ckle the whole party. Why, that little St. Johns woman goes out with a
nickel an' lays in provisions. I've seen her do it."

"Shame on you, Buddy!"

"I'm not jokin', Meg. At least, I saw her buy a _quartie's_ worth o'
coffee and a _quartie's_ worth o' sugar, an' then ask for _lagniappe_ o'
salt. Ain't that layin' in provisions? She uses a cigar-box for her
pantry, too."

"Well," she protested, seriously, "what of it, Conrad? It doesn't take
much for one very little person. Now, then, the party is voted for; but
there's one more thing to be done before it can be really decided. We
must ask Momsy's permission, of course. And that is goin' to be hard,
because I don't want her to know about it. She has to be out reportin'
festivals for the paper clear up to Christmas mornin', and if she knows
about it, she'll worry over it. So I propose to ask her to let us give
her a Christmas surprise, and not tell her what it is."

"And we know just what she'll say," Conrad interrupted; "she'll say, 'If
you older children all agree upon anything, I'm sure it can't be very
far wrong or foolish'--just as she did time we put up the stove in her
room."

"Yes, I can hear her now," said Ethel. "But still we must _let_ her say
it before we do a single thing, because, you know, _she mightn't_. An'
then where'd the party be?"

"It would be scattered around where it was last Christmas--where all the
parties are that don't be," said Conrad. "They must be the ones we are
always put down for, an' that's how we get left; eh, Sisty?"

"Never mind, Buddy; we won't get left, as you call it, this time,
anyway--unless, of course, Momsy vetoes it."

"Vetoes what, children?"

They had been so noisy that they had not heard their mother's step on
the creaking stairs.

Mrs. Frey carried her pencil and notes, and she looked tired, but she
smiled indulgently as she repeated, "What am I to veto, dearies--or to
approve?"

"It's a sequet! A Trismas sequet!"

"Yes, an' it's got owanges in it--"

"--An' bananas!"

"Hush, you ponies! And, Dolly, not another word!" Meg had resolutely
taken the floor again.

"Momsy, we've been consulting about our Christmas money, and we've voted
to ask you to let us do something with it, and not to tell you a thing
about it, only "--and here she glanced for approval at Ethel and
Conrad--"only we _ought_ to tell you, Momsy, dear, that the surprise
isn't for you this time."

And then Mrs. Frey, sweet mother that she