"Wasn't it hard not to let the black run over the edges of the picture?" asked Della.
"Yes, you have to keep your wits about you all the time. But then you have to do that any way if you want what you're making to amount to anything, so that doesn't count."
"That's a capital addition, that suggestion of ground that you made with a whisk or two of the brush."
"Just a few lines seem to give the child something to stand on."
"These plans for decoration look especially good to me," said practical James, "because there's nothing to stick up on them. They'll pack easily and that's what we must have for our purpose."
"That's true," agreed Helen. "For doing up presents that don't have to travel it's pretty to cut petals of red poinsettia and twist them with wire and make a flower that you can tuck in under the string that you tie the parcel with—"
"Or a bit of holly. Holly is easily made out of green crêpe paper or tissue paper," cried Della.
"But as James says, none of the boxes for the orphans can have stick-ups or they'll look like mashed potatoes when they reach the other side."
"We'll stow away the poinsettia idea for home presents then," said Margaret. "What we want from James, however, is a lot of boxes of any and every size that he can squeeze out."
"No scraps thrown away, old man," decreed Tom, "for even a cube of an inch each way will hold a few sweeties."