‘Oh, please, please, mamma,’ implored Valetta, ‘please let it be the dear old Christmas-tree! You said I should choose because it will be my birthday.’ ‘There is no need to whine, Val; you shall have your tree.’ ‘I’m so glad!’ cried Mysie. ‘The dear old tree is best of all. I could never get tired of it if I lived to be a hundred years old.’ ‘Such are institutions,’ said their mother. ‘I never heard of a Christmas-tree till I was twice your age.’ ‘Oh, mamma! How dreadful! What did you do?’ ‘I suppose it is all very well for you kids,’ said Jasper, loftily, putting his hands in his pockets. ‘Perhaps something may be found interesting eve: to the high and mighty elders,’ observed Lady Merrifield. ‘Oh! What, mamma?’ Mamma, of course, only looked mysterious. ‘And,’ added Val, ‘mayn’t we all go on a secret expedition and buy things for it?’ ‘We’ve all been saving up,’ added Mysie; ‘and everybody knows every single thing in all the shop at Silverton.’ ‘Besides,’ added Gillian, ‘the sconces will none of them hold, and almost all the golden globes got smashed in coming from Dublin, and one of the birds has its head off, and another has lost its spun-glass tail, and another its legs.’ ‘A bird of Paradise,’ said Lady Merrifield, laughing; ‘but wasn’t there a tree at Malta decked with no apparatus at all?’ ‘Yes, but Alley and Phyl can do anything!’ ‘I think we must ask Aunt Jane---’ There was a howl. ‘Oh, please, mamma, don’t let Aunt Jane get all the things! We do so want to choose.’ ‘You impatient monsters! You haven’t heard me out, and you don’t deserve it.’ ‘Oh, mamma, I beg your pardon!’ ‘Oh, mamma, please!’ ‘Oh, mamma, pray!’ cried the most impatient howlers, dancing round her. ‘What I was about to observe, before the interruption by the honourable members, was, that we might perhaps ask Aunt Jane and Aunt Ada to receive at luncheon a party of caterers for this same tree.’ ‘Oh! oh! oh!’ ‘How delicious!’ ‘Hooray!’ ‘That’s what I call jolly fun!’ ‘And, mamma,’ added Gillian, ‘perhaps we might let Miss Hacket join. I know she wants to get up something for a G.F.S. class; but mamma was attending to Primrose, and the brothers burst in. ‘There goes Gill, spoiling it all!’ exclaimed Wilfred. ‘That’s always the way,’ said Jasper. ‘Girls must puzzle everything up with some philanthropic Great Fuss Society dodge.’ ‘I am sure, Jasper,’ said Gillian, ‘I don’t see why it should spoil anything to make other people happy. I thought we were told to make feasts not only for our own friends--’ ‘Gill’s getting just like old Miss Hacket,’ said Wilfred. ‘Or sweet Constance,’ put in Jasper. ‘She’ll be writing poems next.’ ‘Hush! hush! boys,’ said Lady Merrifield. ‘I do not mean to interfere with your pleasure, ‘but I had rather our discussions were not entirely selfish. Suppose, Gillian, we walked down to Casement Cottages, and consulted Miss Hacket.’