Then an amazing thing happened. With a long hoo-oo-t! a great gray owl hopped, sidling fashion, from the library doorway into the full sight of the astonished Christmas party, flapping his wings awkwardly as he made his way across the room to the Christmas-tree. And close behind him scampered a very large gray squirrel.
A shout went up from the children.
“Gray Owl Santa Claus!” cried Betty, whirling round and round till she looked like a red balloon in her holly-red dress.
Alice, half-frightened, drew away from the Gray Owl toward the Squirrel. “Ben is the Squirrel,” she exclaimed, for nothing could deceive her with regard to her twin brother.
“Keep a good heart!” the Gray Owl called out in a quick, muffled voice, close to Elsa’s ear.
“O, Uncle Ned, Uncle Ned!” she cried delightedly. “You came back to be a Gray Owl Santa Claus! What a dear, funny uncle you are.”
Then the Gray Owl, with sudden, awkward movements, began taking the presents off from the tree and handing them to the Gray Squirrel, who clasped his paws around them and carried them to the persons whose names the Owl had called in a deep, muffled voice.
And then it was that the Club had a chance to see the marvellous costumes of the queer Santa Claus and his helper. The Gray Owl’s body-covering was of soft gray wool material which lay in ridges like downy feathers; the wings, which were held to his arms by long sleeves of gray gauze, were made of closely placed long gray feathers and quills, and his head was covered by a gray owl mask, with tufted ears and yellow eyes having thin black slits. The squirrel had on a most cleverly made coat of soft gray wool shaded to purest white on the breast; a bristly, broom-like tail dragged behind him, and a pointed-nosed mask with sharp little ears, was drawn close over his head.
By this time every one had received many presents, and a great opening of packages had begun. The Club members had thought of most interesting remembrances for one another. Elsa and Betty had together given Alice a beautiful doll that could talk, a blue-eyed waxen beauty with fringed eyelashes that opened and shut, rose-leaf cheeks and silky flaxen curls; and the two girls had given to Ben a locomotive with an electric battery,—a bewitching package which he stopped long enough to open with his deft gray squirrel paws, and to cry out about, in his unsquirrel-like voice: “Oh, my, how jolly!” Alice and Ben had together given to Betty and to Elsa each a beautiful white hyacinth. Elsa had from Betty a trunkful of dresses for her best doll, and Betty from Elsa a dainty silver watch. From Miss Ruth, Ben had a box of tools, and each of the girls a gold thimble.
Still the Gray Owl kept on taking presents from the tree, the Squirrel jumped around with packages, and the fun went on. Nobody was forgotten. There were presents for Bettina, who ran away soon to Miss Virginia, after a last loving look at Elsa; there were presents for Miss Ruth and Mrs. Holt, for Mrs. Danforth and for Mrs. White, who came in somewhat late to have a look at her neighbour’s Christmas-tree. There were presents for Mr. Danforth, who tucked them away in some mysterious make-believe Gray Owl tree-hollow; for Cummings, and for Sarah Judd, who came by special invitation of the Club, and who smiled until her face seemed in danger of cracking apart, as she received first a bright scarlet geranium from Ben and Alice, then a pretty white apron from Betty, and a handsomely illustrated book from Elsa.