ent feeling of freedom. Even to pay her
fare and to signal the conductor to stop were Events. Shopping, all by
herself, was even more delightful; so she dallied over every purchase
and every exchange as long as she could--and it was not hard to dally,
with the crowds, the long waits, and the delays for change.

At one o'clock, when in state she ate her luncheon at a pretty white
table in a large department-store dining-room, she had not half
finished her task. She was so glad there was still so much to do! But at
four o'clock, when she did finish, she looked at her watch with faintly
troubled eyes. She had not, indeed, realized that it was quite so late.
She remembered, too, suddenly, for the first time, that Miss Chick had
told her to come back early. She wondered--could she catch the
four-twenty train?

Stores and sidewalks were a mass of surging, thronging humanity now, and
progress was slow and uncertain. When, at ten minutes past four, she had
not succeeded even in reaching her car for the station, she gave up the
four-twenty train. Well, there was one at five-fifteen, she comforted
herself. She could surely get that.

The streets were darkening fast, and lights were beginning to flash here
and there, finding a brilliant response in tinsel stars and crystal
pendants. With the Christmas red and green, and the thronging crowds, it
made a pretty sight; and Genevieve stopped more than once just to look
about her with a deep breath of delight. It was at such a time that she
saw the small ragged boy, and the still smaller, still more ragged girl
wistfully gazing into the fairyland of a toyshop window.

"I choose the fire engine, the big red one," she heard a shrill voice
pipe; and she looked down to see that it was the boy's blue lips that
had uttered the words.

"I d-druther have that d-doll," chattered the mite of a girl; "an' that
teeny little bedstead an' the chair what rocks, an' the baby trunk, an'
the doll with curly hair, an'--"

"Gee! look at the autymobile," cut in the boy, excitedly. "Say, if I had
that--"

"Well, you shall have it, you poor little mite,--or one just like it,"
cried Genevieve impulsively, sweeping the astonished children into the
circle of her arm, and hurrying them into the store.

They did not get the "autymobile" nor yet the engine nor the big doll.
Genevieve selected them, to be sure, with blithe promptness; but when
she took out her purse, she found she had not half money enough