Every day in the year has the same number of hours, but some days skim past like an automobile and some creep like a snail at a gallop. The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas are of the motor-car variety. There is so much to do, and to think of, that people can scarcely believe the clock. Lucy and Dora were as busy with their plans as were the grown people.

Dora made several pretty calendars for gifts. She hemmed a duster for Miss Chandler and another for Mother. She thought Miss Chandler would find use for a duster in her three rooms, especially a cream-white one, feather-stitched all around in blue.

Mrs. Merrill suggested this gift and she thought Dora took a good while to make it. She did not know that Dora made a second one, precisely like the first. She made it under Mother’s very nose, and Mother never saw it. Lucy and Dora both thought this was very funny, and could not help laughing, but it never occurred to Mrs. Merrill that the duster Dora was working on was not always the same one.

On Christmas eve there was a church service. Miss Page asked her class to come early. This was an important occasion because the mite-boxes for the hungry children in other countries were to be collected.

Mr. and Mrs. Merrill were going with the children, but they would sit in the back of the church. Lucy and Dora were to sit with their class. The class was to sit in pew twenty-eight.

There had been many things to do that afternoon, and nobody looked out until they started for church. When the door shut behind the Merrill family, everybody was surprised.

Christmas came on a moonlight night that year, but in addition to the moon, at almost every house the porch light was shining, and the ordinary electric bulbs had been unscrewed and red ones substituted. All up and down the streets shone the pretty red lights.

“Oh, Mother!” said Lucy. “I wish our house had one. But it is only gas, and none at all on the porch.”

Mrs. Merrill thought a minute. The red lights did look pretty. In the front windows of the brown cottage hung Christmas wreaths but there was no light behind them.

“Wait for me a bit,” she said, and she went back into the cottage.

Lucy and Dora wondered what she was going to do. A group of young people went by. They were singing softly and Father began to sing with them. When Father was a young man, he used to belong to the choir.

What was Mother doing? She had lighted the lamp on the parlor table, but what was keeping her now?

Dora looked up at the sky. The moon was so bright that only the largest stars could show to-night. There was Orion with his flaming belt and sword. Dora knew several star-groups now. She and Uncle Dan and Olive had gone out one night with a flash-light and the star-book from the Public Library and traced them. Still, Mrs. Merrill did not come.

“Father,” asked Dora, “do you think angels come down to earth now?”

“If they ever come, it is at Christmas,” said Father, and he went on humming the words which were now faint in the distance.

Suddenly the windows of the Merrill parlor turned a warm crimson. From them streamed a soft red light.

“Oh, look, Father! Look, Dora!” exclaimed Lucy. “Now, we have a red light, too!”

“I thought Mother would fix it somehow,” said Mr. Merrill.

Mrs. Merrill came out while the children were still exclaiming. “How did you do it?” Dora asked.

“With Dan’s red silk scarf,” said Mrs. Merrill, pulling on her gloves again, and looking back at the pretty light.

“Safe against fire, Molly?” asked Mr. Merrill. “We wouldn’t like to go to church and come home to find the house burned.”

“It can’t take fire,” said Mrs. Merrill.

The minute they entered the vestibule, spicy smells of spruce and evergreen greeted them. The church was warm and all the rafters were draped with festoons of green. The only light was in the chancel and what came from two big Christmas trees on either side of the chancel arch. They were strung with wee red bulbs, and at the top of each tree shone a star. Between the trees stood the manger for the gifts.

When the choir came, in place of their usual white cottas, they wore bright red ones. How Christmas-y the church did seem!

There were carols and Christmas hymns and then one by one, the classes took up their mite-boxes and placed them in the manger. People had brought other gifts for the poor. All the children looked over their toys and selected something to go to the Children’s Hospital.

Lucy chose a doll of which she was not very fond. Dora brought a set of blocks, which she liked very much. She did not often play with them now, but because she had enjoyed them so much herself, she thought children who were not very sick—just beginning to get better—might care for them.

The Christmas eve service did not last long, but it left everybody with a pleasant and peaceful feeling.

All the red lights were yet burning and almost every house had wreaths in the front windows. The children were pleased as they came near the brown cottage to hear people speak of how pretty the red lamp looked.

“You’ll let it burn a long time, won’t you, Mother?” begged Dora.

“It may burn until Father and I go to bed,” said Mrs. Merrill. “You children had better be off early, so as to give Santa Claus a chance.”

“There is to be a surprise for you, to-morrow,” said Dora, and she and Lucy both giggled.

“There will be surprises for everybody,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but I think the biggest one will be for Dora.”

When Mother said this Dora almost flew up in the air. On any time but Christmas eve, she could not have borne the suspense. But she would know early in the morning.

