d the most wonderful basket sent me that ever----" began she;
then her eye fell upon the hamper in the center of the floor. "Glory be
to goodness!" she ejaculated. "Wherever did you get that?"

"We don't know," Carl answered.

"And we've one just like it and can't find out who sent us ours," put
in Hal Harling.

"Well, I thought for sure as you were the folks that sent me mine,"
declared Julie. "But if they are being scattered broadcast and you are
getting one yourselves I reckon it is safe to say you don't know much
about where mine came from. Well, all I can say is may the sender of
them have a blessed Christmas. Owing to O'Dowd being out of work, we
were to have a pretty slim celebration this year. The children were
like to get nothing at all. And then just when I was trying to comfort
myself with thinking how glad I should be that Joey was well, and that
we all had our health even if we did lack a turkey and the fixings,
along comes this windfall. Why, it is as if the heavens opened and
dropped it straight down at our door. It does you good to know there
are kind hearts in the world, doesn't it?"

One and all the McGregors smiled. If they wanted thanks for the
self-denial they had practised they certainly had them in the gratitude
that beamed from Julie's face.

"Well, it will be a royal Christmas for all of us, won't it?" went on
the little woman, bustling out. "I must hurry back downstairs. The
children are that crazy they are like to eat the turkey raw, claws,
neck and feathers!"

"I'll come with you, Mrs. O'Dowd," said Hal. "Good-by, and a Merry
Christmas, everybody."

"I'm mighty glad we sent that dinner to the O'Dowd's!" commented Carl
soberly, when the door was shut and the McGregors were alone. "I'd be
glad we did it even if we had no dinner of our own," he added, his eyes
alight with a grave happiness.

"And I, too," whispered Tim.

CHAPTER XII

A CLUE

The next morning, fluttering excitedly round a Christmas tree spangled
with tinsel and aglow with lights, the McGregors received their
presents; and not they alone, for Julie O'Dowd, with her five
youngsters, swelled the party, together with the Murphys and the
Sullivans from the floors below. There was popcorn for everybody and
satiny striped candy, and from the mysterious basket an orange for each
guest was produced.

"When we have so much ourselves it would be wrong to keep it all," Mrs.
McGregor had asserted; and her household fu