# Christmas Holidays at Merryvale/I.

CHAPTER I
TOAD'S WISH
"Hurrah!" shouted "Reddy." "School is out and no more lessons for two weeks!" and he threw his cap into the air.
"Let's go home by the way of the village, so we can look into Daddy Williams' toy shop," suggested his friend Thomas Brown, better known as "Toad," who ran up to join him.
"All right," agreed Reddy, "and I'll show you what I want for Christmas," and they started down the street.
"Looks as though it might snow by night," said Toad, "don't you wish there would be a big one? Then we could get all the boys together and have a battle."
"It's the best fun I know of, next to swimming in the creek," was the answer.
"Here we are," he cried a few minutes later and both boys stopped in front of a small shop window that looked very gay with a wonderful display of Christmas toys.
"See those skates hanging up by that sled. That's the kind I want," pointed out Reddy. "You screw them right into the heels of your shoes and you bet they can't ever come off."
"They're fine," agreed Toad, "but look at that engine and train. It goes right through the tunnel and up over the bridge. I wonder how fast it can run."
"That's a dandy mitt there," said the other, pointing to a baseball outfit. "I wouldn't be afraid to stop any kind of a ball with that on."
"Wish my dad would get me a new sled like that flyer," sighed Toad. "I finished mine last winter when I ran into that tree with you and Herbie on board."
"You surely did," was the laughing answer. "I remember how we all went flying head first into a snow drift."
"There's a nice pocket knife," was Toad's next remark. "I mean the one with the pearl handle, just next to that doll with the pink dress on."
"Oh!" exclaimed Reddy, "here's what just suits me," catching sight, for the first time, of a punching bag.
"How do you work it?"
"Why, you see there's an elastic rope on each end of it, and one of them you tie to a ring in the floor and the other to something overhead. Then when you give it a punch it comes back to you with a bang."
"Well, I'd rather have a football; then maybe we could get up a regular team," remarked Toad.
"I'll bet all those reals would cost about ten dollars," ventured the other, pointing to a box of marbles toward the front of the window. "If I was rich I'd buy them."
"What for? You have plenty. You won nearly all mine away from me. Look!" he added in a low voice, "there goes Herbie's mother into the store. Let's see what she buys."
"Hello, Daddy," greeted both the boys, as old Mr. Williams, with his white hair, red cheeks and dancing blue eyes, came to the doorway of the shop and smiled at them.
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas!" he replied. "Have you been good boys?"
"I should say we have," cried Toad. "Everybody's good before Christmas."
"Well, run along home then, and I'll tell your mas just what you want," promised Daddy. "Herbie's ma's in here now and she doesn't want you boys to know what she buys."
"All right," answered Reddy. "Don't forget to say I want a punching bag and a pair of skates."
"And I want a new sled," chimed in Toad, as they both started off.
"Shucks, I didn't see half the things, did you?" protested Reddy.
"Oh, well, we can come down again this afternoon," was the cheering answer. "Come on over to my house, anyway," he called as they parted.