"Well, thousands," accepted Flame. "Old people, young people, fat
people, skinnys, cross people, jolly people?... Did you ever in your
life know _any one_ who had ever spent Christmas just the way he
wanted to?"

"Why ... no, I don't know that I ever did," considered her Father.
With his elbows on the arms of his chair, his slender fingers forked
to a lovely Gothic arch above the bridge of his nose, he yielded
himself instantly to the reflection. "Why ... no, ... I don't know
that I ever did," he repeated with an increasing air of
conviction.... "When you're young enough to enjoy the day as a
'holler' day there's usually some blighting person who prefers to have
it observed as a holy day.... And by the time you reach an age where
you really rather appreciate its being a holy day the chances are that
you've got a houseful of racketty youngsters who fairly insist on
reverting to the 'holler' day idea again."

"U--m--m," encouraged Flame.

--"When you're little, of course," mused her Father, "you have to
spend the day the way your elders want you to!... You crave a
Christmas Tree but they prefer stockings! You yearn to skate but they
consider the weather better for corn-popping! You ask for a bicycle
but they had already found a very nice bargain in flannels! You beg to
dine the gay-kerchiefed Scissor-Grinder's child, but they invite the
Minister's toothless mother-in-law!... And when you're old enough to
go courting," he sighed, "your lady-love's sentiments are outraged if
you don't spend the day with her and your own family are perfectly
furious if you don't spend the day with them!... And after you're
married?" With a gesture of ultimate despair he sank back into his
cushions. "N--o, no one, I suppose, in the whole world, has ever spent
Christmas just exactly the way he wanted to!"

"Well, I," triumphed Flame, "have got a chance to spend Christmas just
exactly the way I want to!... The one chance perhaps in a life-time,
it would seem!... No heart aches involved, no hurt feelings, no
disappointments for anybody! Nobody left out! Nobody dragged in! Why
Father-Funny," she cried. "It's an experience that might distinguish
me all my life long! Even when I'm very old and crumpled people would
point me out on the street and say '_There's_ some one who once spent
Christmas just exactly the way she wanted to'!" To a limpness almost
unbelievable the eager little figure wilted down within its
blanket-wrapper swathings. "An