into the porch. The twins, seeing the summary proceeding,
swallowed the outcries they had intended to make, although they
couldn't keep a few big tears from running down their fat cheeks.

Mrs. Grant looked pityingly at the disappointed faces about her.

"Don't cry, children, you make me feel worse. We are not the only ones
who will have to do without a Christmas turkey. We ought to be very
thankful that we have anything to eat at all. I hate to disappoint
you, but it can't be helped."

"Never mind, Mother," said Keith, comfortingly, relaxing his hold
upon the porch door, whereupon it suddenly flew open and precipitated
Teddy, who had been tugging at the handle, heels over head backwards.
"We know you've done your best. It's been a hard year for you. Just
wait, though. I'll soon be grown up, and then you and these greedy
youngsters shall feast on turkey every day of the year. Hello, Teddy,
have you got on your feet again? Mind, sir, no more blubbering!"

"When I'm a man," announced Teddy with dignity, "I'd just like to see
you put me in the porch. And I mean to have turkey all the time and I
won't give you any, either."

"All right, you greedy small boy. Only take yourself off to school
now, and let us hear no more squeaks out of you. Tramp, all of you,
and give Mother a chance to get her work done."

Mrs. Grant got up and fell to work at her dishes with a brighter face.

"Well, we mustn't give in; perhaps things will be better after a
while. I'll make a famous bread pudding, and you can boil some
molasses taffy and ask those little Smithsons next door to help you
pull it. They won't whine for turkey, I'll be bound. I don't suppose
they ever tasted such a thing in all their lives. If I could afford
it, I'd have had them all in to dinner with us. That sermon Mr. Evans
preached last Sunday kind of stirred me up. He said we ought always
to try and share our Christmas joy with some poor souls who had never
learned the meaning of the word. I can't do as much as I'd like to. It
was different when your father was alive."

The noisy group grew silent as they always did when their father was
spoken of. He had died the year before, and since his death the little
family had had a hard time. Keith, to hide his feelings, began to
hector the rest.

"Mary Alice, do hurry up. Here, you twin nuisances, get off to school.
If you don't you'll be late and then the master will give you a
whipping."

"He won't," answered the irre