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Young Derry Willard looked just a little bit nervous.

“Oh, but of course mother couldn’t begin all at once to raise cathedrals!” I hastened to explain. “So she started in raising Christmas presents instead. We raise all our own Christmas presents! And just as soon as Rosalee and I are married we’re going to begin right away to raise our children’s Christmas presents too! Heaps for everybody, even if there is a hundred! Carol, of course, won’t marry because he can’t propose! Ladies don’t like written proposals, father says! Ladies—-“

Young Derry Willard asked if he might smoke. He smoked cigarets. He took them from a gold-looking case. They smelled very romantic. Everything about him smelled very romantic. His hair was black. His eyes were black. He looked as tho he could cut your throat without flinching if you were faithless to him. It was beautiful.

I left the table as soon as I could. I went and got my best story-book. I was perfectly right. He looked exactly like the picture of the Fairy Prince on the front page of the book. There were heaps of other pictures, of course. But only one picture of a Fairy Prince. I looked in the glass. I looked just exactly the way I did before dinner. It made me feel queer. Rosalee didn’t look at all the way she looked before dinner. It made me feel very queer.

When I got back to the dining-room everybody was looking at the little spruce-tree–except young Derry Willard and Rosalee. Young Derry Willard was still looking at Rosalee. Rosalee was looking at the toes of her slippers. The fringe of her eyelashes seemed to be an inch long. Her cheeks were so pink I thought she had a fever. No one else came to bud the Christmas tree except Carol’s tame coon and the tame crow. Carol is very unselfish. He always buds one wish for the coon. And one for the crow. The tame coon looked rather jolly and gold-powdered in the firelight. The crow never looked jolly. I have heard of white crows. But Carol’s crow was a very dark black. Wherever you put him he looked like a sorrow. He sat on the arm of Rosalee’s chair and nibbed at her pink sleeve. Young Derry Willard pushed him away. Young Derry Willard and Rosalee tried to whisper. I heard them.

“How old are you?” whispered Rosalee.

“I’m twenty-two,” whispered young Derry Willard.

“O–h,” said Rosalee.

“How young are you?” whispered Derry Willard.

“I’m seventeen,” whispered Rosalee.

“O–h,” said Derry Willard.

My mother started in very suddenly to explain about the Christmas tree. There were lots of little pencils on the table. And blocks of paper. And nice cold, shining sheets of tin-foil. There was violet-colored tin-foil, and red-colored tin-foil–and green and blue and silver and gold.

“Why, it’s just a little family custom of ours, Mr. Willard,” explained my mother. “After the Thanksgiving dinner is over and we’re all, I trust, feeling reasonably plump and contented, and there’s nothing special to do except just to dream and think–why, we just list out the various things that we’d like for Christmas and—-“

“Most people end Thanksgiving, of course,” explained my father, “by trying to feel thankful for the things they’ve already had. But this seems to be more like a scheme for expressing thanks for the things that we’d like to have!”

“The violet tin-foil is Rosalee’s!” I explained. “The green is mine! The red is mother’s! The blue is father’s! The silver is Carol’s! Mother takes each separate wish just as soon as it’s written, and twists it all up in a bud of tin-foil! And takes wire! And wires the bud on the tree! Gold buds! Silver buds! Red! Green! Everything! All bursty! And shining! Like Spring! It looks as tho rainbows had rained on it! It looks as tho sun and moon had warmed it at the same time! And then we all go and get our little iron banks–all the Christmas money, I mean, that we’ve been saving and saving for a whole year! And dump it all out round the base of the tree! Nickels! Dimes! Quarters! Pennies! Everything! And—-“