Produced by Louise Hope, Mark C. Orton and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "It's a good thing to exercise the imagination, now and then. That's the way changes come"] [Decoration] On Christmas Day In The Evening by Grace S. Richmond Illustrated by Charles M. Relyea A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York All Rights Reserved, Including that of Translation into Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian Copyright 1910 Doubleday Page & Company Copyright, 1910, By The Ridgway Company Illustrations "It's a good thing to exercise the imagination, now and then. That's the way changes come" _Frontispiece_ Facing Page "Cut it out--cut out the steam calliope!" 22 "Billy!" His sister Margaret's voice was anxious. "Are you sure you'd better?" 32 There was flesh and blood in the message he gave them, and it was the message they needed 52 ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE EVENING [Decoration] [Decoration] On Christmas Day In The Evening [Music: Holy night! peaceful night! Darkness flies, all is light!] All the Fernald family go back to the old home for Christmas, now, every year. Last Christmas was the third on which Oliver and Edson, Ralph and Guy, Carolyn and Nan, were all at the familiar fireside, as they used to be in the days before they were married. The wives and husbands and children go too--when other family claims can be compromised with--and no one of them, down to Carolyn's youngest baby, who was not a year old last Christmas, has sustained a particle of harm from the snowy journey to North Estabrook, tucked away though it is among the hills, where the drifts are deep. Taking them all together they are quite a company. And as Father and Mother Fernald are getting rather well along in years, and such a house-party means a good deal of preparation, last year their younger daughter Nan, and her husband, Sam Burnett: and their youngest son, Guy, and his wife of a year, Margaret: went up to North Estabrook two days ahead of the rest, to help with the finishing labours. Sam Burnett and Guy Fernald, being busy young men all the year round, thought it great sport to get up into the country in the winter, and planned, for a fortnight beforehand, to be able to manage this brief vacation. As for Nan and Margaret--they are always the best of friends. As for Father and Mother Fernald----