After the others had gone, she and Granny worked for half an hour in the little shop.

The Saturday before Christmas dawned clear and fair.  Rosie hallooed for Dicky and Arthur as she came out of doors at half-past seven and all three arrived at the shop together.  Their faces took on such a comic look of surprise that Maida burst out laughing.

“But where did it all come from?” Rosie asked in bewilderment.  “Maida, you slyboots, you must have done all this after we left.”

Maida nodded.

But all Arthur and Dicky said was “Gee!” and “Jiminy crickets!” But Maida found these exclamatives quite as expressive as Rosie’s hugs.  And, indeed, she herself thought the place worthy of any degree of admiring enthusiasm.

The shop was so strung with garlands of Christmas green that it looked like a bower.  Bunches of mistletoe and holly added their colors to the holiday cheer.  Red Christmas bells hung everywhere.

“My goodness, I never passed such a day in my life,” Maida said that night at dinner.  She was telling it all to Granny, who had been away on mysterious business of her own.  “It’s been like a beehive here ever since eight o’clock this morning.  If we’d each of us had an extra pair of hands at our knees and another at our waists, perhaps we could have begun to wait on all the people.”

“Sure ’twas no more than you deserved for being such busy little bees,” Granny approved.

“The only trouble was,” Maida went on smilingly, “that they liked everything so much that they could not decide which they wanted most.  Of course, the boys preferred Arthur’s carvings and the girls Rosie’s candy.  But it was hard to say who liked Dicky’s things the best.”

Granny twinkled with delight.  She had never told Maida, but she did not need to tell her, that Dicky was her favorite.

“And then the grown people who came, Granny!  First Arthur’s father on his way to work, then Mrs. Lathrop and Laura—­they bought loads of things, and Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Doyle and even Mr. Flanagan bought a hockey-stick.  He said,” Maida dimpled with delight, “he said he bought it to use on Arthur and Rosie if they ever hooked jack again.  Poor Miss Allison bought one of Arthur’s ’cats’—­what do you suppose for?”

Granny had no idea.

“To wind her wool on.  Then Billy came at the last minute and bought everything that was left.  And just think, Granny, there was a crowd of little boys and girls who had stood about watching all day without any money to spend and Billy divided among them all the things he bought.  Guess how much money they made!”

Granny guessed three sums, and each time Maida said, triumphantly, “More!” At last Granny had to give it up.

“Arthur made five dollars and thirty cents.  Dicky made three dollars and eighty-seven cents.  Rosie made two dollars and seventy cents.”

After dinner that night, Maida accompanied Rosie and Dicky on the Christmas-shopping expedition.