little waifs were found, who
in decency could be called _little_ girls and boys. But, alas! as she
looked down from her chair, Alice felt as if most of her guests looked
like shameless, hulking big boys and big girls, only too well fitted to
grapple with the world, and only too eager to accept its gifts without
grappling. She and Lillie tried to forget this. They kissed a few little
girls, and saw the faintest gleam of pleasure on one or two little
faces. But there, also, the pleasure was almost extinct, in fear of the
big boys and big girls howling around.

So the howling began again, as the distribution went forward. "Give me
that jack-knife!" "I say, Mister, I'm as big as he is," "He had one
before and hid it," "Be down, Tom Mulligan,--get off that fence or I'll
hide you," "I don't want the book, give me them skates," "You sha'n't
have the skates, I'll have 'em myself--" and so on. John Flagg finally
knocked down Tom Mulligan, who had squeezed round behind the tree, in an
effort to steal something, and had the satisfaction of sending him
bellowing from the room, with his face covered with blood from his nose.
Gilmore, meanwhile, was rapidly distributing an orange and an apple to
each, which, while the oranges were sucked, gave a moment's quiet. Alice
and the ladies, badly frightened, were stripping the tree as fast as
they could, and at last announced that it was all clear, with almost as
eager joy as half an hour before they had announced that it was all
full. "There's a candy horn on top, give me that." "Give me that little
apple." "Give me the old sheep." "Hoo! hurrah, for the old sheep!" This
of a little lamb which had been placed as an appropriate ornament in
front. Then began a howl about oranges. "I want another orange." "Bill's
got some, and I've got none." "I say, Mister, give me an orange."

To which Mister replied, by opening the window, and speaking into the
street,--"I say, Purdy, call four officers and come up and clear this
room."

The room did not wait for the officers: it cleared itself very soon on
this order, and was left a scene of wreck and dirt. Orange-peel trampled
down on the floor; cake thrown down and mashed to mud, intermixed with
that which had come in on boots, and the water which had been slobbered
over from hasty mugs; the sugar plums which had fallen in scrambles, and
little sprays of green too, trodden into the mass,--all made an aspect
of filth like a market side-walk. And poor Ali