“I know what I am going to wish,” said Charlie. nodding his head with decision.

“Well, Charlie, what is it?” asked Frank.

“I shall wish that papa may come home safe.”

“And so will I,” said Maggie.

“I wish he might sit down with us to-day,” said Mrs. Frost, with a little sigh.  “He has never before been absent from us on Thanksgiving day.”

“Was he well when you last heard from him?”

“Yes, but hourly expecting orders to march to join the army in Maryland.  I am afraid he won’t get as good a Thanksgiving dinner as this.”

“Two years ago,” said Mr. Morton, “I ate my Thanksgiving dinner in Amsterdam.”

“Do they have Thanksgiving there, Mr. Morton?” inquired Alice.

“No, they know nothing of our good New England festival.  I was obliged to order a special dinner for myself.  I don’t think you would have recognized plum pudding under the name which they gave it.”

“What was it?” asked Frank curiously.

“Blom buden was the name given on the bill.”

“I can spell better than that,” said Charlie.

“We shall have to send you out among the Dutchmen as a schoolmaster plenipotentiary,” said Frank, laughing.  “I hope the ‘blom buden’ was good in spite of the way it was spelt.”

“Yes, it was very good.”

“I don’t believe it beat mother’s,” said Charlie.

“At your present rate of progress, Charlie, you won’t leave room for any,” said Frank.

“I wish I had two stomachs,” said Charlie, looking regretfully at the inviting delicacies which tempted him with what the French call the embarrassment of riches.

“Well done, Charlie!” laughed his mother.

Dinner was at length over.  Havoc and desolation reigned upon the once well-filled table.

In the evening, as they all sat together round the table, Maggie climbed on Mr. Morton’s knee and petitioned for a story.

“What shall it be about?” he asked.

“Oh, anything.”

“Let me think a moment,” said the young man.

He bent his eyes thoughtfully upon the wood-fire that crackled in the wide-open fireplace, and soon signified that he was ready to begin.

All the children gathered around him, and even Mrs. Frost, sitting quietly at her knitting, edged her chair a little nearer, that she, too, might listen to Mr. Morton’s story.  As this was of some length, we shall devote to it a separate chapter.

CHAPTER XIX.  THE WONDERFUL TRANSFORMATION

“My story,” commenced Mr. Morton, “is rather a remarkable one in some respects; and I cannot vouch for its being true.  I shall call it ‘The Wonderful Transformation.’

“Thomas Tubbs was a prosperous little tailor, and for forty years had been a resident of the town of Webbington, where he had been born and brought up.  I have called him little, and you will agree with me when I say that, even in high-heeled boots, which he always wore, he measured only four feet and a half in height.