ed Miss Betty, "if
only they knew how; but of course if you don't care to--"

"What are they?"

"Christmas elves, and the cunningest things you ever saw." She opened a
box and showed them a dear, droll little figure, brown and fat. It made
the children laugh to look at him.

"We will make one for each person at the Christmas dinner, and stand
them at the plates with cards in the hands, to show where everybody is
to sit. Now, Jack, do you want to try?"

Jack instantly was hard at work.

CHRISTMAS ELVES

Take a square of thin wood and drive two long, slender nails
through it; these are the legs of the elf. Turn it upside down and
push two large raisins on each nail, and then a fig on both--these
are the legs and the body. Take a wire about four inches long, and
put two raisins on each end, twisting up the ends to hold them.
Lay this across the fig body and press it down to hold it firm.
Put a marshmallow on a wooden toothpick, and put that on top for a
head, and half of a fig for a cap. Draw eyes, nose, and mouth on
the face with pen and ink, and, if you choose, brush a little
melted chocolate on the sides of his head, for hair. Put a sprig
of Christmas green in his cap.

[Illustration: The Christmas elves]

Just as the elves were put in a row on the table. Miss Betty exclaimed,
"Children, it's stopped snowing! It will be all clear to-morrow, and
everybody will get here in time, after all!"

They rushed to the window to look, for sure enough, the storm was over,
and everybody was going to have _A Merry Christmas_!

CHAPTER II

SUPPER AT THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS

When the Junior Blairs came down to breakfast on New Year's morning,
there were three good-sized red-covered books lying on the table, one by
each plate, and on the cover of each, in gold letters, was the name of
Mildred, or Jack, or Brownie. But when they opened them there was
nothing inside--only just white paper leaves.

"What are they for?" asked Mildred, puzzled. "For school, for examples
and compositions?"

"Not a bit of it!" laughed her mother. "They are cook-books, or they
will be when you have filled them full of receipts. When you made such
delicious things for Christmas, I ordered these for you, so you could
write down each rule that you used then, and add others as you learned
other things. You see, there are little letters all down the edges of
the book, and when you want