r,
and all tried not to see what was going on. Mrs. Peterkin would go in
with Solomon John, or Mr. Peterkin with Elizabeth Eliza, or Elizabeth
Eliza and Agamemnon and Solomon John. The little boys and the small
cousins were never allowed even to look inside the room.

Elizabeth Eliza meanwhile went into town a number of times. She wanted
to consult Amanda as to how much ice-cream they should need, and whether
they could make it at home, as they had cream and ice. She was pretty
busy in her own room; the furniture had to be changed, and the carpet
altered. The "hump" was higher than she expected. There was danger
of bumping her own head whenever she crossed it. She had to nail some
padding on the ceiling for fear of accidents.

The afternoon before Christmas, Elizabeth Eliza, Solomon John, and their
father collected in the back parlor for a council. The carpenters had
done their work, and the tree stood at its full height at the back of
the room, the top stretching up into the space arranged for it. All the
chips and shavings were cleared away, and it stood on a neat box.

But what were they to put upon the tree?

Solomon John had brought in his supply of candles; but they proved to be
very "stringy" and very few of them. It was strange how many bayberries
it took to make a few candles! The little boys had helped him, and
he had gathered as much as a bushel of bayberries. He had put them in
water, and skimmed off the wax, according to the directions; but there
was so little wax!

Solomon John had given the little boys some of the bits sawed off from
the legs of the chairs. He had suggested that they should cover them
with gilt paper, to answer for gilt apples, without telling them what
they were for.

These apples, a little blunt at the end, and the candles were all they
had for the tree!

After all her trips into town Elizabeth Eliza had forgotten to bring
anything for it.

"I thought of candies and sugar-plums," she said; "but I concluded if we
made caramels ourselves we should not need them. But, then, we have not
made caramels. The fact is, that day my head was full of my carpet. I
had bumped it pretty badly, too."

Mr. Peterkin wished he had taken, instead of a fir-tree, an apple-tree
he had seen in October, full of red fruit.

"But the leaves would have fallen off by this time," said Elizabeth
Eliza.

"And the apples, too," said Solomon John.

"It is odd I should have forgotten, that day I went in o