"But isn't it pretty?" asked Mrs. Morrison, from the top of the step-ladder.
"It is pretty enough, but it all has to come down, and then what a mess!" was the reply.
"Still, it is fun, and Christmas comes but once a year. Here, Mark, this is to decorate the immortal George. Can you reach?" and Miss Moore held out a beautiful branch of holly.
"You'll come to the party, won't you, Mrs. Bond?" Frances asked.
"Come? of course she will; no one in this house can be excused," said Mr. Clark, entering the room with some interesting packages under his arm.
The little girls were extremely curious about some work Miss Sherwin and Mrs. Morrison had been doing, which they kept a secret from everybody, and now the sight of a number of flat parcels in tissue paper tied with red ribbon excited them afresh.
"Is that what you have been making?" asked Frances.
"Just part of it," Miss Sherwin replied, as she hung them on the tree.
"Emma, what do you suppose they are? Everybody is to have one, for I have counted," Frances whispered.
"I don't know, I am sure; but isn't it fun!" and Emma spun around like a top in her excitement.