On Christmas morning, nevertheless, in addition to a generous addition to the fund, Juliet found beside her plate an exceedingly “personal gift” in the shape of a little pearl-and-turquoise brooch of rare design, bearing the stamp of a superior maker.
“Must I scold you?” she asked, smiling up at him as he stood beside her, watching her face flush with pleasure.
“Kiss me, instead,” he answered promptly. “And don’t expect me to give up making you now and then a real present, even though it has to be a small one. It’s too much fun.”
Beside his own plate he found her gift, a set of histories he had long wanted. It was a beautiful edition, and he would have looked reproachfully at the giver if she had not forestalled him by running around the table to say softly in his ear, both arms about his neck: “Just at Christmas time, dearest, let me have my way.”
The day was a happy one. Mr. Horatio Marcy and Mrs. Dingley arrived on the morning train and stayed until evening. At the Christmas dinner Judith and Wayne Carey and Dr. Roger Barnes were the additional guests, and Mary McKaim was in the kitchen. Dinner over, everybody sat about the fireplace talking, when Juliet came in to carry little Tony off to bed.
“Five minutes more,” begged Dr. Barnes, on whose knee the child sat, a willing captive to the arts of his entertainer. His eyes, bright with the excitement of this great day, were fixed upon the doctor’s face.
“And so”—Barnes continued the story he had begun—“the rooster climbed right up the man’s leg”—the toy obeyed his command and scaled the eminence from the floor where it had been hiding behind a Noah’s ark—“and perched on his knee, and cried”—the rooster crowed lustily and little Tony laughed ecstatically. “Then the rooster flew up on the man’s shoulder and flapped his wings, and all at once he fell right over backwards and tumbled on his head on the floor.—Got to go to bed, Tony? Shall the rooster go too? All right. May I carry him up for you, Juliet? Anthony’s deep in that discussion. Get on my back, old man—that’s the way!”
Everybody looked after the two as the doctor mounted the stairs.
“That rooster has captivated the child more than all the mechanical toys he has had to-day,” said Mrs. Dingley.
“What a handsome fellow he is,” said Carey, his eyes following little Tony till he disappeared. “I never saw a healthier, happier child. How sturdy he is on his legs—have you noticed? He’s saying a good many words, too. It was as good as a play to see him imitate that rooster.”