turn of the road below the Greenacre entrance gates. On the silent,
frosty air, Kit heard Shad's clear whistle, and over the fringe of pines
along the river there came the murmur of the waterfall. There was none of
the family in sight when they turned up the drive, but suddenly Kit's
eager eyes saw a familiar figure out by the chicken coops, and leaning
forward she gave a shrill co-oee!

Doris' head went up like a startled deer. She dropped the pan of feed to
the ground and fairly flew to meet them, and then before Kit could even
detach herself from these clinging arms, the big front door swung open,
and there in the lamplight was the Mother Bird and Helen.

Jean was up-stairs as usual at this hour when she was home, reading with
her father, but Kit never forgot the feeling of relief that came to her
when she finally found herself before the open fire in the big living-room
with all of the family around her, and the full satisfaction of having
brought home the Peabodys after all these years of estrangement.

That night, after dinner, while Shad and the Dean were closeted in the big
front room erecting the huge hemlock Christmas tree, the girls assembled
in Jean's room.

"Cousin Roxy invited us all over to their place," Helen said, as she dove
into a lower bureau drawer, filled with carefully wrapped parcels, "but
mother wanted to have a home Christmas, because the house does seem new to
us all, and we never expected to see you home at all."

"You didn't? Well, I wrote and told you to be sure and have the guest
chamber ready. I didn't know myself that Uncle Cassius and Aunt Daphne
were coming until the last minute." Kit sat perched on the bed in a pink
kimono, brushing her hair. And just at this moment she caught Jean's eye
in the mirror, such an amused, knowing eye that Kit caught the full
significance of that glance immediately, and laughed.

"I suppose you feel as though you had brought home the wealth of the
Indies, Kit Robbins. You can't tell me that it wasn't intentional, because
I know you. All I want to know is, who told you?"

"Told me what?" asked Kit innocently. Not for worlds would she have
betrayed Cousin Roxy's confidence. "Any one to hear you talk, Jean, would
think that you didn't want to see me at all."

Jean laughed. It was impossible to get past Kit's wall of evasion when she
chose to take refuge behind it.

"Well, never mind how it has happened," she said happily. "I'm sure that
you managed