He went down and unlocked his great chest. He spoke to Mrs. Van Buren's
friends on the verandah as he came back. "Sky-High, he is going to fire
a star! Look this side!"

He called to all as he "fired the star." The company saw a dark, swift
object ascending. It was soon lost to sight, and then appeared a
wonder--a new star high in the heavens, that burned a long time with a
steady flame and grew. How beautiful it was! At last it began to
descend. When near the earth it burst into a hundred stars of seven
colors. In all Boston there was no firework as wonderful as Sky-High's.

The day after he began to inquire about the next American holiday.

Mrs. Van Buren told him about Thanksgiving Day. Then she told him of
Christmas, and how the Christmas festival was kept. She related the
story of the birth of the Christ Child, and of the Bethlehem star, of
the singing angels in the sky, of the Magi, and the manger; of the
presents of gold and myrrh and nard. She told him how that now all
people of "good will" made presents to each other like the magi to the
Christ Child.

"So will Sky-High make you presents on the Christ Child day, then, he
has good will. You have treated him as though he were no servant but
a prince."

Charlie and Lucy told him of the Christmas-tree, and the plays under the
misletoe. Their mother ordered misletoe from Florida every year, for
Christmas decorations, from a plantation which their father owned near
Tampa, a plantation of grape-fruit groves. She had a mistle-thrush among