"Look, Mamma!" said little Maggie Brown. "What is that wagon stopping here for, and what is that funny thing in it?"

Mrs. Brown came to the window just as Mr. Home took the shoe out of the wagon.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Why, it is a big shoe," laughed Mrs. Brown. "I guess it is for me to keep you all in."

Tommy, and Katie, and Mary, and Alice, all ran to see.

Oh, they were so happy when the shoe was brought in and they found it was something for them!

Mrs. Brown was happy, too, to think that her children would have such a merry Christmas.

She told Mr. Horne to wish all the children who sent the shoe a very, very happy Christmas.

"And tell them," she said, "to come and see 'the Old Woman in the Shoe'

and her children!"

Little Miss m.u.f.fet Sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey; There came a big spider And sat down beside her, And frightened Miss m.u.f.fet away.

MISS m.u.f.fET

It was the Christmas vacation and Boy Blue and Mary were at home every day.

Boy Blue wished to go to his own home on the farm in his vacation.

He wished to see his father and mother, and little sister, and fire-cracker, and his eight s...o...b..a.l.l.s.

But one night he had a letter from his mother.

Of course he could read it himself, because he was seven years old and had been to school two years.

When he read the letter he danced up and down for joy.

He danced right through the hall into the dining-room and showed his letter to Mary.

Then she danced, too, because the letter said that Boy Blue's father and mother were coming to see him the very next day.

And, best of all, Little Sister was coming to stay two weeks.

When it was time to go to the station to meet Little Sister and her mother. Boy Blue could hardly wait for the train.

At last it came, bringing the two dearest people in all the world, and Boy Blue laughed, and cried, and asked questions, all in the same minute.

"Where is Papa?

"Is he coming to-morrow?

"How is Fire-cracker?

"Are you going to stay two weeks?"

"Wait, wait, children!" said Mrs. Snow, "ask one question at a time."

They rode to Mary's house in a car, and all these questions and many others were asked and answered.

It was the night before Christmas and the children were going to hang up their stockings.

"Hang them by the chimney in your playroom," said Mary's mother. "Then Santa Claus won't have far to go."

So the children ran up to the playroom with their stockings.

"Oh, look!" said Boy Blue. "Sister's stocking is so small that Santa Claus can't get even a rag doll into it."

Mary found a basket for Little Sister.

"You can put this right under your stocking, dear," she said.

"I will write a letter to Santa Claus and tell him where to put your presents."

So she wrote this letter and pinned it on the toe of the tiny stocking:

"Dear Santa Claus:--Little Sister's stocking is so small I have given her a basket. Please put her presents in it."

Santa Claus must have read the note, for the next morning the basket was full.

There was a basket under each of the other stockings, too.

On each one was a note, saying:--

"Your stockings were not large enough. I had to get a basket for you, too."

SANTA CLAUS.

In Boy Blue's basket there were a horn and a drum, a box of tin soldiers, and three books. Under the basket was a new red sled.

Mary found two dolls and a trunk full of dresses for them, a toy kitchen, and a writing desk in her basket.

Little Sister sat on the floor and began to take the presents out of her basket, one at a time.