bediently, "whence, whither, why----"

"Never mind," said Roger, calmly. "I'll say the lines you forget.
'Wherefore art thou Romeo?' Now for the second act. I wish to goodness
I could be a glove upon that paw of yours."

"Why?" queried Mona.

"So you wouldn't give me the mitten. Pardon, good friends, merely an
interpolation. Back to work now. It was the nightingale and not a poll
parrot that hit you in the ear."

"Oh, Romeo, Romeo," Mona broke in. "I'd like to cut you up into little
bits of stars, and decorate the sky with you."

"Call me but Star, and I'll be baptised all over again. Friends, as
we're a little shy on lines, the rest of this will be pantomime."

Roger then sneaked cautiously upstairs, motioned to Mona to make no
sound, picked up various impedimenta, including books, vases, a
statuette, and such things as he could find on the hall tables, added
a good-sized rug, and then, also picking Mona up in his arms, he
stealthily made his way downstairs again, and the elopement was
successful.

"Roger, you strong giant!" cried Patty. "How _could_ you carry all
those things downstairs?"

"My warriors are all strong men!" said the Lord of Misrule. "They can
carry off anything, and carry on like everything."

And then, as Christmas Eve was well past, and Christmas Day had begun,
the merry guests went away, and the house party congratulated itself
all round, wished everybody Merry Christmas, and went away to rest.

CHAPTER XII

COASTING

Christmas morning was as white as the most picturesque imagination
could desire. A heavy snow had fallen in the night and lay, sparkling,
all over the fields and hills, so that now, in the sunshine, the whole
earth seemed powdered with diamonds.

Patty came dancing downstairs, in a dainty little white morning frock.

"Merry Christmas, everybody!" she cried, as she found the group
gathered round the fireplace in the hall. "Did you ever see such a
beautiful day? Not for skating," and she smiled at Hal, "but for
snow-balling or coasting or any old kind of fun with snow."

"All right," cried Roger. "Who's for a snow frolic? We can build a
fort----"

"And make a snow-man," put in Daisy, "with a pipe in his mouth and an
old hat on his head. Why do snow-men always have to have those two
things?"

"They don't," said Jim Kenerley. "That's an exploded theory. Let's
make one this morning of a modern type, and let him have anything he
wants except a pipe and a batter