in expectation of the guests, had been cleaned
as carefully as possible and Mrs. Woods looked
as if there was some hope in living now. She
was being helped over the hard place.

“No, thanks, we can't stay,” continued Betty,
at the invitation to come in. “We have to get
back.” With this she handed Mrs. Woods the
small basket she carried and Kathryn put into
the hands of the older girl a package she was
holding. Chet and Chauncey lugged in the
bushel basket. “Don't let the children see what's
in the _little_ basket till Christmas morning, Mrs.
Woods,” said Betty with an air of mystery;
and one of the children jumped up and down
at that happy suggestion.

Tears came into Mrs. Woods' eyes. “May
God bless you all,” said she. “And there is a
chance that _he_ may get work the first of the
year, steady work, I mean. He's out in one of
the suburbs now, putting coal in for a man.”

“Oh, tell me, Mrs. Woods, about the Sevillas,”
suddenly said Kathryn, more or less embar-
rassed by Mrs. Woods' fervent thanks, to which
Betty was responding with the wish that every-
thing would “come right” for them.

“Yes, -- sure enough. Why the old lady was
well pleased to be remembered with a Thanks-
giving gift and Rosie did not mind as much as

[[133]]

(previous-page) (table-of-contents) (next-page)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 v?