COPYRIGHT 1906 BY ABBIE FARWELL BROWN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published September 1906

For permission to reprint the several chapters of this volume thanks are due to The Churchman,—“The Garden of Live Flowers,” “April Fool,” “The Dark Room,” “The Pieced Baby,” “The Alarm;” to The Congregationalist,—“The Japanese Shop,” “Brothers and Sisters;” to Good Housekeeping,—“Buried Treasure;” and to The Kindergarten Review,—“The Christmas Cat.”

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I. The Christmas Cat[ 1]
II. The Christmas Cat’s Present[ 10]
III. The Japanese Shop[ 19]
IV. April Fool’s Night[ 28]
V. The April Fool[ 38]
VI. The April-Fool Journey[ 48]
VII. The Dolls’ May-Party[ 57]
VIII. The Dark Room[ 66]
IX. The Garden of Live Flowers [ 86]
X. Buried Treasure[ 97]
XI. The Pieced Baby[ 106]
XII. The Alarm[ 120]
XIII. Brothers and Sisters[ 131]
XIV. Tommy’s Letter[ 145]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

“Poor little kitty, how cold she must be” (page [6])[ Frontispiece]
“See what Santa has brought the Christmas cat”[ 16]
The littlest baby white rabbit[ 24]
“I am April Fool”[ 40]
Kenneth found that it was a wall of glass[ 44]
She lifted poor Matilda and set her up on the window seat[ 64]
In tiptoed a little figure[ 74]
Living flowers[ 92]
The sand stretched out like a great sheet of paper[ 98]
Awakened by a little silvery laugh[ 108]
They were Tommy and Mary Prout[ 122]
What a shriek of joy went up[ 142]

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

CHAPTER I
THE CHRISTMAS CAT

IT was the day before the day before Christmas, and there came a big snowstorm, so that Kenneth and Rose were shut up in the house. Now that was a very hard thing to bear, for as every one knows, the last two days before Christmas are the longest, slowest days in the whole year. But if one has to stay in the house and just think, it seems as though the time would never go by.

If it had been a pleasant day they could have gone out of doors to skate, or to coast, or to play any number of jolly games which they now remembered sadly. Perhaps they would have gone to their cousin Charlie’s house, which was in the next block but one beyond theirs. Perhaps their papa would have taken them down town for a last look at the Christmas shops, and the wonderful toys, some of which they hoped Santa Claus would remember to bring to the Thornton house. There were ever so many nice things which they could have done to make the time pass away, if only it had been a pleasant day. But now there seemed nothing in the world to do.