ce.

With a gurgle of delight, Bobby, clasping his stocking, ran and leaped
at one bound into the soft coverlet. There he perched happily and told
of his skates.

"Suppose you open the blinds and show them," suggested Mr. Orde.

Bobby did so. Mr. Orde examined the skates with the eye of a
connoisseur.

"Seems to me Santa Claus has been pretty good to you," said he finally.

"Yes, sir," said Bobby. For the time being, under the glamour of the
day, he wanted to believe in Santa Claus. Doubts had cold comfort, for
they were shut entirely outside the doors of his mind.

But before long it was time to get up. Bobby pattered across the room
and down the hall to the head of the stairs. Outside Grandma Orde's room
he paused.

"Merry Christmas, grandma!" he called.

"Merry Christmas, Bobby!" replied Grandma Orde promptly.

"Merry Christmas, grandpa!" repeated Bobby.

"Grandpa isn't here," replied Grandma.

And on his way back to his own room Bobby found Grandpa; or rather
Grandpa surprised him by springing on him suddenly from behind the
corner with a shout of "Merry Christmas!" Grandpa had been waiting there
for ten minutes, and was as pleased as a child at having caught Bobby.

The latter dressed and went hunting for other game. Mrs. Fox was an easy
victim. Amanda he stalked most elaborately, ducking below the chairs and
tables, exercising the utmost strategy to approach behind her broad
back. Apparently his caution succeeded to admiration. Amanda went on
peeling apples, quite oblivious. And then, just as he was about to
spring upon her from the rear, she remarked, in an ordinary tone of
voice and without moving her head:

"Merry Christmas, ye young imp! I know you're there!"

This was a disappointment; but Bobby bagged Martin by hiding in the
storehouse; and Duke was too easy.

After breakfast came the inevitable delay during which Bobby sat and
eyed the parlour doors. Mr. Orde slipped in and out of them several
times. Martin, too, entered on some mysterious errand regarding the
heating. Finally everything was pronounced in readiness. All the family
but Bobby went into the parlour. Suddenly both doors were thrown back at
once. Bobby stood face to face with the Tree.

It stood, glittering and glorious, set like a jewel in the velvet of the
darkened room. Only the illumination of its own many little candles cast
radiance on its decorations and the parcels hung from its branches and
piled beneath, and dimly o