very one there except the teacher and Jim, and all the
little "out-doorers," as Jim called them, went home with their hands
full. At the hospital the celebration was very quiet, but in spite of
pain and weariness, the boys in the first ward enjoyed their gifts as
much as Jim had hoped they would. And the Christmas stocking, full and
running over, that each old lady at the Home found hanging to her
doorknob, made those old children as happy as the young ones.

Jim's stocking could not hold half his treasures, and words failed him
utterly before he had opened the last package. But the Camp Fire
celebration was the great success. The tree was a blaze of light and
colour, and the gifts which the girls had made for each other were many
and varied. Some of the beadwork and basket work was really beautiful,
and there were pretty bits of crochet and some knitted slippers--all the
work of the girls themselves. Miss Laura had begged them to give her no
gift, and hers to each of them was only a little water-colour sketch
with "Love is the joy of service," beautifully lettered, beneath it.

Sadie's baskets of crepe paper were really very pretty, and these filled
with Elizabeth's holly cakes were one of the "successes" of the evening.
They were praised so highly that Elizabeth was quite, quite happy and
Sadie "almost too proud to live," as she confided to Olga in an excited
whisper.

But the best of all was the pleasure of the guests of the evening--Jack
Harding and Jo Barton and David Chapin, who all came as Jim's
guests--Louise Johnson's brother, a big awkward boy of sixteen--Eva
Bicknell's mother, with her bent shoulders and rough hands, and other
mothers more or less like her. The four boys helped when the cake and
ice cream were served, and Jim whispered to Jo that he could have just
as many helpings as he wanted--Miss Laura said so--and Jo wanted
several. It was by no means a quiet occasion--there was plenty of noise
and laughter, and fun, and Laura was in the heart of it all. They closed
the evening with ten minutes of Christmas carols in which everybody
joined, and then while the girls were getting on their wraps, the
mothers crowded about Laura, and the things some of them said filled her
heart with a great joy, for they told her how much the Camp Fire was
doing for their girls--making them kinder and more helpful at home,
keeping them off the streets, teaching them so many useful and pretty
sorts of work.

"My girl is