“Well, run into the house with your father and I’ll see what this tree will have for you,” said Uncle Tom, who stood just behind their father, his arms loaded with bundles.
In less time than you would have thought it could be done, Uncle Tom had the tree ready for Betty and Bob.
“We have to start for home by five o’clock, so you children had better open your bundles right now,” said father. The twins did not need to be told twice. Eagerly they opened the packages, gay with ribbons and seals. There were books, snowshoes, a red silk umbrella for Betty and a pair of skating boots for Bob; candy, a gold piece for each twin from Uncle Tom; and best of all, a little pencil note from mother to tell them that she was really better and to wish them a merry Christmas.
“Well,” said Bobby as the big car drove out of the yard with father and Uncle Tom, “this hasn’t been such a queer Christmas, after all.”
[23] This story was first printed in “Youth’s Companion,” December 14, 1922. Reprinted by permission of the author and “Youth’s Companion.”
A CHRISTMAS FOR TONY[24]
Zona Gale
Little Anthony punched his small, hard pillow, to make it as large as possible, so that his head would come well above the level of the window sill. Wonderful, thick, Christmas-looking snow was falling, though it wanted two days yet to Christmas.
“Mother!” he cried, “I wish all the snow in the world would come and fall in front of our window!”
“It looks as if it had come,” said Mother Margaret.