The Birds' Christmas Carol.


I.
A LITTLE SNOW BIRD.

It was very early Christmas morning, and in the stillness of the
dawn, with the soft snow falling on the housetops, a little child
was born in the Bird household.

They had intended to name the baby Lucy, if it were a girl; but
they hadn't expected her on Christmas morning, and a real
Christmas baby was not to be lightly named--the whole family
agreed in that.

They were consulting about it in the nursery. Mr. Bird said that
he had assisted in naming the three boys, and that he should
leave this matter entirely to Mrs. Bird; Donald wanted the child
called "Maud," after a pretty little curly-haired girl who sat
next him in school; Paul chose "Luella," for Luella was the nurse
who had been with him during his whole babyhood, up to the time
of his first trousers, and the name suggested all sorts of
comfortable things. Uncle Jack said that the first girl should
always be named for her mother, no matter how hideous the name
happened to be.