d her Christmas at school.

The teachers did all they could to make the day a happy one for her,
and her mother sent her a box of presents, but still that was not of
course anything like a home Christmas, and it generally made Agnes feel
very badly when she heard the other girls talking about the good times
they expected to have at Christmas.

"It is n't only the parties and the Christmas trees and the good
times," she said to Ruby one day. "It is being away from mother that
is the hardest part of it all. I always put her picture on the table
when I open the box and look at the presents she has sent me, and try
to pretend that she is giving them to me; but it is n't of much use. I
know all the time that she is hundreds of miles away, and that she
wants to see me just as much as I want to see her."

It was just one week before Christmas that a very beautiful idea came
into Ruby's mind, and she was so pleased that she jumped up and spun
around like a top, and caught Agnes by the waist and made her spin
around, too, until both the little girls tumbled down in a heap on the
floor.

"Why, Ruby, are you crazy?" asked Agnes, laughingly. They had been
sitting before the fire in Miss Ketchum's room, eating chestnuts and
talking about the evening of the entertainment, and both of the girls
had been quiet for a little while, Agnes thinking how much she would
like to have her mother at the school that night, and Ruby thinking of
the pleasure with which she would watch her father while she was
reciting her piece, when all at once she jumped up in this state of
excitement.

[Illustration: READING THE INVITATION TO AGNES (missing from book)]

"What is the matter?" asked Agnes again; but Ruby would n't tell her.
"It is just the most beautiful idea in all the world," she exclaimed;
"but it is something about you, Agnes, and I don't want to tell you
until I am quite sure how it is going to turn out. No, you need n't
ask me. I shall not tell you one single word of it. I can keep a
secret when I want to, and I don't mean to tell you this one. I will
only tell you that if it turns out all right you will like it as much
as I do, I think. Oh, I am so full of it that I must go over and tell
Aunt Emma about it; but you must not ask me to tell you, for indeed I
will not."

And Ruby did not, although you may imagine that Agnes was very curious
to know what it could be over which Ruby was so excited, and which
concerned herself.