"Oh, Agnes, how kind of you!" they all exclaimed. So the packing went on with great zest. They all clubbed together to pay the carriage of the box by the Parcels Delivery Company, and with great pride Alice wrote the label, and pasted it on. Then Hugh and John carried the package into the hall, and when they came up again they all looked at each other with happy faces. "I thought it would never get done," said Minnie. "Did you?" asked Alice; "there is nothing like perseverance to get things finished." "It is bringing forth fruit with _patience_," said Agnes. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XII. _JOHN'S PROMISE._ Thus the few days before Christmas passed busily on, while Agnes began to feel less anxiety as to her charge during their parents' absence. The nearness of her grandmother and aunt were an untold comfort, but her mother had said to her before she left, "Do not run in to them with every little tittle-tattle, but remember there is a nearer Friend always close. Should any great emergency arise, be thankful that He has so placed you that you can ask advice of them." The whole family, according to the usual custom, were to spend Christmas-day at Mrs. Headley's, next door, to which pleasure the young people looked forward in their different ways. On Christmas-eve, while John, Hugh, and Alice were making and putting up the ivy and holly wreaths, Agnes and Minnie set forth on their errand of carrying the Christmas parcels to the poor people for whom they had prepared them; and when they came in, wet and cold, the others gathered round to know what they had done, and how the parcels had been received. "It is bitterly cold to-night," said Agnes, coming forward to the fire; "you will let us get warm first, before we say a word, the wind blows through you." "You should have let us go," said John. "I knew it was more fit for Hugh and me than for that little scrap of humanity!" "But Minnie was promised," answered Agnes, "and I am _very_ glad I went--very glad." "So am I," answered Minnie earnestly. "Why?" asked Hugh. "I must tell you another day; to-night I feel as if I could only thank God for all our mercies." She sat down by the fire and looked into it abstractedly, while Minnie stood near her very soberly too. "Were they so pleased?" asked Alice. Agnes looked round on the warm room, with its comfortable curtains, clean wall-paper, tidy carpet, all lighted up with the glow of the log of wood which Alice had put on the fire to welcome her. "If you could have seen!" she said, "how thankful you would all feel for _our_ blessings." At six o'clock the next morning the Christmas bells of joy rang out on the still morning air. They woke Alice, and she started up in bed and called to Minnie, who, after sundry groans and sighs, came to herself, and asked, "What is the matter?" "Nothing's the matter, only don't you want to hear the Christmas bells?" "Not very much," answered Minnie sleepily.