then that my other name would be Bird, because she was half
asleep, and couldn't think of but one thing at a time. Donald
says if I had been born on the Fourth of July they would have
named me 'Independence,' or if on the twenty-second of February,
'Georgina,' or even 'Cherry,' like Cherry in Martin Chuzzlewit;
but I like my own name and birthday best.
--Yours truly,
CAROL BIRD."

Uncle Jack thought the letter quite right, and did not even smile
at her telling the organist so many family items. The days flew
by, as they always fly in holiday time, and it was Christmas eve
before anybody knew it. The family festival was quiet and very
pleasant, but quite swallowed up in the grander preparations for
next day. Carol and Elfrida, her pretty German nurse, had
ransacked books, and introduced so many plans, and plays, and
customs and merry-makings from Germany, and Holland, and England
anda dozen other places, that you would scarcely have known how
or where you were keeping Christmas. The dog and the cat had
enjoyed their celebration under Carol's direction. Each had a
tiny table with a lighted candle in the center, and a bit of
Bologna sausage placed very near it, and everybody laughed till
the tears stood in their eyes to see Villikins and Dinah struggle
to nibble the sausages, and at the same time evade the candle
flame. Villikins barked, and sniffed, and howled in impatience,
and after many vain attempts succeeded in dragging off the prize,
though he singed his nose in doing it. Dinah, meanwhile, watched
him placidly, her delicate nostrils quivering with expectation,
and, after all excitement had subsided, walked with dignity to
the table, her beautiful gray satin tail sweeping behind her,