ksgiving dinner in her own old house; if she did not
feel like it, she would understand.

_Dear Mrs. Carter_ Mrs. Owen replied--

It would be much harder to stay at home than to go to you. The
greatest cause I have for Thanksgiving this year is the fact that
you are my friend, and that Diana is the friend of my children.
Since we had to leave the house, I am glad it is you who are living
in it.

Faithfully yours
MARY OWEN

So the children had a happy Thanksgiving, even without the Thanksgiving
egg. And still Peggy and Alice looked eagerly for eggs and could not
find even one. Autumn had changed to winter, and still the hens were
moulting, and there were no eggs. The vegetable garden, at the back of
the house, was now turned into a fairy country, for the brown earth was
covered with a snowy quilt, and every twig on the trees and shrubs was
encased in diamonds. The snow came suddenly--one night, when the
children went to bed, the ground had been bare, and in the morning the
world seemed all made over new. But still the dwellers in Hotel Hennery
showed no signs of laying eggs.

And then one morning, a few days before Christmas, just as the children
had given up hope, Peggy found an egg. It was a thrilling moment; and
Angel Hen-Farrell was so proud to be the first of the hens to lay an egg
that she would not stop talking about it. What she said sounded to
Alice like "Cut-cut-cad-ar-cut, cadarcut, cadarcut," but Peggy said she
was talking a foreign language.

"I can translate it for you, Alice," she said; "it is the Rhode Island
Red language."

"What is she saying?"

"She is saying: 'Come and look at my first egg of the season. It is very
beautiful. The shell is of the palest brown, like coffee ice-cream. It
is very beautiful. Look at it, all ye hens who have laid nothing. It is
very beautiful--of palest brown, like coffee ice-cream.'"

Diana had one of her ill turns, just before Christmas; and the poor
little girl had to spend Christmas in bed. She was much better when the
day came, but her father said she must not get up, but that she could
see Peggy and Alice for a little while in the afternoon.

The children had hung their stockings up the night before, and they had
been surprised and delighted with their presents. Peggy wanted to take
them up to show to Diana.

"But there are such a lot o