baby,
and the nurse, and the whole party, are ushered up-stairs amidst
tumultuous shouts of 'Oh, my!' from the children, and frequently repeated
warnings not to hurt baby from the nurse. And grandpapa takes the child,
and grandmamma kisses her daughter, and the confusion of this first entry
has scarcely subsided, when some other aunts and uncles with more cousins
arrive, and the grown-up cousins flirt with each other, and so do the
little cousins too, for that matter, and nothing is to be heard but a
confused din of talking, laughing, and merriment.

A hesitating double knock at the street-door, heard during a momentary
pause in the conversation, excites a general inquiry of 'Who's that?' and
two or three children, who have been standing at the window, announce in
a low voice, that it's 'poor aunt Margaret.' Upon which, aunt George
leaves the room to welcome the new-comer; and grandmamma draws herself
up, rather stiff and stately; for Margaret married a poor man without her
consent, and poverty not being a sufficiently weighty punishment for her
offence, has been discarded by her friends, and debarred the society of
her dearest relatives. But Christmas has come round, and the unkind
feelings that have struggled against better dispositions during the year,
have melted away before its genial influence, like half-formed ice
beneath the morning sun. It is not difficult in a moment of angry
feeling for a parent to denounce a disobedient child; but, to banish her
at a period of general good-will and hilarity, from the hearth, round
which she has sat on so many anniversaries of the same day, expanding by
slow degrees from infancy to girlhood, and then bursting, almost
imperceptibly, into a woman, is widely different. The air of conscious
rectitude, and cold forgiveness, which the old lady has assumed, sits ill
upon her; and when the poor girl is led in by her sister, pale in looks
and broken in hope--not from poverty, for that she could bear, but from
the consciousness of undeserved neglect, and unmerited unkindness--it is
easy to see how much of it is assumed. A momentary pause succeeds; the
girl breaks suddenly from her sister and throws herself, sobbing, on her
mother's neck. The father steps hastily forward, and takes her husband's
hand. Friends crowd round to offer their hearty congratulations, and
happiness and harmony again prevail.

As to the dinner, it's perfectly delightful--nothing goes wrong, and
everybod