Mary Elizabeth gasped. She tore it open and read:
Dear Mary Elizabeth:
Your good work has merited the reward of the Second Prize of two dollars offered in the Mother Goose Contest. The money is enclosed and we hope that it will bring with it a Very Happy Christmas!
Happy Christmas! Hooray! Oh, how fine! Happy Christmas—why, of course, Happy Christmas! Wasn’t it splendid! Wasn’t it a surprise! Waving the letter, she hugged everybody that she met, Brother, Mother and all the children. Something splendid had happened, they all agreed. Everybody congratulated Mary Elizabeth. But only Mother really guessed why Mary Elizabeth didn’t spend it all right then and there the very first day in buying candy and peanuts. That was what Brother and the little children suggested.
But next day, after vacation had really begun and when the little children and Brother were safely out of the way, Mary Elizabeth with her little red kid purse slipped out of the house and off to buy the flags of the Allies to use for the Christmas tree.
Mary Elizabeth had decided, too, what the Christmas surprise was to be. Yes, it should be a tree covered with flags and Old Glory should be with the star at the top!
And then came tree-trimming! And the tree was—oh, oh, it was ever so much more wonderful than any tree had ever been before. Everybody said so! The little children said so. Brother said so! Mary Elizabeth herself knew it was so! All the little poor children who came to the tree said so!
It was Mother, however, who knew about the very soldierly Santa Claus that had made the tree so lovely. “It honored the little Christ Child’s Birthday, dear,” she said as she kissed Mary Elizabeth good-night. “It is the tree of the soldiers who are fighting for all that Christmas means.”
“The star was there,” replied Mary Elizabeth.