The National tribune., 1882-12-21
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
DOlly's Christmas Kettledrum-A
Story of the Season.
by Nora Perry.J

a deep windOw-Seat, which was n favOrlte
gathering place for all the girls on that floor.
Mrs Portman, ten years before this story opens,
had been great leader of sOciety-nOt fashion
able society merely-and losing the fortune
that had enabled her TO take such a position,
by one of the disastrous financial crises that
ruined so many people, she had at once gone to
work and established a private day and board
ing school for young ladies, i'll her Out-of-tOwn
mansion. So popular had this school become,
that some one who had vainly waited and tried
to find vacancy one autumn made this rather
spiteful remark concerning it: "One would
think it was the Kingdom Of Heaven, there is
such difficulty in getting in" \ dear little
impulsive girl one of the pupils and one of the
her0ines of my story that I'm about to tell, re-
tOrted upon this:
And it is the Kingdom of Heaven upon
earth" which | think presents Mrs. Portman's
school III as favorable a light before my readers
as many words of mine could do. So now
will return to that window in the great hall.
1t is the day before Christmas. Those of the
pupils who have not gone home on account of
the distance, or other reasons, are tuttering
about here and there in high holiday humOr
and expectation. group of these have
wcdged themselves into the big windOw-seat,
where they sit chattering like magpies. The
centre of the group, and the centre of attrac-
ton, is a bright-eyed brunette. She has the
sweetest face, the most Iovable face in the
world. She is the dear little girl who gave
that happy retOrt about the Kingdom of
Heaven. She is saying now as she sits there in
the windOw-scat:
"Tll tell you what you must do; as my box
has come to-day, and yours hasn't, you must
come to my room this evening, and share my
fun and goodies" There are no disclaimers,
no laggards with excuses to beg out of this
charming prospect. The whole four girls who
have received this invitation Of dear Dolly
LincOln's are only too happy to accept it. As
they sit there in the afternoon sun, which is
going down in full spendOr, they look like five
rosebuds. Dolly Lincoln, with her red and
brown brightness, is a rich JacqueminOt; !;
Margie Gaines, with her golden hair and white
skin, Perle dcs Jardins; Milly Jarvis, with
her dark, bright hair and dusky skin, a brOnZed
Jean Ducher Katy DowneS, little fragrant
tea rosebud, all pale amber perfection, and
FlOrry wainwright, lovely Noiseette of pink
and white.
Suddenly all their gay chatter and light
laughter goes ont III queer little silence, as
down the hall they see approaching tall, over
grown girl, whose near-sighted eyes seem to be
searching for some one. She comes nearer,
quite close to them, indeed, before she appears
to recognize them, then She stops abruptly, a
deep red color fusheS into her face, and she
says quickly:
Il am trying to find Miss Weston Mrs
OIIlldD SdIu SiC Ntto dU IIlC Cltl VI IulS lldll
somewhere
There was a moment of awkward silence,
and then Dolly Lincoln spoke up hurriedly:
"She must be in number twenty-fo l
think"
As the girl disappeared in number twenty
four, Dolly Lincoln burst out in subdued tones:
Il think we are horrid little prigs." A mo-
mcnt more, and then vchemently, I'm going
to invite her to my party tonight"
nnllJr ~ cried the whole foTr of her
panions in a Mortified chorus.
Il AMI am, so there"
"a girl that could do such thing as she
did,"
well, we don't know anything; it's after
all, 'circumstantial evidence, as the news
papers say"
case. Julia Norris goes away and leaves her
bag, or reticule, or something, with her, and
inside of that bag is the algebra problem for
exhibition. When she comes back the problem
is missing out of the bag, and Miss Fanny
DraytOn, who is the only rival in algebra that
Julia had, of course comes i'll first and gets the
credit-She would probably have come i'll
Ond but for that, as she usually did, for poor
Julia, coming back at the last moment, has to
make out new one, which in her hurry can't
help being higgledy piggedly and full of little
errors. CircumStantial eyidence!' winds up
Flora Wainwright with a final burst of scOrn.
Dolly Lincoln does not reply to this perhaps
she is wisely silent, or perhaps she is over
ruled and regrets her declaration Of a few mo-
ments ago The four girls think the latter;
and the time goes on, the minutes slip by, the
tea hour comes and the four girls, Milly and
Margie and Florry and Katy, have put on
their prettiest trills and ribbons and gone in
little giggling body to Dolly LinCOlns door.
Dolly meets them with all her merry archnesS
of cordiality. She is a little dramatist is
Dolly, and is fond of putting everything into
that light; so she bends and bows and well
comes them with a gay traveSty of reality.
She calls Flora Wainwright her dear duchess,
and hopes she left the duke we'll; and Milly
aud Aiargie are the PrincesSes of Portmanshire,
and little Katy DOWneS Is the Countess of
Kisses. 1t is not long before the whole COM
pany are clustered together over the contents
of the Christmas box. The box was so big that
Dolly has separated the sweets, the candies
aud cookies and fruits from the rest and put
them into pretty basket, which Is passed
about from guest to guest.
What pretty basket" exclaimed Florry
wainwright enthusiastically; and she lifts 1t up
from the table for inspection.
Yes; isn't it? 1t was Julia NOrris's. She
gave it to me when she went away"
From the basket they fell to discussing the
contents. Such tempting array of dainties
Bon bOns fresh from Paris-new devices, the
before The most enchanting of these were
sugar robins eggs. Inside of each was a little
gold ring. There were SiX of them.
'Just enough to go round and one left over,
Dolly" cried lIilly ecstatically, as she cracked
the thin sugar shell of the one bestowed upon
herself.
Dolly did not reply, but looked Il little trou-
bled, Milly thought. Perhaps, after all, Dolly
was regretting her generosity III giving them
all such treasures She managed somehow to
convey this to Dolly. Dolly flung herself back
upon the bed where she was sitting, in little
burst of laughter.
What n goose you are, Milly. These bon
bons are made to give away. Mamma chose
them on purpose for me TO give to my friends.
They are Christmas favors"
Tell you what we can do" here cried out
little Katy Downes, waking up out of one
of her day little dreams. Tell you
what YOU can do," and Katy struck her tiny
hand upon her knee in the delight at her new
idea "you-we-can make a club and call 1t
the Robins Ring Club"
Dolly Jumped off the bed and clutched Katy
in wild embrace.
"Oh, you dear! it's just the thing. Hurrah
for the Robins Ring Club! Hurrah for the
Countess of kisses!" and Dolly shOwered the
latter upon Katy until she screamed for mercy.
Just here in the midst of all this commotion
there came rap upon the door, and Dolly flew
back to her throne upon the bed and then
called out rather excitedly, Come in"
The door opened, and there appeared upon
the threshold-Fanny DraytOn. 1t the mo-
ment every one of the girl guests stared III
How, 6ora1 he intruda herself