said to me, 'He wants us to go
with him.'

"On which (as if he understood our language, though we were ignorant
of his) the spaniel sprang away, and went off as hard as he could;
and Patty and I went after him, a dim hope crossing my mind--'Perhaps
Father Christmas has sent him for us.'

"This idea was rather favoured by the fact that the dog led us up the
lane. Only a little way; then he stopped by something lying in the
ditch--and once more we cried in the same breath, 'It's Old Father
Christmas!'"

CHAPTER IV.

"Returning from the Hall, the old man had slipped upon a bit of ice,
and lay stunned in the snow.

"Patty began to cry. 'I think he's dead,' she sobbed.

"'He is so very old, I don't wonder,' I murmured; 'but perhaps he's
not. I'll fetch Father.'

"My father and Kitty were soon on the spot. Kitty was as strong as a
man; and they carried Father Christmas between them into the kitchen.
There he quickly revived.

"I must do Kitty the justice to say that she did not utter a word of
complaint at this disturbance of her labours; and that she drew the
old man's chair close up to the oven with her own hand. She was so
much affected by the behaviour of his dog, that she admitted him even
to the hearth; on which puss, being acute enough to see how matters
stood, lay down with her back so close to the spaniel's that Kitty
could not expel one without kicking both.

"For our parts, we felt sadly anxious about the tree; otherwise we
could have wished for no better treat than to sit at Kitty's round
table taking tea with Father Christmas. Our usual fare of thick bread
and treacle was to-night exchanged for a delicious variety of cakes,
which were none the worse to us for being 'tasters and wasters'--that
is, little bits of dough, or shortbread, put in to try the state of
the oven, and certain cakes that had got broken or burnt in the
baking.

"Well, there we sat, helping Old Father Christmas to tea and cake, and
wondering in our hearts what could have become of the tree. But you
see, young people, when I was a child, parents were stricter than they
are now. Even before Kitty died (and she has been dead many a long
year) there was a change, and she said that 'children got to think
anything became them.' I think we were taught more honest shame about
certain things than I often see in little boys and girls now. We were
ashamed of boasting, or being greedy, or selfish; we were ashamed of
asking for anything tha