. "When you've
had time to cool down you will think it the finest joke of the year.
And you so well plucked, too, holding on like grim death, for all his
struggles. You ought to be proud instead of sorry. Look here, now, you
shall have the racket after all! I won't have you the loser for your
dealings with me. I'll give it to you at once, if you'll be troubled to
come to my room!"

Then Esmeralda cried, "Oh, Pat, me darlin'!" and Pat hung on to her
arms, crying, "Hold me tight! Hold me tight!" at which she blushed and
tugged his curly locks, and off they went together, laughing,
squabbling, protesting; sworn enemies, dearest of friends!

Jack arrived in due course, and a happier Christmas party than that
assembled round the breakfast-table at Knock Castle next morning it
would have been hard to find. Each one had provided presents for the
others, and if they were of infinitesimal value, they were apparently
none the less valued by the recipients. Mademoiselle thought she had
never seen anything more charming, than the manner in which Pixie
presented, and the Major received, a solitary bone stud for his collar,
amidst the acclamations of an admiring family.

"A happy Christmas to ye, father darlin', and many happy returns!" said
Pixie in deep sweet accents, as she pressed the tiny packet into his
hand, and blinked at it with an air of elaborate indifference. "It's
just a little present I was buying you, thinking maybe you would like to
wear something I'd chosen meself."

"And now what can this be next?" soliloquised the Major, untwisting the
paper with tenderest fingers and an air of absorption seldom seen on his
merry features. When wrapping number two was undone, and the stud was
disclosed in all its glory, he appeared almost dizzy with rapture,
holding it out on an outstretched palm, and gazing at it with
incredulous joy. "Did ever anything fall out so lucky as that? The
very thing I was breaking my heart over not an hour ago. Somebody eats
my studs--I'm sure they do--and what are left Esmeralda steals for her
cuffs. But I'll be even with anybody who dares to take this one from my
drawer. Thank you, my piccaninny. It's a broth of a stud, and you
could not have given me anything I liked better."

"I hope it may never break on you when you are in a hurry," said Pixie
politely, and with sundry memories of past occasions when the Major had
dressed for a function, while the sounds of his groans and lam