. It is due to the other children
to say that they felt the disappointment as keenly as he did, and that
it greatly damped the pleasure of the party for them to think that they
had prevented his sharing in the treat. The most penitent of all was
the deviser of the original idea. He had generously offered to stay at
home with the little patient, which was as generously refused; but the
next evening he was allowed to come and sit on his bed, and describe it
all for the amusement of his friend. He was a quaint boy, this urchin,
with a face as broad as an American Indian's, eyes as bright as a
squirrel's, and all the mischief in life lurking about him, till you
could see roguishness in the very folds of his hooded Indian winter
coat of blue and scarlet. In his hand he brought the sick child's
present: a dray with two white horses, and little barrels that took off
and on, and a driver, with wooden joints, a cloth coat, and everything,
in fact, that was suitable to the driver of a brewer's dray, except
that he had blue boots and earrings, and that his hair was painted in
braids like a lady's, which is clearly the fault of the doll
manufacturers, who will persist in making them all of the weaker sex.

"And what was the Christmas tree like?" asked the invalid.

"Exactly like the fir outside your door," was the reply. "Just about
that size, and planted in a pot covered with red cloth. It was kept in
another room till after tea, and then when the door was opened it was
like a street fire in the town at night--such a blaze of light--candles
everywhere! And on all the branches the most beautiful presents. I got
a drum and a penwiper."

"Was there an angel?" the child asked.

"Oh, yes!" the boy answered. "It was on the tip-top branch, and it was
given to me, and I brought it for you, if you would like it; for, you
know, I am so very, very sorry I thought of a snowman and made you ill,
and I do love you, and beg you to forgive me."

And the roguish face stooped over the pillow to be kissed; and out of a
pocket in the hooded coat came forth the Christmas Angel. In the face
it bore a strong family likeness to the drayman, but its feet were
hidden in folds of snowy muslin, and on its head glittered a tinsel
star.

"How lovely!" said the child. "Father told me about this. I like it
best of all. And it is very kind of you, for it is not your fault that
I caught cold. I should have liked it if we could have done it, but I
think to e