itty one, like I
used to have!"

It was little Scrubby said all that. She was only four years old, but
she could say what she had to say in her own fashion. When she saw her
father's sorrowful face, she thought she had said rather too much this
time; so she gave him a hug and put up her mouth for a kiss.

"I dess I can wait, papa," she said. "But he will bring me a tree
_next_ Kissmuss, wont he? Jess like I used to have? And then wont that
be nice! There's my baby waked up. She'll be cryin' in a minute, I
s'pose."

Old Lucy, the dearest baby of all in this little girl's large family,
was taken up and quieted; and then something happened that was really
wonderful. Scrubby, with her poor torn and tangled doll in her arms,
sat very still for at least five minutes. The little maid was thinking
all that time. She did not think very straight, perhaps, but she
thought over a great deal of ground, and settled a good many things in
that busy little head of hers; then she sang them all over to good old
Lucy.

"Hush, my dear!" she sang. "Don't stay long, for it beats my heart when
the winds blow; and come back soon to your own chickabiddy, and then
Kissmuss'll be here. S'umber on, baby dear. Kriss is coming with such a
booful tree; then wont you be s'prised? She went to the hatter's to get
him a coffin, and when she come back he was fixin' my Kissmuss-tree!"

The little singer grew so enthusiastic when she came to the tree that
she could not wait to sing any more; so she just danced Lucy up and
down and chattered to her as fast as her tongue could go.

"It'll be for me and for you, Lucy, and for all the babies, and then
wont you be glad! And for mamma too, and for papa, cos we's all good
little chillen, if we _is_ poor. Yes, indeed, Ole Kriss is coming with
his reindeer. And he'll bring me a horse with pink shoes on; and you'll
have a piano--a _really_ piano, ye know; and mamma, she'll have two
little glass s'ippers, and--and--"

Little Scrubby stopped chattering just there, and laid her head down on
poor old Lucy's kind bosom.

"Oh dear!" she sighed, "I do _wish_ ole Kriss'd come with that pitty
tree!"

The kitten curled up on the hearth, and the little broken dog that lay
tipped over in the corner, and good old Lucy, and the three dolls
tucked up in mamma's basket, all heard the wish of the poor little
disappointed child.

II.

Everybody has noticed that the kittens and the dogs take a great many
naps in the