"Oh, Cousin Polly, look--look!" Nellie had breathed. "Is n't she be-yu-tiful? Oh, Cousin Polly, if--if I had--one--like that, I don't think I 'd mind even _these_--much," she choked, patting the crutches that supported her.

Polly Ann had sighed then, and had almost sobbed aloud as she disdainfully eyed her own thin little purse, whose contents would scarcely have bought the gown that Miss Dolly wore. She sighed again now, as she picked up the doll before her, and gently smoothed into order the shining hair. If only this were for Nellie!--but it was n't.

It was for Julia's Roselle, Roselle who already possessed a dozen French dolls, and would probably possess as many more before her doll days were over, while Nellie--

With a swift movement Polly Ann dropped the doll back into the box, and picked up the other one. The next moment the brown delaine dress was rubbing elbows with a richly bound book and a d.u.c.h.esse lace collar in the middle bureau drawer. Polly Ann c.o.c.ked her head to one side and debated; did she dare ask Aunt Margaret to make the change?

With a slow shake of her head she owned that she did not. She knew her aunt and her aunt's convictions as to the ethics of present-giving too well. And, if she were tempted to doubt, there were the two sets of presents before her, both of which, even down to the hemp twine and brown paper in one and the red ribbons and white tissue-paper in the other, proclaimed their donor's belief as to the proper distribution of usefulness and beauty.

The two dolls did look odd in their present environment. Polly Ann admitted that. Reluctantly she picked them up, and was about to return each to her own place, when suddenly the Great Idea was born.

With a little cry and a tense biting of her lip Polly Ann fell back before it. Then excitedly she leaned forward, and examined with searching eyes the presents. She drew a long breath, and stood erect again.

"Well, why not?" she asked herself. Aunt Margaret had said she was utterly irresponsible and absent-minded. Very well, then; she would be utterly irresponsible and absent-minded. She would change the labels and misdirect the boxes. John's should go to Mary, and Mary's to John.

Nellie should have that doll. Incidentally Nellie's mother and sisters and brother and grandmother should have, too, for once in their starved lives, a Christmas present that did not shriek durability the moment the wrappings fell away.

It was nothing but fun for Polly Ann after this. With unafraid hands she arranged the two sets of presents on the top of the bureau, and planned their disposal. Mentally she reviewed the two families. In Mary's home there were Mary herself; Joe, eighteen; Jennie, sixteen; Carrie, fourteen; Tom, eleven; and Nellie, six; besides Grandma. In John's there were John, his wife, Julia; their son Paul, ten; and daughter Roselle, four; besides John's younger sister Barbara, eighteen, and his mother.

It took a little planning to make the presents for six on the one hand do for seven on the other, and vice versa; but with a little skillful dividing and combining it was done at last to Polly Ann's huge satisfaction. Then came the tying-up and the labeling. And here again Polly Ann's absent-mindedness got in its fine work; for the red ribbons and the white tissue-paper went into Mary's box, which left, of course, only the brown paper and hemp twine for John's.

"There!" sighed Polly Ann when the boxes themselves were at last tied up and addressed. "Now we 'll see what we shall see!" But even Polly Ann, in spite of her bravely upheld chin, trembled a little as she turned toward the room where Margaret Brackett lay sick.

It was a pity, as matters were, that Polly Ann could not have been a fly on the wall of Mary's sitting-room at that moment, for Mary's Jennie was saying gloomily, "I suppose, mother, we'll have Cousin Margaret's Christmas box as usual."

"I suppose so," her mother answered. Then with a determined cheerfulness came the a.s.sertion, "Cousin Margaret is always very kind and thoughtful, you know, Jennie."

There was a pause, broken at last by a mutinous "I don't think so, mother."

"Why, _Jennie_!"

"Well, I don't. She may be kind, but she isn't--thoughtful."

"Why, my daughter!" remonstrated the shocked mother again. "I 'm ashamed of you!"

"I know; it's awful, of course, but I can't help it," declared the girl. "If she really were thoughtful, she 'd think sometimes that we 'd like something for presents besides flannel things."

"But they're so--sensible, Jennie, for--us."

"That's just what they are--sensible," retorted the girl bitterly.

"But who wants sensible things always? We _have_ to have them the whole year through. Seems as if at Christmas we might have something--foolish."

"Jennie, Jennie, what are you saying? and when Cousin Margaret is so good to us, too! Besides, she does send us candy always, and--and that's foolish."

"It would be if 't was nice candy, the kind we can't hope ever to buy ourselves. But it isn't. It's the cheap Christmas candy, two pounds for a quarter, the kind we have to buy when we buy any. Mother, it's just that; don't you see? Cousin Margaret thinks that's the only sort of thing that's fit for us! cheap, sensible things, the kind of things we have to buy. But that does n't mean that we would n't like something else, or that we have n't any taste, just because we have n't the means to gratify it," finished the girl chokingly as she hurried out of the room before her mother could reply.

