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time. They are pale dark-eyed children, ranging in age from six to sixteen, who looked depressed as if they wanted something more in the shape both of nourishment and affection than their school afforded. Lettice, with the love of gossip characteristic of her class, picked up the above particulars from their neighbour's servant, and could not resist retailing them to her mistresses whenever she could obtain their ear. From frequent meetings on the stairs the tenants of the two floors came to know each other by sight, and got the length of exchanging bows, but so little congenial to the tastes of Emily and Ethel was what they heard of Mrs. Jones, that any occasion of forwarding the acquaintance would certainly have been avoided rather than courted by them.

Christmas Day approached, and the Misses Smith conceived the idea of giving a dinner party. The way it came about was this.

"Ethel," said Emily, as they lingered one frosty evening over the fire before going to bed, "I have been thinking what a number of girls and women there are to whom Christmas must be anything but a merry season, women who have to fight their own way in the world and find it a very hard battle. I know two ladies who are trying to make a name as artists, and eventually I think they will succeed, but in the meantime their privations are frightful. Then there are others trying to live by literature. They will spend Christmas Day alone in their lodgings, and will not be able to afford so much as a good dinner or big fire. It would be nice to ask them to dine with us."

"A good idea!" exclaimed Tommy; "there are two or three of the same sort attending my classes whom I should like to ask."

"My only hesitation in proposing it for Christmas Day," pursued Emily, "is that you perhaps might grudge giving up the evening to them. We are sure of invitations, in fact we have more than one already, so if you would regret not going out we can invite them for some other day. It need not be Christmas Day precisely."

"But I shan't regret not going out myself," answered Tommy, decisively; "it would not be at all the same thing to them to be asked for some other night. Christmas Day is Christmas Day; those women are some of them as young as we are, but life is not so bright to them.

They have no lover like you, nor friends by the dozen as I have, and as for our own amusement—why, it is more blessed to give than to receive."

This conclusion to the sentence from the careless lips of Tommy may sound out of character, but it was not really the least inconsistent, and for their projected party, methinks it was fashioned on the principle commended by Christ when He said, "When ye make a feast," &c, They were offering hospitality to those who could not recompense them.

"My idea is," resumed Emily, "that our dinner should be quite unpretending. Let us have only a handsome turkey, a ham, and a plum pudding. Lettice can manage that well, and we shall not risk any failure."

"And if they can't dine off turkey and plum-pudding, I am sorry for them," remarked Tommy; "but I know they can."

The invitations were sent out, and one and all were most cordially accepted. On Christmas-eve they went together to buy their turkey. The shop was overflowing both with poultry and customers; the attendants were so busy they seemed hardly to know which way to

turn.

"You have taken the address distinctly? you will be sure and send it home this evening ?" said Emily.

"If not this evening you will have it first thing to-morrow, ma'am."

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Why, I thought your shop would be closed to-morrow," observed Ethel, "Christmas Day, and Sunday."

"We shall be closed, ma'am, but we have so many orders, we may not get through to-night, and anything that has to stand over will be sent out early to-morrow, without fail."

At their own door a brougham had drawn up, and Mrs. Jones standing on the pavement, was speaking to the lady who occupied it.

"I am very much obliged to you, but I must dine at home on Christmas Day. The truth is, I have ordered a turkey, and it will be wasted if I go out."

"You will have your nieces to dine with you, I

suppose ? "

"No-no, I have not asked them. Five hungry girls would eat up the whole turkey; now I reckon that for me alone it will not be at all an expensive dish. I shall have it roast the first day, cold the second, the legs devilled the third, and the remains hashed on the fourth."

"Greedy old thing !" exclaimed Tommy Smith, as they passed into the house. "To think of anyone sitting down alone to a turkey. I wish it would choke her !"

"And you would like to be called in to prescribe?"-suggested Emily. "Yes! exactly," assented Tommy. "Wouldn't I like to be her medical attendant ! I would send her the blackest of draughts and the biggest of pills, and taboo turkey and everything good for a twelvemonth!"

"Those poor children," added Emily, "think of them spending Christmas Day at school!"

