'Hardly. Not in detail. The time is too short. In general, there is always the want of good cheer and of joy-taking; or of anything to give cause for joy. How would it do, for Christmas, to send in supplies for a good dinner to every house? Then we can take breath and think about New Year's Day.' 'I suppose that could not fail. But then, to make them feel really like Christmas, they ought to have something they do _not_ need.' 'I am open to suggestions,' said Dane smiling. 'As much as they are to the fruits of them. What shall I give them that they do not need? I think you are quite right, by the by; though it is not the precise light in which the subject is commonly viewed by the benefactors of their species.' 'Yes,' said Hazel. 'As if sleighing on the bare ground was good enough for people who generally walk. But you want them to forget the ground for a while, and go softly, and hear the bells.' 'What shall be the bells in this case?' said Rollo with his lips curling. 'Red apples? Or would pound papers of tea ring better? Or both make a chime?' 'With a small tinkle of sugarplums.—And oh,' said Hazel eagerly, 'do give them some little niceties to put on! Or let me. I have great faith in the power of fresh collars and ribbands.' 'Cannot manage anything of that sort up here,' said Dane demurely. 'That will have to wait for New Year's Day. Three hundred and fifty pieces of roasting beef—three hundred and fifty pounds green tea—ditto bushels of red apples—three hundred and fifty pounds sugar candy? Will that meet your notions of a chime of bells for Christmas?' Hazel mused over it. 'Perhaps'—she said slowly. 'It is very difficult to know what will meet one's notions. If I could, I should like to give a little—just a little—bit of a touch to every spot that wants touching. A touch of light to the shadow, a touch of healing to the pain; a flower for every barren place. And so I should not like to give them a Christmas which they could eat quite all up.' Dane's lips had been giving way, and now he laughed out. 'You are as impracticable as if you were a fairy. All that takes _time_, Wych; and as I am not by nature knowing of all things, it takes study. One day you will accomplish it. But in the mean time, I should think they could not quite eat up their whole Christmas in a moment; and as I said, we will see what can be done for New Year. If you approve. At the same time, the subject is open for discussion.' 'But you need not think me more visionary than I am,' said Hazel with a shy glance and laugh. 'I did not mean anything quite silly. Of course—_all_ the barren places,—only God could fill them. But a touch to the sorrow, and a touch to the need, and a touch to the forlornness,—_that_ is what I meant.'