was too sharp for her.

"No, no!" he growled. "That's Dorothy Reed. Put it back! put it back!"

And Dorry, with a playful air of protest, dropped the pretty parcel into
the bag again.

So the merry game went on; some escaped detection and saved their gifts;
some were detected and lost them; but the godmother would not suffer
those who had parcels to try again, and therefore, in the course of the
game, those who failed at first succeeded after a while. When all had
parcels, and the bag was nearly empty, what did that old fairy do but
straighten up, throw off her hat, cap, false face, and cloak--and if it
wasn't Uncle George himself, very red in the face, and very glad to be
out of his prison. Instantly one and all discovered that they had known
all along it was he.

"Ha! ha!" they laughed; "and now--" starting in pursuit--"let's see who
the white gnome is!"

They caught him at the foot of the stairs, and were not very much
astonished when Ed Tyler came to light.

"That is a royal game!" declared some. "Grand!" cried others. "Fine!"
"First-rate!" "Glorious!" "Capital!" "As good as Christmas!" said the
rest. Then they opened their parcels, and there was great rejoicing.

Uncle George, as Liddy declared, wasn't a gentleman to do things by
halves, and he certainly had distinguished himself in the "Thank-you"
game. Every gift was worth having. There were lovely bon-bon boxes,
pretty trinkets, penknives, silver lead-pencils, paint-boxes, puzzles,
thimbles, and scissors, and dozens of other nice things.

What delighted "Oh, oh's!" and merry "Ha, ha's!" rang through that big
parlor. The boys who had thimbles, and the girls who had balls, had
great fun displaying their prizes, and trying to "trade." After a deal
of laughter and merry bargaining, the gifts became properly distributed,
and then the piano and violin significantly played "Home, Sweet Home!"
Soon sleigh-bells were jingling outside; Jack was stamping his feet to
knock the snow off his boots. Mr. McSwiver, too, was there, driving the
Manning farm-sled, filled with straw; and several turn-outs from the
village were speeding chuck-a-ty-chuck, cling, clang, jingle-y-jing,
along the broad carriage-way.

Ah! what a bundling-up time! What scrambling for tippets, shawls, hoods,
and cloaks; what laughter and frolic; what "good-byes" and "good-byes;"
what honest "thank-you's" to Mr. Reed; and what shouting and singing and
hurrahing, as the noisy sleigh-loads glided aw