r first children's party. At the top of the
note-paper was a very red robin, who carried a blue Christmas greeting
in his mouth, and at the bottom--written with A.D.C.'s best
flourish--were the magic words, _A Christmas Tree_. In spite of the
flourishes--partly perhaps because of them--the A.D.C.'s handwriting,
though handsome, was rather illegible. But for all this, most of the
children invited contrived to read these words, and those who could not
do so were not slow to learn the news by hearsay. There was to be a
Christmas Tree! It would be like a birthday party, with this above
ordinary birthdays, that there were to be presents for every one. One
of the children invited lived in a little white house, with a spruce
fir-tree before the door. The spruce fir did this good service to the
little house, that it helped people to find their way to it; and it
was by no means easy for a stranger to find his way to any given house
in this little town, especially if the house were small and white, and
stood in one of the back streets. For most of the houses were small,
and most of them were painted white, and back streets ran parallel with
each other, and had no names, and were all so much alike that it was
very confusing. For instance, if you had asked the way to Mr.
So-and-So's, it is very probable that some friend would have directed
you as follows: "Go straight forward and take the first turning to your
left, and you will find that there are four streets, which run at right
angles to the one you are in, and parallel with each other. Each of
them has got a big pine in it--one of the old forest trees. Take the
last street but one, and the fifth white house you come to is Mr.
So-and-So's. He has green blinds and a coloured servant." You would not
always have got such clear directions as these, but with them you would
probably have found the house at last, partly by accident, partly by the
blinds and coloured servant. Some of the neighbours affirmed that the
little white house had a name; that all the houses and streets had names,
only they were traditional and not recorded anywhere; that very few
people knew them, and nobody made any use of them. The name of the little
white house was said to be Trafalgar Villa, which seemed so inappropriate
to the modest peaceful little home, that the man who lived in it tried to
find out why it had been so called. He thought that his predecessor must
have been in the navy, until he found that h