was very becoming to the blonde youth; an immaculate shirt, best
studs, sleeve-buttons, blue tie, and handkerchief wet with cologne
sticking out of the breast-pocket, gave an air of elegance in spite of
the afghan spread over the lower portions of his manly form. The
yellow hair was brushed till it shone, and being parted in the
middle, to hide the black patch, made two engaging little “quiris”
on his forehead. The summer tan had faded from his cheeks, but
his eyes were as blue as the wintry sky, and nearly every white
tooth was visible as he smiled on his partner in misfortune, saying
cheerily.
“I’m ever so glad to see you again; guess we are over the worst of
it now, and can have good times. Won’t it be fun to stay here all
the while, and amuse one another?”
“Yes, indeed; but one day is so short! It will be stupider than ever
when I go home to-night,” answered Jill, looking about her with
longing eyes.
“But you are not going home to-night; you are to stay ever so long.
Didn’t Mamma tell you?”
“No. Oh, how splendid! Am I really? Where will I sleep? What
will Mammy do without me?” and Jill almost sat up, she was so
delighted with the new surprise.
“That room in there is all fixed for you. I made Frank tell me so
much. Mamma said I might tell you, but I’d idn’t think she would
be able to hold in if she saw you first. Your mother is coming, too,
and we are all going to have larks together till we are
The splendor of this arrangement took Jill’s breath away, and
before she got it again, in came Frank and Ralph with two
clothes-baskets of treasures to be hung upon the tree. While they
wired on the candles the children asked questions, and found out
all they wanted to know about the new plans and pleasures.
‘Who fixed all this?”
“Mamma thought of it, and Ralph and I’d id it. He’s the man for
this
sort of thing, you know. He proposed cutting out the arches and
sticking on birds and butterflies just where they looked best. I put
those canaries over there, they looked so well against the blue”;
and Frank proudly pointed out some queer orange-colored fowls,
looking as if they were having fits in the air, but very effective,
nevertheless.
“Your mother said you might call this the Bird Room. We caught a
scarlet-tanager for you to begin with, didn’t we, Jack?” and Ralph
threw a hon-hon at Jill, who looked very like a bright little bird in
a warm nest.
“Good for you! Yes, and we are going to keep her in this pretty
cage till we can both fly off together. I say, Jill, where shall we be
in our classes when we do get back?” and Jack’s merry face fell at
the thought.
“At the foot, if we don’t study and keep up. Doctor said I might
study sometimes, if I’d lie still as long as he thought best, and
Molly brought home my books, and Merry says she will come in
every day and tell me where the lessons are. I don’t mean to fall
behind, if my backbone is cracked,” said Jill, with a decided nod
that made several black rings fly out of the net to dance on her
forehead.
“Frank said he d pull me along in my Latin, but I’ve been lazy and
haven’t done a thing. Let’s go at it and start fair for New Year,”
proposed Jack, who did not love study as the bright girl did, but
was ashamed to fall behind her in anything.
“All right. They ve been reviewing, so we can keep up when they
begin, if we work next week, while the rest have a holiday. Oh,
dear, I do miss school dreadfully”; and Jill sighed for the old desk,
every blot and notch of which was dear to her.
“There come our things, and pretty nice they look, too,” said Jack;
and his mother began to dress the tree, hanging up the gay horns,
the gilded nuts, red and yellow apples and oranges, and festooning