.

They sat a long time at the table, talking and enjoying the early twilight.Indeed, it was really dark when the last piece of pie was eaten and the last nut cracked.

“Now, we will do the dishes,” said Mr. Merrill.“Wash or wipe, Dan?”

Mother Merrill gave a gasp and the children laughed.Sometimes, Father wiped dishes, but neither he nor Uncle Dan was ever trusted to wash them.

Uncle Dan was game.He took Mother’s apron from behind the door and put it on. He got out the dish-pan.

“Dan, you will never get those kettles clean,” said Mrs. Merrill, but she did not speak as though she meant him to stop. Mother was tired. She had cooked dinner and still had Dora’s dress and the table-cloth to wash.

“I shall wash,” said Olive, grabbing another apron. “Dan and Dad shall wipe. Molly Merrill, you may gather up the food and put it away. Mr. Merrill may scrape the dishes.”

Everybody did what Olive said.In half an hour all the kettles and dishes were clean and in place.The dish-wipers were rinsed and hung to dry and the kitchen was tidy and cosy.There was nothing to do but enjoy themselves.

Olive and Uncle Dan went out to walk.They said they needed exercise.The rest went into the parlor and sat before the open fire. Mr. Merrill got out the marionettes and began to whittle.

Mr. Gates was much interested.He took a piece of wood and opened his own knife.He said he used to do something in that line himself.

On the edge of the open stove the children put some chestnuts to roast.Father had brought them purposely for the evening.Each nut had slits cut on one side.If this were not done, the heated nut would sometimes shoot across the room or even explode.Lucy and Dora had learned that it was best to cut the slit.

Mother brought her knitting and the children sat on the floor and watched the chestnuts and Mr. Merrill and Mr. Gates whittling.

“It is a good plan,” said Mr. Merrill, “to put into words sometimes how much we have to be thankful for.Now I am glad I have a home and a family and a paying job. What are you thankful for, Mother?”

“For my home and my family, and yes—for my job, too,” said Mother with a little laugh.“That my husband never drinks and that Dan is a good lad.”

“I am thankful for my daughter,” said Mr. Gates, “even though I expect to go shares in her some day.”

“Your turn, Lucy,” said Mr. Merrill, smiling.

“I am thankful for the marionettes you are making and for my new coat,” said Lucy, after thinking half a minute.

“How about Dora?”asked Mr. Merrill.

“I am thankful for my Chinese kitten and that I had Arcturus once,” said little Dora.“That I have enough to eat, not like the poor children across the sea.And that Mother doesn’t scold when I spill the cranberry sauce.”

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CHAPTER XIV
CHRISTMAS

Every day in the year has the same number of hours, but some days skim past like an automobile and some creep like a snail at a gallop.The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas are of the motor-car variety.There is so much to do, and to think of, that people can scarcely believe the clock.Lucy and Dora were as busy with their plans as were the grown people.

Dora made several pretty calendars for gifts.She hemmed a duster for Miss Chandler and another for Mother.She thought Miss Chandler would find use for a duster in her three rooms, especially a cream-white one, feather-stitched all around in blue.

Mrs. Merrill suggested this gift and she thought Dora took a good while to make it. She did not know that Dora made a second one, precisely like the first. She made it under Mother’s very nose, and Mother never saw it. Lucy and Dora both thought this was very funny, and could not help laughing, but it never occurred to Mrs. Merrill that the duster Dora was working on was not always the same one.

On Christmas eve there was a church service.Miss Page asked her class to come early.This was an important occasion because the mite-boxes for the hungry children in other countries were to be collected.

Mr. and Mrs. Merrill were going with the children, but they would sit in the back of the church.Lucy and Dora were to sit with their class.The class was to sit in pew twenty-eight.

There had been many things to do that afternoon, and nobody looked out until they started for church. When the door shut behind the Merrill family, everybody was surprised.

Christmas came on a moonlight night that year, but in addition to the moon, at almost every house the porch light was shining, and the ordinary electric bulbs had been unscrewed and red ones substituted.All up and down the streets shone the pretty red lights.

“Oh, Mother!”said Lucy.“I wish our house had one.But it is only gas, and none at all on the porch.”

