ear, one for company, and one for
Easter. Some people make them without eggs nowadays, but I keep to the
old recipe. My mother's plum-puddings were quite famous among her
friends. Of course, my dear, we have great cause for thankfulness, and
I should have had no appetite if you had lost your foot; but it really
upsets me to look at that larder! How many pounds of mincemeat have
_you_ made, Miss O'Shaughnessy, may I ask?"

Sylvia was lying on the sofa in the drawing-room, to which she had been
carried in time for tea, and Bridgie was sitting beside her, looking
with wondering eyes at the muffled splendours which she now beheld for
the first time. She blushed as she heard the question, and adroitly
evaded an answer, for, to tell the truth, she bought her pies from the
pastry-cook, and congratulated herself on the saving of trouble.

"Oh, indeed, we get through a great deal, for the boys think nothing of
three pies at a sitting. I'd be obliged to you, Miss Munns, if you
would lend me your recipe for the pudding, for my cook is not the
cleverest in the world, and, as Jack says, there is no monotony about
her results. If she does a thing well three times, there's all the more
chance that it will be wrong the fourth, when you are encouraged to ask
a friend to dinner."

Aunt Margaret sawed the air with her mittened hands, and shook her cap
in solemn denunciation.

"Method, my dear--method! They won't take the trouble to measure the
ingredients, but just trust to chance, so what can you expect? You
shall have the recipe with pleasure, but if you take my advice you will
look after the weighing yourself. Are you expecting any friends for the
day, or perhaps one of your sisters?"

"No--we shall be quite alone. My married sister wanted us all to go to
Ireland, but the boys cannot spare the time, and I will not leave them."
Bridgie sighed, and a shadow passed over her face. "It won't seem like
Christmas to have no coming nor going, and Esmeralda and Pixie so far-
away. I have been trying to think of a diversion for the boys, but I
might spare myself the trouble, for I've no money to pay for it if I had
the idea."

"Straitness of means is a great curtailer of pleasure," said Miss Munns,
gazing solemnly into space over the edge of her spectacles. "In my own
family we have had sad experiences of the kind. My great-uncle was in
most comfortable circumstances, and kept his own brougham and peach-
houses before the f