of Ernest's present. It crowned the heap
because she couldn't wait to have him open it. Her father had given her
the money for a pocket microscope which Ernest had been coveting for
months.

Mrs. Morton made Alice set a place for herself and share their family
festival. Dr. Morton could scarcely finish saying grace before there was
a general falling to at the parcels. For some reason Dr. Morton had a
prejudice against Christmas trees, and it was always the family custom
to have the gifts at the breakfast table.

Chicken Little waited just long enough to see Ernest's face light up
over the microscope before she pounced joyously upon her biggest parcel
which certainly looked like a doll.

The rest of the family suspended operations to watch her as she lifted
the lid of the box, her face aglow with anticipation. She gave one long
satisfied look at the contents in perfect silence then voiced her
delight in a series of little shrieks.

"Oh Mother!--it is! Oh, the darling!--and it can talk! I didn't know it
could talk! And see those red shoes--and isn't that the dearest dress?
Oh--Mother!" Chicken Little jumped up from her chair to fling herself on
her mother's neck in a grateful hug.

But there were more joys. One _was_ a gold bracelet--from Frank and
Marian. Alice had made a nightgown and a fascinating coat for Miss
Dolly, and Ernest had bought a marvelous trunk for the young lady.

Ernest's brackets proved to be really charming and the young workman was
well repaid for his hours of toil by the general admiration. Mother and
Father declared themselves delighted with Jane's painfully wrought
book-mark and penwiper, and Alice was more than happy over the
substantial coat and the family's gift to her in anticipation of her
journey. For Alice was to go to Uncle Joseph's. It had been arranged
that she should leave soon after New Year's.

Alice had another surprise later in the morning. A box of gloves arrived
on top of which reposed the brown glove she had lost the preceding
evening. No card was enclosed, but evidently none was needed for Alice
blushed rosy red at sight of the brown glove and hugged the package
close as she carried it upstairs.

"I wish Christmas came every day," sighed Chicken Little happily as she
tumbled into bed that night almost too tired to undress.

But no one wished it the next day. Everybody was tired and cross and
found it hard to settle down to common daily duties after the prolonged
Chris