So they begged Aunt Annie to walk away once more, a request which she had quite expected, and she went off laughing. Bessie asked the price of the cat, and was told, "six cents," so there was no difficulty about that, and pussy was bought. Then, after some whispering, Mrs. Duncan was sent after Annie, and a glass deer was bought for her étagere. The woman who served the children brought a small box, and putting some cotton in it, laid the deer and the cat upon it, and gave the box into Maggie's hand, saying that she could carry them safely in this way. Maggie told Bessie that the woman knew how to keep store pretty well, after all.
One or two more small purchases were made, and then they went home. They went shopping several times with mamma or their aunts before all their presents were bought; but two days before Christmas everything was ready,—the book-marks with, "To my dear Father," and "To my dear Mother," as well as those for Colonel and Mrs. Rush, a watchman's rattle for noisy Fred, and for Harry, since he was fond of birds, a yellow wooden canary in a pewter cage. It would take too long to name each article, and the person for whom it was intended; but not one of the family, or of their intimate friends, was forgotten. Papa and mamma, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncle, and cousins, grandmamma and the two grandpapas, Colonel and Mrs. Rush, Jemmy and Mary Bent, and even each servant in the house were remembered and provided for; and the older people were quite astonished to see how much the children had done with the two dollars and sixty cents with which they had started.
And now began the grand preparations for the important day. The Christmas-tree in its square green box came home, and was carried into the library, where the children were now forbidden to go. The "grown-upers," as Fred called them, were passing in and out all the time, going in laden with parcels of all shapes and sizes, and coming out empty-handed. But if the older people had their secrets, the children, also, had theirs, not the least of which was one in which the four eldest were engaged, and which was carried on for a while in the boys' room.
The tree was not to be displayed until the evening of Christmas-day, when there was to be a large family dinner at Mrs. Bradford's, to which Colonel and Mrs. Rush were invited.
[XVII.]
CHRISTMAS.
