Lydia, already asleep, was disposed of in Patricia's bed, and Norma and
Totty settled comfortably on the wide lounge.

"An' now, honey," Sarah said, "I's goin' get you and Miss Nell yo'
supper."

They went downstairs, where Sarah made Patricia and Nell comfortable at
a small table drawn up before the sitting-room fire.

"But what are you going to fill those stockings with, Pat?" Nell asked,
after Sarah had left them alone.

"I can manage all right for the girls; I've loads of toys stowed away up
garret. I've always had heaps of things given me, but if I could get
out-of-doors, and had something alive to play with, I'd let the other
things go every time. I am a bit puzzled about Archibald's and Tommy's."

"I'll run home and get some of the little boys' toys," Nell offered.
When supper was over, while Patricia went, as she called it, "shopping
up garret," Nell made a hurried trip home and back.

"There," she exclaimed, coming in breathless, her head and shoulders
white with snow, "will these do?" She laid a toy engine, a trumpet, a
tin sword, and a small box of lead soldiers on the table.

"Beautifully!" Patricia was placing a small jointed doll in the top of
Norma's stocking. "This is going to be about the realest Christmas I've
ever had."

"It's going to be a mighty sad one for a lot of people."