I should think so--he proposes to turn things
topsy-turvy!"

"My! What does he want to do?" inquired Cousin Augusta.

"Oh, he calls it the 'White Gift Christmas'; but the long and short of
the matter is, that he proposes to 'turn down' Santa Claus, and all
the old time-honored customs connected with Christmas that are so dear
to the hearts of the children, and have the school do the giving. He
has a big banner hung up in the Sunday school room bearing the words,
'Gifts for the Christ-Child'."

"An excellent idea," exclaimed Uncle John, "but I don't see much of an
innovation about that; you have always made the children's giving a
part of your Christmas celebration, have you not?"

"Certainly!" rejoined Marcia. "They have always brought their little
gifts for the poor, and that is all right; but this time there are no
gifts to the Sunday school at all."

"Not even to the Primary School?" asked Augusta.

"Well," admitted Marcia, "Mr. Robinson gave the children their choice
today, whether they would have the old Christmas or the 'White Gift
Christmas,' and they all voted for the new idea."

"Why then should the children be obliged to have gifts, if they don't
want them?" laughed Augusta.

"Oh, children are always taken with novelty, and Mr. Robinson told it
to them in such a way that fancy was captivated; but I don't think
they really understood what they were giving up."

"Marcia, it seems to me that your are emphasizing the wrong side of
the subject if I understand it aright," said Jack.

"Why, do you know about it?" asked Marcia, in surprise.

"Not much," replied Jack; "but I read the White Gift story in the
'Sunday School Times,' and the report of the Painesville experiment."

"Well, Jack, tell us what you know about this mysterious 'White
Gift'," commanded his father.

"I would rather Marcia should tell it, father; I know so little."

"Oh, go on, Jack," urged Marcia; "you can't possibly know less about
it than I do, for I confess I was so full of the disappointment of the
little ones that the other side of it didn't impress me very much."

"Well, as I remember it," said Jack, "the gist of the plan is
this--that Christmas is Christ's birthday, and we should make our
gifts to him, instead of to one another; and the idea of the White
Gift was suggested by the story of the Persian king named Kublah Khan,
who was a wise and good ruler, and greatly beloved. On his birthday
his subjects kept what they call