"Well, really!" said Hazel; "do you mean to tell me I'm not to make presents for my mother and my aunts?"
"I didn't say anything of the sort. You can give those too, but Miss Kaye said they oughtn't to be the only ones. Even heathens are fond of their own families, and it's not particularly generous just for all to give things round in a circle."
"Well, we've done plenty for the ragged schools this year," said Nina, reviewing the row of dolls in their pretty bright frocks, the wool balls, the knitted reins, and the scrapbooks which formed the contribution of the class. "They'll look splendid hanging on the tree."
"I wish we could go and see the treat," said Sylvia.
"Miss Kaye won't let us do that," replied Linda. "She's afraid we might catch measles or chicken-pox."
"I always go to our treats at home," said Jessie Ellis.
"Your father's a clergyman, so you're sure to," said Marian. "We do sometimes, to the Scholars' Tea or the Congregational Teaparty. Gwennie and I help to pass cups and hand the cake, while Mother pours out."
"Let us tell what we're each going to do in the holidays," said Hazel. "You go on, Marian, as you've begun. Don't you have anything but school treats?"
"Of course we do," answered Marian. "We go on New Year's Eve to our grandfather's, and have a big family party with all our cousins. Everybody has to play a piece, or recite poetry, or do something, and it's ever so jolly. We sit up till midnight, and bring in the New Year. And we go skating with our brothers, and slide on the pond, and if there's any snow we toboggan down the hill on teatrays and have snowball fights with some boys who live near. It's great fun."
"Yes, lovely fun!" echoed Gwennie.