except the great table which ran along one side. There was plenty of Christmas, in the shape of holly and ivy, over the fireplace and on the walls, and a bunch of mistletoe hanging from a rack in the middle of the ceiling. The Ashen Fagots were duly deposited in a corner of the great fireplace, and by five o'clock, when the maids and children went off to tea, all was ready. The kitchen was left, winking away in the cosey firelight, for the fairies, if they pleased, to come in and take their pastime on the clean sanded floor. Meantime, the sole occupants were two robins, who seemed to be thoroughly satisfied with the asylum which they had hit upon for their Christmas Eve, and chirped to one another, as they flitted about, and peered with their small bright eyes into every corner, discoursing, no doubt, of how unpleasant the snow was becoming outside, and what fools their neighbors, the wrens and sparrows, were, not to avail themselves of such comfortable quarters, before they went up to perch for the night on the bacon rack.

The robins, no doubt, soon began to see reasons for reconsidering their opinions, when, at about six o'clock, the door which led from the house opened, and Clara, Bobby, and Maggie, and the party of children they had been allowed to ask to tea, rushed into the room, followed by Mabel and her friend the clergyman's daughter, who brought her little nephews, and Miss Smith.

After the first rush round the great room, all so nicely cleared for a good romp, had been duly executed by the children, and candles had been lighted, there was a call at once for the Ashen Fagot. In fact, Bobby and the vicar's eldest grandson had seized on it, and were in the act of putting it on the dogs, when Mabel suggested that it would be burnt out too soon if they lighted it at once.

"O yes, let us have a play first," said Clara; " and then we will sit down and make forfeits, or Mabel will tell us a story, and then we can have the fagot."

"And Aunt Nellie will sing us a song, won't you? one we can all join in?" said the vicar's grandson.

"O yes, Walter, presently, when you are all tired of play." And so to play they went vigorously. Blind-man'sbuff, hunt-the-slipper, and the post-office, in which latter game Clara distinguished herself, succeeded one another rapidly; and the circle was constantly increased by the arrival of one after another of the servants, dairy-maid, laundry-maid, house-maid, nurse-maid, &c. The Ashen Fagot was put on in triumph, and blazed and crackled to the complete satisfaction of the young onès. Then a great dish came in for snap-dragon, and Bobby and his friend were soon distinguishing themselves by dashing their hands. bravely into the burning brandy, and bringing out the raisins for their favorites amongst the group of girls. When all the raisins had been extracted and eaten, and the salt had been duly thrown into the burning spirit, and everybody had looked sufficiently green and cadaverous, a cry for forfeits arose. So the party sat down round Mabel on benches brought out from under the table, and Mabel began,

"The first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a partridge and a pear-tree;

The second day of Christmas my true love sent to me two turtle-doves,

a partridge, and a pear-tree;

The third day of Christmas my true love sent to me three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree;

The fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree; The fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me five hares running, four ducks quacking, three fat hens, two turtle-doves, a partridge, and a pear-tree."

And so on. Each day was taken up and repeated all round; and for every breakdown (except by little Maggie, who struggled with desperately earnest round eyes to follow the rest correctly, but with very comical results), the player who made the slip was duly noted down by Mabel for a forfeit.

In the middle of the game, the door which opened to the garden flew open, and Willie and Dick arrived on the scene of action, with

“Now then, make room, here are the mummers!"

O, thé mummers, the mummers! hurrah!" chorused the infantry, as they withdrew, under Mabel and Nelly's wing, to the side and end of the kitchen. St. George and his adversary were then called by the two boys, who stood by the door, as masters of the ceremonies. They came in, shaking the snow from their queer attempts at costume, consisting of helmets, in shape very like fool's-caps, of different-colored paper, and scraps of ribbon and colored cloth or cotton sewn on to their smock-frocks. They marched round after one another, repeating their introductory verses in a queer nasal singsong, and then fell to single combat with their wooden swords, which soon resulted in the discomfiture of St. George. His adversary, being of a noble temper, now calls for the doctor.

