’Twas the evening of the twenty-fourth of December. The clouds had been gray and heavy all day, and now the snow flakes were beginning to fall thick and fast; so fast that already quite a white blanket was spread over the earth.

This did not please the Brownies; they had work to do, and a snow storm would hinder rather than help its progress.

Somewhere in the woods nobody knew where, for the Brownies kept the secret all to themselves, was a great big Christmas Pudding full of plums and citron, raisins and spices, and the Brownies wanted to bring that pudding home.

It was so big and heavy that they had built something that made one think of a raft or perhaps a ladder with the sides very far apart. How they put the pudding on it would be hard to tell, but they managed it and bravely they struggled with their burden perched on their little shoulders. They took turns so that no one got too tired, but all were glad when they were safely out of the woods and had landed the pudding in the hollow of the old tree back of the school house, for this had been the spot chosen for the grand feast of the morrow. Then to their homes they skipped away to dream of the good times in store for them, and if their backs did ache and their poor little feet felt sore and weary, the vision of the pudding dancing in their heads made them forget all their woes.

And what a treat they had on Christmas Day! The pudding was so good, and the day was so merry that the Brownies wished as they shut their sleepy eyes that Christmas came more than once a year. They made up their minds that they would never let a Christmas go by without having a plum pudding, for it was the best thing they had ever tasted.