All this, however, Polly Ann did not hear, for Polly Ann was not a fly on Mary's sitting-room wall.

On Christmas Day Sarah Bird appeared, cheerfully ready to take charge of her yearly patient; and Polly Ann went home. In less than a week, however, Polly Ann was peremptorily sent for by the sick woman. Polly Ann had expected the summons and was prepared; yet she shook in her shoes when she met her kinswoman's wrathful eyes.

"Polly Ann, _what_ did you do with those presents?" demanded Margaret Brackett abruptly.

"P-presents?" Polly Ann tried to steady her voice.

"Yes, yes, the ones for Mary and John's family."

"Why, I did them up and sent them off, to be sure. Did n't they get 'em?"

"Get them!" groaned Margaret Brackett, "get them! Polly Ann, what did you do? You must have mixed them awfully somehow!"

"Mixed them?" In spite of her preparation for this very accusation Polly Ann was fencing for time.

"Yes, mixed them. Look at that--and that--and that," cried the irate woman, thrusting under Polly Ann's nose one after another of the notes of thanks she had received the day before.

They were from John and his family, and one by one Polly Ann picked them up and read them.

John, who had not for years, probably, worn anything coa.r.s.er than silk on his feet, expressed in a few stiff words his thanks for two pairs of black woolen socks. Julia, famed for the dainty slenderness of her hands, expressed in even stiffer language her thanks for a pair of gray woolen gloves. She also begged to thank Cousin Margaret for the doll so kindly sent Roselle and for the red mittens sent to Paul. John's mother, always in the minds of those who knew her a.s.sociated with perfumed silks and laces, wrote a chilly little note of thanks for a red flannel petticoat; while John's sister, Barbara, worth a million in her own right, scrawled on gold-monogrammed paper her thanks for the dozen handkerchiefs that had been so kindly sent her in the Christmas box.

"And there were n't a dozen handkerchiefs, I tell you," groaned Margaret, "except the cotton ones I sent to Mary's two girls, Jennie and Carrie, six to each. Think of it--cotton handkerchiefs to Barbara Marsh! And that red flannel petticoat, and those ridiculous gloves and socks! Oh, Polly Ann, Polly Ann, how could you have done such a thing, and got everything so hopelessly mixed? There was n't a thing, not a single thing right but that doll for Roselle."

Polly Ann lifted her head suddenly.

"Have you heard from--Mary?" she asked in a faint voice.

"Not yet. But I shall, of course. I suppose _they_ got John's things.

Imagine it! Mary Hemenway and a d.u.c.h.esse lace collar!"

"Oh, but Mary would like that," interposed Polly Ann feverishly. "You know she's invited out a good deal in a quiet way, and a bit of nice lace does dress up a plain frock wonderfully."

"Nonsense! As if she knew or cared whether it was d.u.c.h.esse or--or imitation Val! She 's not used to such things, Polly Ann. She would n't know what to do with them if she had them. While John and Julia--dear, dear, what shall I do? Think of it--a red flannel petticoat to Madam Marsh!"

Polly Ann laughed. A sudden vision had come to her of Madam Marsh as she had seen her last at a family wedding clad in white lace and amethysts, and with an amethyst tiara in her beautifully dressed hair.

Margaret Brackett frowned.

"It's no laughing matter, Polly Ann," she said severely. "I shall write to both families and explain, of course. In fact, I have done that already to John and Julia. But nothing, nothing can take away my mortification that such a thing should have occurred at all. And when I took so much pains in selecting those presents, to get suitable ones for both boxes. I can't forgive you, Polly Ann; I just can't. And, what's more, I don't see how in the world you did it. I am positive that I had each thing marked carefully, and--"

She did not finish her sentence. Sarah Bird brought in a letter, and with a petulant exclamation Margaret Brackett tore it open.

"It's from Mary," she cried as soon as Sarah Bird had left the room; "and--goodness, look at the length of it! Here, you read it, Polly Ann. It's lighter by the window." And she pa.s.sed the letter to her niece.

_Dear Cousin Margaret_ [read Polly Ann aloud]: I wonder if I can possibly tell you what that Christmas box was to us. I 'm going to try, anyway; but I don't believe, even then, that you'll quite understand it, for you never were just as we are, and you'd have to be to know what that box was to us.

You see we can't buy nice things, really nice things, ever. There are always so many "have-to-gets" that there is never anything left for the "want-to-gets"; and so we had to do without--till your box came. And then--but just let me tell you what did happen when it did come.

The expressman brought it Christmas Eve, and Joe opened it at once.

Mother and I and all the children stood around watching him. You should have heard the "Ohs!" and "Ahs!" of delight when the pretty white packages all tied with red ribbons were brought to light. By the way, Nellie has captured all those red ribbons, and her entire family of dolls is rejoicing in a Merry Christmas of their own in consequence.

As for the presents themselves--I don't know where to begin or how to say it; but I'll begin with myself, and try to make you understand.