"Let him have him, Sarah!" Patricia exclaimed.
"Miss P'tricia! 'Low that onery dog on yo' aunt's bed!"
Patricia let the insult to her pet pass.
"On it, in it, under it, if it'll keep him quiet!"
Sarah lifted Custard in far from respectful fashion, dropping him, an astonished, but entirely acquiescent heap, between Archibald and Tommy.
Lydia, already asleep, was disposed of in Patricia's bed, and Norma and Totty settled comfortably on the wide lounge.
"An' now, honey," Sarah said, "I's goin' get you and Miss Nell yo' supper."
They went downstairs, where Sarah made Patricia and Nell comfortable at a small table drawn up before the sitting-room fire.
"But what are you going to fill those stockings with, Pat?" Nell asked, after Sarah had left them alone.
"I can manage all right for the girls; I've loads of toys stowed away up garret. I've always had heaps of things given me, but if I could get out-of-doors, and had something alive to play with, I'd let the other things go every time. I am a bit puzzled about Archibald's and Tommy's."