"I'll tell you now," said Nan, smiling at the pair. "She's going to put it in the bank, because she's afraid she'll be poor some day." "I don't wonder you think that, stepmothery," said Patty, her eyes twinkling at Nan, "for I did tell you so. But since then I've changed my mind, and though I want my present from father in cash, I'm going to spend it before Christmas, and not put it in the bank at all." "Well, you are a weathercock, Patty. But before morning you will have changed your mind again!" "No, indeedy! It's made up to stay this time. So give me the money like a duck of a daddy, won't you?" Patty was very wheedlesome, as she caressed her father's cheek, and smiled into his eyes. "Well, as you don't often make a serious request, and as you seem to be in dead earnest this time, I rather think I shall have to say yes." "Oh, you dear, good, lovely father!" cried Patty, embracing him. "Will you give it to me now, and how much will it be?" "Patty," said Nan, laughing, "you're positively sordid! I never saw you so greedy for money before." Patty laughed outright. Now that she had gained her point she felt in gay spirits. "Friends," she said, "you see before you a pauper,--a penniless pauper! Therefore, and because of which, and by reason of the fact that I am in immediate need of money, I stoop to this means of obtaining it, and, as aforesaid, I'd like it now!" She held out her rosy palm to her father, and stood waiting expectantly. "Only one hand!" exclaimed Mr. Fairfield, in surprise. "I thought such a grasping young woman would expect both hands filled." "All right," said Patty, and she promptly extended her other palm, too. Putting both his hands in his pockets, Mr. Fairfield drew them out again, and then laid a ten-dollar goldpiece on each of Patty's outstretched palms. "Oh, you dear daddy!" she cried, as she clasped the gold in her fingers; "you lovely parent! This is the nicest Christmas gift I ever had, and now I'll tell you all about it." So she told them, quite seriously, how she had really forgotten to give the poor and the suffering any share of her own Christmas cheer, and how this was the only way she could think of to remedy her neglect. "And it's so lovely," she concluded; "for there are forty little boy-children. And with this money I can get them each a fifty-cent present." "So you can," said Nan. "I'll go with you to-morrow to select them. And if we can get some cheaper than fifty cents, and I think we can, you'll have a little left for extras." "That's so," agreed Patty. "They often have lovely toys for about thirty-nine cents, and I could get some marbles or something to fill up." "To fill up what?" asked her father. "Oh, to fill up the tree. Or I'll get some ornaments, or some tinsel to decorate it. Oh, father, you are so good to me! This is a lovely Christmas present." CHAPTER III THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS