opened and
vast wealth displayed.

And Leo had become a different lad. No longer idle and careless, with
slow and lingering tread, he was now alert, vigorous, and manly. The
servants were glad to return and obey his wishes. The monastery was
rebuilt and repaired. Lawns and gardens were in trim array. Warm
tapestries and curtains lined the bare walls and windows, while ivy and
rose clambered without.

Even Morpheus, roused from his invalidism, rewrote his poems, sent them
to a publisher, and favored all his friends with copies bound in blue
velvet, with his monogram in silver on the covers. His pride in his son
became so great that at Leo's request he undertook to renew the library,
and the time that he had spent in bed was devoted to the step-ladder. It
was in this way he discovered that their name had been incorrectly
written. For his own part he did not care to make any change, but he
insisted that Leo should use the portion omitted, which an old copy of
the Doomsday-book had revealed to him, and sign himself in full, "Leo
Sans Lazybones."

Christmas was approaching; not a green Christmas, but an icy, snowy,
frozen one, with holly wreaths on his shoulders and a plum-pudding in
his hands.

The monastery was full of guests, relatives of Morpheus. These guests
were all poor--in one way--but they had a wealth of their own which made
them delightful to Leo. They were poets and painters and scribblers, and
as merry as larks; and as they all admired each others productions,
there was no end of cheerful nonsense. The children, however, were the
brightest of all. Each child was as merry as it was lovely, and the
painters were almost frantic in their efforts to make Christmas cards of
them, while the poets cudgelled their brains for rhymes.

To prevent too much industry in that way, Leo had induced them all to
put on their skates on Christmas-eve, and glide over the frozen ponds,
while he made ready the tree which stood in the great hall.

It was an immense spruce, all powdered with silvery fringe, and Leo had
only to tie on the little gilt tags numbered to correspond with the
packages of gifts, which were heaped on surrounding tables, and fasten
on the candles of red and blue wax. When this was done he put on his own
skates, for it was yet too early to light the tree, and away he went
skimming after the shouting, laughing crowd of friends and relatives.

Suddenly a squirrel darted from its hole, and went scudding acros