They were just putting the finishing touches to the tree when the window darkened suddenly. Maida looked up in surprise. And then, “Oh, my papa’s come!” she screamed; “my papa’s come to my Christmas tree after all!”
There is so much to tell about the Christmas tree that I don’t know where to begin.
First of all came Laura and Harold. Mrs. Lathrop stopped with them for a moment to congratulate Mrs. Dore on finding her mother.
“Mrs. Lathrop, permit me to introduce my father, Mr. Westabrook,” Maida said.
Mrs. Lathrop was very gracious. “The neighborhood have accepted your daughter as Mrs. Flynn’s grandchild, Mr. Westabrook. But I guessed the truth from the first. I believed, however, that you wished the matter kept a secret and I have said nothing of it to anybody.”
“I thank you, madam,” said “Buffalo” Westabrook, bending on her one of his piercing scrutinies. “How ever the neighborhood accepted her, they have given her back her health. I can never be too grateful to them.”
Came Rosie next with a, “Oh, Maida, if you could only have seen Edward when my mother bathed him to-night!” Came Arthur, came the Doyles, came the Clark twins with Betsy tagging at their heels. Last of all, to Maida’s great delight, came Dr. Pierce.
Nobody was allowed to go into the shop where the tree stood until the last guest had arrived. But in spite of their impatience they had a gay half hour of waiting. Billy amused them with all kinds of games and tricks and jokes, and when he tired, Dr. Pierce, who soon became a great favorite, took them in hand.
Dr. Pierce sat, most of the evening, holding Betsy in his lap, listening to her funny baby chatter and roaring at her escapades. He took a great fancy to the Clark twins and made all manner of fun for the children by pretending that there was only one of them. “Goodness; how you do fly about!” he would say ruefully to Dorothy, “An instant ago you were standing close beside me,” or “How can you be here on the couch,” he would say to Mabel, “when there you are as plain as a pikestaff standing up in the corner?”
“What can you do about that leg, Eli?” Mr. Westabrook asked Dr. Pierce once when Dicky swung across the room.