'Meanwhile Christmas is not a hundred miles off,' said Dane watching her. 'How shall we keep it?'
'I don't know. I never did keep it much.'
'First, there is the Hollow.'
'O in the Hollow!yes, certainly. They must all have a Christmas dinner, for one thing.'
'Well, go on. I want your help. I suppose they never kept
Christmas much, either. What shall I do for them?'
'How many Christmas trees would reach through the Hollow?'
Dane shook his head. 'I am afraid we are hardly ready for that. And there is scant time. I must be content to do without the poetry, this year, and make everybody happy prosaically.'
'With roast beef and plum pudding,' said Hazel. 'But then I would rather find out real wants, and supply them. Could that be done?'
'Hardly. Not in detail. The time is too short. In general, there is always the want of good cheer and of joy-taking; or of anything to give cause for joy. How would it do, for Christmas, to send in supplies for a good dinner to every house? Then we can take breath and think about New Year's Day.'
'I suppose that could not fail. But then, to make them feel really like Christmas, they ought to have something they do not need.'