For the next two days, there was a great stir all over the house. Everything that could be washed and scoured was made clean and radiant. All the family were making presents. Oh, such mystery everywhere! "There, Miss Eklund," said Sigrid. "I have finished the cozy. Now I want some more red sealing-wax. I have helped Anders wrap up his presents, and mine are almost ready." "Have you fastened on your rhymes?" asked Miss Eklund. "All except the one for Aunt Frederika's present. I cannot seem to think of a verse for her," was the reply. "You must be sure and have a pretty verse for your dear aunt, who has come way from Göteborg. Perhaps I can help you later." Miss Eklund left her little charge labouring with pencil and paper. Sigrid would never think her Christmas gifts complete without a verse for each one. "Here come father and Erik with the tree," shouted Anders. "Isn't this a beauty?" inquired Erik, as he and his father rested for a minute. "Did you get it in the Christmas market, father? Mother and I saw a whole forest of little Christmas trees there," said Sigrid. "Yes," replied Major Lund. "I wanted to take you children out in the country and cut it down myself. Sometime, when we have Christmas at grandmother's, that's what we will do. Then you all shall help choose the tree before I cut it. "No one must go into the parlour now," he continued, as he carried the tree through the doorway. "Mind you, not one peep till to-morrow night." He shook his finger playfully at the children. "I always like 'Dipping Day,'" said Sigrid, the day before Christmas, to her brother Erik. "It is such fun to eat in the kitchen." She was waiting for her turn to dip the piece of black bread on her plate, into the kettle of sizzling hot fat. All the family, the relatives who had come to spend the holidays and the servants, stood about in the clean kitchen, eating the noonday meal. The walls fairly gleamed with copper and brass pans and kettles. Even the brick oven had a fresh coat of whitewash, in honour of the day. Every other little Swedish girl over the land was eating her dinner in the kitchen on that day, just as Sigrid was doing. In the centre of the room, a long table was loaded with good things to eat. And here was the big kettle in which the Christmas ham and other meats had been cooked. Later in the afternoon, when the children returned from a brisk walk in the park, they gathered in the nursery for afternoon coffee. How Sigrid loved this coffee-drinking on Christmas Eve! All the grown-up people in Sweden drink a great deal of coffee. But Sigrid was seldom allowed to have it except on a few holidays. The children could hear the pleasant chatter of the older people, whose coffee was served in the parlour. But they knew what was waiting for them in the nursery.