Marjorie's New Friend. Wells Carolyn

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СКАЧАТЬ some of the things to take to other children. But he didn't really do this, and the Maynards, as was their custom, arranged their gifts on separate tables, and spent the morning admiring and discussing them.

      At two o'clock they had the Christmas feast.

      Nurse Nannie played a gay march on the piano, and Mr. Maynard, offering his arm to Grandma, led the way to the dining-room. King, escorting Rosy Posy, walked next, followed by Midget and Kitty. Last of all came Mrs.

      Maynard and Uncle Steve.

      The dining-table was almost as beautiful as the Christmas tree. Indeed, in the centre of it was a small tree, filled with tiny, but exquisite decorations, and sparkling with electric lights. The windows had been darkened, and the shining tree blazed brilliantly.

      The table was decorated with red ribbons and holly and red candles, and red candle shades and everybody had red favours and red paper bells.

      "I feel like a Robin Redbreast," said Marjorie; "isn't it all beautiful!

      Did you do it, Mother?"

      "Yes, with Sarah's help," said Mrs. Maynard, for her faithful and clever little waitress was of great assistance in such matters.

      "It's like eating in an enchanted palace," said Kitty. "Everything is so bright and sparkly and gleaming; and, oh! I'm so hungry!"

      "Me, too!" chimed in the other young Maynards, and then they proceeded to do ample justice to the good things Ellen sent in in abundance.

      But at last even the young appetites were satisfied, and while the elders sipped their coffee in the library, the children were sent off to play by themselves.

      The baby was turned over to Nurse Nannie, and the other three tumbled into their wraps and ran out of doors to play off some of their exuberant enthusiasm.

      CHAPTER IV

      HAPPY NEW YEAR!

      "It's been a gay old week, hasn't it?" said Marjorie, on New Year's Eve.

      "You bet!" cried King, who sometimes lapsed from the most approved diction. "Wish it was just beginning. We had fine skating till the snow came, and ever since, it's been bang-up sleighing. Well, only four more days, and then school, school, school!"

      "Don't remind me of it!" said Marjorie with a groan. "I wish I was a Fiji or whatever doesn't have to go to school at all!"

      "Oh, pshaw, Midge; it isn't so bad after you get started. Only holidays make you so jolly that it's hard to sit down and be quiet."

      "It's always hard for me to sit down and be quiet," said Midge. "If they'd let me walk around, or sit on the tables or window-sills, I wouldn't mind school so much. It's being cramped into those old desks that I hate."

      Poor little Marjorie, so active and restless, it was hard for her to endure the confinement of the schoolroom.

      "Why don't you ask mother to let you go to boarding-school, Mops?" asked Kitty, with an air of having suggested a brilliant solution of her sister's difficulties.

      Marjorie laughed. "No, thank you, Kitsie," she said. "What good would that do? In the school hours I s'pose I'd have to sit as still as I do here, and out of school hours I'd die of homesickness. Imagine being away off alone, without all of you!"

      Kitty couldn't imagine anything like that, so she gave it up.

      "Then I guess you'll have to go to school, same's you always have done."

      "I guess I will," said Marjorie, sighing. "But there's a few more days' holiday yet, and I'm not going to think about it till I have to. What shall we do to-night? It's the last night of the old year, you know."

      "I wonder if they'd let us sit up and see it out," said King.

      "We never have," returned Marjorie; "I don't believe Mother'd say yes, though maybe Father would."

      "If he does, Mother'll have to," said Kitty, with a knowledge born of experience. "Let's ask 'em."

      "It's almost bed-time now," said King, glancing at the clock; "but I'm not a bit sleepy."

      The others declared they were not, either, and they all went in search of their parents. They found them in the library, with Uncle Steve and Grandma, who were still visiting them.

      "Sit the old year out!" exclaimed Mr. Maynard, when he heard their request. "Why, you're almost asleep now!"

      "Oh, we're not a bit sleepy!" protested Marjorie. "Do, Daddy, dear, let us try it,—we never have, you know."

      "Why, I've no objections, if Mother hasn't."

      Mrs. Maynard looked as if she didn't think much of the plan, but Uncle

      Steve broke in, saying:

      "Oh, let them, of course! It can't do them any harm except to make them sleepy to-morrow, and they can nap all day if they like."

      "Yes, let them do it," said Grandma, who was an indulgent old lady. "But

      I'm glad I don't have to sit up with them."

      "I too," agreed Mr. Maynard. "I used to think it was fun, but I've seen so many New Years come sneaking in, that it's become an old, old story."

      "That's just it, sir," said King, seeing a point of vantage. "We haven't, you know, and we'd like to see just how they come in."

      "Well," said his father, "where will you hold this performance? I can't have you prowling all over the house, waking up honest people who are abed and asleep."

      "You must take the nursery," said Mrs. Maynard. "I wouldn't let you stay downstairs alone, but you may stay in the nursery as late as you like. I daresay by ten or half-past, you'll be glad to give it up, and go to your beds."

      "Not we," said King. "Thank you, heaps, for letting us do it. We're going to have a fine time. Come on, girls!"

      "One minute, King; you're not to make any noise after ten-thirty. Grandma goes to her room then, and the rest of us soon after."

      "All right, we won't. It isn't going to be a noisy party, anyhow."

      "Then I don't see how it can be a Maynard party," said Uncle Steve, quizzically, but the children had run away.

      "Now, we'll just have the time of our lives!" said King, as the three of them reached the nursery.

      "Of course we will," agreed Marjorie. "What shall we do?"

      "Let's see, it's nine o'clock. We can play anything till half-past ten; after that we can only do quiet things. Let's play Blind Man's Buff."

      "All right, you be it."

      So King was blindfolded, and he soon caught Kitty, who soon caught Midget, and then she caught King again. But it wasn't very much fun, and nobody quite knew why.

      "It makes me too tired," said Kitty, throwing herself on the couch, and fanning her hot little face with her handkerchief. "Let's play a sit-down game."

      "But we can play those after we have to be quiet," objected King. "Get up, Kit, you'll fall asleep if you lie there."

      "No, СКАЧАТЬ