Mrs. Merrill thought a minute.The red lights did look pretty.In the front windows of the brown cottage hung Christmas wreaths but there was no light behind them.

“Wait for me a bit,” she said, and she went back into the cottage.

Lucy and Dora wondered what she was going to do.A group of young people went by.They were singing softly and Father began to sing with them. When Father was a young man, he used to belong to the choir.

What was Mother doing? She had lighted the lamp on the parlor table, but what was keeping her now?

Dora looked up at the sky.The moon was so bright that only the largest stars could show to-night.There was Orion with his flaming belt and sword.Dora knew several star-groups now.She and Uncle Dan and Olive had gone out one night with a flash-light and the star-book from the Public Library and traced them.Still, Mrs. Merrill did not come.

“Father,” asked Dora, “do you think angels come down to earth now?”

“If they ever come, it is at Christmas,” said Father, and he went on humming the words which were now faint in the distance.

Suddenly the windows of the Merrill parlor turned a warm crimson.From them streamed a soft red light.

“Oh, look, Father!Look, Dora!”exclaimed Lucy.“Now, we have a red light, too!”

“I thought Mother would fix it somehow,” said Mr. Merrill.

Mrs. Merrill came out while the children were still exclaiming.“How did you do it?”Dora asked.

“With Dan’s red silk scarf,” said Mrs. Merrill, pulling on her gloves again, and looking back at the pretty light.

“Safe against fire, Molly?”asked Mr. Merrill.“We wouldn’t like to go to church and come home to find the house burned.”

“It can’t take fire,” said Mrs. Merrill.

The minute they entered the vestibule, spicy smells of spruce and evergreen greeted them.The church was warm and all the rafters were draped with festoons of green.The only light was in the chancel and what came from two big Christmas trees on either side of the chancel arch.They were strung with wee red bulbs, and at the top of each tree shone a star.Between the trees stood the manger for the gifts.

When the choir came, in place of their usual white cottas, they wore bright red ones.How Christmas-y the church did seem!

There were carols and Christmas hymns and then one by one, the classes took up their mite-boxes and placed them in the manger. People had brought other gifts for the poor. All the children looked over their toys and selected something to go to the Children’s Hospital.

Lucy chose a doll of which she was not very fond.Dora brought a set of blocks, which she liked very much.She did not often play with them now, but because she had enjoyed them so much herself, she thought children who were not very sick—just beginning to get better—might care for them.

The Christmas eve service did not last long, but it left everybody with a pleasant and peaceful feeling.

All the red lights were yet burning and almost every house had wreaths in the front windows.The children were pleased as they came near the brown cottage to hear people speak of how pretty the red lamp looked.

“You’ll let it burn a long time, won’t you, Mother?”begged Dora.

“It may burn until Father and I go to bed,” said Mrs. Merrill.“You children had better be off early, so as to give Santa Claus a chance.”

“There is to be a surprise for you, to-morrow,” said Dora, and she and Lucy both giggled.

“There will be surprises for everybody,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but I think the biggest one will be for Dora.”

When Mother said this Dora almost flew up in the air.On any time but Christmas eve, she could not have borne the suspense.But she would know early in the morning.

Mr. Merrill unlocked the door and they all went into the cosy house.And there, on a table near the parlor door, stood a fairy Christmas tree!

It was only about eighteen inches high, planted in a flower-pot full of sand.At the top shone a silvery star, and from the star dropped webs that looked as though very large spiders had been spinning silver lace.Through the shimmery mist showed the green branches.

The tree had not been there when they went to church!The children stared in surprise and danced about the room.It was not until they had jumped around for a minute or two that they saw Mother was as surprised as anybody.She looked at the lovely tree and then at Father.

“I didn’t do it, Molly,” he said smiling.

“But you know who did,” said Mrs. Merrill.

“Cross my heart, I don’t,” declared Father.

How Lucy and Dora laughed to hear him say this.They looked again at the wee tree.Red candies were tied to its branches with silver cord, and white sugar-plums with red string. That was all the fruit it bore.