"Doctor, doctor, plaay thy part;

St. Gaarge be wounded to the heart:
Doctor, doctor, come and see;

St. Gaarge be wounded in the knee."

The ridiculous figure called the doctor answers the appeal, entering with

"Here cums I, a ten pound doctor;

Ten pound is my fee;

But, sence thee bist a vriend o' mine,

I'll tek but vive vrom thee."

And so it goes on, with much more ridiculous doggerel, but of absorbing interest to little Maggie, and all the younger portion of the audience.

"Well, what were you playing at when we came in?" said Willie, as the mummers went off, after getting the accustomed gratuity.

"Forfeits," said Mabel. "Will you play? Our fagot is nearly out, so you won't have much of it."

"Hullo? look, here's a robin; what fun!" said Dick, shying his cap at one of the robins, who, from his perch on the rack, was contemplating the doings of mankind, with his head on one side, and thinking probably what fools they must be, to be carrying on their unmeaning games, instead of sleeping and letting him sleep.

Dick had three or four shots with his cap at the birds, before Mabel, backed by Willie, to whom she appealed, could make him leave them alone. Then they took to forfeits again; and Dick, who was absolute lord of misrule in the place, soon made it too uproarious. Whenever it came to his turn to declare a forfeit (and he constantly managed that it should do so, by making horrible faces, and otherwise interrupting the one whose turn it was to repeat), he played some half-malicious prank. At last, having caught up the dairy-maid, he declared her forfeit "clenching hands." This operation is performed by the caller and payer of the forfeit standing up, and joining their hands with the fingers laced, when the gentleman, by extending his arms, brings the lady's face close up to his own, and kisses her. In the present case, the dairy-maid, being full as strong as Master Dick, kept him nearly at arms' length; but the attempt annoyed Mabel, who put a stop to the game. Whereupon Dick took himself off till supper-time, declaring them slow.

They were getting rather tired, and the embers of the fagot were all red-hot and nearly consumed; so they made a circle round, and the maids brought some logs and put them on.

"Now, Aunt Nelly, you must sing us a song."

"O yes, the one about the sisters, and the cherry without a stone, please," said Bobby.

"Very well. Mabel, you will take the questions. And, mind, you must all sing the chorus.”

"I had four sisters lived over the sea,

Parra marra dictuin domine;

They each sent a Christmas present to me,
Partum quartum paradise templum,

Parra marra dictum domine.
The first sent a cherry without a stone,
Parra marra dictum domine;

The second sent a bird without a bone,

Partum quartum paradise templum, &c.
The third sent a blanket without a thread,
Parra marra dictum domine;

The fourth sent a book no man could read,
Partum quartum paradise templum, &c.
How could it be a cherry without a stone?
Parra marra dictum domine;

How could it be a bird without a bone?

Partum quartum paradise templum, &c.
How could it be a blanket without a thread?
Parra marra dictum domine;

How could it be a book no man could read?

Partum quartum paradise templum, &c.
When the cherry 's in the bud it has no stone,
Parra marra dictum domine;

When the bird's in the egg it has no bone,

Partum quartumn paradise templum, &c.
When the blanket's in the fleece it has no thread,
Parra marra dictum domine;

When the book 's in the press no man can read,
Partum quartum paradise templum,

Parra marra dictum domine."

The song and chorus delighted the children; and then Mabel was called on for her story, which would, no doubt, fascinate readers as much as it did her audience round the remains of the ashen fagot, were there space to give it. And now it was getting near eight o'clock, the chimes were ringing out, and it was time to prepare the kitchen for the supper of the grown-up folk. Nelly and her charge withdrew through the house, and the other children dispersed. Mabel remained to give an eye to the supper arrangements. Presently Bobby and Maggie, who had not yet been carried off, ran up and pulled her gown.

"O Mabel, come and look, do come and look!" "What is it, Bobby?"