That evening, as Sunny Boy sat in Grandma Horton’s lap after dinner and watched the fire burn merrily in the grate, he remembered that Oliver had said the next day would be New Year’s Day.

“What do we do on New Year, Grandma?” Sunny Boy asked curiously.

“Oh, people come to see us,” replied Grandma Horton, giving him a kiss.  “And you may pass them the New Year’s cakes that Harriet has baked for us.  You will like that, won’t you?”

CHAPTER VI

THE PARKNEY FAMILY

“Happy new year, precious!” said Mother, coming into Sunny Boy’s room to put down his window the next morning.

“Happy New Year, Sunny Boy!” cried Grandpa and Grandma Horton, when they met him in the hall on the way to breakfast.

“Happy New Year, Son!” said Daddy Horton, catching him in his arms and lifting him as high as the Christmas tree which still stood in one corner of the parlor.

“Happy New Year, Sunny Boy!” cried Harriet, waving a dish towel at him when he peeped into her kitchen.

“I think New Year is nice,” said Sunny Boy, when Mother said he might have two waffles for his breakfast because of the holiday.  Usually Mother said that hot cakes were not good for little boys.

After breakfast Sunny Boy brought down his lead soldiers from the playroom and played with them on the rug before the fire place.  This was the last day the Christmas tree would be left standing, Mother Horton said, so he liked to stay near it.

“When will it be time to pass the New Year cakes?” he asked Harriet, when she came in to bring more wood for the fire.

“This afternoon,” she answered.  “When the callers come.”

Sunny Boy’s Aunt Bessie came to dinner, which was at one o’clock as on Sunday, and Sunny Boy was very glad to see her.  She brought him a little set of bells and showed him how he could play a tune on them by striking them with a wooden mallet.  Sunny Boy could play “Annie Laurie” before the afternoon was over.

After dinner came visitors.  They were all grown up people, and Mrs. Horton and Aunt Bessie gave them tea to drink and sandwiches from the tea wagon and Sunny Boy, in his best white flannel sailor suit, passed them the plates of New Year cakes which Harriet had baked.  They were delicious little cakes with caraway seeds and pink sugar on them, and Sunny Boy had three for himself.

It was nearly six o’clock before the “company” as Sunny Boy called them, had gone.  Then, to his surprise, his daddy came into the parlor with his overcoat on and his hat in his hand.

“Olive,” he said to Sunny Boy’s mother, “I’m going over to Dover street in the River Section for a short call.  Father is going with me.  We heard this afternoon of a family who are pretty hard up.”

“Is there anything I can send them?” asked Mrs. Horton.  “Harriet will heat up some soup and you can carry it in the vacuum bottle.”