’Who fixed all this?”

“Mamma thought of it, and Ralph and I did it.  He’s the man for this sort of thing, you know.  He proposed cutting out the arches and sticking on birds and butterflies just where they looked best.  I put those canaries over there, they looked so well against the blue;” and Frank proudly pointed out some queer orange-colored fowls, looking as if they were having fits in the air, but very effective, nevertheless.

“Your mother said you might call this the Bird Room.  We caught a scarlet-tanager for you to begin with, didn’t we, Jack?” and Ralph threw a bon-bon at Jill, who looked very like a bright little bird in a warm nest.

“Good for you!  Yes, and we are going to keep her in this pretty cage till we can both fly off together.  I say, Jill, where shall we be in our classes when we do get back?” and Jack’s merry face fell at the thought.

“At the foot, if we don’t study and keep up.  Doctor said I might study sometimes, if I’d lie still as long as he thought best, and Molly brought home my books, and Merry says she will come in every day and tell me where the lessons are.  I don’t mean to fall behind, if my backbone is cracked,” said Jill, with a decided nod that made several black rings fly out of the net to dance on her forehead.

“Frank said he’d pull me along in my Latin, but I’ve been lazy and haven’t done a thing.  Let’s go at it and start fair for New Year,” proposed Jack, who did not love study as the bright girl did, but was ashamed to fall behind her in anything.

“All right.  They’ve been reviewing, so we can keep up when they begin, if we work next week, while the rest have a holiday.  Oh, dear, I do miss school dreadfully;” and Jill sighed for the old desk, every blot and notch of which was dear to her.

“There come our things, and pretty nice they look, too,” said Jack; and his mother began to dress the tree, hanging up the gay horns, the gilded nuts, red and yellow apples and oranges, and festooning long strings of pop-corn and scarlet cranberries from bough to bough, with the glittering necklaces hung where the light would show their colors best.

“I never saw such a splendid tree before.  I’m glad we could help, though we were ill.  Is it all done now?” asked Jill, when the last parcel was tied on and everybody stood back to admire the pretty sight.

“One thing more.  Hand me that box, Frank, and be very careful that you fasten this up firmly, Ralph,” answered Mrs. Minot, as she took from its wrappings the waxen figure of a little child.  The rosy limbs were very life-like, so was the smiling face under the locks of shining hair.  Both plump arms were outspread as if to scatter blessings over all, and downy wings seemed to flutter from the dimpled shoulders, making an angel of the baby.

“Is it St. Nicholas?” asked Jill, who had never seen that famous personage, and knew but little of Christmas festivities.