"How did he make the balls?" asked Alexia, forgetting herself in her interest, and coming up to Polly.
"Why, we had some bits of bright paper, little bits, you know, and Ben covered hickory nuts with them, and pasted them all as smoothly; you can't think!"
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Alexia.
"And Polly strung all the pop-corn, and fixed the candle-ends somebody gave Mamsie, and"—
"Candle-ends? Why didn't you have whole ones?" cried Alexia.
"Why, we couldn't," said Polly, "and we were glad enough to get these.
Oh! the Tree looked just beautifully with them, I tell you."
"You see," said Phronsie, drawing near to look into Alexia's face, "we were very, very poor, Alexia. So Polly and Bensie made the Tree. Don't you understand?"
"It was really Bensie's Tree," said Polly honestly, "for I didn't believe at first we could do it."
"Oh, yes, you did, Polly," corrected Ben hastily; "at any rate, you saw it in a minute."
"And it's the first time you didn't believe a thing could be done, I imagine," declared Jasper, with a bright nod at Polly.