"Yes, Nelly," cried Tommy, who was thoroughly tired of bread and molasses, "buy the turkeys." "Be quiet, child," said the mother; "you can't go to the lyceum, you know; so don't be selfish." "Well, which would be best," meditated Margaret, who had a way of spending other people's money as well as her own,--"turkeys or tickets?" "The turkeys will feast the whole family, the tickets only us three," said Helen. "And then our bonnets are so shabby," said Margaret. "Buy the turkeys, mother," pleaded Tommy, piteously. "Hush now, Tommy! You've no voice in the debate," declared Margaret. "You're not a member of the Lyceum Society." "But I'm a member of the Turkey Society," urged Tommy, as a finishing argument. The result of the conference was, that, as Frederick's shoes were fast approaching the character of sandals with leathern thongs, they were surreptitiously subtracted from his bedside at night, and their place filled by a pair of stout boots, which would carry him well into the winter. That was yesterday. Meanwhile, to-day, no coals; no kindlings, if there had been; last year's bill due, and dunned for; winter upon their heels; the night growing chilly. Helen wrapped a cloak round little Sarah, and gave her her precious black rosary to play with, and bade Tommy take excellent care of her, and for reward he need recite only half his usual spelling-lesson when she came back. Then she ran up the hill behind the house,--she had reached that pass that she did not care whether the neighbors saw or not,--and fell to gathering sticks. Once the spot had been a wood-lot, now long since dispeopled of its dryads; a young sapling or two had sprung up in place of the old growth, and boughs and twigs were blown there in the storms. Helen came down with her arms full, and trailing a couple of great branches behind her. These, at the back door, she broke up, reserving larger pieces for the parlor blaze, and the small bits for a good kitchen fire; and, that done, decided to catch a couple of her choice chickens, and decapitate them, although she shut her eyes and cut her own thumb in the course of the procedure; these chickens, which were her special property, had been reserved by her for some occasion, and when would there be a better than Frederick and her mother returning from so late and unconscionable a jaunt, and doubtless shivering with the cold? This accomplished, and the savory stew simmering over the stove, Helen washed her hands, that had nearly lost their patrician shape and whiteness, took off her apron, and withdrew to the parlor. There she found that Master Tommy had, some time since, left little Sarah to her own devices, and she had forthwith broken the string, and scattered the beads of the rosary in every direction upon the floor, while he stood breathing upon a distant window-pane, and drawing pictures with his finger-tip on the groundwork thus effected, humming the while one of his favorite tunes to himself.