in this
California city; but there was no answering note of joy in Tabitha's
heart. Why had Carrie shown her the pretty writing-desk? What had
prompted her to speak such disquieting words? Ought she to send
something to the stern father who did not care?

"One should give only from ze happiness of ze heart, Madeline."

Madame's gentle voice floated back to Tabitha, speaking the same
sentiment she had voiced to the black-haired girl a few weeks before. "A
gift from a sense of duty is no gift at all."

"Then," thought Tabitha, "that settles my difficulty. I could give only
from a sense of duty. I should like to love him, but he won't let me."

"But sink how lonely he may be, ze cross old uncle you talk about!
Doesn't it make you sorry?" came another snatch of conversation.
"Perhaps he loves you more zan you sink. Oh, yes, I should get him
somesing--a calendar or a card or maybe write a letter; but don't do it
because you sink you ought. If he feels zat you really want to cheer
him, it will make him happy even if he is cross."

The sunshine grew suddenly brighter to Tabitha, her heart grew
wonderfully lighter, her lips unconsciously hummed a little tune and the
walk the rest of the way to town was beautiful. But the first thing she
did when Ivy Hall was reached, was to run up to her room, select the
prettiest of the three left-over calendars, wrap it daintily in tissue
paper and gold cord and address it to her father at Silver Bow. Then
with a happy sigh she dropped it back into the box to await the proper
time for mailing, and skipped off to tell Madame that her Christmas work
was all done.

CHAPTER XVII

HOLIDAY PLANS

"Girls, girls!" cried Jessie Wayne, bursting unannounced into Bertha
Peck's room where ten or twelve of her mates were feverishly at work on
Christmas mysteries, anxious to have everything complete before the
morrow saw them scattered in their many homes for their holiday
vacation. "Just listen to this. Mamma is going to give me a party
Christmas Eve, and there are a hundred invitations sent out. Isn't that
gorgeous? The parties mamma gives are simply fine; almost everyone we
invite comes. I wish we lived here in this city so I could have all of
you. And New Years Day she is going to take six of us over to Pasadena
in the auto to see the Tournament of the Roses and the chariot races. I
have often been there, we go every year, but it is lots more fun with a
crowd of people your own age. O