Alsie caught herself just in time to keep from disclosing the secret to the busy little grandmother, who, a few moments later, hurried out of the dining room to resume once more her position in the sick-chamber.
"Look out the window, Alsie!" exclaimed Emily at this point, "it looks like our hopes for a white Christmas are going to be realized."
Sure enough, the snow was falling fast and the ground already began to look white.
"If it just keeps up, Auntee, won't we have a beautiful Christmas?" exclaimed Alsie enthusiastically. Alice had been looking out, too, and the shadow of doubt pulled at her heart-strings.
Could it be the last Christmas—O, surely such a terrible sorrow was not in store for them all! What would the merry season be without him?
These were the thoughts that flashed through her mind, but at the sound of the clear little voice beside her, she dismissed them and answered cheerily, "I think we are going to have a beautiful Christmas—in every way—but it's time to be about our work now. Ask Uncle Dick if he left the cedar out on the porch."
The cedar was brought in—likewise the holly and mistletoe—and oh, how pretty the red berries looked, and how pretty the garlands of evergreen looked when tied up with the crimson ribbons!
"How do you like these?" called Uncle Dick as he smoothed out a great roll of posters. "I picked them up around the office, and thought they would help in the decorations."
Alsie and Emily were filled with delight at sight of the great colored newspaper sheets, covered with all manner of pictures of the dear old saint. There he was just ready to climb down the chimney—another poster pictured him on his annual journey driving his reindeer over the snowy ground. And so on—it seemed as if every stage of the Christmas trip had been photographed in colors.