Minnie sprang up to get it, and was soon engaged in searching for the button. "What's it for?" she asked. "Some little girl who has a worse one than this." "Are there any? I thought this was so very shabby." "Plenty, I am sorry to think; but if we get this ready for some one, there will be one less needing a frock." "Why is Agnes helping?" asked Minnie, drawing nearer. "Because she wants to do something to make Christmas happy to others." "Will this make any one happy?" asked Minnie again, her puzzled little face gradually assuming a more contented look. "Should you not think so, if you had a little bare frock just drawn together with a crooked pin, and hardly covering your shivering little shoulders?" "Oh, yes, indeed," said Minnie, now quite convinced, eyeing her warm though cast-off frock with fresh interest. "Could I do anything to help make it ready?" "You can put on the button, and fasten this little bit of hem." "Why do you mend all these things? Could not their mothers do it?" Mrs. Headley did not answer, so Minnie sat down; and while she put on the button she pondered the question. Meanwhile Mrs. Headley with rapid fingers was darning and patching, aided by Agnes, who sat industriously stitching away, silently buried in her own thoughts. At last Minnie exclaimed, "Is this all you are going to do, mother?" "No, my dear, we are making some puddings for three or four families." "Oh, yes, of course! I knew you would; I do love Christmas." "I wonder if Minnie knows or thinks about why we do it?" "Because we love the Lord Jesus, I suppose," answered Minnie, looking up from her work with her tender little face. "Not only that, dear, though that is one reason. Do you remember what we were reading the other day about dealing our bread to the hungry?" "I think I do." "And about visiting 'the fatherless and widows in their affliction'?" added Agnes. "Oh, yes! but, then, _this_ isn't visiting the fatherless and widows; this is making things at home." "Should you like to help me take them when they are done, Minnie?" asked Agnes, looking up. "That I should, if I might." "You may, then," said her mother; "and I think you will understand their value better after you have been." Just then John and Hugh came in from school, and guessing what their mother and sisters were engaged in, they suddenly disappeared; at which Mrs. Headley did not look surprised, nor did she either when they re-entered with her rag-bag, a large cardboard box, and a small parcel. Minnie threw down her work and jumped up to examine this new marvel; but John, who liked to tease her, kept his intentions to himself, and taking a pair of scissors, bent down his head into the box, and was soon absorbed. Hugh, who was less particular, opened the parcel, and drew out a piece of bright-patterned _cretonne_. "Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed his little sister, leaning over the table. "What are you going to do, Hugh?"