her grey
silk and did her hair, and in a very short time she and Juliet were
hurrying down the old field-path. In the hollow Meredith Gordon met
them.

"Cousin Meredith," said Miss Corona tremulously.

"Dear Corona."

He took both her hands in his, and kissed her heartily. "Forgive me
for misunderstanding you so long. I thought you hated us all."

Turning to Juliet, he said with a fatherly smile,

"What a terrible girl it is for having its own way! Who ever heard of
a Gordon bride doing such an unconventional thing? There, scamper off
to the house before your guests come. Laura has made your roses up
into what she calls 'a dream of a bouquet,' I'll take Cousin Corona up
more leisurely."

"Oh, I knew that something beautiful was going to happen when the old
rose-tree bloomed," murmured Miss Corona happily.

The Josephs' Christmas

The month before Christmas was always the most exciting and mysterious
time in the Joseph household. Such scheming and planning, such putting
of curly heads together in corners, such counting of small hoards,
such hiding and smuggling of things out of sight, as went on among the
little Josephs!

There were a good many of them, and very few of the pennies; hence the
reason for so much contriving and consulting. From fourteen-year-old
Mollie down to four-year-old Lennie there were eight small Josephs in
all in the little log house on the prairie; so that when each little
Joseph wanted to give a Christmas box to each of the other little
Josephs, and something to Father and Mother Joseph besides, it is no
wonder that they had to cudgel their small brains for ways and means
thereof.

Father and Mother were always discreetly blind and silent through
December. No questions were asked no matter what queer things were
done. Many secret trips to the little store at the railway station two
miles away were ignored, and no little Joseph was called to account
because he or she looked terribly guilty when somebody suddenly came
into the room. The air was simply charged with secrets.

Sister Mollie was the grand repository of these; all the little
Josephs came to her for advice and assistance. It was Mollie who for
troubled small brothers and sisters did such sums in division as this:
How can I get a ten-cent present for Emmy and a fifteen-cent one for
Jimmy out of eighteen cents? Or, how can seven sticks of candy be
divided among eight people so that each shall have one? It was Mollie