unny way of looking at each
other that made the children laugh.

Then the baby that they all loved lived here. Her name was May, and
she was Kate's sister. She was a sweet little thing, just beginning to
walk and to talk. She could say "chicky" quite plainly, and she liked
to toddle out and watch the little girls feed the chickens.

But I can't begin to tell you all the good times the children had that
summer. They were happy all the time, and grandma said they were so
good that it was really no trouble at all to have them there.

[Illustration]

But at last one Saturday evening, papa, who always came out from the
city to spend Sunday with them, said they must start for home the next
Monday.

They did want to stay longer, but papa laughed and said, "Christmas is
coming now, you know, and Santa Claus couldn't bring things way out
here as easy as he could get them to you in town."

Then the children began to think of Christmas and to tease grandpa and
grandma to come and spend it with them, and of course papa and mamma
teased too; so at last they promised, and the children said good-by to
their pets and to Kate and May and Dick and went away shouting?

"Good-by, grandma. Now remember you promised!"

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

After the children reached home they talked of grandma's nearly all
the time when they were not talking of Christmas, and Bessie wrote a
letter to Santa Claus asking him to be sure and bring a pair of his
nicest gold-bowed spectacles for grandma because she had lost her old
ones, and not to forget a gold-headed cane for grandpa.

At last Christmas Eve came, and grandma and grandpa were there, and
the children hung up their stockings, and Bessie said that grandma and
grandpa must be sure and hang up theirs too; then, after they had gone
to bed, the smaller children whispered for a long time about Santa
Claus and listened to hear his sleigh bells on the roof.

"I don't see how he can get down the chimney," whispered Bessie. "You
know he's so fat in all his pictures."

"Maybe he takes off his coat," whispered Clara, "then he wouldn't be
quite so big." But she didn't see how he could get down the chimney,
either.

Once or twice they were sure they heard him on the roof, and they
covered up their heads so he wouldn't think they were peeping, and at
last they went to sleep before they knew it.

Willie and Tom were just as anxious as the little girls, and whispered
just as much, and