eys, ten times.

She knew that they meant her, and she tried to explain that she just
_had_ to promise, and that if they had been in her place they would
have promised too; and of course they could do as they pleased about
keeping her word, but she was going to keep it, anyway, and never,
never, never eat another piece of turkey either at Thanksgiving or at
Christmas.

"Very well, then," says an old lady, who looked like her grandmother,
and then began to have a crown on, and to turn into Queen Victoria,
"what _can_ we have?"

"Well," says the other little girl, "you can have oyster soup."

"What else?"

"And you can have cranberry sauce."

"What else?"

"You can have mashed potatoes, and Hubbard squash, and celery, and
turnip, and cauliflower."

"What else?"

"You can have mince-pie, and pandowdy, and plum-pudding."

"And not a thing on the list," says the Queen, "that doesn't go with
turkey! Now you see."

The papa stopped.

"Go on," said the little girl.

"There isn't any more."

The little girl turned round, got up on her knees, took him by the
shoulders, and shook him fearfully. "Now, then," she said, while the
papa let his head wag, after the shaking, like a Chinese mandarin's, and
it was a good thing he did not let his tongue stick out. "Now, will you
go on? What _did_ the people eat in place of turkey?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know, you awful papa! Well, then, what did the little girl
eat?"

"She?" The papa freed himself, and made his preparation to escape. "Why
she--oh, _she_ ate goose. Goose is tenderer than turkey, anyway, and
more digestible; and there isn't so much of it, and you can't overeat
yourself, and have bad--"

"Dreams!" cried the little girl.

"Trances," said the papa, and she began to chase him all round the
room.

THE PONY ENGINE AND THE PACIFIC EXPRESS.

Christmas Eve, after the children had hung up their stockings and got
all ready for St. Nic, they climbed up on the papa's lap to kiss him
good-night, and when they both got their arms round his neck, they said
they were not going to bed till he told them a Christmas story. Then he
saw that he would have to mind, for they were awfully severe with him,
and always made him do exactly what they told him; it was the way they
had brought him up. He tried his best to get out of it for a while; but
after they had shaken him first this side, and then that side, and
pulled