Nobody ever called me “lady” before, but then I am most grown up now. One child there was just as old as I am; only he was a boy, and he had a big iron thing on his leg. When I gave him a card, he said, “Thank you marm, and merry Christmas!”
Then they all waved their cards and cried “Merry Christmas! merry Christmas!” as I went out of the door.
I hope I’ll get ever so many cards this Christmas, so I can give them to the hospital children. It’s such fun!
KITTY’S TRAMP.
ONE cold day in January Kitty Blake had dined with grandma and was on her way home through the fields. Perhaps you wonder why Kitty should walk in the fields when the snow was so deep. But there was a hard crust on the snow and she could skip along over it without breaking through. It was great fun.
Suddenly she stopped, for there in a slight hollow in the snow lay a tiny bird.
“Poor little birdie, it must have frozen to death,” said Kitty softly, and a tear stood in her eye, for she has a tender heart for all little creatures. Then she said “Oh!” and gave a start that sent the tears tumbling over her muff for just that instant, one of the bird’s legs twitched and the tears would not stay back.
“P’r’aps it’s still alive, after all;” she thought, and she picked it up and tucked it into her muff. Her muff was lined with fur.
She reached home quite breathless, and when she took out the bird and laid it on mamma’s lap, it gave one little “Peep!” stood on its legs, and then flew up into the ivy that ran all about the south bay window.