[A PERFECT CHRISTMAS.]

BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.

Chapter I.

"IT SEEMED TO LIE SOUND ASLEEP, WITH A SNOW BLANKET ALL OVER ITS ROOF."

There was not a larger house in all the valley than Grandfather Vrooman's. It was old and comfortable, and seemed to lie sound asleep, with a snow blanket all over its roof.

Nothing short of a real old-fashioned Christmas could wake up such a house as that.

Christmas was coming!

Unless Santa Claus and the Simpsons and the Hopkinses should forget the day of the month, they would all be there at waking-up time to-morrow morning.