game of euchre with Billy, who,
promoted to his chair again, was spending the evening with the
McAlisters.

"She'd better have a chunk of ice, to cool her off when she gets mad,"
suggested Phebe with sudden asperity, as she thought of a recent passage
at arms with her elder sister.

"Phebe!" Mrs. McAlister's tone was ominous, and Phebe subsided,
grumbling, while her mother rose to put Allyn to bed.

Allyn retreated to Hubert's knee and pressed his rosy cheek against that
of his brother.

"No, mamma," he urged. "Can't Phebe be tendooed first?"

"Allynesque for attended to," Theodora explained to Billy, while her
mother dislodged the child from his place of refuge and marched him out
of the room. "But does it seem possible that Christmas comes, next
week?"

"Well, yes, I think it does. This year has been long enough to make over
into a dozen ordinary ones. Let's see, when is Christmas?"

"Why, don't you know? Christmas is our great day of the year, and we
count the days for months ahead. This year, it will be an extra jolly
one, for we want to show mamma our ways." This from Hubert, who sat with
his elbow on the arm of Billy's chair, superintending his play.

"What do you do?"

"Just what everybody else does, I suppose; give presents and make a row
generally."

"Hubert, what will Billy think of us?" Hope interposed. "It's this way:
mamma, our own mother, always said that Christmas was the day when we
all should be children together, and play plays and have a grand frolic.
Years ago, when Hu and Teddy and I were little bits of children, we
began having our basket, and we have kept it up ever since."

"We do all the things, jokes and presents and all, in bundles," Theodora
said, taking up the story in her eagerness; "and we put them all in this
basket. It is an old clothes-basket, large as the house and broken, but
we never change it. And then we draw them out, one at a time."

"It's covered, you know, and we just fish under the cover, so as not to
see what comes. They used to begin with me; but Allyn is the baby, and
has the first chance now." In her interest, Phebe quite forgot to resent
it when Theodora pulled her down into her lap.

Billy sat looking from one to another of the group, wondering to see the
faces brighten and grow eager as the talk ran on.

"It sounds good fun," he said rather wishfully, as soon as there was a
pause. "I suppose it's because there are such a lot of you."

"The more the be