Mrs. Perkins, whose father had been a storekeeper, leaving her enormous riches in the shape of new goods, brought from her attic her contribution of rolls of sheet wadding. Now the outside, the wadding, and the lining were held carefully in place by hands that were moist with excitement and responsibility, and the tacking of the three smoothly together with bright-colored worsteds proved to be the most difficult task that the girls had yet confronted. There was a week's work in all this, and two or three afternoons when the binding of the four long sides was done; but, by dint of perseverance, the last stitch was put into the quilt on the day before Christmas, when Aunt Jane had prophesied New Year's as the nearest possible date of completion. The girls gazed at their work with uncontrollable admiration and reverence. "I'm sick to death of it!" exclaimed Rebecca. "I love it to distraction, and I never want to see another as long as I live! How can anybody make 'em for fun? I could hug it, I'm so fond of it, and slap it, I'm so tired of it!" And the girls echoed her sentiments, though in less picturesque and vigorous language. "If we give it to her to-day, she'll have something to be thankful for on Christmas Day," the girls decided. "We'll have to lug it up together, and let Rebecca go in with it, while we stay out in the road and wait." "Don't say 'lug,' and let's go after dark," Rebecca suggested. "I believe I can open the door and put it down softly in, the entry with our letter; then I won't get thanked all by myself, which wouldn't be fair; and we can take turns going up to-morrow to hear what she says." "Mother's going to send her a big plate of dinner," said Alice. "Oh, joy!" And Rebecca took out the pink tape from her apron pocket and tied it on a pigtail. "What is it?" the girls asked breathlessly in chorus. "Why, once there was a very important paper that had to be sent to a certain king by one of his1 generals, and he stationed messengers ten miles apart all along the road from his camp to the king's palace. One man galloped for ten miles, got off his hot, steaming charger and handed the message to another man, who was all ready and waiting on a fresh horse. He galloped on to the next man, and so on. We'll do the same with Miss Roxy's dinner, each of us making believe it's horseback, and running like mad to give the basket to the next one. Then it'll get there piping hot!" Christmas Eve fell cold and bleak, with a north wind and an uncertain moon. The girls put on mittens and hoods and, starting at six o'clock, whem it was quite dark, they carried the quilt as they walked, Indian file, along the frozen road. They met no one, just as they had planned, for as the affair had begun in secrecy, so it was hoped to end it. That was half the fun.