nce.

It ended in Guy's staying with the tree.

'In case of attacks by boys,' he said.

'Then I shall go with Phyllis,' said Mabel.

Both girls felt their hearts go quite pitter-pattery when at last they
stood on the doorstep of the castle.

'Why don't you knock?' Mabel asked.

'I don't like to,' said Phyllis.

Mabel instantly knocked very loudly with a wooden ninepin-ball that she
happened to have in her pocket.

'Oh, I _wish_ you hadn't!' said Phyllis; 'I wanted to think what to say
first, and now there's no time.'

There certainly was not. The door opened a cautious inch, and a voice
said:

'Who's there?'

'It's us,' said Phyllis, 'please. We don't want to pry into your
beautiful house like Jane's brother Alf when he asked you for the drink
of water, only we've made up a Christmas-tree, and may we stand it in
your yard and light it--the candles, I mean?'

The door opened a little further, and a face looked out--the face, of
course, of Sir Christopher. All the house that showed through the crack
of the door didn't, as Mabel said afterwards, show at all, because it
was pitch-dark.

'I don't quite understand,' said Sir Christopher gently. Phyllis was a
little surprised to find that the voice was what she called a
gentleman's voice.

'We--you were so kind carrying Mab across the road that water-carty day
when it thundered----'

'Oh, it's you, is it?' he said.

'Yes, it's us; and they wouldn't let us help with the school tree, and
so we made one of our own and then we wanted someone to see it. And we
thought of you, because you don't seem to have many friends, and we
thought---- But we'll take it home again if you don't care about it.'

She stopped, just on the right side of tears.

'There's a glass bird with a spun-lovely tail,' said Mabel persuasively,
'and sweets and fishes, and a crocodile that goes waggle-waddle when you
wind him up.'

'My dears,' said Sir Christopher, and cleared his throat. 'My dears,' he
began again, and again he stopped.

'We'll go away if--if you'd rather,' said Phyllis, and sniffed
miserably.

'No, no!' he said; 'no, no--I was only thinking. I never thought--would
you like to bring the tree into the house? It's just the sort of thing
my little girl always liked.'

'Oh yes,' said Phyllis; 'we'll go and fetch it now.'

He closed the door gently. The children flew back to Guy and the tree.

'Oh, Guy! we've to take the tree inside the house! And he's got a little
g