“Oh, say, Tim, you mustn’t smoke up there among those branches, honest!” cried Dirk peering at Tim on his lofty perch near the ceiling of the high-vaulted music room. “I’m not smokin’, Master Dirk,” said Tim, stooping to peer back again, his short pipe in his mouth. “You’ve got your pipe in your mouth,” persisted Dirk. “Faith an’ I’ve got me foot in me shoe, but by the same token I’m not walkin’!” said Tim with his chuckle. “It’s just suckin’ it I am, Master Dirk, for the comfort of its society! Do you want the string of bells, sort of like a wreat’, just below the highest angel at the top, Miss Beth, or do you want them glitterin’ things that look like white of eggs an’ mercury, mixed, to make dyin’ by mercury poison easy?” “Oh, Tim, you are so funny!” sighed Beth, for Tim’s remark about his shoe had sent them all off again in shrieks of laughter. “I think the bells, please.” So Tim festooned the strings of party-colored bells just below the top of the tree, singing the while in a high falsetto: “’Tis the bells of Shandon, That sound so grand on The pleasant waters Of the river Lee.” “Now the tree is done!” cried Alys, clapping her hands. “And there never could be a more splendid one! I’m going to see if mama is in and call her to look at it. Then we must get dressed. What time is your party coming, Beth? Six?” “No, five. Don’t you remember Aunt Alida said we would have the children come early and dine at half-past eight?” replied Beth. “You may as well come down, Tim; there won’t be anything more to do with the ladder.” Alys had hurried away and returned with her mother, sleepy and pretty, in a Japanese embroidered robe in which she had been taking a nap. “Nobody around, is there?” cried Mrs. Cortlandt, peeping into the room. “Except Tim, and he’ll never tell that I came down-stairs in a wrapper! Alys wouldn’t let me delay. Children dear--and Tim and everybody that helped”--she glanced at one or two of the maids who had been working on the tree--“I never, never saw a tree that was more grand and glorious! It’s not only Christmasy and shining, but it’s actually beautiful! And truth compels me to say that not all Christmas trees are that! And doesn’t it look big, now that it’s trimmed? What fun it is! Beth, if your little forlornities aren’t overwhelmed with delight they won’t be mortal children! You must go to get dressed; do you know that it is nearly four o’clock? Dressing is going to take you longer and be different from your expectations! No, indeed; you needn’t ask a question for I won’t answer one! I’ve a Christmas mystery of my own and I’m going to defend my rights! Tim, did any one tell you that we expect you to bring your wife and children here to-night?”