Mr. Merrill unlocked the door and they all went into the cosy house. And there, on a table near the parlor door, stood a fairy Christmas tree!

It was only about eighteen inches high, planted in a flower-pot full of sand. At the top shone a silvery star, and from the star dropped webs that looked as though very large spiders had been spinning silver lace. Through the shimmery mist showed the green branches.

The tree had not been there when they went to church! The children stared in surprise and danced about the room. It was not until they had jumped around for a minute or two that they saw Mother was as surprised as anybody. She looked at the lovely tree and then at Father.

“I didn’t do it, Molly,” he said smiling.

“But you know who did,” said Mrs. Merrill.

“Cross my heart, I don’t,” declared Father.

How Lucy and Dora laughed to hear him say this. They looked again at the wee tree. Red candies were tied to its branches with silver cord, and white sugar-plums with red string. That was all the fruit it bore.

“Now, didn’t you put it there yourself, Mother?” asked Mr. Merrill. “When you went back to light the lamp?”

“I didn’t,” said Mrs. Merrill. “It wasn’t there then and I never saw it before, and the house has been locked all the time we were at church.”

“It is odd how a Christmas tree could get into a locked house,” agreed Mr. Merrill. “Had we better report it to the police?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as that,” said Mrs. Merrill. “Here’s Dan. He may know.”

“I was at church,” protested Dan. “Didn’t you see me singing in the choir in a very fancy rig?”

“Uncle Dan,” said Dora, “did you ever see that tree before?”

“How can I tell?” said Dan. “There have been several hundred Christmas trees in the square this past week. I don’t know one from another.”

Dora held him firmly. “Did you put that tree in here?” she asked.

“I did not,” said Dan.

“Did you unlock the door so somebody could bring it in?” Lucy asked.

“I did not,” said Dan.

The children looked at each other. Then Dora had a bright idea.

“Uncle Dan,” she demanded, “did you lend your key to somebody while you went to church?”

“I have answered three questions and that is enough!” said Dan. And he never did answer that one.

All the family hung up their stockings. Lucy and Dora put theirs on the brass knobs either side of the open stove. Mr. and Mrs. Merrill fastened theirs to the ends of the sofa. Uncle Dan went out again, but Dora hung his sock to the back of Mother’s rocking-chair. She and Lucy took one last look at the fairy tree and went to bed.

They didn’t talk and giggle more than any little sisters do on Christmas eve and they went to sleep before Mrs. Merrill expected. In less than an hour she put out the red lamp.

It was still dark when Dora woke but a great star was looking through the open window. It was so big and so bright that it seemed like the real star of Bethlehem, shining to guide the shepherds to where the little Jesus lay.

The star was so beautiful that Dora looked at it instead of wondering about her stocking. That could wait, but the star would fade with the dawn. She watched it a long time and saw the sky gradually grow lighter and the star less distinct.

Just as she was having hard work to see the star, Lucy woke. “Merry Christmas, Dora!” she exclaimed. “Let’s get up and look at our stockings.”

Lucy hustled down the steep stairs, but Dora opened the door of Uncle Dan’s room and looked in. Only his black head showed above the blankets. The window was wide open and the room freezing cold, but Dora ran in, kissed Uncle Dan’s cheek and whispered “Merry Christmas!” in his ear.

Dan woke and looked at her. “Get back to bed,” he said. “You’ll catch your death.” And then he said, “Merry Christmas, Dora!”

When Dora reached the foot of the stairs, Mr. Merrill jumped out from behind the door to his room and gave her a big hug and a Christmas greeting.

Father came into the parlor, he said to make the fire burn better for the children, but Mother came the next moment, and she didn’t give any excuse for coming. Most mothers and fathers like to see the Christmas stockings opened.

The stockings were knobby and puffed and would be most uncomfortable to wear if they should stay that shape. Some packages were too big even to go in. These were on the floor under the stockings.

Lucy and Dora began to open the gifts, and everything they opened they liked very much.

From Mother there was a pretty woolen cap and muffler, a brown set for Lucy and a blue one for Dora. Both were much pleased, because all the girls were wearing them.

Olive gave Lucy a box of pretty handkerchiefs and Dora some writing paper with a blue M at the top. It was like some which Olive had at the beach and which Dora admired. Olive’s paper was marked G.

Miss Page gave each a little New Testament. There was also from Miss Page a cunning bouquet. At a distance it looked like a bunch of flowers, but each flower was a bit of candy wrapped in oiled paper. About the bouquet was some paper lace. Both Lucy and Dora were delighted.

