Now Merrythought was so tired of curly hair and lace dresses with satin bows and pale blue kid shoes to match that he didn’t give Lady Arabella any of these. He thought to himself, ‘Perhaps Princess Maud is tired of fancy dresses, too; perhaps she would like a plain comfortable doll whose clothes she could not spoil no matter how hard she played with her.’ So he gave Lady Arabella pretty blue eyes and pink cheeks, to be sure, and two long yellow braids tied with flyaway pink bows. But he dressed her in neat brown shoes and stockings and in a plain, though fine, white frock. And over the frock he put a pink-and-white pinafore that covered her from top to toe, a good, sensible pinafore that was not in the least like a lace dress with satin bows and pale blue kid shoes to match. The pinafore had pockets and in one pocket was a tiny handkerchief and in the other a purse just large enough to hold a penny. Oh! Merrythought knew how to do things When it came to making dolls. Now you might think that Lady Arabella was too plain and sensible for a Christmas doll. But there was something about her that every one liked. The toys liked her, the Brownies liked her--you remember that Merrythought liked her best of all the toys he had made that year--and Santa Claus felt sure that Princess Maud and her grandmother would be delighted with her, too. Now when Mischief left Merrythought he went looking for Lady Arabella, and he found her seated on the window-sill behind the curtain watching the reindeer romping in the snow. Mischief slipped behind the curtain too, and first of all he asked Lady Arabella if she had heard him talking to Merrythought just now. Yes, Lady Arabella had heard every single word. Then Mischief asked a very strange question, indeed. ‘Do you know what a tantrum is, Lady Arabella?’ asked he. ‘No, I never heard of a tantrum,’ said Lady Arabella. ‘Well, a tantrum is this,’ explained Mischief, his face very sober but his eyes twinkling with fun. ‘You want your own way, and you dance up and down and scream and cry and sometimes you lie on the floor and kick. Now, Lady Arabella, do you think you could have a tantrum?’ asked he. ‘Yes,’ answered Lady Arabella promptly, ‘I am sure that I could.’ ‘Then let me whisper in your ear,’ said Mischief. And when he had finished whispering, he and Lady Arabella laughed and nodded at one another and laughed again. They had a secret, and presently you shall know what it was. * * * * * It was late afternoon on Christmas Eve--the busiest moment in the whole year at Santa Claus’s Snow Palace on the very tip-top of the North Pole. [Illustration] The great sleigh stood in front of the door, the eight tiny reindeer harnessed and in place before it. In and out of the Palace scurried the Brownies, packing the sleigh with the toys they had been at work upon for a long, long year.