the baby closer. It looked like a rose
dipped in milk, she thought, this pink and white blossom of girlhood, or
like a pink cherub, with its halo of pale yellow hair, finer than floss
silk.

"Carol, brothers, carol,
Carol joyfully,
Carol the good tidings,
Carol merrily!"

The voices were brimming over with joy.

"Why, my baby," whispered Mrs. Bird in soft surprise, "I had forgotten
what day it was. You are a little Christmas child, and we will name you
'Carol'--mother's Christmas Carol!"

"What!" said Mr. Bird, coming in softly and closing the door behind him.

"Why, Donald, don't you think 'Carol' is a sweet name for a Christmas
baby? It came to me just a moment ago in the singing, as I was lying
here half asleep and half awake."

"I think it is a charming name, dear heart, and sounds just like you,
and I hope that, being a girl, this baby has some chance of being as
lovely as her mother;"--at which speech from the baby's papa Mrs. Bird,
though she was as weak and tired as she could be, blushed with
happiness.

And so Carol came by her name.

Of course, it was thought foolish by many people, though Uncle Jack
declared laughingly that it was very strange if a whole family of Birds
could not be indulged in a single Carol; and Grandma, who adored the
child, thought the name much more appropriate than Lucy, but was glad
that people would probably think it short for Caroline.

Perhaps because she was born in holiday time, Carol was a very happy
baby. Of course, she was too tiny to understand the joy of
Christmas-tide, but people say there is everything in a good beginning,
and she may have breathed in unconsciously the fragrance of evergreens
and holiday dinners; while the peals of sleigh-bells and the laughter of
happy children may have fallen upon her baby ears and wakened in them a
glad surprise at the merry world she had come to live in.

Her cheeks and lips were as red as holly-berries; her hair was for all
the world the color of a Christmas candle-flame; her eyes were bright as
stars; her laugh like a chime of Christmas-bells, and her tiny hands
forever outstretched in giving.

[Illustration: "SHE IS A LITTLE CHRISTMAS CHILD"]

Such a generous little creature you never saw! A spoonful of bread and
milk had always to be taken by Mamma or nurse before Carol could enjoy
her supper; whatever bit of cake or sweetmeat found its way into her
pretty fingers was straightway broken in half t