“Wait here!” Jane directed the Brownies. “I’ll find out for sure!”
Before Miss Gordon or the other girls could stop her, she scrambled over a big snowdrift and crept through the dark to the kitchen window. Half hidden by an ice-coated bush, Jane was able to look closely at the evergreen without being seen by anyone in the lighted room.
At first glance she saw that the tree was not the one which had been taken from Mr. Jeffert’s land, though it was a beautiful spruce.
The lower branches were a little scraggly, and viewed at close range, one side of the tree appeared slightly mis-shapen.
Satisfied that the evergreen was not the same one, Jane started to turn away. Then she waited a moment, for she saw the Stone children playing on the floor of the kitchen.
Mrs. Stone was setting food on the table for supper. One dish contained potatoes and another held turnips. Jane did not see anything else.
“Mom, may we have a new sled for Christmas?” she heard Barbara ask her mother.
“No, dear, and I’ve asked you not to keep pestering me about it,” sighed her mother wearily. “With your father out of work, we can’t afford toys this year. We’ll be lucky to keep food on the table.”
“Jane!” called Miss Gordon. She did not consider it proper for the little girl to peep through a window.
Jane quickly rejoined the Brownies. She knew she had not been seen by anyone in the cabin.