ind--would you
ask Miss Margery, too?"

"Of course, dear. We shall be happy to have her. Before dinner let's
write some little letters--really we ought--to let your other friends
know that we've found you."

"Bully Mrs. Collins," said Pat.

"And poor Miss Farlow," added Miss Drayton.

"Don't forget our friend 'Lop," suggested Mr. Patterson.

"And--it's far away and long ago--" said Anne, "but I want Mademoiselle
Duroc to know and to tell the girls, if any of the old ones are there,
that you know about the jewels and it's all right."

CHAPTER XXIX

"Time you youngsters were doing your Christmas shopping," said Mr.
Patterson the next morning, laying a generous banknote by Pat's plate
and two crisp notes by Anne's. "She has to have a double portion," he
explained, "because she's a girl--and little--and has to make up lost
time."

"Yep, dad," said Pat, nodding agreement to each of these reasons and
adding another, "and she has such gangs of people to send things to.
You'll have to go to the ten-cent shop, Nancy Anne, or borrow from my
bank. Wherever you've been, you've picked up friends, like--like a
little woolly lambie gathers burs."

They all laughed at Pat's speech; they were in the joyous frame of mind
when laughter comes easily.

"I want to join you in Christmas remembrances to the people who have
been so good to you," said Miss Drayton.

"I'll send Jake Collins a ball and Peter a pocket-knife," said Pat, "or
would Jake rather have a knife, too?"

"Mrs. Collins shall have a silk dress," said Miss Drayton.

"Oo-ee! That will be glorious," exclaimed Anne. "Let it be the rustly
kind. And red. She loves red."

"Mr. Collins shall have an umbrella with a gorgeous silver handle," said
Mr. Patterson. "That will be silk. Must it be rustly and red, too?"

Anne laughed. "Lizzie would just love a pink parasol," she said. "And I
know what Aunt Charity would like--a pair of big, gold-rimmed
spectacles. I heard her say she'd rather have them than anything else in
the world."

"Is her eyesight very bad?" asked Miss Drayton.

"Why--I don't know. I reckon not." Anne looked puzzled. "Oh! she just
wants them for dress-up. She has a pair of steel-rimmed ones now. She
pulls them down on her nose so she can see over them, you know."

Mr. Patterson threw back his head and laughed till he was red in the
face. "She shall have them," he said, as soon as he could speak. "She
shall have the very biggest pair of gol