Polly Pepper, and I'll run right back to bed again!"

"Dear me!" said Polly; "and you, too, Phronsie! Why, it's the middle of
the night! Did I ever!" and she had to pinch her mouth together tight
to keep from bursting out into a loud laugh. "Oh, dear, I shall laugh!
don't look so scared, Phronsie, there won't anything hurt you." For
Phronsie who, on hearing Joel fumbling around the precious stockings,
had been quite willing to hop out of bed and join him, had now, on
Polly's saying the dire words "in the middle of the night," scuttled
over to her protecting side like a frightened rabbit.

"It never'll be morning," said Joel taking up first one cold toe and
then the other; "you might let us have 'em now, Polly."

"No," said Polly sobering down; "you can't have yours till Davie wakes
up, too. Scamper off to bed, Joey, dear, and forget all about 'em--and
it'll be morning before you know it."

"Oh, I'd rather go to bed," said Phronsie, trying to tuck up her feet in
the little flannel night-gown, which was rather short, "but I don't know
the way back, Polly. Take me, Polly, do," and she put up her arms to be
carried.

"Oh, I ain't a-goin' back alone, either," whimpered Joel, coming up to
Polly, too.

"Why, you came down alone, didn't you?" whispered Polly, with a little
laugh.

"Yes, but I thought 'twas morning," said Joel, his teeth chattering with
something beside the cold.

"Well, you must think of the morning that's coming," said Polly,
cheerily. "I'll tell you--you wait till I put Phronsie into the crib,
and then I'll come back and go half-way up the stairs with you."

"I won't never come down till it's mornin' again," said Joel, bouncing
along the stairs, when Polly was ready to go with him, at a great rate.

"Better not," laughed Polly, softly. "Be careful and not wake Davie nor
Ben."

"I'm in," announced Joel, in a loud whisper; and Polly could hear him
snuggle down among the warm bedclothes. "Call us when 'tis mornin',
Polly."

"Yes," said Polly, "I will; go to sleep."

Phronsie had forgotten stockings and everything else on Polly's return,
and was fast asleep in the old crib. The result of it was that the
children slept over, when morning did really come; and Polly had to
keep her promise, and go to the foot of the stairs and call--"MERRY
CHRISTMAS! oh, Ben! and Joel! and Davie!"

"Oh!--oh!--oo-h!" and then the sounds that answered her, as with
smothered whoops of expectation they one and all fl