e I go the talk is all of carols, carols, carols. And the air is

ing carols, and are training the boys and girls all over the city to sing them. People who are interested in the work of the Music Club League and wis

I might have attended the rehearsa

ark, where all the rich people live-and we expect to bring in more money than any other group. There was great rivalry among the groups for that district, and Miss Jones tested and tested us to see which sang the best. I near

inging is over for an oyster supper and a frolic. And the troupe of midgets that are playing in the Mansfield Theater this week

ng," said Gladys, sniffi

illed on the stove," said Katherine seren

," said Gladys, pulling Migwan toward the

ones will let me do it?" as

And she rushed off unceremoniously to investigate. The kitchen was full of smoke when she reached it, proc

nt and setting the smoking board outside the back door, while Katherine stood idly by wi

n self-defense. "Back where I come from the irons cool off when you leave them by themselve

oha with a sigh, and then she added aff

king out of the window. "He promised to take us all coasting d

r side walked a young man whom Nyoda recognized as Alex Tobin, one of the violins in the Temple Theater Orchestra. He was talking animatedly and earnestly to her, his white teeth showing often in a smile beneath his small black moust

depend upon your uncle's permission? You h

ss street. Nyoda looked after him thoughtfully. She was not fond of Alex Tobin, although she knew him only very slightl

more animation than Nyoda had ever seen her display. "You know uncle plays this year

the Symphony Orchestra

and so kind to me. He takes such an interest in my

usion of everything else. You are growing quite thin. You must stay out of doors more and romp

onica absently, and fell silen

rs of the occasion," announced Sahwah, as the Winnebagos assembled before starting

e there and give some of his wonderful bird calls?" asked Gladys. "Migw

s it for anything. And the group that brings in the most money is going to get a prize," she added, "a

they all cried, as they passe

" said Katherine, and slipped and sat

d Gladys, as they went down the street. Mrs. Salisbury was the lady who had gathered together

d Hinpoha, "we ought

limmering in windows in friendly invitation to the coming singers. But there were no candles in the windows on Division Street. The houses were all poor little one-story ones, with never a wre

Migwan will be sure of them," suggested Hinpoha. "We wanted t

house, and sang through all the songs they were to

*

ing for Christmas. Martha dreaded its coming, for she could remember other days when Christmas had been very different. Besides, Martha was very lonely. She and her mother were strangers in town, having come only six months before, and in all that time not a soul had come to see them. And because Martha felt so lonely and so left out of the busy, happy world, the tre

d about the groups of boys and girls who were going through the streets on Chris

o be rich and live in a fine house and put a candle in the window to make the singers stop out

"Let us pretend that we are rich and great," she said soothingly, "and play that we are putting a lighted candle in our

asked Martha. "We would have to imag

xed her mother. "What color

d a cut glass candlestick," said Martha

d candle on the window sill. "Now we must wait awhile in our elegant parlo

the creaking snow outside, footsteps that came to a halt beneath

you, merry

ng you ma

Christ o

this ha

ieving ears. The song changed as the singers swung into the measures of a new carol. Surely these

*

out on the steps. "Thank you a thousand times for the singing," she said. "Won't you come in wher

en aware that they were singing to an audience. It was getting near the time when they should be

poha together. They went in, singing as they we

hem all about the Christmas Eve game she and her mother had been playing and how they had set the imaginary candle in the window. And all of the six months' loneliness was in that little tale, and the girls as they listened became afflicted with a queer weakness of the eyes that made them turn their faces away from the l

is bare and d

with bundles. As the enchanted forests rise in the fairy tales, so the room was swiftly transformed and began to blossom in green and red. Garlands and wreaths hung from the head and the foot of the

never conceived in her rosiest dreams. Healths were drunk in cocoa, side-splitting toasts proposed by the witty toastmistress, Migwan, and songs sung that made the roof ring. Gladys did her prettiest dances; Sahwah and Hinpoha did their famous stunt of the goat that ate the two red shirts right off the line, and Katherine gave her very funniest speech-the one about Wimmen's Rights-three times; once voluntarily and twice more by special request. Martha laughed until she co

the gay party at the Music League Club House came to the Winnebagos from all sides, and loud expressions of regret that they had missed it. And the group they

to the face of a sad-eyed girl-a look of happiness and ambit