“Mother!” Jem cried out, “have you really come home so early as this, and—­and,” rubbing her eyes in great amazement, “how did I come down?”

“Don’t I look as if I was real?” said her mother, laughing and kissing her.  “And doesn’t your present look real?  I don’t know how you came down, I’m sure.  Where have you been?”

Jem shook her head very mysteriously.  She saw that her mother fancied she had been asleep, but she herself knew better.

“I know you wouldn’t believe it was true if I told you,” she said; “I have been BEHIND THE WHITE BRICK.”