at all have come to stay.
But though we value all the rest,
'Tis Christmas Day we love the best."

At this the other Holidays stepped out, and bowing to Christmas, said:

"We all unite in words of praise,
And crown him king of Holidays."

Then New Year's Day placed a crown on his head, May-Day gave him a
rose, Fourth of July, a flag, Thanksgiving, an apple, Washington's
Birthday offered his hatchet, and St. Valentine gave him a sugar
heart; and joining hands the children and the Holidays danced around
him, singing:

"We all unite in words of praise,
And crown him king of Holidays."

The curtain fell on a tableau: the Holidays, with their flags and
banners, old Father Time, and the happy children.

The applause was so vehement it had to rise again for a moment, and
then there was an intermission while some of the actors changed their
costumes.

When the curtain went up for the last time the cottage was gone, and
in its place appeared a row of high-backed chairs on which were seated
five little ladies in the quaintest of short-waisted gowns, each with
a reticule on her arm, from which she took her needles and began to
knit. Then Bess, who sat at one end of the line, looked up, and said
in her own sweet little way:

"We're learning to knit, you see, because
We wish to be nice grandmammas;
You would not care, I'm sure, a bit
For a grandmamma who couldn't knit."

Dora, who came next, continued:

"How daintily warm, how soft and sweet,
The tiny socks for baby's feet.
Nothing you'll find in all the land
Fashioned like these by grandma's hand."

Here Elsie took it up:

"All the older children too can tell
How grandma's stockings wear so well,
And how she makes, with greatest pains,
Comforters, afghans, balls, and reins."

Louise had just made a discovery that surprised her, and with shining
eyes she recited:

"There's nothing so good, the children know,
As grandmamma's stories of long ago.
Empty-handed she could not tell
All the dear old stories half so well."

Constance sat at the end of the row, and looking at the others she
said:

"When she was a girl like you and me,
'Twas then she learned to knit, you see.
So like her now we must begin
Carefully putting the stitches in."

Then together they recited:

"Our shining needles we gayly ply,
Getting ready for by and by.
Aren't you g