Meanwhile Mrs. Hamilton was busy with the packages placed around the little Christmas tree.  From somewhere in the midst of the greenery she extracted a bunch of red and white ribbons and, holding them so that it was impossible to see to which packages they were attached, she offered them to each in turn saying, “Girls white, and boys red, please.

“Now pull and see what you’ll get,” she said as the last ribbon left her hand.  “These are gifts which have come across the ocean to you from Ruth’s father.”

The ribbons were purposely so tangled that at first it was like pulling in an unwilling fish.  There was much friendly squabbling, and then a chorus of ohs and ahs as the gifts were finally opened.

“Just what I wanted,” contentedly sighed Dorothy as she clasped a turquoise-studded bracelet on her round arm.  “What a perfectly elegant father you must have, Ruth!”

“I should say so,” came in a duet from Betty and Katharine who were respectively gloating over a string of pearl beads and a pretty hatpin.  Alice had found a silver belt-buckle in her parcel, and Charlotte was gazing at a coral necklace with great satisfaction.

“What vain creatures girls are,” said Frank maliciously as he gazed at the absorbed young ladies.  “Now we men, ahem, are presented with practical gifts.”  As he spoke he held up a fine knife with views of Nuremberg on the handle.

“You spoke too soon, Frank,” said Phil, showing a pair of cuff links, while Joe made every one laugh by assuming dandified airs as he stuck in his tie a pretty scarf-pin.  Arthur peacefully attached a silver pencil to his watch-chain, Bert transferred his small change to a pigskin purse, and Jack slashed imaginary villains with a knife similar to Frank’s.

“But where’s your present, Ruth?” asked Betty.  “You ought to have the nicest of all.”  Ruth, who had been absorbed in watching the others, came to herself with a start.  “Why—­why, I actually forgot to choose something for myself.  I meant to, though,” she added honestly.

“How will this do?” asked Mrs. Hamilton, producing a package that no one had seen before.

“Why, did father send another package?” said Ruth, looking so surprised that every one shouted with laughter.  The girls eagerly crowded around her as she cut the cord and disclosed an attractive-looking box.  Opening this she discovered a dainty velvet case in which reposed the prettiest watch she had ever seen.  It was hung on a slender chain, and Ruth put it around her neck at once and tucked the little watch under her belt.

“Isn’t it a darling?” she said happily.  “Father always gives me what I most want.”

“Let’s see the wheels go round,” suggested Phil, and Ruth opened the case to find a little picture of her father, taken since he went away, and looking so very like him that for a moment she could hardly speak.

“That’s my father,” she said when she could find her voice.  Both girls and boys crowded around to look at the kind, handsome face gazing at them from out the little watch, and Ruth’s heart swelled with pride and affection as she listened to their admiring remarks.