"What are 'vandals'?" asked Biscuit Westfall of Sube as the company began to breathe again. "Vandals?" "Yes, vandals. She said vandals had desecrated the resting place of her poor dear Clarence." "Did she say that?" "She sure did! What are they, anyway? Are they an'thing like woodchucks?" At this point Mr. Guilford threw back the curtains, and the assemblage trooped into the parlor with exclamations of great joy. The servants slipped in from the kitchen to see the tree and watch the children; and Mrs. Guilford found them clustered about the parlor door as she came softly out of her sister's room a few moments later. Mr. Guilford had already assumed the rôle of an uncostumed Santa Claus, and the sounds of merriment were increasing with each package he clipped from the tree and delivered, and when Mrs. Guilford picked up a pair of shears and began to assist him, the uproar became deafening. Suddenly all was hushed by an anguished moan. As Mrs. Guilford dropped her shears and started for the door her worst suspicions were confirmed; for she caught sight of the towering form of her widowed sister with her hands pressed closely together in an attitude of supplication, and her eyes turned heavenwards. "God help me! It's the very one!" she mumbled over and over. "God help me! It's the very one!" In an instant Mrs. Guilford was at her sister's side; but her efforts to lead her from the room were futile. "No! I must examine it! I have proof!... I can tell!... I can identify it!... When I saw that it had been cut down I scrutinized the stump, and God had been good to me! He had put a little black ring around the heart! It is a _sign!_ ... I must turn over that tree and examine--!" "Not _now_, dear; you're all upset--" "Yes, now--this instant!" "But it's all lighted--the children are all here! We must wait until they have finished and gone into the dining-room, and then you can do anything you want to. But not just now--" And again Mrs. Guilford led her distraught sister down the hall and into the side room. It was the firm conviction of all the children save two, that the tall lady in black was crazy (a conviction of which some of them were never able to rid themselves in after years), and they did not hesitate to whisper about it among themselves. The two who entertained no doubt as to the soundness of her mind were Sube and Nancy. To them her verbal wanderings about the little black ring had been perfectly lucid. But no look of understanding passed between them. In fact, their eyes did not squarely meet again during the entire evening, although neither one was for an instant unaware of the other's exact location.