“You didn’t faint away as I did when the doctor was finding out if my vertebrums were hurt, so now!” cried Jill, bound to carry her point, though not at all clear what vertebrae were.

“Pooh!  Girls always faint.  Men are braver, and I didn’t faint a bit in spite of all that horrid agony.”

“You howled; Frank told me so.  Doctor said I was a brave girl, so you needn’t brag, for you’ll have to go on a crutch for a while.  I know that.”

“You may have to use two of them for years, may be.  I heard the doctor tell my mother so.  I shall be up and about long before you will.  Now then!”

Both children were getting excited, for the various pleasures of the day had been rather too much for them, and there is no knowing but they would have added the sad surprise of a quarrel to the pleasant ones of the day, if a cheerful whistle had not been heard, as Ralph came in to light the candles and give the last artistic touches to the room.

“Well, young folks, how goes it?  Had a merry time so far?” he asked, as he fixed the steps and ran up with a lighted match in his hand.

“Very nice, thank you,” answered a prim little voice from the dusk below, for only the glow of the fire filled the room just then.

Jack said nothing, and two red sulky faces were hidden in the dark, watching candle after candle sputter, brighten, and twinkle, till the trembling shadows began to flit away like imps afraid of the light.

“Now he will see my face, and I know it is cross,” thought Jill, as Ralph went round the last circle, leaving another line of sparks among the hemlock boughs.

Jack thought the same, and had just got the frown smoothed out of his forehead, when Frank brought a fresh log, and a glorious blaze sprung up, filling every corner of the room, and dancing over the figures in the long chairs till they had to brighten whether they liked it or not.  Presently the bell began to ring and gay voices to sound below:  then Jill smiled in spite of herself as Molly Loo’s usual cry of “Oh, dear, where is that child?” reached her, and Jack could not help keeping time to the march Ed played, while Frank and Gus marshalled the procession.

“Ready!” cried Mrs. Minot, at last, and up came the troop of eager lads and lasses, brave in holiday suits, with faces to match.  A unanimous “O, o, o!” burst from twenty tongues, as the full splendor of the tree, the room, and its inmates, dawned upon them; for not only did the pretty Christ-child hover above, but Santa Claus himself stood below, fur-clad, white-bearded, and powdered with snow from the dredging-box.

Ralph was a good actor, and, when the first raptures were over he distributed the presents with such droll speeches, jokes, and gambols, that the room rang with merriment, and passers-by paused to listen, sure that here, at least, Christmas was merry.  It would be impossible to tell about all the gifts or the joy of the receivers, but every one was satisfied, and the king and queen of the revels so overwhelmed with little tokens of good-will, that their beds looked like booths at a fair.  Jack beamed over the handsome postage-stamp book which had long been the desire of his heart, and Jill felt like a millionaire, with a silver fruit-knife, a pretty work-basket, and oh!—­coals of fire on her head!—­a ring from Jack.