‘What lovely toys!’ I exclaimed. It was truly an embarras de richesses. There were treasures that, if gradually bestowed, would have driven the recipients wild with delight. ‘What fortunate young people you are!’ I added, examining the glittering heap that they were surveying so discontentedly. ‘Don’t you think so?’
‘The little B——s got much better things!’ they murmured.
‘This doll, so beautifully dressed’——
‘Ah, if you had seen the one Mary got!’ pouted the little girl, pushing with her foot the despised doll. ‘It opened and shut its eyes, and had a pearl necklace and embroidered shoes. And Mary was so conceited and disagreeable about it; and so ill-natured, she’d scarcely let me look at it. I hate Mary B——!’
‘You were great friends with her,’ cried the young brother, ‘until she got that better doll; and you were just as conceited, too, about your own, until hers cut it out.’
‘Oh, you needn’t talk, after the way you behaved to poor little Fred H——. Would you believe it, mamma? he quarrelled with that poor child—a little mite of a fellow, not half his size—hustling and bullying him, and wanting to drag away his book that he got for a prize.’
‘No; I did not want to drag it away from him. Don’t tell stories. ’Twas to be an exchange. I got a ridiculous toy-horse—a little rubbishy thing, only fit for a baby like him; and he said he would take it and give me the book—a lovely Robinson Crusoe, that he couldn’t read. And then the stupid little fellow howled when I went to get it from him.’
‘And you flew into a rage, and smashed the toy; and the governess said it was a shame, and’——
‘Oh, come!’ I said, interrupting recriminations that were getting angry, and putting a stop to the dispute.
It was not the moment for impressing moral truths upon the young pair; but while deferring these to a more fitting opportunity, I made my own reflections upon Christmas trees in general and this party in particular.