They found their mother in the kitchen busy with the evening meal.

"Mother, we've got a Christmas surprise for you," said Helen. "Come in the living room."

Mrs. Blair looked up quickly.

"That's thoughtful of you," she said, "but I hope you didn't spend too much money."

Wiping her hands on her ap.r.o.n, she preceded them into the living room.

"Where is it?" she asked.

"Over there on the library table," replied Helen, pointing to an envelope tied with a band of red ribbon with a sprig of holly on top.

Mrs. Blair picked up the envelope, untied the ribbon and looked inside.

She pulled out two objects. One was a long, green strip of paper with many perforations and much printing. The other was a small black book similar to a check book.

She held the long slip with hands that trembled as she read it.

"It's a round trip ticket to Rubio, Arizona!" she gasped, "Oh, Helen!

Tom! How kind of you. Father and I will have Christmas together! And here's a book of traveler's checks and Pullman reservations. I'm to leave tomorrow."

Tom gave Helen a hearty hug.

"So that's where the $200 went," he whispered. "Are you sure it's enough?"

"Plenty," she replied.

Mrs. Blair sat down in her favorite chair, the ticket and check book in her hands, her eyes dim with tears.

"But I can't go away and leave you two here alone during holidays," she said.

"Oh yes you can, Mother," said Tom. "We'll be happy just knowing that you and Dad are together and you can tell him all about us and then, when you come back, you can tell us all about him."

"You must go, Mother," insisted Helen. "I've let Dad in on the surprise and we can't disappoint him now."

Doctor Stevens drove them to the junction where Mrs. Blair was to board the Southwestern limited. Snow was falling steadily, one of those dry, sifting snows that presage a white Christmas in the middle west.

The limited poked its dark nose through the storm and drew its string of Pullmans up to the bleak platform. It paused for only a minute and the goodbyes were hasty.

The limited whirled away into the storm and Tom and Helen, standing alone on the platform, watched it disappear in the snow. It would be a quiet Christmas for them but they were supremely happy knowing that their father was on the road to health and that they had made a success of the _Herald_.

THE END