"So you shall," declared Jasper, handing it to her.

"Susan, this is your very own child," said Phronsie, turning to the
little colored girl at her side. "Now you won't feel lonely ever, will
you?" and she laid the doll carefully into the outstretched arms.

And at last the green branches had shaken off their wealth of gifts, and
the shining candles began to go out, one by one.

"Grandpapa," cried Polly, coming up to old Mr. King and Phronsie, with a
basket of mottoes and bonbons enough to satisfy the demands of the most
exacting Children's Home, "we ought to get our paper caps on."

"Bless me!" ejaculated old Mr. King, pulling out his watch, "it can't be
time to march. Ah, it's a quarter of four this minute. Here, child," to
Phronsie, "pick out your bonbon so that I can snap it with you."

Phronsie gravely regarded the pretty bonbons in Polly's basket. "I must
pick out yours first, Grandpapa," she said slowly, lifting a silver
paper-and-lace arrangement with a bunch of forget-me-nots in the center.
"I think this is pretty."

"So it is; most beautiful, dear," said the old gentleman, in great
satisfaction. "Now we must crack it, I suppose." So he took hold of one
end, and Phronsie held fast to the other of the bonbon, and a sharp
little report gave the signal for all the bonbons to be opened.
Thereupon, everybody, old and young, hurried to secure one, and great
was the snapping and cracking that now followed.