" for he trotted about making
friends, lapping the tears from Tommy's face, and standing up on his
hind legs to let Totty pat his head.

Sarah promptly took advantage of the lull to whisk the boys off to the
bath-room; half an hour later, all five children, well wrapped in shawls
and blankets, were gathered about the fire in Patricia's room for the
hanging of the Christmas stockings.

That ceremony over, Sarah pounced on Tommy and Archibald, carrying them
off to bed in Miss Kirby's room. "An' mercy knows what Miss Julia done
say when she find yo' here," she muttered, tucking them in snugly.

Archibald sat up in bed. "I want--Custard!"

"Yo' go 'long ter sleep, young sir," Sarah expostulated. "What yo' think
Marse Santa Clause goin' say ter such goin's-on?"

"I want Custard!"

"Let him have him, Sarah!" Patricia exclaimed.

"Miss P'tricia! 'Low that onery dog on yo' aunt's bed!"

Patricia let the insult to her pet pass.

"_On_ it, _in_ it, _under_ it, if it'll keep him quiet!"

Sarah lifted Custard in far from respectful fashion, dropping him, an
astonished, but entirely acquiescent heap, between Archibald and Tommy.

Lydia, already asleep, was disposed of in Patricia's bed, and Norma and
Totty settled comfortably on the wide lounge.

"An' now, honey," Sarah said, "I's goin' get you and Miss Nell yo'
supper."

They went downstairs, where Sarah made Patricia and Nell comfortable at
a small table drawn up before the sitting-room fire.

"But what are you going to fill those stockings with, Pat?" Nell asked,
after Sarah had left them alone.

"I can manage all right for the girls; I've loads of toys stowed away up
garret. I've always had heaps of things given me, but if I could get
out-of-doors, and had something alive to play with, I'd let the other
things go every time. I am a bit puzzled about Archibald's and Tommy's."

"I'll run home and get some of the little boys' toys," Nell offered.
When supper was over, while Patricia went, as she called it, "shopping
up garret," Nell made a hurried trip home and back.

"There," she exclaimed, coming in breathless, her head and shoulders
white with snow, "will these do?" She laid a toy engine, a trumpet, a
tin sword, and a small box of lead soldiers on the table.

"Beautifully!" Patricia was placing a small jointed doll in the top of
Norma's stocking. "This is going to be about the realest Christmas I've
ever had."

"It's going to be a mighty sad one for a lot