“Now, didn’t you put it there yourself, Mother?”asked Mr. Merrill.“When you went back to light the lamp?”

“I didn’t,” said Mrs. Merrill.“It wasn’t there then and I never saw it before, and the house has been locked all the time we were at church.”

“It is odd how a Christmas tree could get into a locked house,” agreed Mr. Merrill. “Had we better report it to the police?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as that,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Here’s Dan.He may know.”

“I was at church,” protested Dan.“Didn’t you see me singing in the choir in a very fancy rig?”

“Uncle Dan,” said Dora, “did you ever see that tree before?”

“How can I tell?”said Dan.“There have been several hundred Christmas trees in the square this past week. I don’t know one from another.”

Dora held him firmly.“Did you put that tree in here?”she asked.

“I did not,” said Dan.

“Did you unlock the door so somebody could bring it in?”Lucy asked.

“I did not,” said Dan.

The children looked at each other.Then Dora had a bright idea.

“Uncle Dan,” she demanded, “did you lend your key to somebody while you went to church?”

“I have answered three questions and that is enough!”said Dan.And he never did answer that one.

All the family hung up their stockings.Lucy and Dora put theirs on the brass knobs either side of the open stove.Mr. and Mrs. Merrill fastened theirs to the ends of the sofa. Uncle Dan went out again, but Dora hung his sock to the back of Mother’s rocking-chair. She and Lucy took one last look at the fairy tree and went to bed.

They didn’t talk and giggle more than any little sisters do on Christmas eve and they went to sleep before Mrs. Merrill expected.In less than an hour she put out the red lamp.

It was still dark when Dora woke but a great star was looking through the open window.It was so big and so bright that it seemed like the real star of Bethlehem, shining to guide the shepherds to where the little Jesus lay.

The star was so beautiful that Dora looked at it instead of wondering about her stocking.That could wait, but the star would fade with the dawn.She watched it a long time and saw the sky gradually grow lighter and the star less distinct.

Just as she was having hard work to see the star, Lucy woke.“Merry Christmas, Dora!”she exclaimed.“Let’s get up and look at our stockings.”

Lucy hustled down the steep stairs, but Dora opened the door of Uncle Dan’s room and looked in.Only his black head showed above the blankets.The window was wide open and the room freezing cold, but Dora ran in, kissed Uncle Dan’s cheek and whispered “Merry Christmas!”in his ear.

Dan woke and looked at her.“Get back to bed,” he said.“You’ll catch your death.”And then he said, “Merry Christmas, Dora!”

When Dora reached the foot of the stairs, Mr. Merrill jumped out from behind the door to his room and gave her a big hug and a Christmas greeting.

Father came into the parlor, he said to make the fire burn better for the children, but Mother came the next moment, and she didn’t give any excuse for coming. Most mothers and fathers like to see the Christmas stockings opened.

The stockings were knobby and puffed and would be most uncomfortable to wear if they should stay that shape.Some packages were too big even to go in.These were on the floor under the stockings.

Lucy and Dora began to open the gifts, and everything they opened they liked very much.

From Mother there was a pretty woolen cap and muffler, a brown set for Lucy and a blue one for Dora.Both were much pleased, because all the girls were wearing them.

Olive gave Lucy a box of pretty handkerchiefs and Dora some writing paper with a blue M at the top.It was like some which Olive had at the beach and which Dora admired.Olive’s paper was marked G.

Miss Page gave each a little New Testament.There was also from Miss Page a cunning bouquet.At a distance it looked like a bunch of flowers, but each flower was a bit of candy wrapped in oiled paper.About the bouquet was some paper lace.Both Lucy and Dora were delighted.

Lucy liked her pincushion very much.She had made for Dora a little silk bag in which to carry a purse or a handkerchief.

Uncle Dan gave each a box of candy, besides making the stage for the marionettes.The stage was finished and painted.It stood back against the parlor wall.

And as though Father were not making them a big present by whittling the puppets for the theatre, he gave them each a book.Lucy’s was “When Mother Lets Us Cook.”

Only the fact that she was not dressed kept Lucy from rushing into the kitchen and trying a receipt. Besides, Mother said quite emphatically that she wasn’t doing any “letting” at that hour in the morning. Later in the day, she would see about it.

