the angel over the tree.

"A fellow can be awfully hungry, I know that. I didn't half eat
breakfast, I was in such a hurry to see you, and know all about the
secrets. Frank kept saying I couldn't guess, that you had come, and I
never would be ready, till finally I got mad and fired an egg at him,
and made no end of a mess."

Jack and Jill went off into a gale of laughter at the idea of dignified
Frank dodging the egg that smashed on the wall, leaving an indelible
mark of Jack's besetting sin, impatience.

Just then Mrs. Minot came in, well pleased to hear such pleasant sounds,
and to see two merry faces, where usually one listless one met her
anxious eyes.

"The new medicine works well, neighbor," she said to Mrs. Pecq, who
followed with the lunch tray.

"Indeed it does, mem. I feel as if I'd taken a sup myself, I'm that easy
in my mind."

And she looked so, too, for she seemed to have left all her cares in the
little house when she locked the door behind her, and now stood smiling
with a clean apron on, so fresh and cheerful, that Jill hardly knew her
own mother.

"Things taste better when you have someone to eat with you," observed
Jack, as they devoured sandwiches, and drank milk out of little mugs
with rosebuds on them.

"Don't eat too much, or you won't be ready for the next surprise," said
his mother, when the plates were empty, and the last drop gone down
throats dry with much chatter.

"More surprises! Oh, what fun!" cried Jill. And all the rest of the
morning, in the intervals of talk and play, they tried to guess what it
could be.

At two o'clock they found out, for dinner was served in the Bird Room,
and the children revelled in the simple feast prepared for them. The
two mothers kept the little bed-tables well supplied, and fed their
nurslings like maternal birds, while Frank presided over the feast with
great dignity, and ate a dinner which would have astonished Mamma, if
she had not been too busy to observe how fast the mince pie vanished.

"The girls said Christmas was spoiled because of us; but I don't think
so, and they won't either, when they see this splendid place and know
all about our nice plans," said Jill, luxuriously eating the nut-meats
Jack picked out for her, as they lay in Eastern style at the festive
board.

"I call this broken bones made easy. I never had a better Christmas.
Have a raisin? Here's a good fat one." And Jack made a long arm to
Jill's mouth, which began to sin