aeronautics, Mr. Lee declared; but Dick good-~
humoredly took the teasing.

Then the little tree was brought in and it was
decided to trim it then and there, instead or
waiting till after dinner. Amy Lou was much
excited when all the trimmings were brought
out. But she sighed as she recognized some
favorite decorations saved from the old days
in the village. “And I used to think that Santa
Claus brought them!” she said with some regret.

“Don't you believe in Santa Claus now?”
asked Doris.

“No. Do you?”

“Mother says Santa Claus is the 'Spirit of
Christmas,'” returned Doris.

“Yes. But it would have been so nice if he
could have been just himself and really, you
know, come down the chimneys.”

“Oh, well, we'll keep on pretending, and hang-
up our stockings just the same.”

“Yes,” brightly Amy Lou answered. “It's
just as true as it ever was, I suppose.”

Mrs. Lee and Betty, who were listening,
turned aside to hide their smiles at Amy Lou's
philosophy. “Poor little soul!” whispered
Betty. “But she will be happy when she sees
all we have for her!”

They need not have pitied Amy Lou at all,

[[150]]

(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?