ere prairie fires were unknown, and bravely determined to stay and
fight back to rough comfort and plenty.

"The snow will help us to forget," she said to the biggest brother, as
she took a hot, crammed popper from him and emptied it into a milk-pan.
He nodded in reply, and sprinkled the popper with kernels again, and she
went back to her bench, carrying the pan under one arm. They sat without
speaking, the click of the needle and the snapping of the corn alone
breaking the quiet. When another popper was ready to be turned out, the
biggest brother went into the adjoining shed with a wooden bucket and
shoveled it full of coal from the ever-lessening pile that had been
purchased, like the seed for the coming planting, on the promise of the
next year's crop.

As he returned, bending under the weight of the bucket, the door into
the entry was shoved slowly open and the little girl entered. She walked
forward to lay her mittens on the table before she brushed the snow from
her shoulders and leggings and untwisted and shook out her nubia. Her
woolen cap was pulled far down over her ears, and her mother, as she
watched her, did not see the grave eyes and pensive face until the
little girl halted beside the biggest brother's chair to warm her hands
at a stove-hole.

"How's the tree?" asked the biggest brother, putting down the bucket and
depositing one small lump on the dying coals.

"It's setting in a churn," replied the little girl, without looking up.

"Is it trimmed?" said her mother.

The little girl acquiesced. "It's all ready to light."

"S'pose those Dutchman's young ones brought some things over to put on,"
ventured the biggest brother, shaking the popper violently to hide his
concern.

The little girl sighed heavily. "Everybody's sent presents but the
Swedes and us," she said, and there was a telltale break in her voice.

"The Swedes and us won't have much on," declared the biggest brother,
dryly. "That fire scooped up our Christmas gifts. The only people around
here that can make presents this year were smart enough to backfire." He
gave the popper such a shake that the lid swung up and let a shower of
kernels fall over the stove.

"The Dutch girls said this morning," began the little girl, "that their
new house is better 'n ours. And they said that every one of 'em is
going to have two presents off the tree to-night. And--and--I know it's
true, too, because I saw the teacher write their names on the packa