whispered, "Is all right, Nannie?" she said, smiling,
"Yes, father; trying helps, doesn't it?"

Swiftly the evening fled. They had cracked nuts and eaten apples, till
even Jack was satisfied; and as the fire burned down, and Charlie lay
asleep in his mother's lap, the father said, "How many things we have
to be thankful for this year! Let us each tell of something, and then
together we will offer our sacrifice of thanksgiving."

The mother's fingers played in Charlie's curls, as she said, "I thank my
heavenly Father for my children's lives."

They were still for a moment. They all remembered the sad days of
last winter, when they gathered round the fire and whispered anxiously
together, while Charlie tossed and wearied on his sick-bed.

Then sister Mary said, "I thank him for his Son Jesus Christ."

Then Belle, in a softened tone, said, "I thank him for our pleasant
home."

Jack said, while Nannie looked up with a pleasant smile, "I thank him
for my little sister."

Then it was Nannie's turn, and, smiling to her father, she said, "I
thank him for _patience_."

So ended their Christmas-day.

CHAPTER IV.

SOMETHING NEW.

"Oh, what a darling it is!" said Nannie to Belle, as they stood looking
at the little bundle sister Mary was holding. "What wee bits of hands!"
she said, as she opened the blanket. "I'm so glad it's a little sister;
I haven't any little one, you know, and it's so much nicer than a
brother."

"So much nicer than a brother!" exclaimed Jack, who was looking on with
affected indifference. "I'd like to know how many snowballs that 'dear
little hand,' as you call it, will make for you. I'm sure I'd like as
good a brother as you've got."

"Oh," said Nannie, "a brother will do very well; but I think a little
sister is nicer. Oh, just see," she added in a whisper, "it's going to
sleep."

"Going to sleep!" said Jack; "I'd like to know how you can tell. It
looks just as it did before."

"Why, Jack, its eyes are shut."

"Its eyes shut!--do let me see. I didn't know it had any."

"Come, Jack, they shan't make fun of our baby," said sister Mary, as she
took it into the other room. "It's a good deal prettier than you were!"

Belle and Nannie both laughed, in which Jack joined, not at all
offended.

"What are they going to call it?" said Jack, after a pause.

"Nellie, sister Mary said," Belle answered; "after a little sister of
mother's that died."

"How old was mother's sister when s