e had holly in their caps, and wore their Jubilee medals. The table
was loaded with cakes and pasties, and "splits" with cream and jam on
them; and then, just as they were getting tired of waiting, Jabez
arrived. He was in his best suit, and was very shy, very embarrassed,
yet very pleased at having been invited.

"Simmeth like old times, don't it!" he gasped, seating himself on the
extreme edge of the hard chair nearest the door, a chair and a position
no one ever dreamed of occupying at any ordinary time.

To Kitty, who always felt shy if others were, it was as little like old
times as could be, for every one seemed borne down with an unnatural
politeness and quiet, and of them all Jabez suffered most. He had never
been asked to a party before, not a full-dress party, and he found it
embarrassing. But Dan came to the rescue, and with his jokes and his
laughs and his funny stories soon made them all feel more at ease, so
that by the time the first cups of tea were drunk, and the dish of
"splits" emptied, the ice had been melted and all was going well.

"Jabez," said Dan, turning to him with a very solemn face, "it is you we
have to thank for this feast."

Jabez stared, bewildered. "I don't take your meaning, sir," he answered
in a puzzled voice. "Tedn't nothing to do with me. I am the invited
guest, I am, and proud so to be. I only wishes I'd a-got a bit of a
place fitty for to ask 'ee and the young leddies to come to, sir."

"Never mind, Jabez; we can wait. Perhaps you'll have one soon," said
Dan consolingly, and he glanced knowingly round the table, letting his
eye rest for a moment longer on Fanny than any one else. "By another
Christmas we may--dear me, I think this room must be very hot," he
remarked, breaking off abruptly to look at Fanny's rosy cheeks. But
Fanny rather tartly told him to "go on with his tea and never mind
nothing 'bout hot rooms, nor anything else that didn't concern him," and
quite unabashed he turned to Jabez again.

"You see," he explained, "if you hadn't gone to father that day I shied
the wood at you, we shouldn't have had Aunt Pike here, and Fanny
wouldn't have asked us out here to tea because Aunt Pike was out,
because, you see, she wouldn't be here to go out, and we couldn't be
glad about her going, for we shouldn't know anything about it to be glad
about, and so there wouldn't be anything special to ask us here for, and
so--"

"Master Dan," cried Jabez piteously, "if y