not come, he tried to crawl from
his refuge and call somebody, when--dark and dreadful ending to a
tragic day--he found that he was too much intertwined with umbrellas
and canes to move a single step. He was afraid to yell! When I have
said this of Larry Ruggles I have pictured a state of helpless terror
that ought to wring tears from every eye; and the sound of Sarah Maud's
beloved voice, some seconds later, was like a strain of angel music in
his ears. Uncle Jack dried his tears, carried him upstairs, and soon
had him in breathless fits of laughter, while Carol so made the other
Ruggleses forget themselves that they were soon talking like
accomplished diners-out.

Carol's bed had been moved into the farthest corner of the room, and
she was lying on the outside, dressed in a wonderful soft white
wrapper. Her golden hair fell in soft fluffy curls over her white
forehead and neck, her cheeks flushed delicately, her eyes beamed with
joy, and the children told their mother, afterwards, that she looked as
beautiful as the pictures of the Blessed Virgin. There was great
bustle behind a huge screen in another part of the room, and at
half-past five this was taken away, and the Christmas dinner-table
stood revealed. What a wonderful sight it was to the poor little
Ruggles children, who ate their sometimes scanty meals on the kitchen
table! It blazed with tall colored candles, it gleamed with glass and
silver, it blushed with flowers, it groaned with good things to eat; so
it was not strange that the Ruggleses, forgetting that their mother was
a McGrill, shrieked in admiration of the fairy spectacle. But Larry's
behavior was the most disgraceful, for he stood not upon the order of
his going, but went at once for a high chair that pointed unmistakably
to him, climbed up like a squirrel, gave a comprehensive look at the
turkey, clapped his hands in ecstacy, rested his fat arms on the table,
and cried, with joy, "I beat the hull lot o' yer!" Carol laughed until
she cried, giving orders, meanwhile, "Uncle Jack, please sit at the
head, Sarah Maud at the foot, and that will leave four on each side;
Mama is going to help Elfrida, so that the children need not look after
each other, but just have a good time."

A sprig of holly lay by each plate, and nothing would do but each
little Ruggles must leave his seat and have it pinned on by Carol, and
as each course was served one of them pleaded to take something to her.
There w