Lucy liked her pincushion very much. She had made for Dora a little silk bag in which to carry a purse or a handkerchief.

Uncle Dan gave each a box of candy, besides making the stage for the marionettes. The stage was finished and painted. It stood back against the parlor wall.

And as though Father were not making them a big present by whittling the puppets for the theatre, he gave them each a book. Lucy’s was “When Mother Lets Us Cook.”

Only the fact that she was not dressed kept Lucy from rushing into the kitchen and trying a receipt. Besides, Mother said quite emphatically that she wasn’t doing any “letting” at that hour in the morning. Later in the day, she would see about it.

What do you think was the name of Dora’s book? She could scarcely believe her eyes. When she did believe them, she could not speak, only look at Father and then hug him hard.

Father had gone to the Public Library and asked Miss Perkins which book Dora liked best. Miss Perkins remembered. Indeed, it would be strange if she did not know, for Dora had borrowed the book five times since September. Father had bought her the “Story of Doctor Dolittle.”

“It was the biggest surprise, Mother!” Dora said, when she had thanked Father again and again and looked at the pictures for about the fortieth time.

“Oh, that isn’t the surprise,” said Mrs. Merrill.

“It isn’t!” said Dora. “What can it be?”

She got down from Father’s knee and took her limp stocking from the knob. In the toe was still a small package.

In the toe of hers, Lucy had just found the white Chinese kitten and was speechless with pleasure. She liked it better than Dora’s blue one.

“Because there really are white kittens,” she said.

“There are blue ones, too,” said Dora. “Aunt Margaret told me so. Blue Persian cats.”

“I don’t think they are just like yours,” said Lucy.

Dora had never seen a Persian blue, so she did not say anything. Besides, she was wondering what Miss Chandler had given her.

It was a little gold ring set with a blue stone which Mr. Merrill thought was an aquamarine.

Dora didn’t care about the name, but she liked the ring exceedingly. She slipped it on her finger. It just fitted.

“This must be the big surprise,” she said to Mother.

“The ring is a surprise to me,” said Mrs. Merrill, “for I didn’t know what was in that package. But it is not the surprise I mean.”

Dora again felt her stocking and discovered a tiny wad of tissue paper. She untwisted it and her eyes and mouth both opened.

“Mother!” she exclaimed after a second, “oh, Mother! Mother! is it really Arcturus, my Arcturus? Where did he come from? Oh, Mother, my bear, my own little silver bear!”

“You can never guess where we found him,” said Mrs. Merrill.

“Did somebody find him at the beach? Did Uncle Dan go over again?” asked Lucy, as excited as Dora.

“Arcturus came home from the beach when we did,” said Mrs. Merrill. “He has been in Westmore all the time, though not in our house.”

“Where was he?” Dora asked eagerly.

“He was found last week,” said Mrs. Merrill, “but I thought since it was so near Christmas he might as well come back in your stocking. You remember that I went to the church to help pack a missionary barrel?”

The children remembered perfectly. They had carried some shoes to the church to go in that barrel.

“When we came to pack the things,” said Mrs. Merrill, “there was that straw hat of Olive’s, the one with the pink roses. The flowers were faded, but the hat was really too good for Olive to give away, and I told her so.”

“While we were turning the hat about and looking at it,” Mrs. Merrill went on, “Dora’s silver bear dropped out of a fold of velvet. I can’t account for his getting into it, but that is where he was.”

The children knew how he got there. Lucy remembered picking up Olive’s hat from the sand the very morning Arcturus ran away. All the time he was hiding in the velvet, so the sifting of the sand didn’t make him appear.

“Arcturus has come home!” said Dora happily. “How nice that he came on Christmas morning. I felt dreadfully when he ran away, but if he hadn’t, probably I would never have had the Chinese kitten. I hope Arcturus won’t be jealous of Vega.”

“Mother,” said Lucy, “it’s your turn now. You and Father open your presents.”

“Not until I am dressed,” said Mrs. Merrill. “This sitting about in a kimono is chilly work.”

“My feet are cold,” Lucy admitted.

“You and Dora run and get into your clothes,” said Mrs. Merrill. “Come, Father.”

Dora made no motion to start. “My feet are cold, too,” she said. “Father, do you think if a person had only one foot, it could possibly be so cold as two?”

“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Mr. Merrill.

“I will ask Uncle Dan,” said Dora. “And I must tell him that Arcturus has come home. How surprised he will be! I can’t see how Uncle Dan can sleep on Christmas morning. I woke him once, but he must have gone to sleep again. Father, did you know that the star of Bethlehem was shining this morning?”

“Over in the east?” asked Father Merrill. “Yes, Dora, I saw it.”

THE END