ets, and before the first pair was finished Ruby had grown very
tired of knitting; but she was willing to persevere when she thought of
the pleasure it would be to give them to her mother as her very own
Christmas gift to her.

The pair she was making for her father did not take her nearly so long
to make, even although they were larger, for she had learned to knit so
much more quickly; and she was quite proud of the way in which the
needles flashed in her busy little fingers.

Ruby had brought her doll to school with her, and she found her great
company when she went up to her room, although she was such a busy
little maiden that she did not find much time in which to play with
her. Sometimes she would take her over to Miss Ketchum's room and
leave her for a few days, so that when she went there for a little
visit she would find her doll waiting for her, but generally Ruby had
so many other things in which she was interested that she did not find
time to play with her child.

But she was making something for Ruthy's Christmas present in which she
needed her doll's help very much. Aunt Emma was showing Ruby how to
crochet the dearest little baby sacque and hood, for a gift to Ruthy,
and as Ruthy's doll was just exactly the same size as Ruby's, Ruby
could try the sacque upon her own doll every now and then, and be quite
sure that she was getting it the right size.

It was a pretty little white sacque with a rose-colored border, and it
was so very pretty that Ruby made up her mind that after Christmas,
when she should not have so much to do, she would make another just
like it for her own doll. The hood was made to match the sacque, and
Ruby could hardly wait for Christmas to come when she thought of the
happiness her gifts would give. She was impatient to hear Ruthy
exclaim with admiration over the beautiful sacque and hood, and to see
how proud her father and mother would be when she slipped the wristlets
upon their hands, and told them that she had taken every stitch for
them with her own fingers.

But besides these home preparations, there was to be a little
entertainment given at Christmas by the scholars, to which some of the
people of the village were always invited, besides the friends of the
day-scholars, and those of the boarding-scholars who could come. This
entertainment was given the evening before the girls left for their
Christmas holidays, so very often their parents came a day earlier to
take t