“Neither have I,” said Tim.  “And do you know, I have been wondering whether Mrs. Martin will give her class any presents this Christmas.”

“Oh, I don’t know.  I should think a teacher did her duty by teaching a Sabbath-school class fifty-two times in a year, without spending her money on presents for us, even if we are but four.  I think it would be more appropriate for us to be giving her a present this year, than for us to be expecting one from her.”

“And let’s get up one for her,” proposed Tim.

“And that means that we will,” laughed Ada.  “When you say, ‘let’s’ in that tone something is always sure to happen.”

“But we don’t want to have the whole say about the presents ourselves,” observed the boy, evidently pleased at his sister’s compliment.  “Mark and Nettie haven’t come by from school yet.  When they do, we will call them in, and see what can be done.”

“All right, and let’s watch for them.”

The windows facing the road were immediately taken possession of, and it was not long before Ada and Tim were both rapping on the panes of glass.

“What is it?” shouted Mark from the road.

“Come and see,” replied Ada.

Mark and Nettie, a rosy-cheeked brother and sister, were soon in the little sitting-room, and Ada and Tim were laying before them their plans for Christmas.

“It is just like this,” said Ada; “I found Tim dreaming about Christmas, and I just suggested that we give Mrs. Martin a Christmas present this year.  Now what do you think of it?”

“That would be just the thing,” said Nettie.

“But what do you think she would want?” queried Mark.

“We can’t tell, unless we ask her,” replied Ada.  “But have any of us ever heard her say what she wanted?”

“I have,” said Tim.  “I have heard her say that what she wanted the most of anything was to have her scholars come to Christ.”

“But I mean something that we could give her.”

“But if we should make up our minds to be Christians, it would make her pleased,” said Tim, “and perhaps she’d rather be pleased in this way than to have a present.”

“I know that she would,” said Nettie; “and I say, let’s settle the question once for all.”

The others looked in amazement at Nettie; they could scarcely understand what she meant.  Her face was flushed, and she was trembling with emotion, but one thing was certain, and that was that Nettie was in earnest—­also Tim; and whatever Tim wanted the others to do they generally did.

“You may as well tell us what you do mean,” said Mark.

[Illustration:  “We might sign a paper.”]

“Why, just what I said,” replied Tim.  “I think it is about time that we began to think some of being Christians—­that is, if what the minister says is true, and I suppose that it is, for everybody believes everything else that he says, when he has anything to say in our house and in the store.”