d now ..." deprecated Flame, "Mother has
gone and wished me on Aunt Minna instead!" With a sudden revival of
enthusiasm two small hands crept out of their big cuffs and clutched
her Father by the ears. "Oh Father-Funny!" pleaded Flame. "If you were
too old to want it for a 'holler' day and not quite old enough to
need it for a holy day ... so that all you asked in the world was just
to have it a _holly_ day! Something all bright! Red and green! And
tinsel! and jingle-bells!... How would you like to have Aunt Minna
wished on you?... It isn't you know as though Aunt Minna was a--a
pleasant person," she argued with perfectly indisputable logic. "You
couldn't wish one 'A Merry Aunt Minna' any more than you could wish
'em a 'Merry Good Friday'!" From the clutch on his ears the small
hands crept to a point at the back of his neck where they encompassed
him suddenly in a crunching hug. "Oh Father-Funny!" implored Flame,
"You were a Lay Reader once! You must have had _very_ amorous eyes!
Couldn't you _please_ persuade Mother that..."

With a crisp flutter of skirts Flame's Mother, herself, appeared
abruptly in the door. Her manner was very excited.

"Why wherever in the world have you people been?" she cried. "Are you
stone deaf? Didn't you hear the telephone? Couldn't you even hear me
calling? Your Uncle Wally is worse! That is he's better but he thinks
he's worse! And they want us to come at once! It's something about a
new will! The Lawyer telephoned! He advises us to come at once!
They've sent an automobile for us! It will be here any minute!... But
whatever in the world shall we do about Flame?" she cried
distractedly. "You know how Uncle Wally feels about having young
people in the house! And she can't possibly go to Aunt Minna's till
to-morrow! And...."

"But you see I'm not going to Aunt Minna's!" announced Flame quite
serenely. Slipping down from her Father's lap she stood with a round,
roly-poly flannel sort of dignity confronting both her parents.
"Father says I don't have to!"

"Why, Flame!" protested her Father.

"No, of course, you didn't say it with your mouth," admitted Flame.
"But you said it with your skin and bones!--I could feel it working."

"Not go to your Aunt Minna's?" gasped her Mother. "What do you want to
do?... Stay at home and spend Christmas with the Lay Reader?"

"When you and Father talk like that," murmured Flame with some
hauteur, "I don't know whether you're trying to run him down ...