y.

"And so can you!"

"And we can--O Mr. Clapp, how rude we are!"

Mr. Clapp looked as if it were a kind of rudeness that he was enjoying
very much. As he rose to go, he said:

"Don't you think I'm a pretty good sort of a Santa Claus after all,
Miss Polly?"

Polly seized his outstretched hand.

"I didn't believe any one person could be so rich, and so good, too!"
she declared.

"And, O Dan!" cried Polly, the minute they were alone together, "let's
send a New-Year's box home. There'll be just time enough. We can get
one of those great carriage rugs for Uncle Seth, and a China silk for
Aunt Lucia."

"And I'll send Cousin John's boys some Indian bows and arrows."

"And Cousin Martha a dozen Chinese cups and saucers."

"And the old Professor a meerschaum pipe."

"And Miss Louisa Bailey, and dear Mrs. Dodge, and the Widow
Criswell,--what _shall_ we send the Widow Criswell, Dan?"

"Some black-bordered pocket-handkerchiefs!" cried the irreverent Dan.

Before going to bed they stepped out on the porch to bid the Peak
good-night.

"Going to be a fine day to-morrow, Polly."

"All the days are fine in Colorado," said Polly.

"You forget the blizzard last month."

"Oh, but it was _such a dear blizzard_ not to do you any harm when it
caught you out!"

Dan grew thoughtful.

"Do you ever think, Polly, that we should never have come out here if
it hadn't been for you?"

"You know it was 'Pike's Peak or bust!' with both of us, Dan."

Dan looked critically from the great Peak, gleaming there in the
starlight, to Polly's uplifted face, and then, as they turned to go
in, he exclaimed, for the hundred-and-first time:

"Polly, _you beat the world!_"

NANNIE'S THEATRE PARTY

CHAPTER I

NANNIE'S THEATRE PARTY

"Yes, my dear, I went to the the_ett_er myself once when I was quite a
girl, younger 'n you be, I guess. 'Twas Uncle 'Bijah Lane that took
me, 'n' he was so upsot by their hevin' a fun'ral all acted out on the
stage, that he come home and told Ma 'twa'n't no fit place for young
girls to go to, 'n' I ain't never ben inside a the_ett_er sence. Doos
seem good to see play-actin' agin after all these years, I declare it
doos!"--and Miss Becky took up her sewing, which she had laid down in
a moment of enthusiasm.

"If you liked it half as well as I like to do it, Miss Becky, you'd
like it even better than you do now," replied Lady Macbeth, with a
cheerful gusto, somewhat at odds with her tragic ch