ng's neck.

"I'd do anything for _you_, though I hate to be a molly-coddle!"
whispered Diana. "I'm most fearfully sorry if I've really made you feel
ill!"

* * * * *

The decoration of the church was only one of the incidents of Christmas;
there were other things to be done before the festival arrived. The
Flemings liked to preserve old traditions, and finding that their
little American guest was very keen on all the details of a genuine
British Yule-tide, they did their best to satisfy her. Mrs. Fleming used
the cherished half-pound of currants--which in the war-time shortage of
dried fruits was all the grocer could send her--to make the frumenty and
spiced cakes that from time immemorial had been eaten in that northern
district to celebrate the feast of the Nativity. A Yule-log was sawn and
placed upon the dining-room fire, and a huge bough of mistletoe hung up
in the hall.

"We ought to have the Waits to make it just perfect!" said Diana.

"I believe some of the choir used to go round carol singing once," said
Meg, "but it's been given up. The mothers said the girls caught cold,
and they stayed out too late, so it was put a stop to. It's a pity in a
way. Mrs. James was saying only the other day that she quite missed
them, and so did Mrs. Holmes. They both said Christmas wasn't what it
used to be."

The pupils of Diana's eyes were growing large and round and shining, as
they always did when her fertile mind was evolving new ideas. She seized
Meg's arm.

"Oh, I've got such a brain-wave!" she confided. "Look here! Why
shouldn't we be Waits? We've learnt all those Christmas carols at
school. Let's go round and sing them. It would be ripping fun!"

The idea appealed to Meg and Elsie, and, rather to the astonishment of
the girls, the boys also took it up with enthusiasm, and volunteered
their assistance. They enlisted the help of the village schoolmistress,
and some of the most tuneful among her pupils, and all on the spur of
the moment made up their company.

"What always spoils carol singing," said Monty sententiously, "is that
everybody's generally so beastly out of tune. They don't seem able to
keep the pitch without a harmonium."

"Pity we can't carry a harmonium with us!"

"Why shouldn't we?" suggested Neale. "I don't mean I'm going to haul the
thing on my back, so you needn't grin. I've a better notion than that.
We'll see if the Blackwoods will lend us a cart. Put the harmonium