"Yes, I know. I don't suppose she means that none of them are nice. I think she means that they are so likely to think they can pick you to pieces and find fault with you just because they are relations. Most of mine are that way. You know Cousin Ellen is my mamma's cousin, too, and I never did like to see her when she used to come to our house."
"Oh, well," said Eleanor with a satisfied sigh, "we don't have to think about her any more."
Nevertheless, she did much thinking on account of Cousin Ellen and her family, that very evening. Just after dinner her Aunt Dora said: "We must make out our shopping lists, Dimple, for we are going to start out early to-morrow."
"Let me see your purse, Dimple," said Uncle Heath, looking up from his evening paper.
Eleanor obediently went upstairs and brought down her little netted purse; it had in it one dollar and two quarters.
"How many Christmas gifts do you expect this to buy?" asked Uncle Heath smiling.
"Why, let me see;" Eleanor began to count on her fingers; "mamma, one, and papa, two; you and Aunt Dora and Rock and Florence and Bubbles, I should like to get Bubbles a new doll, and I do want so much to send just a little something to Mrs. Snyder. Then I should like something for Miss Reese and I always give Sylvy a present. How many does that make? Ten, I believe."
Her uncle chinked her coins in his hand, and looked at his wife with a smile. "Then, you will have just fifteen cents apiece. I'm afraid you cannot buy very magnificent things with that amount."
"And how about your cousins, the Murdochs?" asked Mrs. Dallas quietly. "They will have no papa to buy them gifts this year, and I am afraid it will be rather a sad Christmas for them." Eleanor's speaking face clouded, and she gave a long sigh, before she said, "I don't love them very much, Aunt Dora, but—Uncle Heath, must I give them Christmas gifts? That would make five more, you know, and—no, I don't love them enough."
"Suppose, instead of being merely ill and away from you, your papa should be gone from this earth, and that, in consequence, the lovely Christmas you always have had should be a very sad one this year."