stopped crying,
though she still looked very unhappy.

"Ethel," she said, "did you notice those poor children back there?"

"No," said Ethel indifferently.

"Well," said her mother, "I wish you'd go and tell the mother that the
baby is sleeping comfortably, and I'll look after her."

Ethel was accustomed to mind, and though she looked as if she didn't
fancy the errand, she rose and slowly walked through the car to the
back seats where the strangers were seated, delivered her message, and
returned.

"They don't look very comfortable, do they?" said Mrs. Jervis.

"No, indeed!" said Ethel with some interest; "that girl had a little,
old shawl pinned on, and looked half frozen at that."

"I don't suppose they have ever been really comfortable," went on Mrs.
Jervis. "I should like to fix them all up warm and nice for once in
their lives."

Ethel did not reply, but she was thinking.

"I wonder if _they_ were going anywhere for Christmas," she said
slowly.

"They look as if they did not know what Christmas is," answered her
mother. "I don't believe they ever had one."

"It would be fun to fix up a tree for them," said Ethel, who had
enjoyed helping to arrange a Christmas celebration the preceding year
in an orphan asylum; "but of course no one can do anything shut up in
this old car!"

"I'm not so sure about that," said Mrs. Jervis; "a good deal can be
done by willing hands."

"I don't see what!" said Ethel.

"Well," said her mother, "you could at least make the girl a rag-doll
like those you made for the orphans last winter."

"What could I make it of?" asked Ethel somewhat scornfully.

"I have an idea," said Mrs. Jervis. "I think I can get something from
the porter."

Like most persons who set out with determination, Mrs. Jervis overcame
all obstacles. With the consent of the conductor, who assumed the
responsibility for the Company, she bought of the porter a clean
sheet, and a towel with a gay border, and returned to her seat. Out of
her traveling-bag she took sewing implements, and in a short time
Ethel was busily engaged in fashioning a rag-doll. She rolled up a
long strip of the clean cotton for the doll's body, sewing it tightly
in place, and made a similar but much smaller roll for the arms, which
she sewed on to the body in proper position. She marked the features
of the face with a black lead pencil, and then dressed it in a strip
of the towel, leaving the red border as a trimming around the