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Now, dear fancy-workers, little and big, surely Mother Santa Claus has furnished you with ideas enough to keep you busy for more Christmases than one.  Just one thing more, and that is the manner in which the presents shall be given.  Nothing can be droller than to hang up one’s stockings, and nothing prettier or more full of meaning than a Christmas-tree.  But for some of you who may like to make a novelty in these time-honored ways, we will just mention that it is good fun to make a “Christmas-pie” in an enormous tin dish-pan, with a make-believe crust of yellow cartridge paper, ornamented with twirls and flourishes of the same, held down with pins, and have it served on Christmas Eve, full of pretty things and sugar-plums, jokes and jolly little rhymes fastened to the parcels.  The cutting should be done beforehand, and hidden by the twirls of paper; but the carver can pretend to use his knife and fork, and spooning out the packages will insure a merry time for all at table.  And one more suggestion.  Little articles, wrapped in white paper, can be put inside cakes, baked and iced, and thus furnish another amusing surprise for the “pie” or the Christmas-tree.

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We are indebted to Mrs. L. B. Goodall, Mrs. M. E. Stockton, Mrs. Tolles, Miss Annie M. Phoebus, Miss M. Meeker, and Miss M. H. D., for designs and suggestions in aid of this article; and to the “Ladies’ Floral Cabinet” for some valuable hints on “Leaf-work.”

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LITTLE TWEET.

There were once some nice little birds who lived together in a great big cage.  This cage was not at all like the bird-cages we generally see.  It was called an aviary, and it was as large as a room.  It had small trees and bushes growing in it, so that the birds could fly about among the green leaves and settle on the branches.  There were little houses where the birds might make their nests and bring up their young ones, and there was everything else that the people who owned this big cage thought their little birds would want.  It had wires all around it to keep the birds from flying away.

One of the tamest and prettiest of the birds who lived in this place was called little Tweet, because, whenever she saw any of the family coming near the cage she would fly up close to the wires and say, “Tweet!  Tweet!” which meant “Good-morning! how do you do?” But they thought it was only her pretty way of asking for something to eat; and as she said “Tweet” so much, they gave her that for a name.

One day there was a boy who came to visit the family who owned the birds, and very soon he went to see the big cage.  He had never seen anything like it before.  He had never been so close to birds that were sitting on trees or hopping about among the branches.  If the birds at home were as tame as these, he could knock over lots of them, he thought.