"It will be the queen," she said with the dreamy look in her grey eyes that her mother loved to see; "and I shall have her ladies-in-waiting all round her: Lady Pansy, and Lady Blue Cornflower, and Lady Pink Verbena, and Lady Snapdragon, and Lady Yellow Eschscholtzia; and then her little pages will be Tom Thumb Nasturtiums. Don't you think my bed will be lovely, Mums?"
"Lovely, darling. You have done very well, I think. What is Chris's choice?"
"I've got mustard and cress, and radishes," he said sturdily, "and one strawberry plant. And two red geraniums are coming to me when it's time to put them in the ground. And I've a lot of mixed sweet-peas, and one little gooseberry bush."
"You have a lot for your money. First rate," said his mother. "What has Noel got?"
Diana looked at Chris, and they both giggled.
Noel looked at them angrily, and turned to his mother:
"I'm going to have one fing only, but it's quite big, it's what we never had in India, and what I've always been wanting ever since you read me about it in my fairy book."
"I believe I can guess," his mother said: "it's a Christmas tree."
"Yes, that's just what it is. And Mr. Sharpe and me choosed for ever so long before we found a big one, and it's coming to-morrow."
"But, my darling, won't it be rather a dull garden with only that tree in it?"