e could make it just as much as
possible like one of the old Christmases before anybody got
married--hang up the stockings and all, you know--it would give them a
mighty jolly surprise. I plan to have us all creep in in the night and
go to bed in our old rooms. And then in the morning--See?"

Mrs. Oliver looked at him. An eager flush lit his still boyish
face--Guy was twenty-eight--and his blue eyes were very bright. His
lithe, muscular figure bent toward her pleadingly; all his arguments
were aimed at her. Oliver sat back in his impassive way and watched
them both. It could not be denied that it was Marian's decisions which
usually ruled in matters of this sort.

"It seems to me a very strange plan," was Mrs. Oliver's comment, when
Guy had laid the whole thing before her in the most tactful manner he
could command. She spoke rather coldly. "It is not usual to think that
families should be broken up like this on Christmas Day, of all days
in the year. Four families, with somebody gone--a mother or a
father--just to please two elderly people who expect nothing of the
sort, and who understand just why we can't all get home at once. Don't
you think you are really asking a good deal?"

Guy kept his temper, though it was hard work. "It doesn't seem to me I
am," he answered quite gently. "It's only for once. I really don't
think father and mother would care much what sort of presents we
brought them, if we only came ourselves. Of course, I know I'm asking
a sacrifice of each family, and it may seem almost an insult not to
invite the children and all, yet--perhaps next year we'll try a
gathering of all the clans. But just for this year--honestly--I do
awfully wish you'd give me my way. If you'd seen those two last
Christmas--"

He broke off, glancing appealingly at Oliver himself. To his surprise,
that gentleman shifted his pipe to the corner of his mouth and put a
few pertinent questions to his younger brother. Had he thought it all
out? What time should they arrive there? How early on the day after
Christmas could they get away? Was he positive they could all crowd
into the house without rousing and alarming the pair?

"Sure thing," Guy declared, quickly. "Marietta--well, you know I've
had the soft side of her old heart ever since I was born, somehow. I
talked it all over with her last year, and I'm solid with her, all
right. She'll work the game. You see, father's quite a bit deaf now--"

"Father deaf?"

"Sure. Did