made it look very gay. The boughs of the tree were hung with oranges,
and nuts, and shiny red apples, and pop-corn balls, and strings of
bright berries. There were also a number of little packages tied with
blue and crimson ribbon, and altogether the tree looked so pretty, that
Katy gave a cry of delighted surprise.

"It's a Christmas-tree for you, because you're sick, you know!" said the
children, all trying to hug her at once.

"We made it ourselves," said Dorry, hopping about on one foot; "I pasted
the black stars on the pot."

"And I popped the corn!" cried Philly.

"Do you like it?" asked Elsie, cuddling close to Katy. "That's my
present--that one tied with a green ribbon. I wish it was nicer! Don't
you want to open 'em right away?"

Of course Katy wanted to. All sorts of things came out of the little
bundles. The children had arranged every parcel themselves. No grown
person had been allowed to help in the least.

Elsie's present was a pen-wiper, with a gray flannel kitten on it.
Johnnie's, a doll's tea-tray of scarlet tin.

"Isn't it beau-ti-ful?" she said, admiringly.

Dorry's gift, I regret to say, was a huge red-and-yellow spider, which
whirred wildly when waved at the end of its string.