There stood the
Christmas-tree, one mass of shining candles, and silver and gold, and
angels with wings, and wondrous things of colored paper all over it from
top to bottom. Gimpy's eyes sparkled at the sight, skeptic though he was
at nine; and in the depths of his soul he came over, then and there, to
Santa Claus, to abide forever--only he did not know it yet.

To make the children eat any breakfast, with three gay sleds waiting to
take the girls out in the snow, was no easy matter; but it was done at
last, and they swarmed forth for a holiday in the open. All days are spent
in the open at Sea Breeze,--even the school is a tent,--and very cold
weather only shortens the brief school hour; but this day was to be given
over to play altogether. Winter it was "for fair," but never was coasting
enjoyed on New England hills as these sledding journeys on the sands where
the surf beat in with crash of thunder. The sea itself had joined in
making Christmas for its little friends. The day before, a regiment of
crabs had come ashore and surrendered to the cook at Sea Breeze. Christmas
morn found the children's "floor"--they called the stretch of clean, hard
sand between high-water mark and the surf-line by that name--filled with
gorgeous shells and pebbles, and strange fishes left there by the tide
overnight. The fair-weather friends who turn their backs upon old ocean
with the first rude blasts of autumn little know what wonderful surprises
it keeps for those who stand by it in good and in evil report.

When the very biggest turkey that ever strutted in barnyard was discovered
steaming in the middle of the dinner-table and the report went round in
whispers that ice-cream had been seen carried in in pails, and when, in
response to a pull at the bell, Matron Thomsen ushered in a squad of
smiling mamas and papas to help eat the dinner, even Gimpy gave in to the
general joy, and avowed that Christmas was "bully." Perhaps his acceptance
of the fact was made easier by a hasty survey of the group of papas and
mamas, which assured him that his own were not among them. A fleeting
glimpse of the baby, deserted and disconsolate, brought the old pucker to
his brow for a passing moment; but just then big Fred set off a snapper at
his very ear, and thrusting a pea-green fool's-cap upon his head, pushed
him into the roistering procession that hobbled round and round the table,
cheering fit to burst. And the babies that had been brought down from