r face brightened.
Then she got up briskly. "Well, you've done it and no mistake. I don't
know that I'm sorry, either. Anyhow, we'll leave it as it is. But you
must go straight down now and invite the Smithsons too. And for pity's
sake, don't make any more mistakes."

When he had gone Miss Cornelia opened her heart to Hannah. "I never
could have done it myself--never; the Turner is too strong in me. But
I'm glad it is done. I've been wanting for years to make up with
Linda. And now the chance has come, thanks to that blessed blundering
boy, I mean to make the most of it. Mind, Hannah, you never whisper a
word about its being a mistake. Linda must never know. Poor Linda!
She's had a hard time. Hannah, we must make some more pies, and I must
go straight down to the store and get some more Santa Claus stuff;
I've only got enough to go around the Smithsons."

When Mrs. Grant and her family arrived at the yellow house next
morning Miss Cornelia herself ran out bareheaded to meet them. The two
women shook hands a little stiffly and then a rill of long-repressed
affection trickled out from some secret spring in Miss Cornelia's
heart and she kissed her new-found old friend tenderly. Linda returned
the kiss warmly, and both felt that the old-time friendship was theirs
again.

The little Smithsons all came and they and the little Grants sat down
on the long bright dining room to a dinner that made history in their
small lives, and was eaten over again in happy dreams for months.

How those children did eat! And how beaming Miss Cornelia and
grim-faced, soft-hearted Hannah and even the absent-minded teacher
himself enjoyed watching them!

After dinner Miss Cornelia distributed among the delighted little
souls the presents she had bought for them, and then turned them loose
in the big shining kitchen to have a taffy pull--and they had it to
their hearts' content! And as for the shocking, taffyfied state into
which they got their own rosy faces and that once immaculate
domain--well, as Miss Cornelia and Hannah never said one word about
it, neither will I.

The four women enjoyed the afternoon in their own way, and the
schoolteacher buried himself in algebra to his own great satisfaction.

When her guests went home in the starlit December dusk, Miss Cornelia
walked part of the way with them and had a long confidential talk with
Mrs. Grant. When she returned it was to find Hannah groaning in and
over the kitchen and the schoo