feet’s distance it looked exactly as though the bird was flying.  I was glad I had a big stone jar full of fondant, because we had a lot of fun shaping and coloring candies.  We offered a prize for the best representation of a “nigger,” and we had two dozen chocolate-covered things that might have been anything from a monkey to a mouse.  Mrs. Louderer cut up her big plum pudding and put it into a dozen small bags.  These Gavotte carefully covered with green paper.  Then we tore up the holly wreath that Aunt Mary sent me, and put a sprig in the top of each green bag of pudding.  I never had so much fun in my life as I had preparing for that Christmas.

At ten o’clock, the morning of the 24th, we were again on our way up the mountain-side.  We took shovels so we could clear a road if need be.  We had dinner at the old camp, and then Gavotte hunted us a way out to the new, and we smuggled our things into Molly’s cabin so the children should have a real surprise.  Poor, hopeless little things!  Theirs was, indeed, a dull outlook.

Gavotte busied himself in preparing one of the empty cabins for us and in making the horses comfortable.  He cut some pine boughs to do that with, and so they paid no attention when he cut a small tree.  In the mean time we had cleared everything from Molly’s cabin but her bed; we wanted her to see the fun.  The children were sent to the spring to water the horses and they were all allowed to ride, so that took them out of the way while Gavotte nailed the tree into a box he had filled with dirt to hold it steady.

There were four women of us, and Gavotte, so it was only the work of a few moments to get the tree ready, and it was the most beautiful one I ever saw.  Your largest bell, dear Mrs. Coney, dangled from the topmost branch.  Gavotte had attached a long, stout wire to your Santa Claus, so he was able to make him dance frantically without seeming to do so.  The hairs that held the birds and butterflies could not be seen, and the effect was beautiful.  We had a bucket of apples rubbed bright, and these we fastened to the tree just as they grew on their own branches.  The puddings looked pretty, too, and we had done up the parcels that held the clothes as attractively as we could.  We saved the candy and the peanuts to put in their little stockings.

As soon as it was dark we lighted the candles and then their mother called the children.  Oh, if you could have seen them!  It was the very first Christmas tree they had ever seen and they didn’t know what to do.  The very first present Gavotte handed out was a pair of trousers for eight-years-old Brig, but he just stood and stared at the tree until his brother next in size, with an eye to the main chance, got behind him and pushed him forward, all the time exclaiming, “Go on, can’t you!  They ain’t doin’ nothin’ to you, they’s just doin’ somethin’ for you.”  Still Brig would not put out his hand.  He just shook his tousled sandy head and said he wanted a bird.  So the fun kept up for an hour.  Santa had for Molly a package of oatmeal, a pound of butter, a Mason jar of cream, and a dozen eggs, so that she could have suitable food to eat until something could be done.