Stop yer cacklin' an' git into this sleigh," he shouted in great good humor to the women and children who stood on the porch.

"It'll be snowin' like sixty 'fore we git home." So, one by one, the sleighloads left us with cheery good-bys and a grinding of runners and a jingling of bells.

When the last had gone Uncle Peabody and I went into the house.

Aunt Deel sat by the stove, old Kate by the window looking out at the falling dusk.

How still the house seemed! "There's one thing I forgot," I said as I proudly took out of my wallet the six one-dollar bills which I had earned by working Saturdays and handed three of them to my aunt and three to my uncle, saying: "That is my Christmas present to you.