What do you think was the name of Dora’s book?She could scarcely believe her eyes.When she did believe them, she could not speak, only look at Father and then hug him hard.

Father had gone to the Public Library and asked Miss Perkins which book Dora liked best.Miss Perkins remembered.Indeed, it would be strange if she did not know, for Dora had borrowed the book five times since September.Father had bought her the “Story of Doctor Dolittle.”

“It was the biggest surprise, Mother!” Dora said, when she had thanked Father again and again and looked at the pictures for about the fortieth time.

“Oh, that isn’t the surprise,” said Mrs. Merrill.

“It isn’t!”said Dora.“What can it be?”

She got down from Father’s knee and took her limp stocking from the knob.In the toe was still a small package.

In the toe of hers, Lucy had just found the white Chinese kitten and was speechless with pleasure.She liked it better than Dora’s blue one.

“Because there really are white kittens,” she said.

“There are blue ones, too,” said Dora.“Aunt Margaret told me so.Blue Persian cats.”

“I don’t think they are just like yours,” said Lucy.

Dora had never seen a Persian blue, so she did not say anything.Besides, she was wondering what Miss Chandler had given her.

It was a little gold ring set with a blue stone which Mr. Merrill thought was an aquamarine.

Dora didn’t care about the name, but she liked the ring exceedingly.She slipped it on her finger.It just fitted.

“This must be the big surprise,” she said to Mother.

“The ring is a surprise to me,” said Mrs. Merrill, “for I didn’t know what was in that package.But it is not the surprise I mean.”

Dora again felt her stocking and discovered a tiny wad of tissue paper.She untwisted it and her eyes and mouth both opened.

“Mother!”she exclaimed after a second, “oh, Mother!Mother!is it really Arcturus, my Arcturus?Where did he come from?Oh, Mother, my bear, my own little silver bear!”

“You can never guess where we found him,” said Mrs. Merrill.

“Did somebody find him at the beach?Did Uncle Dan go over again?”asked Lucy, as excited as Dora.

“Arcturus came home from the beach when we did,” said Mrs. Merrill.“He has been in Westmore all the time, though not in our house.”

“Where was he?”Dora asked eagerly.

“He was found last week,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but I thought since it was so near Christmas he might as well come back in your stocking.You remember that I went to the church to help pack a missionary barrel?”

The children remembered perfectly.They had carried some shoes to the church to go in that barrel.

“When we came to pack the things,” said Mrs. Merrill, “there was that straw hat of Olive’s, the one with the pink roses. The flowers were faded, but the hat was really too good for Olive to give away, and I told her so.”

“While we were turning the hat about and looking at it,” Mrs. Merrill went on, “Dora’s silver bear dropped out of a fold of velvet.I can’t account for his getting into it, but that is where he was.”

The children knew how he got there.Lucy remembered picking up Olive’s hat from the sand the very morning Arcturus ran away.All the time he was hiding in the velvet, so the sifting of the sand didn’t make him appear.

“Arcturus has come home!”said Dora happily.“How nice that he came on Christmas morning.I felt dreadfully when he ran away, but if he hadn’t, probably I would never have had the Chinese kitten.I hope Arcturus won’t be jealous of Vega.”

“Mother,” said Lucy, “it’s your turn now.You and Father open your presents.”

“Not until I am dressed,” said Mrs. Merrill.“This sitting about in a kimono is chilly work.”

“My feet are cold,” Lucy admitted.

“You and Dora run and get into your clothes,” said Mrs. Merrill.“Come, Father.”

Dora made no motion to start.“My feet are cold, too,” she said.“Father, do you think if a person had only one foot, it could possibly be so cold as two?”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Mr. Merrill.

“I will ask Uncle Dan,” said Dora.“And I must tell him that Arcturus has come home.How surprised he will be!I can’t see how Uncle Dan can sleep on Christmas morning.I woke him once, but he must have gone to sleep again.Father, did you know that the star of Bethlehem was shining this morning?”

“Over in the east?”asked Father Merrill.“Yes, Dora, I saw it.”

THE END