of the breast-pocket, gave an air of elegance in
spite of the afghan spread over the lower portions of his manly form.
The yellow hair was brushed till it shone, and being parted in the
middle, to hide the black patch, made two engaging little "quirls" on
his forehead. The summer tan had faded from his cheeks, but his eyes
were as blue as the wintry sky, and nearly every white tooth was visible
as he smiled on his partner in misfortune, saying cheerily,--

"I'm ever so glad to see you again; guess we are over the worst of
it now, and can have good times. Won't it be fun to stay here all the
while, and amuse one another?"

"Yes, indeed; but one day is so short! It will be stupider than ever
when I go home to-night," answered Jill, looking about her with longing
eyes.

"But you are not going home to-night; you are to stay ever so long.
Didn't Mamma tell you?"

"No. Oh, how splendid! Am I really? Where will I sleep? What will Mammy
do without me?" and Jill almost sat up, she was so delighted with the
new surprise.

"That room in there is all fixed for you. I made Frank tell me so much.
Mamma said I might tell you, but I didn't think she would be able to
hold in if she saw you first. Your mother is coming, too, and we are all
going to have larks together till we are well."

The splendor of this arrangement took Jill's breath away, and before
she got it again, in came Frank and Ralph with two clothes-baskets of
treasures to be hung upon the tree. While they wired on the candles the
children asked questions, and found out all they wanted to know about
the new plans and pleasures.

"Who fixed all this?"

"Mamma thought of it, and Ralph and I did it. He's the man for this sort
of thing, you know. He proposed cutting out the arches and sticking on
birds and butterflies just where they looked best. I put those canaries
over there, they looked so well against the blue;" and Frank proudly
pointed out some queer orange-colored fowls, looking as if they were
having fits in the air, but very effective, nevertheless.

"Your mother said you might call this the Bird Room. We caught a
scarlet-tanager for you to begin with, didn't we, Jack?" and Ralph threw
a _bon-bon_ at Jill, who looked very like a bright little bird in a warm
nest.

"Good for you! Yes, and we are going to keep her in this pretty cage
till we can both fly off together. I say, Jill, where shall we be in our
classes when we do get back?" and Jack's merry face