she would keep Christmas in the new country; and she wondered still
more, when they reached a great city, and had their "boxes" carried up
so many stairs to a little room in a boarding-house.

Gretchen's mother did not like boarding-houses--no, indeed!--and their
first thought was to find a place where they might feel at home; but the
very next morning after their long journey the dear father was too ill
to lift his head from the pillow, and Gretchen and her mother were very
sad for many days. Up so high in a boarding-house is not pleasant (even
if you do seem nearer the stars) when somebody you love is sick; and
then, too, Gretchen began to think that Santa Claus and Rupert had
forgotten her; for when she set her two little wooden shoes outside the
door, they were never filled with goodies, and people stumbled over them
and scolded.

The tears would roll down Gretchen's fat, rosy cheeks, and fall into the
empty shoes, and she decided that the people in America did not keep
Christmas, and wished she was in her own Germany again. One day,
however, a good woman in the house felt sorry for the lonely little
German girl, who could speak no English, and she asked Gretchen's
mother if Gretchen might go with her to see the beautiful stores. She
was only a poor woman, and had no presents to give away; but she knew
how to be kind to Gretchen, and she took her hand and smiled at her very
often as they hurried along the crowded street.

It was the day before Christmas, and throngs of people were moving here
and there, and Gretchen was soon bewildered, and she was jostled and
pushed until she was tired; but at last they stepped into a store which
made her blue eyes open wide, for it was a toy store, and the most
beautiful place she had ever seen. There were toys in that store that
had come across the sea like Gretchen; there were lovely dolls from
France, who were spending their first Christmas away from home; there
were woolly sheep, fine painted soldiers, and dainty furniture, and a
whole host of wonderful toys marked very carefully, "Made in Germany";
and even the Japanese, from their island in the great ocean, had sent
their funny slant-eyed dolls to help us keep Christmas.

Oh! it was splendid to be in the toyshop the day before Christmas! All
the tin soldiers stood up so straight and tall, looking as if they were
just ready to march when the big drums and the little drums, which hung
over their heads, should call them.