up.

"Got your hands full, Daddy?" Patricia laughed.

* * * * *

About the candle-lighted tree Patricia's small guests circled
admiringly. It _had_ been a merry Christmas for the little
travel-wrecked strangers; and now, with the tree, had come the
culminating point of this long happy day.

"Isn't it pretty?" Norma came to lean against Patricia. "I wish Mama
could see it."

"You must remember to tell her all about it," Patricia answered.

"Will I see her to-morrow?" Norma asked longingly.

"Perhaps," Patricia said; and when presently her father had to leave
them, to go down to the hotel, she went with him to the door. "Daddy,
you'll be back soon?"

"As soon as possible, dear."

"And--you think--with good news for them--all?"

"I hope so, dear."

Patricia went back to the library with sober face. "But at least," she
thought, taking Totty on her lap, "they'll have had their Christmas."