ted themselves flushed of
cheek and somewhat rumpled as to hair, but properly gowned and
apologetic, just as grace was ended. To be late for grace only meant one
demerit; the first course came higher, and the second higher still.
Punishment increased by geometrical progression.

During the half hour's intermission before evening study, the three
separated themselves from the dancers in the hall, and withdrew to a
corner of the deserted schoolroom.

Patty perched herself on a desk, and loudly stated her feelings.

"I'm tired of having the Dowager get up at prayers, and make a speech
about the beautiful Christmas spirit, and how sweet it is to make so
many little children happy, when she knows perfectly well that it's
just a lark for us. I'm chairman this year and I can do as I please.
I've had enough of this fake charity; and I'm not going to have any
Christmas tree!"

"No Christmas tree?" Conny echoed blankly.

"But what are you going to do with the thirty-seven dollars and
eight-four cents?" asked Priscilla, the practical.

"Listen!" Patty settled to her argument. "There aren't any children
around here who need a blessed thing, but Gramma and Granpa Flannigan
do. That poor old woman, who is just as nice as she can be, is crowded
in with all those horrid, yelling, sticky little Murphys; and Granpa
Flannigan is poked into Tammas Junior's kitchen, running errands for
Tammas Junior's wife, who is a per-fect-ly _terrible_ woman. She throws
kettles when she gets mad. Gramma worries all the time for fear he has
rheumatism, and nobody to rub on liniment, or make him wear the right
underclothes. They're exactly as fond of each other as any other
husband and wife, and just because Ursula wants to have callers, I say
it's a mean shame for them to be separated!"

"It is too bad," Conny agreed impartially. "But I don't see that we can
help it."

"Why, yes! Instead of having a Christmas tree, we'll rent that empty
little cottage down by the laurel walk, and mend the chimney--Patrick
can do that for nothing--and put in new windows, and furnish it, and set
them up in housekeeping."

"Do you think we can do it for thirty-seven dollars and eighty-four
cents?" Priscilla asked.

"That's where the charity comes in! Every girl in school will go without
her allowance for two weeks. Then we'll have more than a hundred
dollars, and you can furnish a house perfectly beautifully for that. And
it would be real charity to give up our