gloat over them.
Silence fell upon the rooms, broken only by the sound of rustling
ribbons caressed by admiring hands, the opening and shutting of boxes,
the fluttering of story-book leaves, the protesting squeak of Queen
Helen's bisque arms and legs, and the rattle of mysterious puzzles.

Cherry had retired to her own domain to regale herself with certain
tempting volumes, and Peace and Allee were alone in the flag room when
the older girl suddenly dropped the book in which she had been lost for
a full half hour, and said eagerly, "Allee, this is the most interesting
story I ever read. It tells how the little Swede children give the birds
a Christmas. Think of that! The birds! We tried to make it happy for
everyone we knew--Jud and Gussie and Marie and the flirty chimney-sweep
who goes by here every morning, and the washwoman who lives in the
alley, and the milk-boy who comes so far through the cold to bring us
our milk, and Caspar Dodds' family--and--and--all of them; and we even
remembered the canary and the dogs, but we never thought of the birds
outdoors."

"No, we didn't," Allee agreed, pausing in her occupation of undressing
the gorgeous Queen Helen to stare fixedly at her sister as if trying to
fathom her thoughts. "We might ask Gussie for some crumbs. It ain't too
late yet."

"Crumbs wouldn't do at all. The book says they tie a sheaf of wheat to a
tall pole in the yard so the birds will see it and come down and eat.
See, there is the picture."

"Um-hm. But we haven't any tall pole in our yard, 'cept the flag-pole
and that's on the roof."

"No, we haven't any pole like the book shows, but we could hitch the
wheat on our balcony-rail knobs and when the birds came down to get it,
we could watch them from this window. See?"

"Where'll you get the wheat?"

"From the barn. Jud's got a lot of different kinds of grain out there."

"But we can't go downstairs until party time. Even lunch is to be
brought up here, grandma said."

"That's so. But I don't think they'd care if we just slipped down the
stairs and straight out of the front door. It wouldn't take us but a
minute to get the wheat and come right back again."

"Grandma said if we went downstairs before she gave us leave, we
couldn't go to the party at all."

"Then how can we feed those birds?"

"I guess we can't feed them this year--'nless we do it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow won't be Christmas. We've got to do it today. Just think how
nice it will be