hristmas,
everyone! My stocking has _something_ in it, I can see from here. Wake
up! Wake up! I want to look at my presents!"

A drop of something hot struck the tip of Gail's nose, and she opened
her sleepy eyes to find a white-robed, shivering figure shaking her
vigorously with one hand, while in the other was a tiny, flickering
candle, which dribbled hot wax prodigally as it was tipped about with
reckless abandon by the excited pleader.

"What are you doing with that lighted candle?" demanded Gail, digging
the wax off her nose and dodging another drop. "Put it out before you
set the house on fire. It isn't morning yet. It can't be! I have hardly
slept at all."

"The clock struck a long time ago," insisted Peace with chattering
teeth, "and I counted much as five."

"Five o'clock!" protested Gail. "Oh, surely not! Well, if it is that
time, I suppose you can get up. Seems awfully quiet for that hour,
though." The older sister began the process of dressing, and in a few
moments all six girls were gathered around the roaring fire in the
kitchen, excitedly examining the contents of their stockings, which Gail
had painstakingly filled with homemade gifts and a little cheap candy
from the village store,--her one Christmas extravagance.

"Mittens!" cried Peace, investigating the first package her excited hand
drew forth. "You knit them, didn't you, Gail? I saw Mrs. Grinnell
teaching you how. Mine are red. Have you got some, Cherry?"

"Yes, blue; and Allee's are pink. Aren't they pretty?"

"Just see my lovely knit slippers," cried Hope, throwing her arms about
Gail's neck and hugging her with a vim. "Where did you get all the yarn,
sister?"

"I found a lot in the attic," replied the oldest girl, smiling happily
at the children's appreciation of her labor; but she did not explain
that a gorgeous, moth-eaten, old afghan had been raveled to provide all
those pretty things.

"What is in your stocking, Faith?"

The girl held up a dainty white waist, but said never a word, for she
recognized that Gail's patient fingers had re-fashioned for her one of
the dear mother's hoarded treasures, and her heart was too full for
utterance.

"I've got some handkerchiefs," called Peace again, "and a ribbon--if I
only had some hair to tie with it! It's too wide for a band, and that's
all I can wear--here's an apple, a penwiper and some candy. You've got
pretty nearly the same c'lection, haven't you, Cherry, and so have Hope
and Alle