her consent to the fearful ordeal
of a few years at school,--to be dull and to be wealthy! Who would
desire it for any child?

"You understand," said President Jenny Barton, after the meeting was
called to order, "that this is to be no common affair. It's to be,
well! it's to be a sort of atonement for--well, for those other
affairs; and, girls, if we do anything about it, let's do it up
handsome. What do you say?"

"Do it jist illigant, or let it alone," said Mamie Smythe.

"Jist illigant!" repeated one member of the club after another, until
the president said,--

"Motioned, and carried. Now for our plan. Keep it a profound
secret!"

Such a busy place as the academy became now, probably had its
counterpart in every girls' boarding-school all over the length and
breadth of our land.

Where there is good discipline and good scholarship, neither the rules
nor the lessons are allowed to be slighted; but as December days
shorten, and December cold strengthens, even the most indolent pupil
finds herself under a certain stress of occupation which she cannot
resist.

Shirking can find no place in the recitation-room. Moments that have
been idled away now become precious, each one laden with its weight of
some loving remembrance to be made for the dear ones at home.

Such treasures of delicate silks, laces, plushes, velvets, ribbons,
embroideries, card-boards, tassels, cords, gilt in every shape and
capable of every use; such pretty gift-books, booklets, cards,
afghans, sofa-pillows, head-rests; such wonders of ingenuity in
working up places for thermometers, putting them in dust-pans, tying
them onto bread-rollers, slipping them behind wonderful clusters of
sweet painted flowers; such pen-wipers, such blotters, work-baskets,
paper-baskets, bureau coverings, bureau mats! napery of all varieties;
and, after all, this enumeration is but the beginning of what in
Montrose Academy was hidden in drawers, stowed away in most impossible
and impracticable places, yet always ready to the hand for a spare
moment. Two hundred girls,--for by this time most of the diphtheritic
runaways had returned,--and all, without an exception, were Christmas
busy! Christmas crazy! What a changed place it made of the school!

Benedictions on the hallowed holiday! If we put aside its religious
bearing, think of it only as a time when heart goes out to heart, even
the most selfish of us all will remember to show our love in a visible
token of