"
Ida declared. "Darsie, suggest something! You have never done it
before, so your ideas ought to be novel. What can we do to make the
hall look pretty and cheerful?"

"Rebuild it!" was Darsie's instant and daring reply, whereat the
farmers' daughters laughed _en masse_, and the Percivals looked
haughtily displeased.

"Father built it!"

"Awfully good of him! _And_ wicked of his architect. I shan't employ
him to build my house!"

"I think," said Noreen loftily, "that we had better confine ourselves to
discovering the scheme of decoration. It is too late to interfere with
the structure of the hall. We generally make wreaths and fasten them to
the gas brackets, and drape the platform with flags."

"Then we may take it as settled that we _won't_ do that to-day. What
happens to the pegs?"

"They hang their things on them, of course--hats, and coats, and
mufflers--"

"That _must_ be decorative! How would it be to make them leave their
wrappings at the entrance to-night, or put them under their own chairs,
and to arrange a broad band of holly round the room so as to hide the
pegs from view? It would be so easy to tie on the branches, and it
would have quite a fine frieze effect."

"`Mrs Dick, you are invaluable!'" quoted Ralph gaily. "It's a ripping
idea. Let's set to at once, and try the effect."

No sooner said than done; the little band of workers spread themselves
over the room, and began the task of trying prickly holly branches to
the line of pegs in such fashion as to form a band about two feet deep,
entirely round the room. Berries being unusually plentiful that year,
the effect was all the more cheery, and with the disappearance of the
utilitarian pegs the hall at once assumed an improved aspect. A second
committee meeting hit on the happy idea of transforming the platform
into a miniature bower, by means of green baize and miniature fir-trees,
plentifully sprinkled with glittering white powder. The flags were
relegated to the entrance-hall. The Japanese lanterns, instead of
hanging on strings, were so grouped as to form a wonderfully lifelike
pagoda in a corner of the hall, where--if mischievously disposed--they
might burn at their ease without endangering life or property. The
ironwork of the gas-brackets was tightly swathed with red paper, and the
bare jets fitted with paper shades to match. From an artistic point of
view Darsie strongly opposed the hanging of the timeworn mottoes, "A