The turkey was not delivered the first thing in the morning, nor had it made its appearance when the church bells were ringing at a quarter to eleven. Emily and Ethel would like to have known that it was safe in the house, and had they been more experienced housekeepers they would probably not have run things so close, but they were not women to worry themselves with domestic anxieties; they did not doubt it would come before it was wanted, so they went to morning service like good Christians, and they enjoyed the sight of the church decorated with evergreens, and joined in the Christmas chorus, "Peace on earth: good will to men."

When they got home and found that there was still no turkey they did begin to feel uncomfortable.

Lettice told them that there was no use her going to the shop to enquire, it was sure to be shut; they sent her, nevertheless, and she went readily, but returned saying not a shop was open; it being Sunday as well as Christmas Day the cessation of business was universal.

The case grew more serious every moment, and the ladies more uncomfortable. They pictured the dinner hour arrived, the guests assembled, and nothing to set before them but a smoked ham, and plum pudding. Emily posted herself at one of the windows, in the hope of

seeing a poulterer's cart or messenger approach the house, while Tommy paced restlessly to and fro the passage that she might catch the first sound of a step on the stairs.

At about three o'clock Lettice came to the sitting-room; "I don't know what we are to do, madam; that turkey ought to be down at the fire. If it does not come soon it will be too late."

"You must go out and procure something else," pulling out her purse, "surely there is some shop open. If you cannot get another turkey, take a roast of beef, a leg of mutton, anything."

Lettice set off without delay, but she was not very sanguine, and her mistresses resumed their watch.

Suddenly the street door, which during the day opened by being pushed, was heard to swing back, and there was a footstep on the stair. Ethel, in her impatience ran halfway down, and in a moment re-entered the drawing-room holding a turkey aloft in triumph.

"Oh! the turkey!" exclaimed Emily, turning from the window, "so it is come?"

"All right. Now come to the kitchen, as Lettice is out we must get it down to the fire ourselves."

"Did the man say why he was so late?" enquired Emily.

"Not a word. He was only a boy, and I asked no questions. Come, there is no time to lose."

Lettice had everything prepared in the kitchen; there was a glowing red fire in a state of perfection for roasting, and on the clean dresser the stuffing ready mixed was heaped on a board."

"Where's the cooking-book ?" said Ethel; "you shall put in the stuffing, and I will read you the directions; then I will put it on the spit."

The operation was nearly completed, and Ethel was holding the spit in readiness, when Lettice returned, panting and out of breath but empty-handed. Her search for a dealer in either butter, meat, or poultry whose shop was open had been entirely unsuccessful. At the sight of the turkey she was nearly as relieved as her mistresses had been, and admired their activity in getting it stuffed.

"To think that you ladies, who are always writing or reading and

so clever, should be able to turn your hand to such a thing as this!" "Ah! Lettice, that is just the reason," replied Tommy. "Do you suppose that brains help people only to read and write? We know a thing or two, I can tell you."

"Well, well," said Lettice, "Mrs. Jones, her servant tells me, is in a rare way; her turkey is not given in yet."

"Serve her right," said Tommy, "for being so greedy."

Lettice was now left in possession of the field, and enjoined to make the best use of her time. As the young ladies retreated, Tommy's behaviour, whether from the removal of the previous weight of anxiety from her mind, bordered on the extravagant. She seized Emily round "You are a dear con

the waist, and whirled her into the passage. scientious old thing," said she.

"Conscientious," repeated Emily, "I hope we both are conscientious; but what may that remark bear upon ?"

"I am rather afraid of you, Emily," observed Tommy, evasively, (Tommy afraid of anybody, indeed!) "I don't think now, if I had any secret, for instance, a guilty secret, I would venture to unbosom myself to you."

"I hope you have no guilty secrets," was Emily's genial reply.

"Hi! diddle diddle! the cat and the fiddle!" was Ethel's very apt reply.

"Ethel !" exclaimed Emily, "I think you are going mad—from joy, I suppose, at our dinner being all right."

A door at that moment in the upper storey opened, and Mrs. Jones called from the landing, "Is that a person with my turkey?"

"No, ma'am," responded Lettice, and the door was shut with a disappointed clang. And several times within the next two hours the figure of Mrs. Jones leaned over the banisters to repeat the enquiry; the words at last, as the case grew evidently hopeless, sounded like a wail through the darkness. As often as this happened it attracted the special attention of Miss Smith—

"Poor lady," said she, "my heart bleeds for her. I wonder if she

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