iots, and whole idiots, and sick people, and crippled people,
armless people and legless people, blind people and deaf. Such an
assortment of men, women, and little children, you cannot often find.
They were fed with the good things provided for the Sunday-school
children, much to the disgust of Tommy Puffer and his mother. For Tommy
was bent on getting something to eat here.

There were plenty of people who claimed the credit of suggesting this way
of spending the Christmas. Willie did not say anything about it, for he
remembered what Christ had said about blowing a trumpet before you. But I
think Sammy Bantam trumpeted Willie's fame enough.

It would be hard to tell who enjoyed the Christmas the most. But I think
the givers found it more blessed than the receivers. What talk Mr. Blake
heard in his rounds I cannot tell. If you want to know, you must ask the
Old Ebony.

THE CHAIRS IN COUNCIL.

It was a quiet autumn afternoon. I was stretched on a lounge, with a pile
of newspapers for a pillow. I do not know that I succeeded in getting any
information _into_ my head by putting newspapers _under_ it. But on this
particular afternoon I was attacked by a disease of the eyes, or rather
of the eyelids. They would droop. I don't know by what learned name the
doctors call this disease, but, as I could not read with my eyes closing
every second or two, I just tucked my newspapers away under my head and
rested my eyelids awhile.

I remember that there was a hen cackling in the barn, and a big
bumble-bee buzzing and bumbling around in a consequential way among the
roses under the window, and I could hear the voices of the children in
the front yard playing with their dishes.

I don't know how long I had lain thus. But I remember that the cackling
hen and the bumbling bee and the laughing children seemed to get farther
and farther away, the sounds becoming less and less distinct. All at once
the sewing chair that sat alongside of me, with a pile of magazines on
it, began to rock, and as it rocked it moved off from me. I felt
surprised, and at first thought of taking hold of it, but my arm seemed
so _tired_ that I couldn't move it. And the chair rocked itself across
the floor, and through the door into the sitting-room. And as I looked
after it, I saw my old library chair hobble into the sitting-room, also.
Then came the well-cushioned easy chair, puffing and panting good
naturedly, as it rolle